Improvements based on Community Test Environment data are coming today.
DICE is pushing out an update to the PC version of Battlefield 4 today, and some of the improvements include changes made based on data from the BF4 Community Test Environment.
Some of the changes are par for the update course, including…
Plenty of stability and performance improvements for everyone! But the three most interesting changes to Battlefield 4 are as follows.
In the Battlefield 4 menu, Options -> Gameplay now has a “Hi-Frequency Network Update” option. Available settings are High, Medium and Low. The “update rate,” also called the “tick rate,’ determines how often a game updates player data (location, firing, damage, etc.). Up until now, BF4 would update ten times a second, which seems lightning quick, but is relatively slow when compared to other online games (Counter-Strike servers tend to update 66 or 100 times per second). The sheer size and scope of BF4 means its tick rate is going to be lower than smaller games like CS, but ten updates per second has proven to be way too slow.
From now on, BF4 will have several update choices, to be chosen by the server owner. 15 (Low) updates per second is now the minimum, but 20 (Medium) and 30 (High) are options now, too. If you’re running on high-end hardware, a 30 tick server will ensure smoother, less random gameplay (in other words, less instances of double deaths during 1v1 firefights).
Once your game is updated, hop in and mess with the update settings, and drop your thoughts in the comments.
Source: Battlefield 4 blog