Week 9 summaries
The Effect of Latency and Network Limitations on
MMORPGs
Networked games have been around for quite some time now. One major evolution in networked gaming is their expansion from local LAN networks to global online gaming networks. And an important problem that comes along with this scaling is network latency. In a networked environment which connects 100’s of client across the globe and requires considerable amount of real time rendering across these clients, a minor latency can quickly build up into noticeable lag.
The paper discusses about an existing Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) named Everquest2 and its latency problems and further point out possible designs for MMORPGs in mobile content. One design for such a huge network is having a multi-server architecture. The advantage of this architecture is that load of managing and rendering is shared among servers where each server manages a part of the network which is separate but synchronized to provide a seamless experience. There are also some problems such as increased complexity as well as “trick” factors where players take advantage of the limitations.
The paper further discusses about tests run on Everquest2 . The experiment included noting some parameters of good players, setting up test bed, having tests and hypothesis for movement, combat, group combat and environment. Analysis of these parameters was done and mapped onto graphs. The analysis essentially showed that the game performed smoothly even with high latency. For local rendering the dumb client model was considered more advantageous.
In case of single server or distributed server architectures a need for monitoring illegal client movements was noticed. One important aspect of small packet size was considered advantageous for implementing over mobile environment. Further research had a focus on creating a middleware platform so that game designers need not worry about network implementations.
Alice: Lessons Learned from Building a 3D System
for Novices
The paper discusses about the observations and subsequent improvements made over a time-based interactive tool called Alice. This 3D tool was made keeping in mind the non-mathematical background of graphics programmers. For the programming part, they included keyframing, programming by definition, scripting to be used instead of ‘if-else’ type constructs.
The workflow of the authoring tool consisted of two parts, creating an opening scene and scripting. The users start with placing objects in a scene and then runs scripts to control the objects. For creation of Alice tool they used python, C/C++ libraries, visual basic and Microsoft’s direct 3D. After implementation user tests were conducted which revealed interesting results that were subsequently corrected. First was the realization that user’s had difficulty understanding XYZ translation but knew direction names. Use of First-class object to differentiate between parts of an object and other objects resting on the first. Allowing to manipulate an object through another object’s co-ordinate system. Going beyond translation, rotation and scale to allow panning, placing, nudge, etc. Changing vocabulary for those who do not understand technical definitions. Changing the terms for representing rotations. These seemingly minor changes had large effect on improving user understanding of the Alice’s interface.
For future work the authors mentioned the need to decompose complex animations, easier way to write a sequence of code and finding the right mix of programming style and expressive way of problem solving.
DART: A Toolkit for Rapid Design Exploration of Augmented Reality Experiences
The paper discusses about a AR tool for developers called DART. Generally development tools are made by computer scientists for programmers. This poses a problem for designers who do not have knowledge of programming. DART aims to solve this problem. The authors also discuss about challenges in AR such as design and programming, enabling technology and the implications of working in the physical world. To tackle these problems, DART team worked closely with designers to create a product that fit the designers’ needs. DART is built on top of Macromedia Director, a commercial full-featured content authoring tool. DART provides many tools for rapid prototyping using sketched 2D content while skilled artists develop equivalent 3D content at the same time. The idea is to provide a familiar environment for designers to work upon. The authors believed that the difficulty of design exploration, not final content creation, is what has limited AR experience prototyping, it is this hole that DART has been designed to fill.
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