CS2 patch notes (November 13, 2024): Network changes, Telemetry HUD updates, and more

New CS2 patch notes have been released. The new update is solely focused on improving the network issues that have been plaguing players in the game. Ever since the release of the Armory update, players have reported instances of severe packet-loss and packet burst issues affecting their gameplay.

This article lists all the changes in the latest CS2 patch notes.

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CS2 patch notes for November 13, 2024

Here's a glimpse into the changes introduced with the latest CS2 patch notes:

[ NETWORK ]

• Fixed a case mid-spray where lag compensation wasn't aware of the user's "Buffering to smooth over packet loss / jitter" setting.
• Improved clock synchronization to better handle downstream jitter bursts.

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[ TELEMETRY HUD ]

• Changed the method for measuring network quality to measure how much network is negatively impacting gameplay. It now measures how often a tick is missed due to network loss or jitter.
• Added detailed network quality display option, which can be used to display the raw packet loss and jitter numbers.

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[ ABOUT THE NETWORK QUALITY READOUT ]

Prior to the Armory Update, the network quality readout in the telemetry HUD considered packets to be "bad" under two circumstances. 1.) If the packet was dropped. 2.) If the packet was delivered out-of-order and was not corrected at a relatively low layer in the network stack. This was not a useful metric for two reasons.

First, it counted some misdelivery events as "bad" even though they did not negatively impact gameplay. This was especially a problem for packet reordering.

Second, it was not counting as "bad" packets that arrived late due to network jitter and negatively impact gameplay. After debugging many instances of gameplay hitches with players, we determined that jitter was causing problems for many players, who believed (quite reasonably) that their network was working perfectly, since there was no packet loss.

Check out: How to potentially improve CPU and GPU performance in CS2

In an attempt to let these players know that jitter might be the cause of the hitches, we changed the measurement method in the Armory Update on October 2, 2024.

Now, we counted a message as "bad" if it was lost, if packets arrived out of order in a way that could not be corrected, or if the packets experienced jitter above a threshold. For players on a network connection with significant jitter, suddenly the network quality indicator became significantly worse. Many players assumed that this meant that something had changed to introduce packet loss.

Unfortunately, this method of measuring quality was also flawed. The Source 2 Engine automatically adds buffering to smooth over jitter. For many players, these automatic adjustments are enough, and the indicator was counting jittered packets as "bad" even when there was not negative impact on gameplay.

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That's all there is to know about the latest CS2 patch notes. For more related news and guides, stay tuned to Sportskeeda's Esports section.