Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can still do things like client-side prediction with streaming, but imagine if you controlled all of the clients and could always trust them. You could have the actual simulation running in a big bunker in Ohio somewhere on entirely synchronous terms ( The game concept itself can be engineered around vertical scale constraints. For instance, imagine flight routes in WoW. If the cost to take a flight was modulated…
> but imagine if you controlled all of the clients and could always trust them This will eliminate a few checks like teleporting/wall passing etc but you still can't trust the client, rest will shift to ML based cheating methods: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlsBaQWfE58
You can combine many factors to close the last mile. Getting privileged information off the client machine is a huge part of the battle. The rest can be dealt with using clever tricks, stats, etc.
For example, imagine a game where you are using this ML aimbot to lock onto players heads. The developer could design a ramping detection system like:
1. Statistical detection - outlier in performance. Begin deeper analysis.
2. Review player inputs using our own ml models to determine likelihood.
3. Escalate to active measures - in-game canaries to bait the aimbot into very unlikely, inhuman responses.