[MUD-Dev] Commercial value of RP

[Koster]

On Thursday, January 08, 1998 5:17 PM, Vadim 
Tkachenko[SMTP:vadimt at 4cs.com] wrote:

> Speaking about UO, do they have any plans to support Java client 
end?
>
> See, I loved Ultima Underworld (both I and II) a while ago, and now 
I'm
> unfortunately (for UO, I'm happy :-) working under UNIX 
(Linux/Solaris),
> and as far as I remember they provide only Win95 front-end...

Hmm, how to keep this on topic? ;)

Java is too slow to handle what we do in a graphical sense. We draw a 
640x480 screen in 15 bit color with one bit for an alpha channel for 
translucency effects. The terrain is bitmap tiles unless it is 
sloping, in which case we texture map and Gouraud shade it and the 
adjacent flat tiles as well (the latter in order to provide smooth 
shading). On top of that, most machines under Win95 have problems with 
display speed once a lot of players get on screen, because our 
characters are built out of displaying the naked body plus every 
equipped item, in overlay ("paper doll" style) permitting visual cues 
of equipment, plus differentiation of characters. The animations will 
slow down display even further. We do onl partial screen refreshes, of 
course, but the larger the area of the screen, the slower it gets. 
Java adds a pile more overhead.

It will be interesting to see how Java evolves, but it's not quite 
ready for massmarket use in games proper (though there has been some 
great success at using it for a client for chat areas, game selection, 
etc).

More business realities: there's a Linux version. It's only available 
in-house. It's faster than the Win95 version too. :P There's also a 
Mac version that was never finished, despite being close. Why were 
they not completed? There's a question as to whether we could make 
back the cost of the box and CD with a Mac version--and I would LOVE 
to see it done, because I like Macs and own one. And the Linux version 
raises issues of tech support and distribution that a large 
corporation doesn't want to deal with. *sigh*

-Raph