Over the weekend, social media around the competitive Street Fighter V scene exploded in response to the mention of input latency within the game. A few tweets sparked a chain reaction as people began to seriously question what impact input latency is having on competitive play.

Latency has always been an extremely hot topic in the FGC, and it will likely continue to be. Usually it is more a question of display or controller performance, with an easy answer as to what can be done about it. But with Street Fighter V, there is a much different type of problem developing.

What’s actually happening?

Input latency is just a term for the time between when an input is performed and when it actually registers inside the game. It’s easy to visualize as the time between when a button is pressed and when a character starts moving on screen. This number can be variable, but is usually fairly consistent. There are a lot of factors that affect what latency players can detect, but this is a primary one that is built into the game. Fighting games are built to run at 60 frames per second and players understand the games in those terms, so the latency is counted in milliseconds and then converted to be counted using frames.

In the past, most talk about input latency came down to differences in game versions. The easiest example to point to is the differences between the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of Street Fighter IV. The PS3 version was used by Evo for many years and was tournament standard, however, the 360 version ran with an input latency about two frames lower than the PS3 version. In a game with such tight timing windows, this timing difference could completely destroy anybody playing on a different version than they were used to. The community was very vocal about wanting the lowest latency possible which eventually led to Evo switching over to the 360 version.

Once the PS4 version of USFIV came around, the community again experienced latency issues. The game ran with around eight frames of latency on PS4 while the 360 version was closer to five frames. This was completely unacceptable; the community rejected it on the spot despite Capcom ruling that it would be used in all Pro Tour Events. Eventually the latency would be brought down to match the 360 version via patches.

During all of this, the latency was so disruptive that people would say it felt like playing an entirely different game. It was so bad that some claimed they “weren’t even playing Street Fighter anymore.” For those looking to understand the difference between the two versions, load up USFIV on the Xbox 360 and set the network simulation in training mode to three. It’s hard to disagree that the game becomes drastically different.

The PS4 version of SFV is currently sitting around seven to eight frames of latency compared to the five of USFIV. There is no other console version to be played at tournaments, and it is has not yet to been addressed by Capcom. But what is this latency doing to the game right now?

Conventional wisdom may not apply

The FGC has created a lot of basic ideas about how games are to be played over the years, and all of them are based on playing in an ideal environment. Input latency can vary from game to game, but thanks to DisplayLag.com we can get an idea that the average is somewhere near five to six frames. A lot of ideas of how game speed works in HD games are based on this. For the sake of example, let’s focus on USFIV.

The latency number for USFIV is five frames. The low end of average human reaction times is approximately 11 frames. That means the fastest a player will register an input in reaction to something is around 16 frames after they’ve recognized what they are reacting to. Given the small time frame it takes to recognize a move, the fastest players can start reacting to things that have start-up frames in the higher teens or lower twenties. Sometimes people are faster or slower, but this average has held up over time.

Bull Revenger hits everyone, no exceptions © Capcom

Now look at SFV and the fastest end of reactions lines up to around 18 to 19 frames, which means the definition of fast has changed slightly. Now the lower twenties are the baseline for fast moves to start up. A move that starts up in 25 frames such as Birdie’s EX Bull Revenger would be easy to react to in USFIV, however, in SFV it seems to hit everybody. That’s because in SFV 25 frames is barely on the edge of react-able speed thanks to the new latency. Against this move, players are resorting to looking for the flash of an EX move to react and jump, which means if Birdie does his EX chain grab he can catch jumps aimed at beating the dive. If the latency was even a frame or two lower, this technique would be nigh ineffective at high level.

That’s just one example of what latency can do. Reacting to any mixup with increased latency becomes much more difficult. Maintaining pixel-perfect spacing also becomes more challenging, as does adjusting to any movement from an opponent. It’s less likely to punish a whiffed normal on reaction. Anti-airing on reaction is extremely difficult.

Every scenario above can be observed in high level play. At first, players assumed the game was just new and people were still learning. It’s completely reasonable to assume design changed and players were just wrong in their approach. Now other weird things are starting to happen that makes that idea harder to believe. Ken players are getting away with murder by doing things that, seemingly, should be easy to punish. Jump ins are becoming game winners against standing opponents. The lag is starting to develop a metagame that is getting away from what is expected of Street Fighter, and people are noticing.

