Getting technical with a Stargate
Stargate Worlds' Technology Director, Demetrius Comes, recently got technobabbley about what goes on behind the curtain of their upcoming sci-fi epic.
SGW uses Epic's Unreal 3 engine under the hood for the graphical shock and awe. Big World technologies powers the servers, but did you know that neither engine is exactly what they needed? As Comes put it, they rolled their own glue to get the two engines to work together. But there's a third component - a powerful content creation tool - they call "SpecSuite." It's used to create spawns, enter the data for the AI, create items, mobs, loot tables, etc.
If you're one of those programmer/coders types, this will really get your blood bumping. Even if you're not, this should be required reading for all MMO players who think they know it all, and for those who gripe about the simplest things.
For example, do you really know what goes into creating the "simplest" thing... say a "/dance" emote? An engineer needs to write code that interprets the command. A programmer must create a message on the client destined for the server to inform the server that you wish to dance. That message must be encrypted and sent. The destination server must decrypt that message, process it, then let everyone in the immediate vicinity know that you want to dance. Each client receiving that "/dance" message needs to load the appropriate animations, sounds and particle effects... then play them. Take that concept and extrapolate it to missions, PvP or mini-games.
Not as "simple" as you thought, now is it?
[Via Ten Ton Hammer]
