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Time

Which clocks a match runs on, and which of them each time on the wire is measured against.

How a time is carried

A time is in seconds, as a 32-bit float, unless its definition says otherwise. A field is either a moment, read against a clock, or a duration, which starts when the message arrives. Every definition says which.

Exceptions:

  • Paused carries the time left in a hold as a whole number of seconds.
  • A stream’s chunk and key frame intervals (StreamMetadata) are in milliseconds.

The match clock

The match runs on a server’s clock, which counts seconds from 0 as play begins. ClockSync states where it stands, and a client sets its own clock to that, plus its allowance for how late the statement arrived. A client answers with ClockReply, from which a server measures the round trip. A server can report the round trip it measured with ClockConvergence.

A client takes the round trip ClockConvergence reports into its allowance for lateness.

Each ClockConvergence sets a client’s allowance to 0.8 times what it was plus 0.1 times the round trip it reports.

In 1.0.0.96–1.0.0.129

The allowance starts at 0, and nothing but ClockConvergence changes it: a client that has had none takes ClockSync as it stands. A server SHOULD send ClockConvergence, or each ClockSync sets a client’s clock behind by the time it took to arrive.

A server sends ClockSync with 0 as play begins (see Joining a match), and again whenever it means a client’s clock to catch up with its own.

A client’s match clock does not run until the first ClockSync arrives, which sets it. After that it runs on the client’s own timer, and a later ClockSync only corrects it, however long a server leaves between them.

GameSpeed sets the pace of the match clock, and a hold sets the pace to 0 until play resumes. A server that runs a match at other than normal speed MUST send GameSpeed with that speed, or a client’s match clock runs apart from its own.

A client runs no clock but the match clock, and takes whatever speed GameSpeed gives.

In 1.0.0.126–1.0.0.129

A GameSpeed that arrives during a hold takes effect as play resumes.

A client shows the match’s time counted from the moment on the match clock at which the match began.

In 1.0.0.126–1.0.0.129

MatchStarted gives that moment. Until it arrives, a client takes the match clock’s reading as its game loop runs, and a MatchStarted arriving later replaces it. While the match clock is before that moment, a client shows a negative time.

Moments on the match clock include:

  • when a monster arrives (CreateNeutral’s spawnAt, where it carries one);
  • when a prop’s animation starts (MapPropChanged, where it carries one);
  • when an assisting unit last dealt damage (ClientEvent);
  • when a champion’s passive comes off cooldown, where a client is told it (see Replication).

A server MUST state each of these on the clock it sends in ClockSync.

A stream’s clock

A watching client plays a stream against a clock of the stream’s own, which the stream’s records set (see Watching a match).