Talking it over

While digging into this topic we reached out to the operator of DisplayLag.com , Fourwude. DisplayLag is a very trusted database of latency values present in various monitors and games. Fourwude performs extensive professional-level tests in order to create this database in order to help the community create as ideal a play environment as possible. He’s the man to go to when it comes to the topic of lag and is also a strong tournament player in the Street Fighter series. He offered some insight into the issue.

When the game was first being shown off at trade shows, people noticed it felt unresponsive. It’s pretty common to have laggy monitors at trade shows and most people chalked it up to that. Fourwude thought the same only for a bit of time. “So here is where I really started to feel it. When SFV came out initially, I only played it on PC, and I always play on G-SYNC monitors on PC,” he explains. “Using a G-SYNC monitor allows you to have nearly identical latency to V-SYNC OFF without the screen tearing associated with it.”

It turns out the PC version of SFV is much less laggy with v-sync off, so Fourwude had created a pretty low latency environment to practice in. “So I was playing SFV on G-SYNC since day one and didn't touch the PS4 version much at all. The moment I felt the SFV lag really kick in was when I went to FilipinoChamp's house for a gathering, and we played it on PS4. The game literally felt unplayable to me. Granted I was used to G-SYNC, but it felt even worse than the PC version on stock settings.”

This experience led to Fourwude heavily questioning what effect the latency was having on SFV. “I feel that the latency that is currently present in SFV is destroying the meta of the game. The lag is so bad that in high-level matches, you are unable to react to several things that you should otherwise be able to react to,” he tells us. He points to the performance of Ken players that use a wild, unsafe playstyle, despite the character having weak frame data, as a symptom of the latency. He goes on to explain that he has started to play Ryu more aggressively to take advantage of the state of the game.

One common theme remained present throughout our conversation. Street Fighter V is moving into a direction where the game is less based on reactions and traditional footsies, and is more based on harder commitments due to the input delay. The way things are designed now with the delay forces players into this style of play more so than ever before. “Players that thrive off using their good neutral and reactions are suffering horribly in this game right now.” In Fourwude’s worst-case scenario, the latency is so limiting that it creates an artificial skill gap early on in the game’s lifespan.

More than a concern

Fourwude is far from alone in his thoughts regarding the current state of affairs. Twitter has exploded with many notable players showing disdain for the high amount of latency and what it has done to competitive play. Panda Gaming’s FilipinoChamp was one of the first players to kick off the firestorm over the weekend. We took a moment to ask how it was affecting him personally.

“Input lag affects everything in high level play; it basically puts the person on the defense in such a disadvantage.” FilipinoChamp cited examples such as punishing jumps, dashes, and adjusting spacing as problem areas. When asked why this was just now becoming an issue when it has been known about for some time, he answered, “The lag was known two weeks after the game was released. Somebody even made a video about it. People didn't complain as much because they were still learning the game and weren't optimized enough to even notice it.”

All of these sentiments are being echoed throughout the community right now through almost all outlets. Concerns were raised earlier and were ignored, but now a boiling point has been reached where it’s believed this is a very real problem. Capcom has so far not acknowledged the presence of any extra latency, leaving open the possibility of it being an intended part of the game. Some are hanging onto a hope that it is unintentional and will be fixed through patches a la USFIV. Until Capcom responds, it will remain a mystery as to what will be done.

Another question in this mess is if something even should be done to address it. After all, everybody is still on the same playing field, and can practice just fine in this environment. It makes things a lot different, but does that actually make the game worse? Some players are of the opinion it’s no big deal since it’s consistent, and can be played around. Others go as far as to say the latency is being used just as an excuse to cover up losses.

Is there even an answer?

As with most issues surrounding fighting game design, an easy answer doesn’t exist. Input latency is very high in SFV, that is for certain. But how much of the metagame is affected by it? Some of the things that are happening can be attributed to the general design as well as the latency. Is it that the gameplay we are seeing is a combination of both? Is it what Capcom had in mind while developing the game? If the input latency was changed as per the community's requests, would there be unintended consequences?

There are several questions and few answers, for now. But one thing is clear — Street Fighter V's input latency has changed the game.

It's amazing what a simple three frames can do.