It's most likely down to bad interpolation algorithms (or, more accurately, failure to take into account specific circumstances where it can give visual anomalies!) In most games, your client fills out the gaps between updates to give a smooth picture of the game world. What's probably happening is that, when someone respawns after dying, their character is moved a long way across the map in a very short period of time. The server will send one update saying "dead dude is at co-ords (255, 285, 0)" and then another saying "dead dude is now alive and at co-ords (10003, 295643, 32)". Your client will, at some stage, construct an intermediate position and display the player being somewhere between the two (which will be somewhere along the route from their body's position to the spawn point).
It's more complicated than that, but it's the most likely explanation. I see this behaviour in various games, including HL2.
Last edited by Arnie_Ze_Austrian (2007-07-14 23:53:37)