A new video shows what may be a serious problem with Forza Horizon 5 netcode -- a desync issue could be causing players to inadvertently ram each other.
Forza Horizon 5 was surprisingly announced late last year and officially launched a few short months later. In the time since then, the devs have done all sorts of cool updates such as the addition of sign language interpreters. Now, a new Reddit post shows that the Forza Horizon 5 netcode may not be up to snuff -- and that can be a serious problem in a game that requires precision timing.
What's the Problem with Forza Horizon 5 Netcode?
A submission by codenamerocky to the /r/ForzaHorizon subreddit shows what may be a serious problem with the Forza Horizon 5 netcode -- competing players aren't lining up as precisely as you'd expect, and this may be the cause of unintentional ramming.
Anyone who has played a racing game has probably swapped paint with an opponent at some point. While some games encourage rough and tumble racing maneuvers like this, the practice of ramming can be considered impolite by others. And either way, it's definitely annoying when you're on the receiving end of a ram.
However, codenamerocky's video shows some compelling evidence that those players ramming you might not always be doing it on purpose. The same race is shown from the perspective of two players. On one screen, a black car bumps a white car into a tree. On the other screen, the black car came close but did not actually touch the white car.
Essentially, it looks like there might be a desync issue with the Forza Horizon 5 netcode -- you could potentially get close to an opponent in your instance of a match and actually ram them on their instance of the match due to the cars not quite lining up on all sides.
At this point, it's unclear whether this is a rare issue or a serious underlying problem with the game. Dozens of comments in that Reddit submission speak of overly-aggressive players and that could be an indication that it's widespread, but it could also just as easily indicate that there are a lot of players who like to ram their opponents. We've reached out to Playground Games for more information and will update this article when we receive a reply; for now, you can buy Forza Horizon 5 on PC and Xbox starting at $59.99 or your regional equivalent.
