The reverse case: if the “it’s gone” message is missed, NPCs or players that already died or left stay on your screen only.
Why Death, leave, or out-of-view messages are lost or arrive out of order → Effect The client thinks the entity is still there → On screen A monster that doesn’t react when hit, a player who already left still standing there
Primary owner Game team (Server development) · Also Game team (Client development)
Game team action items
Server: periodically send the “currently visible list.” Client: remove entities not on the list, hide entities that should be moving but haven’t updated in a long time.
On the graph
Random spikes · Entities that exist only on the client
Where to look
The server’s “currently visible list” compared with the client’s entity list, counting entities that exist only on the client, and despawn message send and receive logs matched by entity ID
Confirmed if
The server sent the ghost entity’s despawn message but the client has no record of receiving it, or the despawn arrived before the spawn and the order is reversed
Ruled out if
The entity is still on the server’s visible list too: the server failed to clean up the entity. Right after a new entity appeared with the same ID: entity ID reuse mix-up