{"id":14513,"date":"2026-09-24T10:31:41","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T10:31:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playgama.com\/blog\/?p=14513"},"modified":"2026-09-24T10:31:41","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T10:31:41","slug":"how-do-client-prediction-server-reconciliation-and-interpola","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playgama.com\/blog\/business-faqs\/how-do-client-prediction-server-reconciliation-and-interpola\/","title":{"rendered":"How do client prediction, server reconciliation, and interpolation work in web games?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Client prediction moves the local player immediately without waiting for the server; server reconciliation corrects that local state when the authoritative server update arrives, replaying unacknowledged inputs; interpolation smooths remote players’ positions between the delayed snapshots you receive over WebSockets.<\/strong><\/p>\n

At a glance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Fact<\/th>\nValue<\/th>\nSource<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Prediction runs locally before server confirms<\/td>\nimmediate input response<\/td>\ndeveloper.mozilla.org<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Reconciliation replays inputs after correction<\/td>\nresimulate from last ack<\/td>\ndeveloper.mozilla.org<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Interpolation delays remote entities slightly<\/td>\nrender buffer, not raw snapshots<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Client-side prediction means the local player’s input is applied to the game state the instant it’s pressed, before any round trip to the server – this is what makes movement feel responsive. Server reconciliation is the correction step: when the authoritative server state arrives (over a WebSocket<\/a>), the client compares it to its own predicted state at that timestamp, snaps to the server value if it drifted, then re-applies (replays) any locally queued inputs the server hadn’t processed yet. Interpolation is separate and applies to remote players: instead of rendering their raw, choppy snapshots, you keep a small buffer of recent server states and render slightly in the past, smoothly blending between two known positions.<\/p>\n

When you are ready to monetize your game, Playgama Ad connects one SDK to 11 demand partners, including Google Ad Manager.<\/p>\n

Where the code lives: game logic (input buffer, prediction, reconciliation, interpolation buffer) stays in your engine’s normal update loop; the network transport is the only browser-specific piece. In Unity WebGL you’d call browser networking APIs through a .jslib plugin per the JavaScript interop docs<\/a>; Godot 4 web exports use the JavaScriptBridge singleton for anything the engine’s networking layer doesn’t cover natively.<\/p>\n

Where can you publish the finished multiplayer web build?<\/h2>\n