Matt Langdon

This may be a strange question, but it's my first post, so why not make it strange?

Does the game produce the results of its simulations and then create a graphic representation, or is what we see on the match screen created first and then the text is generated later?

The reason I ask is because many of the complaints (and my observations) of players doing stupid things may not be really happening if the game we're seeing is just a (flawed?) representation of what the game engine is creating.

I'm not sure I phrased the question properly but I couldn't think of a better way.

EmFries

I would say that what we see on the screen is happening in real time and the match engine generates the text along with what is happening on the screen. Reason I believe this is because we can make tactical changes, along with team talks and what not that that can have a dramatic effect on how the game plays out...or... so we believe. I suppose the result could be generated before its on screen presentation, and our tweaks and talks are only cosmetic... but i doubt it.

So does that make it a chicken or an egg?

eddieskyclad

The game must produce the results of it's simulations before it goes into the "graphical simulation" part.

Simply because otherwise how would the game know that a "highlight" moment was coming along...

It must know that something is going to happen before it cuts to show you the highlight of it happening.

MachinegunHead

I think player condition and morale is changed in real time, and so are tactics, but in a different dimension to the match highlights. By this I mean that the match highlights are based upon the tactics and the player stats, morale and condition at the start of the highlight. It then plays out in its own separate reality, resulting in a goal or dead ball, before jumping back to the outer reality of changing morale and condition.

That probably made no sense, and is most likely wrong. I'm sure people who watch the entire match graphically would have a better understanding on how things work.

SSGTroyer

This question gets asked each year, several times, and there is a definitive, SI-verified answer.

We are watching a movie.

After you hit "Confirm" to enter the match screen, the entire game is played out computationally. We are then shown a movie of the results. If, at some point we stop the movie and make any changes, literally any changes (even just changing an opposing players' single opposition instruction, a sub, or a one-notch bump on a tactic slider), the unshown portion of the existing movie is thrown out the instant we hit "Confirm" to go back to the match screen and a new movie generated, from that point on, with the new tactics/personnel.

SSGTroyer

dola

This is the reason I'll change things up, ever so little, if things are going badly. I need a new movie. New random numbers are generated, and maybe the new ones will hit on the sequence I need to get a result. I'll give the new movie 10 minutes or so, and if things still look like The Saw III, I'll change things up again...

towerofpower

I just recently had the following occurance with highlight mode: I went to tactic screen to notice one of my players is injured ( not on fly; I hit "tactics" and waited game to give me break to do this), eventhough commentator or match hasn't indicated so. That player then got injured on the next highlight that was shown. Hope that helps any.

Trillkott

I laughed out load at that part

stumostro

And as for the egg and chicken question, the egg came first, it was layed by something that resembled a chicken but the egg mutated and out popped the chicken, think about it, evolution.

FrazT

What a good description of how the match engine works mate.