Gaping
Blitz3D Forums/Blitz3D Beginners Area/Gaping
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| This isn't really a desparate cry for help, as in most of my other forum topics, but I just read a review of World of Warcraft and am wondering: 1. If WoW uses TCP, couldn't one slow computer slow down an entire server? How does it maintain its speed? 2. They say there are no loading times, and walking across the vast landscape is seamless. Wouldn't this slow down the game immensely? How do they keep it fast, but also keep it seamless? Do they load the entire map all at once, or do they simply load it in such small chunks that it is virtually instantaneous? 3. What's the attack system like? I can't seem to find out, and would like to know how - for instance - players can have hundreds of spells, and yet access them quickly and easily. 4. How come I can't program that sort of thing? Well, I actually already know this answer... |
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| These are just my best (and generally uninformed) guesses ;) 1) The server would be able to maintain its own speed, and update the faster clients a a good rate. The slow player would appear to be slow to react from the point of view of faster clients. For the slow client, their gameplay will be heavily penalised as the server updates would come in such a low frequency, they would experience severe 'lagging', eventually, the latency would get so bad it would exceed a timeout period and the client connection will be dropped. 2) I would imagine that it is loaded in small chunks, or generated based on some algorithmic format. 3) Dunno - never played it (I said my opinion was uninformed! :D ) 4) Same. |
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| Oh! I didn't realize that just because TCP is slower because it garuntees that packets "get there," it doesn't mean the server goes slower. My bad. |
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| modern engines also use multithreading to dynamicly load parts of the map. Wherever you go, there's a task running in the background that makes sure the surrounding landscape is already loaded when you get there. 4.) Never forget they spent millions of dollars to hire the best specialists, so take it easy. It's a long way to the top. |
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| jfk: on Point 4, you aren't just kidding. Miilions vs yours or my 1-10 or so hours/week. Hmm, which is more productive...? Millions wins, I'm afraid. Remember, for Final Fantasy 7, they boasted in their advertising that they had a team of 200 programmers working on it. I'm just me, when I can slip in some time. But! Blitz 3D is so darn good, it makes one-man (or one-woman, for any ladies out there) teams like us in the B3D community program seem like we ARE teams of 100 or so programmers! Hats off to Mark Sibley! |
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| Thanks guys. Any answers to number 3? |
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| 2. Chunks + optional multithreading. 3. The UI is fairly extensive and customizable. You drag skills to occupy some 40-odd HUD buttons. Most buttons are also associated with hotkeys on the keyboard (e.g. 1-9 for this row, shift+1-9 for this row.) Players might have 20 or so spells or abilities, but learn that it's typically most effective to adapt to using the 2 or 3 most recently awarded by earning class levels. |
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| Thankee, octothorpe. Do you know what the movement is like? Arrow keys, or that tedious point-&-click method? I'd assume it's the former. |
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| wasd, iirc |
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| If the wasd system controls movement, do you have to press <enter> to start chatting? That always annoys me. |
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| Anyone? |
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| I am also wondering if anyone knows (or thinks they know) how these MMORPGs manage the animations for spells and such. Do they save the movement and the spell as an animation, or do they have two separate animations - one for movement and one for the spell? I'd imagine the answer's the latter, because the target's location changes. Also, do you guys know if you have to press <enter> to start chatting, and then <enter> again to finish? |
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| In WoW I believe a character's torso and trunk animate independantly. I think they could very well be separate meshes pushed right up against each other. Enter? Yes, of course - or some other key to start a chat, I don't recall what it was. How else would you start a sentance with W, A, S, or D? It's really not that annoying once you're used to it. The alternative is that printable characters can't be used for actions, which restricts you to the arrow keys. There aren't many keys near the arrow keys, so your input UI is fairly limited. Also, since most people will be using their right hand on the mouse, it makes sense to have them leave their left hand on the left side of their keyboard. The only drawback is that players will sometimes stand around and babble "dude, i think i saw a dwarven rogue behind sssssssdaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww" instead of running away while I slit their throats. |
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| Oh, I get it now. Thanks a lossssssssssssssssssssssddddddaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww! |
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| players will sometimes stand around and babble "dude, Nothing like a holy priest of the god of light and religious peace state "F3ar my 1337 Magic skillz0rz" to ruin any MMORPG immersion.... ;) |
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