What are the best practices for efficiently synchronizing player state across clients while minimizing latency and bandwidth usage? Are there any particular strategies or patterns that work well with Coherence’s architecture?
That highly depends on the type of game you want to build:
- Is that an FPS shooter? You probably want clients to send inputs only via CoherenceInput and Simulator to sync state to those players
- Is it an open-world MMO game? Clients could send action requests via commands with Simulator controlling their view using LiveQueries (our Area of Interest system)
- Is it a cooperative game? Spread the load by sharing the state between players using dynamic authority
In all those cases you can take advantage of the Level of Detail system to fine-tune every piece of state that gets synced. To the tiniest bit!
How does Coherence handle network latency, and what can be done on the developers end to ensure a smooth experience for players, especially in fast-paced games? Are there built-in tools or configurations that can help with prediction and interpolation?
We provide highly configurable interpolation out of the box. You can also plug-in your own if you need more control.
We also support client-side prediction. The reconciliation has to be done manually (for now, automatic reconciliation is on our roadmap). Still, we provide some examples. You’ll also find community posts like this one that discuss the topic in detail.
When it comes to latency, we use custom reliable UDP as well as WebRTC for WebGL builds. We also provide multiple hosting regions and leverage cloud edge locations for the best player experience.
What challenges might I face when scaling a game to handle thousands of simultaneous players, and how does Coherence support this kind of scalability? I am particularly interested in understanding any potential bottlenecks and how to mitigate them.
If your game is room (session) based there should be no problems whatsoever. We’ll handle the scaling for you!
If however if it is more of a persistent, one big game world type, a lot depends on the game architecture and server performance. In other words, how many players will be able play on a single server is in your hands! (we’ll be happy to help though 
)
What are the recommended approaches to securing game data and preventing common multiplayer game exploits; such as cheating or data tampering; when using Coherence?
That again depends on the type of game and its features. In most cases, clients already communicate via Replication Server which validates the origin and destination of the data, so you’re covered from the start!
If you need absolute control over everything in a game session then Simulator got you covered. You’ll want it to be the only owner of all entities in the game and merely accept commands or inputs from the player, sanitizing and validating them upon reception.
To provide the most accurate and helpful advice, could you please share a bit more about the type of game you’re envisioning?
