Advanced Warfare Netcode Values (IN-DEPTH INFO)

[Deleted]

After researching and deciphering, I feel like I've figured out what each variable in Skill Based Match Making stands for and its overall impact on your matches and connectivity. First, for all the people that STILL don't believe it exists, here is a line of code:

dw_matchmaking_allow_skill_based
dw_matchmaking_enable_skill_based

^ It is also very easy to disable as well. All they have to do is change "enable" to "disable" or delete the second line and then it is gone. They choose to keep it there for "balancing purposes" but sadly it negatively impacted the playerbase as a whole.

--

ALL SOURCES

/r/RedactedMods (the community, not any threads in specific)
(/u/Drift0r 's SBMM Video)
www.reddit.com/r/CodAW/comments/2p3giv/so_i_tested_sbmm_on_aw/
pastebin.com/5e2H3D3B (Advanced Warfare DVARs)

--

Skill Based Match Making Calculation Process

If you read this:
name: mm_skill_calculation_type
type: int
You see the calculation process is based off integers, or your statistics in-game.
--

LAMBDA

This is Kill/Death Ratio. In Drift0r's video, he compares twenty individuals and has them go through a process for him to compile his data. At [8:20] into his video, you see that his data reads that [Total K/D Matching = R-squared = 0.1571]. Now what I leaked before was:
set mm_skill_param_lambda 0.1510972
When you round this, it is very close to Drift0r's data, reading [0.1511]. So, I kept looking into his video and found the [Total K/D Polynomial Trend Line = R-squared = 0.5672]. In the DVAR, it states that the coded, not tested, value is [0.57623], a very close match to the previous number. Overall, my best estimate is that [K/D = Lambda] and is [6.81%] or [41.38%] of the purpose. (TXT > DVAR)

--

XI

This is Win/Loss Ratio. In Drift0r's video, he compares twenty individuals and has them go through a process for him to compile his data. At [15:23] into his video, you see that his data reads that [Total W/L Matching = R-squared = 0.2872]. Now what I leaked before was:
set mm_skill_param_xi 1.0826828
It isn't even close to what Drift0r's testing provided. More of a fraction to it, so I decided to check the DVAR. In the DVAR, however, it is the closest match, reading [0.41224] as a coded value, proving its appearance in SBMM. Overall, my best estimate is that [W/L = Xi] and is [48.82%] or [29.60%] of the purpose. (TXT > DVAR)

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DELTA

Based off Michael Condrey's statement, we can assume this is Connection. If he is lying, then the txt file is correct because it states the weight of the value: "Connection" is [0.9642223], the second highest value. If he is not lying though, then the value is [1.893], the highest value in the DVARs. Overall, my best estimate is that [Connection = Delta] and is [43.48%] or [135.95%] of the purpose. (TXT > DVAR)

--

FUTURE

Still working on figuring out last variable. Thoughts are "SPM" or "Region".

[Deleted]

Jun 23, 2015 12:48:59 GMT -5 Mousey said:

deary me

What?

[ChloeB42 (Alexcalibur42)]

Reported, deleted, minimized, exited, standby, shutdown, unplug, set fire, bury, cover in cement

[Deleted]

Jun 23, 2015 14:42:17 GMT -5 Mousey said:

SBMM discussions arent something i want to see return here.

This is actually really old stuff btw, no offense.

Oh. You've already figured this out?

[Will]

Is it any different from other COD titles? Because the vocal complainers seem to be 100% certain that Advanced Warfare invented SBMM and it never existed to this extent before. I don't give Sledgehammer that much credit; I highly doubt they even looked at that part of the code.

[Deleted]

Jun 23, 2015 17:15:06 GMT -5 Mousey said:

I mean to an extent. It's more so that there's pretty much a brick wall as to what can really be found out. The constants dont necessarily mean a direct correlation and without an exact formula and the best we can do is speculate.

Like yeah connection is part of it, yeah K/D and W/L are probably part of it. whatevs. It's not going to reach a point where anyone can really do anything with it unless someone does some super extensive testing.

I see what you mean.

[Deleted]

Jun 23, 2015 17:18:44 GMT -5 Will said:

Is it any different from other COD titles? Because the vocal complainers seem to be 100% certain that Advanced Warfare invented SBMM and it never existed to this extent before. I don't give Sledgehammer that much credit; I highly doubt they even looked at that part of the code.

