Re: Status of xfire. Client/server 3d.

[Tyler Van Gorder <tvangod@ecst.csuchico.edu>]

> 
> Karim did suggest:
> >                                         I was also thinking
> >of redoing the interface, make it 3D.  Much like Ulitma Underworld
> >or Doom.
> There are two major pitfalls with this idea.
> 1) 3D would be _much_ slower than the present (just think how much
>    more you have to do to calculate line-of-sight in 3D!!)
This all depends on the engine you use to do the 3d. If doom can run 
quickly on a 486-33...then it should be possible to have an engine that 
is not quite as sophisticated running on a workstation. The biggest slow
down is that we need to use X windows...I think in a true client/server model
to move to 3d would increase the cpu use on the client side...but network 
traffic would really not be that much greater then it is now.
 
> 2) games like Doom get banned for their _IMMENSE_ network loading!!!
>    (crossfire almost suffered the same fate, but for the factthat not
>    many people actually play it here, and I managed to get root to
>    agree to out of hours playing only!)
This was when Doom first can out and that it was using broadcast packets which
thrashed the network it was running on. Since then they have switched to a
peer to peer networking system which doesn't even come close to overloading the
network.    


> 
> However, the client/server would be an enhancement to the n-th degree,
> but would also mean that it would be even longer until the game was
> stable!!!

oh so true. 


> 
> Ben.
> +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
> | _|--|_   o   | Disclaimer: I've got a baby, and I don't know what to do! |
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> |   vv    / \  |    But then, does anyone? ;-)   |     btk@aber.ac.uk      |
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> 
Tyler.