Re: Shared game-data

From: Alvin Ryder <alvin321_at_telstra.com>
Date: 30 Apr 2006 18:42:59 -0700
Message-ID: <1146447779.259913.279370@i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>

Frank Hamersley wrote:
> Alvin Ryder wrote:
> > mAsterdam wrote:
> >> Alvin Ryder wrote:
> >>> mAsterdam wrote:
> [..]
> >>>> Could you please tell how good gaming software organizes the
> >>>> sharing of data between players?
> >>> Multiplayer games are typically implemented using a client/server or
> >>> peer to peer architecture. Only a relatively small amount of game state
> >>> needs to be broadcast and shared because each player runs their own
> >>> instance of the game, all the static game assets are duplicated.
> >>>
> >> Would you agree that this scheme wouldn't work for massively
> >> multiplayer games?
> >
> > Yes, I reckon you're right, that's what I've heard.

>

> [..]

>

> Interesting - I had presumed the bandwidth constraints would put even
> more pressure for each player host to hold as much game as possible and
> apply/generate the state change messages on a minimalist basis. Of
> course this is not "efficient" use of resources but I can't see how you
> would scale up endlessly a centralised server solution.
>

I suspect they use distributed servers and it all probably works similar to how domain name servers (DNS) work on the Internet but as I've said before, this is a sub-speciality I've never worked with so I just can't say for sure.

> Of course in a large game terrain not every player needs to be known to
> every other (over the horizon invisibility if you like). However you
> would need some serious smarts to know how far any particular state
> change event must be promulgated if run as a massively distributed
> execution engine.

>

To achieve decent frame rates you only get milliseconds to compute everything so optimizations are mandatory. As for smarts, often things that appear almost magical turn out to be simple.

> Cheers, Frank.

Best regards. Received on Sun Apr 30 2006 - 20:42:59 CDT