SuperClient Overview - Revision history

Magodra at 11:05, 23 December 2011

2011-12-23T11:05:46Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 11:05, 23 December 2011
Line 42:		Line 42:


	[[Category:Engine documents]]		[[Category:Engine documents]] [[Category:NPCClient Design]]

Talad: Reverted edits by Luca (Talk) to last revision by Ethryn

2010-12-10T23:25:55Z

Reverted edits by Luca (Talk) to last revision by Ethryn

← Older revision		Revision as of 23:25, 10 December 2010
Line 1:		Line 1:
	~~spam~~		PlaneShift will one day support many thousands of players and many thousands of npcs running on
			the same instance, in the same “world”. However, to do this will take a relatively large number of
			game servers talking together and maintaining consistent world state among them. This has a high
			requirement for donations and puts a heavy burden on the developers to maintain and administer
			many boxes.

			Until that long-term vision is achieved, though, it is desirable to run for as long as possible on one
			server, then scale to two nicely and so forth. But the top priority is to get as many people onto one
			server as we possibly can.
			Another high priority is to make sure that the NPC AI system achieves the following goals:
			* Allows for multiple versions of AI to be implemented, or to evolve over time.
			* Has maximum independence from the core game server code. To the game server, a Player Character with a human being at a computer and a Non-Player Character which is automated should be as similar as possible.
			* Takes into account the key objectives for the Game Servers, which are to maximize number of players allowed to play on a single box and to not assume unlimited server power, or even local access to multiple servers. If servers are donated to the team to help the cluster, it is not reasonable to assume they will all be at the same data center, or even in the same country.

			For these reasons, the PS team has developed a ‘superclient’ architecture for NPC management. A
			‘superclient’ is a process which connects to the Game Server using the same basic protocols and
			account structures as a player client. However, the superclient is managing multiple entities in the
			game instead of just the single player entity managed by a normal 3d client. The superclient has a
			special message protocol oriented around controlling multiple things at once which packs messages
			more tightly and makes networking more efficient. On the Game Server, though, there is almost no
			difference between a PC and an NPC outside the NPCManager which handles and unwraps these
			special network messages for the rest of the server.

			The first superclient written is the one in CVS called ‘npcclient’, which the remainder of this
			document will focus on. Its focus is on stupid, but numerous monsters that are efficient on CPU to
			manage so a single instance of npcclient can possibly manage 500-1000 npcs concurrently.

			Another document will be produced to explain the exact network protocol used by psserver and
			npcclient so that new superclients with their own AI and own scripting abilities/languages can be
			implemented. Such is the design of psserver that we can accommodate not only multiple
			superclients attached concurrently, but multiple different AI implementations with different levels
			of sophistication and scalability as long as both comply with the npc network protocol.

			The best example of this is that npcclient is designed to have the bare minimum intelligence for
			attackable monsters, but to be able to support as many as 1000 of them concurrently at any one
			time. This takes a lot of sophiscation on the scripting side, managing 1000 multitasking eventdriven
			scripts for 1000 monsters, but each one cannot be very smart because our CPU budget for
			each monster is 1msec/sec.

			An alternative superclient might be for very smart, very rare dragons and require 100% CPU on a
			separate box just to run the AI for 2 dragons, instead of 1000 orcs.


			[[Category:Engine documents]]

Luca at 21:40, 10 December 2010

2010-12-10T21:40:26Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:40, 10 December 2010
Line 1:		Line 1:
	~~PlaneShift will one day support many thousands of players and many thousands of npcs running on~~		spam
	~~the same instance, in the same “world”. However, to do this will take a relatively large number of~~
	~~game servers talking together and maintaining consistent world state among them. This has a high~~
	~~requirement for donations and puts a heavy burden on the developers to maintain and administer~~
	~~many boxes.~~

	~~Until that long-term vision is achieved, though, it is desirable to run for as long as possible on one~~
	~~server, then scale to two nicely and so forth. But the top priority is to get as many people onto one~~
	~~server as we possibly can.~~
	~~Another high priority is to make sure that the NPC AI system achieves the following goals:~~
	* Allows for multiple versions of AI to be implemented, or to evolve over time.
	* Has maximum independence from the core game server code. To the game server, a Player Character with a human being at a computer and a Non-Player Character which is automated should be as similar as possible.
	* Takes into account the key objectives for the Game Servers, which are to maximize number of players allowed to play on a single box and to not assume unlimited server power, or even local access to multiple servers. If servers are donated to the team to help the cluster, it is not reasonable to assume they will all be at the same data center, or even in the same country.

