April 1999
- In-Game Languages Eli Stevens {KiZurich}
- In-Game Languages Per Vognsen
- In-Game Languages Chris Gray
- In-Game Languages Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- In-Game Languages Eli Stevens {KiZurich}
- In-Game Languages Matthew D. Fuller
- In-Game Languages Mik Clarke
- In-Game Languages Michael Hohensee
- In-Game Languages Ben Greear
- In-Game Languages Michael Hohensee
- In-Game Languages Mik Clarke
- In-Game Languages Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- In-Game Languages David Bennett
- In-Game Languages Richard Woolcock
- In-Game Languages Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- In-Game Languages Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- In-Game Languages Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- In-Game Languages Andrew Ritchie
- In-Game Languages Matthew D. Fuller
- In-Game Languages adam@treyarch.com
- forward: consistency Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Confined Gameworld Ling
- Confined Gameworld Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Confined Gameworld Richard Woolcock
- Confined Gameworld Eli Stevens {KiZurich}
- Confined Gameworld The Wildman
- Confined Gameworld Koster, Raph
- User centered? Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- User centered? Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- User centered? Marc Bowden
- User centered? Adam Wiggins
- User centered? Richard Woolcock
- User centered? Benjamin D. Wiechel
- User centered? Koster, Raph
- target audience Matthew Mihaly
- target audience Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- target audience Marc Bowden
- Fw: Self-organizing worlds (was: Elder Games) Kylotan
- Fw: Self-organizing worlds (was: Elder Games) Matthew Mihaly
- ScryMUD 1.8.11 released. Ben Greear
- Mud driver architecture info B. Scott Boding
- Blending graphics with text u1391470
- Blending graphics with text Laurel Fan
- Blending graphics with text Kylotan
- Blending graphics with text Chris Gray
- Blending graphics with text J C Lawrence
- Blending graphics with text Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Blending graphics with text Chris Gray
- Blending graphics with text Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Blending graphics with text Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- Blending graphics with text Mik Clarke
- Blending graphics with text u1391470
- Blending graphics with text claw@kanga.nu
- Blending graphics with text Alex Stewart
- Blending graphics with text J C Lawrence
- Virtual machine design Shane King
- Virtual machine design Alex Stewart
- Virtual machine design Jo Dillon
- Virtual machine design Ben Greear
- Virtual machine design Niklas Elmqvist
- Virtual machine design Shane King
- Virtual machine design Ben Greear
- Virtual machine design claw@kanga.nu
- Virtual machine design Alex Stewart
- Virtual machine design Felix A. Croes
- Virtual machine design Eli Stevens {KiZurich}
- Virtual machine design Mik Clarke
- Virtual machine design Schubert, Damion
- Virtual machine design Ben Greear
- Virtual machine design Ben Greear
- Virtual machine design Felix A. Croes
- Virtual machine design Matthew Mihaly
- Virtual machine design Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- Virtual machine design claw@kanga.nu
- Virtual machine design Mik Clarke
- Virtual machine design Oliver Jowett
- Virtual machine design Chris Gray
- Virtual machine design claw@kanga.nu
- Virtual machine design Chris Gray
- Virtual machine design Ola Fosheim Grøstad
Chris Gray wrote:
> I think the rule from other areas of programming applies to MUDs as well:
> something like "as soon as you give them a significant boost in speed or
> power, they are already thinking of things that will require 10 times as
> much".
Well, I think the problem is that the more power you get, the more flexible
or bloated or badly designed code will be written. When programmers wrote
in assembly code in very limited space, skipping the design faze was not an
option...
Another problem is that MUD programmers don't know how to effectively write
simulation code in all the different areas that applies to such a diverse
field. They will be, and should be, happy if they get something running at
all! To contrast this; in the "well-developed" field of raytracing you now
talk about rendering a scene in seconds while the same scene would take
hours some years ago. 10 times faster or 100 times faster hardware is of
little use if your problem is O(n^2) or if you don't understand the
bottlenecks of your hardware (or are unwilling to optimize for it).
Compilers can't optimize your algorithms...
