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Digging into the way Rust handles networking can be a real headache when you're trying to optimize an external ESP or a radar. The server doesn't just dump every entity's coordinates onto your client; it uses a system often referred to as the Potentially Visible Set (PVS) to cull what you don't need to see.
The Networking Logic
In Rust, entity visibility is governed by the server's netvis settings. While most players and small deployables are networked within a relatively tight radius—usually around 300 to 400 meters—larger events and specific entities have much higher priority and distance limits.
Technical Breakdown:
Practical Advice
If you are testing distance limits, keep in mind that modded servers often tweak these values to reduce lag or, conversely, to allow for long-range sniping. On vanilla, the distance is quite strict to prevent players from using low-level packet sniffing to map out the entire island's player count.
What's the max distance you guys have managed to pull airdrop coords from on a high-pop vanilla server lately?
The Networking Logic
In Rust, entity visibility is governed by the server's netvis settings. While most players and small deployables are networked within a relatively tight radius—usually around 300 to 400 meters—larger events and specific entities have much higher priority and distance limits.
Technical Breakdown:
- Airdrops (Supply Drops): These are networked from a massive distance, often over 1km or even across the entire map, depending on the server's configuration. This is why you can see the plane and the drop long before you see the players fighting over it.
- Players: Typically limited to the standard 300-400m range. Beyond this, the server simply stops sending their position packets to your client to save bandwidth.
- Large Scale Entities: Things like the Attack Helicopter or the Cargo Ship have custom networking distances that far exceed standard loot barrels or base entities.
If you're writing a scraper or an ESP, you need to account for BaseNetworkable. You won't find a magic offset that lets you "see" through the server's culling. If the server isn't sending the data for an entity because it's too far away, no amount of client-side code will make it appear. You're limited by what the server thinks you should know.
Practical Advice
If you are testing distance limits, keep in mind that modded servers often tweak these values to reduce lag or, conversely, to allow for long-range sniping. On vanilla, the distance is quite strict to prevent players from using low-level packet sniffing to map out the entire island's player count.
What's the max distance you guys have managed to pull airdrop coords from on a high-pop vanilla server lately?
