EA takes fan feedback for EA Sports FC so seriously they went to professional players’ homes to pinpoint the source of input delay. The developers have identified several causes behind input lag and promise these will be fixed by the time EA Sports FC 26 arrives.

If you’ve played EA Sports FC 25 online—or any game where a split-second move decides the match—you’ve almost certainly run into input lag, that split-second pause between pressing a button and the game responding. In a competitive environment, this can cost you matches or drive you crazy in front of the screen. EA knows this is an issue worth tackling, which is why they even went as far as to visit pro players at home to track down the cause of the delay.

“We really needed to understand the root of the problem. We worked with professional players, we gathered data from players around the world to try to understand the issues, but we didn’t just want to listen to feedback. We wanted to experience input delay ourselves. So we also traveled to Europe to meet with professional players in their esports studios. We met with content creators in their homes and learned a lot.” – said Sam Rivera, senior producer, in an interview with IGN.

Of course, a bad internet connection or using Wi-Fi can create lag—Rivera points this out as well. But EA also identified three key areas on their side:

Animations. “Sometimes, we request actions in the game that are very difficult to execute. If there’s a fast incoming ball and I want to send it back, that’s very hard—even in real life—and sometimes there aren’t animations for it. This year, we’re adding a lot of new animations and making sure we cover more actions overall.”

The animation system. “Our animation system is probably one of the most complicated in the game: every shot, pass, or movement, it’s looking at which animations are available, where the opponents are, how the ball moves, and so on.”

Bugs. “For example, you might want to shoot immediately, but the system could delay you a bit so you use your strong foot instead of your weak one. It’s not very common, but if you play 20 matches in a weekend, you’ll notice it a few times. This year, we’ve fixed dozens of these bugs.”

EA: “We’ve Taken a Good Step with FC 26”

No matter how many staff or resources EA throws at the problem, it will never completely disappear. Rivera admits the bug has many causes, but their goal is to minimize it as much as possible. “There are a lot of factors that affect input delay. Sometimes they’re internal, sometimes external. There’s no simple fix other than providing more information, helping the community set up their systems right. But at the very least, we see a huge opportunity here. We’ve taken a good step in FC 26 toward a more responsive game.”

Source: 3djuegos