Could've of sworn Drift0r said it started in Black Ops 2?

[PSIII]

I'm pretty sure it's not as complicated as everyone thinks it is. Could be as simple as W/L and a couple other things. I don't give any of the developers that much credit.

I mean, I could be wrong though lol. ELO/Glicko stats are and can be used on PC servers (xlrstats), so they could have used that as an inspiration.

[Pegasus Actual]

Jun 23, 2015 12:30:24 GMT -5 @voidglitch said:

Skill Based Match Making Calculation Process

If you read this:
name: mm_skill_calculation_type
type: int
You see the calculation process is based off integers, or your statistics in-game.

u wot m8?

That's just saying that the variable mm_skill_calculation_type IS an integer, not that it's 'based off stats'. Looking at the pastebin it says min/max of 0/2. So presumably mm_skill_calculation_type is an enumerated type with three possible modes. What are they? Who knows? They're probably defined somewhere in actual source code.

I'm not sure what the reddit link is supposed to be, but there's nothing remotely intelligent in that thread.

LAMBDA

This is Kill/Death Ratio. In Drift0r's video, he compares twenty individuals and has them go through a process for him to compile his data. At [8:20] into his video, you see that his data reads that [Total K/D Matching = R-squared = 0.1571]. Now what I leaked before was:
set mm_skill_param_lambda 0.1510972
When you round this, it is very close to Drift0r's data, reading [0.1511]. So, I kept looking into his video and found the [Total K/D Polynomial Trend Line = R-squared = 0.5672]. In the DVAR, it states that the coded, not tested, value is [0.57623], a very close match to the previous number. Overall, my best estimate is that [K/D = Lambda] and is [6.81%] or [41.38%] of the purpose. (TXT > DVAR)

R-squared is a measure of how well his model fits, it has nothing to do with the actual weights of whatever they're weighing in SBMM. You can't just say "hey this number in this video kind of looks like this number in the file, so it must be that".

Ok, you need to understand a few things regarding these variables. First, listen to the mouse, just having some variable names doesn't really tell you how they're used, and they can be used in completely arbitrary ways. You can infer some things from variable names, but also keep in mind sometimes variables are poorly named. Or sometimes in the course of development the way it's used gets changed without the variable name being changed, so even if the variable was well-named to begin with, it may no longer be. Also, old variables tend to stick around even if they're no longer used. So they may outright do nothing.

And who knows, is there really any good reason for this kind of matchmaking code to be on the client? Probably not. Maybe it's old test code and all the real code is rather different and one hundred percent inside the matchmaking servers.

Here's what I'd infer from lazily ctrl+f-ing for "skill" in that prohibitively large pastebin link:

name: mm_ghosts_onboarding_skill
type: int
value: 500
min: 0
max: 2147483647

name: mm_blops2_onboarding_skill
type: int
value: 500
min: 0
max: 2147483647

name: mm_aw_onboarding_rank
type: int
value: 6
min: 0
max: 255

name: mm_use_onboarding_skill
type: int
value: 0
min: 0
max: 1

If you google "onboarding" it's pretty much HR-speak for getting someone up to speed and competent in their job. So you would think for Ghosts and Blops they had a master skill ranking that divided people into two groups. Complete noobs, and everyone else. That kind of jibes with the way VONERHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR was dismissing SBMM complaints in the Blops 2 era. It's reasonable to consider a noob lobby system to not be skilled based matchmaking in any meaningful sense.

And then the AW version references rank instead of skill. So in AW maybe you're in noob lobbies until you hit level 6, and then the other system takes over. With the buckets and the lambda/gamma/whatever. Those Greek letter variables are very poorly named, unless maybe they're a reference to something well-known that I'm just not aware of. The buckets make it sound like there's now 'noob', 'normals', and 'smart players', so maybe top-end skill players did get screwed more this time around. So the Greek letter values have changed quite a bit since launch. Did the bucket values change as well? If not then they're probably not related. But the Greek stuff... I mean sure it looks like they are weights for some components of skill, but really who knows what? They can be anything, or any combination of things. I guess it can be fun to speculate, but don't kid yourself and think you're going to 'crack the code', or that the real answer is particularly interesting.

