For multiplayer, a question on implementation.

I'm aware online multiplayer implementation is still rather far off, but I'm curious how y'all are planning to do it.

Theres several ways it might be done.
1: All processing done on a central server, all the clients do is render and give inputs.
This would ensure no desync and good performance for the clients with all cars getting damaged, but would be at the cost of input lag and high amounts of data being sent by the server.
2: A p2p system.
This would be difficult to do well. Desync would be a very real issue, a crash that would total you might not even happen for the other player. This would be kind of silly.
3: No interaction with other players.
The other methods would allow players to collide and see other car's damage. This method ensures that the problems associated with them don't exist at the cost of making other players effectively be ghosts moving around, not showing the actual status of their cars. Please don't do this. The major point of this game is the damage.
4: ?
I've probably missed some, feel free to add/critique.

 

For the first option :

- The netcode must be optimized a lot to use the less possible bandwidth.
- To avoid input lag, and some issue, the server could slow down the simulation speed (like in Eve Online, when the load is too high)
- It might be possible to use a network of servers to compute a race with a lot aof players (seems very hard to code !)

Also, the third option should not be chosen. As collision may result in time penalty and damage like in real life (A NASCAR race in MP in Drive sounds fuuuun !).

I don't know if the devs have chose a technical answer yet...

 

What point would the game need to be at for this to be a consideration? What features do you want as a base before you start on this?