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8 Frames in 16ms: Rollback Networking in Mortal Kombat and Injustice 2

GDC Festival of Gaming · talk · Watch on YouTube

Game programming & enginesNetworking & internet infrastructure

What it is

A 2018 GDC talk by NetherRealm's Michael Stallone on the engine changes, optimizations and tooling needed to roll back and re-simulate up to 8 frames in 16 ms in Mortal Kombat and Injustice 2. It is a deep dive into deterministic rollback netcode.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN treats it as the definitive practical talk on rollback networking in a shipped AAA fighting game.

  • 4 people recommended it
  • 5 different months
  • 0 strong recommendations
  • first 2020, last 2025

What HN commenters said

  1. “this is a great GDC video to watch on the topic”

    Great GDC talk on rollback networking.

    syspec, 2020-07 · Recommendation · in “Dolphin Progress May and June 2020”

  2. “I really enjoyed this GDC talk on rollback networking”

    Enjoyed GDC talk on rollback networking.

    dilap, 2021-10 · Recommendation · in “1500 Archers on a 28.8: Network Programming in Age of Empires and Beyond (2001)”

  3. “For an in-depth explanation, see this excellent GDC talk on its implementation in Mortal Kombat and Injustice 2”

    In-depth explanation of deterministic rollback in Mortal Kombat.

    Oberdiah, 2023-10 · Recommendation · in “Ready Player Two – What the Multiplayer Web Can Learn from Video Games”

  4. “the following videos are greatly entertaining deep dives into ludicrously technically complicated bugs or performance optimizations”

    Entertaining technical deep dive among recommended GDC videos.

    c4wrd, 2025-03 · Recommendation · in “Activision Cut Call of Duty's Build Time by 50%”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: netcode, fighting games, game engines, determinism, gdc

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