While no packets arrive, the client keeps showing characters moving at their last velocity, then snaps them back when it turns out to be wrong.
Why Packets stop arriving, so the character keeps moving in its last direction and speed → Effect In reality, the other player stopped or changed direction → On screen The other character runs on for a while, then snaps to its real position or passes through walls. With erratic packet arrival intervals, it keeps overshooting and getting pulled back, so it looks like it’s shaking
Cap extrapolation time (e.g., 200–250 ms), converge smoothly when wrong.
Ballpark numbers
At 6 m/s, being off by just 300 ms puts a character 1.8 m out of place.
On the graph
Random spikes · Extrapolation time, position correction distance
Where to look
Record how long other characters are drawn by extrapolation and how far their position is corrected when a new packet arrives
Confirmed if
Every time packets stop, extrapolation time grows with no cap, then the correction distance grows to several meters
Ruled out if
Teleporting even though extrapolation runs only briefly: packet loss or latency itself is high, so look at the connection or route
Check with
Game server or client logs and metrics
Sources
Interpolation and extrapolation (Netcode for Entities 6.5)Unity Extrapolation that keeps moving in the same direction and speed when the next snapshot is late is often wrong, so it gets a cap (Unity default 20 ticks, about 1/3 s at 60 Hz)
Peeking into VALORANT's NetcodeRiot Games When the guesses that fill in late or missing data are wrong, the client drifts from the server and characters jump or slide into place when corrected