How much of a performance improvement can we expect?
TL;DRThe main gain is expected in server performance, with less lag and rubber banding once even the static mesh is in place, while client FPS should improve only slightly.
The biggest gain will be server performance. Right now, our server performance is pretty limited due to the sheer number of entities that we have to simulate on one server. This results in a very low framerate and server degradation, causing the client to experience network lag/rubber banding and other network desync issues. Once we have even the static mesh in place, we expect server framerate to be considerably higher, causing less of these symptoms.
On the client FPS, server meshing actually has very little impact. The client already only streams entities that are in visible range. There may be some slight improvements, as we can be a bit more aggressive with the range culling on the client as, right now, some objects have a bloated streaming radius for features like radar or missiles to work properly. With Server Meshing, we can decouple the client and server-streaming radius. However, these improvements will be minimal on the client. Still, faster server FPS will improve the overall experience as network lag will be reduced considerably.