Limitations of Engine (network / multiple maps)?

#1 :) Lets see if my newbness is still present or if Iam inching my way toward novice.

@Network issue. Well Scott well Torque out of the box is capable of 128 clients connections. The limit is pretty much limited to the programmer. But there are many factors that contribute to how many is too much. The main thing is what are you willing to trade off in processing. A server-side solution only or a client-side solution that works with the server. AI-Players, projectiles, objects on the screen, details in the terrain. LOD configurations of models. All contribute to the network running smoothly or bogging to a halt.

As far as huge worlds go there features in torque now to help visualize larger worlds. You could scale players smaller. There is terrain class called terrainmanager that lets you stitch terrain blocks together to make a larger world. There a functions call tiggers in torque that allow you to zip players to other areas in a mission or load another mission. there is one that evens lets you zip the player to another server. The biggest plus is a project called GORPE which is utlizing all these to form a technology framework for all of us obessed Mini-MMORPG makers to bring our private huge fantasy worlds to life using Torque and assorted technologies.

Now Iam not a programmer but Iam learning. But everything I told you I found out by searching the forums, asking questions and losing nights of sleep. So youre on the right track Torque is great but like any tool its only as good as the creator(s)

:)

#2 Scott - you actually get a performance gain from having all the maps on the same process in that instance, instead of zoning. The issue is, as Johnny pointed out, processing power, not any hard-coded limits.

Torque isn't advertised as supporting more than 128 players/server because on almost any hardware configuration, the hardware would choke. In ten years, we'll up it to 2048 players/server ;)

#3 Ben,

If torque was tested on machines and determined to support 128 users, wasnt that done in the past? Like 6 months, 1 year, 2 years ago?

I built a 2.0 ghz machine like 1 year ago, and if I built the same machine today it would be 3ghz... So wouldnt it make sense that I would be able to support 1ghz (give/take) worth more of users on a server (whatever that number is)?

#4 I think the limit is also related to network bandwidth (correct me if I'm wrong). I know lag is an issue during packed games. Surprisingly enough though a loaded game in Torque is still less laggy than your average Counter Strike game. :)

#5 Scott,

Yes and no. Like Bob said, it's also a matter of network bandwidth... and there are a lot of O(n^2) things that happen in Torque (or any other game engine), so a 128 player server is a _lot_ more intensive to run than a 32 player server. So adding a GHz of CPU might help things run a bit faster, but not dramatically... RAM is also a factor. It flat out takes a big box to handle 128 players in real time.

If you're just talking about doing bare connections, a Torque server could probably handle hundreds of thousands of users, especially if you make the net code adaptive and trim down the NetConnection/GameConnection classes.

It's all a matter of your game's specifics.