[Deleted]

Jun 24, 2015 9:21:20 GMT -5 Pegasus Actual said:

Jun 23, 2015 12:30:24 GMT -5 @voidglitch said:

Skill Based Match Making Calculation Process

If you read this:
name: mm_skill_calculation_type
type: int
You see the calculation process is based off integers, or your statistics in-game.

u wot m8?

That's just saying that the variable mm_skill_calculation_type IS an integer, not that it's 'based off stats'. Looking at the pastebin it says min/max of 0/2. So presumably mm_skill_calculation_type is an enumerated type with three possible modes. What are they? Who knows? They're probably defined somewhere in actual source code.

I'm not sure what the reddit link is supposed to be, but there's nothing remotely intelligent in that thread.

LAMBDA

This is Kill/Death Ratio. In Drift0r's video, he compares twenty individuals and has them go through a process for him to compile his data. At [8:20] into his video, you see that his data reads that [Total K/D Matching = R-squared = 0.1571]. Now what I leaked before was:
set mm_skill_param_lambda 0.1510972
When you round this, it is very close to Drift0r's data, reading [0.1511]. So, I kept looking into his video and found the [Total K/D Polynomial Trend Line = R-squared = 0.5672]. In the DVAR, it states that the coded, not tested, value is [0.57623], a very close match to the previous number. Overall, my best estimate is that [K/D = Lambda] and is [6.81%] or [41.38%] of the purpose. (TXT > DVAR)

R-squared is a measure of how well his model fits, it has nothing to do with the actual weights of whatever they're weighing in SBMM. You can't just say "hey this number in this video kind of looks like this number in the file, so it must be that".

Ok, you need to understand a few things regarding these variables. First, listen to the mouse, just having some variable names doesn't really tell you how they're used, and they can be used in completely arbitrary ways. You can infer some things from variable names, but also keep in mind sometimes variables are poorly named. Or sometimes in the course of development the way it's used gets changed without the variable name being changed, so even if the variable was well-named to begin with, it may no longer be. Also, old variables tend to stick around even if they're no longer used. So they may outright do nothing.

And who knows, is there really any good reason for this kind of matchmaking code to be on the client? Probably not. Maybe it's old test code and all the real code is rather different and one hundred percent inside the matchmaking servers.

Here's what I'd infer from lazily ctrl+f-ing for "skill" in that prohibitively large pastebin link:

name: mm_ghosts_onboarding_skill
type: int
value: 500
min: 0
max: 2147483647

name: mm_blops2_onboarding_skill
type: int
value: 500
min: 0
max: 2147483647

name: mm_aw_onboarding_rank
type: int
value: 6
min: 0
max: 255

name: mm_use_onboarding_skill
type: int
value: 0
min: 0
max: 1

If you google "onboarding" it's pretty much HR-speak for getting someone up to speed and competent in their job. So you would think for Ghosts and Blops they had a master skill ranking that divided people into two groups. Complete noobs, and everyone else. That kind of jibes with the way VONERHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR was dismissing SBMM complaints in the Blops 2 era. It's reasonable to consider a noob lobby system to not be skilled based matchmaking in any meaningful sense.

And then the AW version references rank instead of skill. So in AW maybe you're in noob lobbies until you hit level 6, and then the other system takes over. With the buckets and the lambda/gamma/whatever. Those Greek letter variables are very poorly named, unless maybe they're a reference to something well-known that I'm just not aware of. The buckets make it sound like there's now 'noob', 'normals', and 'smart players', so maybe top-end skill players did get screwed more this time around. So the Greek letter values have changed quite a bit since launch. Did the bucket values change as well? If not then they're probably not related. But the Greek stuff... I mean sure it looks like they are weights for some components of skill, but really who knows what? They can be anything, or any combination of things. I guess it can be fun to speculate, but don't kid yourself and think you're going to 'crack the code', or that the real answer is particularly interesting.

Thanks for the information.

[Megaqwerty]

Jun 23, 2015 17:18:44 GMT -5 Will said:

I highly doubt they even looked at that part of the code.

They looked at it, but only in a marijuana-induced stupor and they had no idea what it meant.