> This list has talked about simulating economies, and how you
> have to approximate them because you can't truly simulate them. Give us
> 100x more speed and maybe a reasonable economy or ecology *can* be
> simulated.
I don't agree here either. I don't think the problem is in accurately
simulating economies or ecologies (unless you talk about meta-evolution).
The trouble is that it isn't fun nor fair from a gamer's point of view. In a
real ecology then it is completely sound for the playerkillers to
successfully destroy all other players. Robust evolution is however very
slow, especially when it comes to players which are obviously out of reach
for speedups :-). In a real economy it is completely sound for some players
to accumulate wealth while others are enslaved and starving to death.
Actually, it is bound to happen without a government changing the rules to
balance off the negative sideeffects. My points is: dysfunctional economies
and ecologies are realistic! Basically, emergent behavior is hopeless as
the basic designparadigm unless you accept to govern it manually. What you
want for a hands-off MUD is a goal-oriented constraints based approach.
(that is, you need to automate or internalize the government in your design)
> I'm hoping that my server, on this box, will be able to
> run about 2000 machines (mobiles/robots) when I'm done with it. Is that
> enough? Never!
200 MIPS/2000 = 10000 instructions per second per mobile. That's a lot! Are
you slowing down the refreshrate for mobiles which players does not interact
with? Have you considered updating mobiles of the same class in batches for
optimal speed? Have you considered using bit-wise calculations? etc..
Another point is, I believe most MUDs do very straightforward iterative
simulations, while they could use statistical models and filling in the
details retrospectively. For instance, in a fight, you could statistically
determine the outcome in advance and then use some rewrite rules for
creating the description of the fight. Or you could use tables and some very
fast statistical methods.
Basically, there is a lot you can do to optimize your system, if you just
know where to look and have insight into several scientific/programming
fields from which you can collect ideas. Knowledge transfer is perhaps the
most effective form of invention?
--
Ola Fosheim Groestad,Norway http://www.stud.ifi.uio.no/~olag/
- Virtual machine design Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Virtual machine design claw@kanga.nu
- Virtual machine design Petri Virkkula
- Virtual machine design Ben Greear
- Virtual machine design Chris Gray
- Virtual machine design Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Virtual machine design Nathan F Yospe
- Virtual machine design Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Virtual machine design Petri Virkkula
- Virtual machine design Jon A. Lambert
- Virtual machine design Koster, Raph
- Virtual machine design Jon A. Lambert
- Virtual machine design Chris Gray
- Rebooting (was: Virtual machine design) Eli Stevens {KiZurich}
- Game design highpoints (was Virtual machine design) claw@kanga.nu
- Sockets Quzah [softhome]
- ScryMUD 1.8.13 snapshot released. Ben Greear
- Interview I did that may interest you Koster, Raph
- Censorship Greg Munt
- Censorship Ben Greear
- Censorship Matthew Mihaly
- Censorship Shawn Halpenny
- Censorship Darren Henderson
- Censorship Quzah [softhome]
- Censorship Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- Python B. Scott Boding
- Python Gaffney, Jeremy
- AW: Censorship Hofbauer Heinz
- AW: Censorship Matthew Mihaly
- AW: Censorship Damion Schubert
- Censorship, Virtual v Artificial Worlds, Python Greg Munt
- Censorship, Virtual v Artificial Worlds, Python Matthew Mihaly
- Censorship, Virtual v Artificial Worlds, Python Ben Greear
- Censorship, Virtual v Artificial Worlds, Python Matthew Mihaly
- Censorship, Virtual v Artificial Worlds, Python Matthew Mihaly
- Censorship, Virtual v Artificial Worlds, Python Ben Greear
- Censorship, Virtual v Artificial Worlds, Python Dan
- Censorship, Virtual v Artificial Worlds, Python Matthew Mihaly
- Censorship, Virtual v Artificial Worlds, Python Marian Griffith
- Censorship, Virtual v Artificial Worlds, Python Benjamin D. Wiechel
- Censorship & Its Impact On World Immersion Greg Munt
- Censorship & Its Impact On World Immersion Matthew Mihaly