Timers differ between players because their clocks disagree

A countdown ends at different moments on different screens, because every device has its own idea of the time. This entry shows how to estimate the difference to the host well enough, and how to apply a correction without time ever jumping backwards.

Why this works

You cannot know how long a message took one way, only the whole trip. A quick trip leaves little room for the two halves to differ, so it is the most trustworthy sample; slow ones are mostly noise and are best ignored.

When not to use it

Not needed when only the host keeps time and clients just show what it sends. It also cannot give exact sync down to a frame, so for beat-perfect music games measure on the device with real input tests instead.

In the full entry

• What to build, step by step
• Starting values and the reason for each
• 3 common mistakes and the fix
• 29 lines of example code with 4 checks that pass
• How your AI shows you that it works

Say this to your AI

Use the Spielerando entry "Timers differ between players because their clocks disagree" (read_entry clock-offset-from-best-round-trip) in my game. Build it step by step, and show me how you checked that it works.

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