	~~For these reasons, the PS team has developed a ‘superclient’ architecture for NPC management. A~~
	~~‘superclient’ is a process which connects to the Game Server using the same basic protocols and~~
	~~account structures as a player client. However, the superclient is managing multiple entities in the~~
	~~game instead of just the single player entity managed by a normal 3d client. The superclient has a~~
	~~special message protocol oriented around controlling multiple things at once which packs messages~~
	~~more tightly and makes networking more efficient. On the Game Server, though, there is almost no~~
	~~difference between a PC and an NPC outside the NPCManager which handles and unwraps these~~
	~~special network messages for the rest of the server.~~

	~~The first superclient written is the one in CVS called ‘npcclient’, which the remainder of this~~
	~~document will focus on. Its focus is on stupid, but numerous monsters that are efficient on CPU to~~
	~~manage so a single instance of npcclient can possibly manage 500-1000 npcs concurrently.~~

	~~Another document will be produced to explain the exact network protocol used by psserver and~~
	~~npcclient so that new superclients with their own AI and own scripting abilities/languages can be~~
	~~implemented. Such is the design of psserver that we can accommodate not only multiple~~
	~~superclients attached concurrently, but multiple different AI implementations with different levels~~
	~~of sophistication and scalability as long as both comply with the npc network protocol.~~

	~~The best example of this is that npcclient is designed to have the bare minimum intelligence for~~
	~~attackable monsters, but to be able to support as many as 1000 of them concurrently at any one~~
	~~time. This takes a lot of sophiscation on the scripting side, managing 1000 multitasking eventdriven~~
	~~scripts for 1000 monsters, but each one cannot be very smart because our CPU budget for~~
	~~each monster is 1msec/sec.~~

	~~An alternative superclient might be for very smart, very rare dragons and require 100% CPU on a~~
	~~separate box just to run the AI for 2 dragons, instead of 1000 orcs.~~


	~~[[Category:Engine documents]]~~

Ethryn: add to category (Engine documents)

2010-10-23T00:08:40Z

add to category (Engine documents)

← Older revision		Revision as of 00:08, 23 October 2010
Line 40:		Line 40:
	An alternative superclient might be for very smart, very rare dragons and require 100% CPU on a		An alternative superclient might be for very smart, very rare dragons and require 100% CPU on a
	separate box just to run the AI for 2 dragons, instead of 1000 orcs.		separate box just to run the AI for 2 dragons, instead of 1000 orcs.


			[[Category:Engine documents]]

Talad: Created page with 'PlaneShift will one day support many thousands of players and many thousands of npcs running on the same instance, in the same “world”. However, to do this will take a relati…'

2010-10-12T21:23:06Z

Created page with 'PlaneShift will one day support many thousands of players and many thousands of npcs running on the same instance, in the same “world”. However, to do this will take a relati…'

New page

PlaneShift will one day support many thousands of players and many thousands of npcs running on
the same instance, in the same “world”. However, to do this will take a relatively large number of
game servers talking together and maintaining consistent world state among them. This has a high
requirement for donations and puts a heavy burden on the developers to maintain and administer
many boxes.

Until that long-term vision is achieved, though, it is desirable to run for as long as possible on one
server, then scale to two nicely and so forth. But the top priority is to get as many people onto one
server as we possibly can.
Another high priority is to make sure that the NPC AI system achieves the following goals:
* Allows for multiple versions of AI to be implemented, or to evolve over time.
* Has maximum independence from the core game server code. To the game server, a Player Character with a human being at a computer and a Non-Player Character which is automated should be as similar as possible.
* Takes into account the key objectives for the Game Servers, which are to maximize number of players allowed to play on a single box and to not assume unlimited server power, or even local access to multiple servers. If servers are donated to the team to help the cluster, it is not reasonable to assume they will all be at the same data center, or even in the same country.

For these reasons, the PS team has developed a ‘superclient’ architecture for NPC management. A
‘superclient’ is a process which connects to the Game Server using the same basic protocols and
account structures as a player client. However, the superclient is managing multiple entities in the
game instead of just the single player entity managed by a normal 3d client. The superclient has a
special message protocol oriented around controlling multiple things at once which packs messages
more tightly and makes networking more efficient. On the Game Server, though, there is almost no
difference between a PC and an NPC outside the NPCManager which handles and unwraps these
special network messages for the rest of the server.

The first superclient written is the one in CVS called ‘npcclient’, which the remainder of this
document will focus on. Its focus is on stupid, but numerous monsters that are efficient on CPU to
manage so a single instance of npcclient can possibly manage 500-1000 npcs concurrently.

Another document will be produced to explain the exact network protocol used by psserver and
npcclient so that new superclients with their own AI and own scripting abilities/languages can be
implemented. Such is the design of psserver that we can accommodate not only multiple
superclients attached concurrently, but multiple different AI implementations with different levels
of sophistication and scalability as long as both comply with the npc network protocol.

The best example of this is that npcclient is designed to have the bare minimum intelligence for
attackable monsters, but to be able to support as many as 1000 of them concurrently at any one
time. This takes a lot of sophiscation on the scripting side, managing 1000 multitasking eventdriven
scripts for 1000 monsters, but each one cannot be very smart because our CPU budget for
each monster is 1msec/sec.

An alternative superclient might be for very smart, very rare dragons and require 100% CPU on a
separate box just to run the AI for 2 dragons, instead of 1000 orcs.