When you press space to activate the elytra, they only do so after a round trip to the server. Seeing that the acceleration of gravity is 32 m/s^2 for players, you can easily drop multiple blocks and then have to cancel the vertical speed you've built up. The lost height is quadratic until you approach terminal velocity; a ping that's twice as high is four times as bad. As conditions worsen things quickly change from workable to smashing right into the ground.
All other movement is predicted/client-owned and corrected. Why not this as well? The server could still cancel your flight if it turned out to be illegal, much like the way you're warped back when you attempt to walk through server-side blocks.
Comments 5
Is this still an issue in the latest snapshot 16w44a? If so please update the affected versions.
This is an automated comment on any open or reopened issue with out-of-date affected versions.
Elytra still heavily affected by ping. I can easily fall down by 10-20 blocks before the elytra activates
EDIT: For 1.12.2
Is this still a issue in the latest version of the game(currently 1.13.1)?
If so, please add it to the affected versions, thanks!
Affect laggy single-player worlds too (less tps = longer delay and more likely to splat into the ground)