[MUD-Dev] Re: Alternate UOL's

[Damion Schubert]

-----Original Message-----
From: Koster, Raph <rkoster at origin.ea.com>
>In Meridian 59 I regularly saw 8-10 people on screen at one time in
>social gatherings... In UO we regularly see 30-40, with peaks at over
>100. In text muds I also see regularly 8-10 with peaks of 30-40 in a
>single room... you're going to need to handle more. :( Some sort of LOD
>(level of detail based on total poly count) or something like what
>Shiny's Messiah engine is doing is really a must, but that adds
>significantly to your development time.


In Meridian, seeing 30-40 players on screen at a time for special events
is fairly frequent.  The frame rate does slow, but the real choke at this
level is bandwidth and the z squared problem.  Meridian uses bitmaps
(not 3d models) for their avatars, despite the 1st person viewpoint.

Implementing LOD is actually relatively trivial, for someone who knows 3D.
The real problems are avatar customization (namely clothes and armor)
and keeping the poly count reasonably in a world where players can 
create hundreds of long swords, houses, boats, whatever.  

>> Not that a 3D system will be easy, but it's a better alternative than
>> trying to put together a 2D system and rely on a steady art income.
>
>Tiles are easy, really (comparatively speaking); your figures to run
>around on them are the hard part. ;) Buildings fall somewhere in
>between.


What he said.  In general, it's crucial that you do your homework, and
devise a system that allows you to reuse as much work from place to 
place as possible.  UOs tiles made for much better, easier and more
professional looking worlds than Meridian's Doom WAD style engine,
plus they actually were able to make a world that was 10 times bigger.

--damion