In case anyone is confused, dropping frames locally absolute DOES effect network performance in a synced-screen game like a fighting game. Playing on stages with better performance is a good idea if you want the best possible netplay any given game can give you. https://twitter.com/TwistedMRivera/status/1274489299371798533

I see people asking 'but why is that the case if we only send inputs over the wire?'

The answer is because the game still has to render the next frame on time, stay in sync with the other side, and in the case of rollback, possibly re-simulate frames.

If the game can't run at a steady 60 on a certain stage offline, it isn't going to have the processing time left to deal with re-simulating frames during a rollback without even more performance hits, which means even more desync issues, or slowdown, or dropped frames/inputs.

This is why, when you try to go online for the first time on the PC versions of KI, you are forced to do a performance test with a mirror match of the worst performing character on the worst performing stage. If you run at a solid 60 in those conditions, you pass and can play.

Performance tests are not perfect, of course, especially on PC other factors could still find ways to slow down your game's performance. Maybe your performance was great yesterday and then you downloaded a tasty virus last night and today your perf is bad, yet you are online.

Anyway, yes, performance matters for online play, especially in rollback, and yes, choosing the stages that perform better can help sometimes and never hurts. Have fun out there!