| Author |
My View of things |
Pope
Fleet Admiral
Joined: June 11, 2002
Posts: 2449
From: World of tomorrow
|  Posted: 2004-05-13 12:55
Ok, i know this will probably not fall on fertile ground, but i just cant keep back anymore. Please do not hate me.
DarkSpace has some serious Design issues. Those are hard to swallow since the Development of the current version took a long long time and was re-designed in the process.
The following is the opinon of an external Developer who has only minor knowledge of the internal workings of the Software, so take it with a grain of salt.
One of the biggest Problems is the "Focus Area". This is the holy grail algorithm of all synchronization in DarkSpace, which is one of the most important parts of the Design and is shockingly poorly done. I will not go into depth about the current implementation, my knowledge is based on observation purley anyhow.
The biggest problem here is that all objects are treated equally: They are in range, you get their data - they are no in range, you dont.
Ship position synchronization, the most imporant aspect, can be done with the 2 simple measures Signature (Scanner effect can probably be highly optimized if neccessary and put out of the main equation, applied on lookup. Target data acquired by Teammates can be merged like it is now - a slight delay here is even plausbile.) and Distance. The latter does not even have to be recalculated very often if it is over a treshold of maybe 30k gu.
Those 2 values and the list of Ships are readily available on the Server. It can therefore be assumed that it is possible to implement a purely Server-side lookup routine operating on a global table very performant, determining wether a Ship is visible to any other Detector or not.
This would assure a very good first-source Ship contacts synchronization.
All Targets visible to friendly Detectors in a range of under, say, again 30k gu can be directly propagated, providing decent second-source contacts synchronization.
Projectile Information transfer can probably still be determined by a simple Focus Area mechanism. This, tho, should include a mechanism for a secondary Focus that would become activated around the current Target.
Stellar objects (asteroids) and Planetary Structures can be loaded upon entering a Star System/Zone. Those rarely get old, and there really isnt any justification for not keeping the Client in sync at all times, lest for the long loading delay that currently takes place. There is no need for 100% synchronization with all of those at all times, so if neccessary, updates could be scheduled and not done real-time.
Ships that are not visible sometimes also need to be synchronized. This can be done if they are below a certain distance treshold to a friendly Detector (say, 2600 gu), the Position Information is then propagated, wheter they are visible Game-wise or not.
Now before i ramble on, what do YOU think?
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Antdizzle
Joined: February 07, 2003
Posts: 860
| Posted: 2004-05-13 18:38
i think you should continue rambling on
(just so you know i ACtually READ that..)
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behold the power of paint
[ This Message was edited by: Sarge on 2004-05-13 18:39 ]
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Sovereign
Fleet Admiral
Joined: September 14, 2003
Posts: 260
| Posted: 2004-05-13 23:57
Ramble on I say!
I want to know what else you have to say....
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RagAnok
Admiral
Joined: February 02, 2004
Posts: 237
| Posted: 2004-05-14 00:08
Hmmm interesting
O keep rambling
p.s still luv this game even with its faults
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Telekinesis, thats what you need, just lay back and let your mind do the walking
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Meko
Grand Admiral
Joined: March 03, 2004
Posts: 1956
From: Vancouver
| Posted: 2004-05-14 00:22
yea keep talkign this makes sense.......
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Koda
Marshal
Fatal Squadron
Joined: August 29, 2002
Posts: 1384
| Posted: 2004-05-14 04:11
Quote:
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On 2004-05-13 12:55, sono wrote:
The following is the opinon of an external Developer
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Sono, did you go out and pay some dude/chick to play DS for a Week? If so what rank lvl did He/She reach? Also what did He/she think of the level of play achived here in Darkspace?
You make such an interesting post and then leave us all hanging with so many more unanswered questions.
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