Maximum amount of players on an FPS server?
by Mark Rose · in Torque Game Engine · 03/22/2007 (2:22 am) · 4 replies
Hi guys, just wondered about the following before we make a purchase of TGEA.
1. What's the maximum amount of players TGEA can handle in a multiplayer server? I've heard it has a cap at 128, which I assume can be upped in the source code?
2. I realise it largely depends on what kind of server, what machines your clients are running etc, but in theory, can I have a couple of hundred people running around and shooting each other? Did anyone ever play big Tribes2 games and were they smooth or laggy? Is anyone else working on a similar project with huge numbers of players and are they having lots of trouble or finding it really easy?
3. How "easy" is it to modify the network code? Or rip out the Torque network stuff and add your own? I say "easy" in quotes because it obviously depends on the skills of the coder ;) What I'm really after is, is it possible, and how intertwined is the network code with the game object and physics stuff?
4. Can I change the physics code to something like ODE or Newton with relative ease? Has anyone tried this?
It's for a real time MMO, so we really need to have as little lag on the clients as possible, just as you'd expect to have in a smaller 32 player FPS.
If anyone can help with these questions that would be most appreciated :)
1. What's the maximum amount of players TGEA can handle in a multiplayer server? I've heard it has a cap at 128, which I assume can be upped in the source code?
2. I realise it largely depends on what kind of server, what machines your clients are running etc, but in theory, can I have a couple of hundred people running around and shooting each other? Did anyone ever play big Tribes2 games and were they smooth or laggy? Is anyone else working on a similar project with huge numbers of players and are they having lots of trouble or finding it really easy?
3. How "easy" is it to modify the network code? Or rip out the Torque network stuff and add your own? I say "easy" in quotes because it obviously depends on the skills of the coder ;) What I'm really after is, is it possible, and how intertwined is the network code with the game object and physics stuff?
4. Can I change the physics code to something like ODE or Newton with relative ease? Has anyone tried this?
It's for a real time MMO, so we really need to have as little lag on the clients as possible, just as you'd expect to have in a smaller 32 player FPS.
If anyone can help with these questions that would be most appreciated :)
#2
03/22/2007 (10:11 am)
I've played on 128 player Tribes 2 servers. 
#3
03/22/2007 (10:52 am)
As i write, there are 106 users online in a single TGE-based server in the lounge. that number will be around 200 later in the day. we have definitely modded the TGE networking, but not as much as you might think. we're definitely not an FPS so lag isn't as critical, but try logging in and see what you think. 
Torque Owner Ishbuu
The highest I've ever seen a game at is 64 in Tribes2. I don't know what kind of connection the server had, but it was as smooth as any other smaller server, the ping was around 40ms, which was the usual for servers I played on.
I doubt there's some place in the engine where the maximum number of clients is simple to change, I'm betting its not as simple as just switching some value.
A couple hundred is simply too many for a feasible implementation from a design perspective, the MMOFPS Huxley is going to support something like 200 players at max on a battlefield iirc, and I could be wrong. Torque's netcode isn't designed to push that kind of data at any time. You'll need to make some nice modifications to get it working. The netcode is as easy as anything else in the engine, learn your way around and its second nature, first glance it'll be a fekin nightmare.
EDIT: Might as well fix up anything implied by the above, as its both true and untrue. You can't run that many clients at the level of bandwidth that is required for an FPS. Having upwards of 200 with the bandwidth an FPS requires is simply suicide. RPGs, RTSs, and the like don't use as much bandwidth, and you can have many more working in the same small area than with an FPS, simply because they're not as action oriented. Torque's netcode is powerful and CAN support that many players, you'd need to be very smart to get it to work with that many players in an fps type environment.
There IS no physics code. There are many threads on physics being rolled into Torque. Thats a discussion for another thread, and its been brought up many times.
Cheers