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EVE Evolved: Time dilation and the war on lag
When EVE Online launched back in 2003, it quickly gained a following of over 40,000 subscribing players. With around 5,000 solar systems for players to explore, those players spread themselves throughout the galaxy rather than gathering in one place. Players would often come together to trade or make war, but the server generally kept up with the action. As the number of subscribers rose, the size of the average PvP fleet increased and CCP upgraded the EVE server to handle the additional load. 2005 saw EVE's subscriber numbers explode from just over 50,000 to around 100,000 players. Server upgrades suddenly didn't cut it any more, and lag began to set in during large fleet battles. Ever since then, CCP has waged a largely unseen war against the impossibility of keeping all of EVE's players in one single-shard universe. Holding on to that core ideal that's made EVE the successful sandbox game it is today, developers have pursued every avenue in the fight against lag. While funding research into Python's Stackless IO and constantly optimising code, CCP built the biggest supercomputer in the games industry to house New Eden's growing population. With over 400,000 players now inhabiting the same world and a typically weekly peak concurrency of over 50,000 characters, CCP has been forced to develop some big guns in the war on lag. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at some of the biggest developments CCP has made in the war on lag, including the new Time Dilation feature that literally slows down time to let the server catch its breath.
VMware View brings virtual desktops to iPad with touchscreen-friendly controls (video)
Remote controlling your personal desktop from an iPad is one thing, but today VMware is offering something a little heftier -- a streamlined app to connect to enterprise-class virtual desktops. Like Citrix Receiver, the idea is that you'll get the iPad client for free, and hopefully pay to have the cloud computers served up, but instead of streamlining applications for tablet use, VMware's app hands you customizable PC-like controls. There's a handy-looking virtual touchpad you can use for fine control over the mouse cursor if your fingers prove too pointy, a set of Windows shortcut keys at the top of the virtual keyboard, multi-finger gestures and more -- but why not just watch the video after the break to see what's in store?
Massively's EVE Online Incursion video devblog roundup
Having progressed from being a small independent studio in Iceland to a successful multinational industry leader, EVE Online's developer CCP Games has always had a reputation for being very close to the game's playerbase. Back in July, this view was soured when information from devblogs and the June CSM summit seemed to suggest that EVE would receive no bug-fixes or iterations on old gameplay features for at least 18 months. Players were in an uproar, and a growing perception began to spread that CCP was selling current EVE players short in order to focus on Incarna. In the past six months, things at CCP have take a complete 180-degree turn. Planetary Interaction has received the iteration players were promised, with gameplay tweaks and user interface fixes being deployed at a rapid pace. CCP also instituted team GridLock, whose purpose was to wage an all-out war on lag and fleet issues. In a refreshing and extremely welcome turn of affairs, CCP has been making a gargantuan effort lately to communicate with the players about upcoming changes and collect feedback. Though regular technical devblogs and pre-released test-server patches, players have been kept more informed than ever about what's going on behind the scenes at CCP HQ. Most recently, a series of 18 developer videos was released leading up to the Incursion expansion's final release today. Topics covered include battle reports from the ongoing war on lag, information on server optimisations that have been made recently, updates to planetary interaction, and other interesting topics. Skip past the cut for a detailed roundup of all 18 videos, all hosted on CCP's official YouTube page.
EVE devblogs discuss developments in the war on lag and RMT
With the Incursion expansion's second phase almost ready to deploy, it's been a busy few weeks for the developers at CCP Games. Work is well underway, but a few of the folks at CCP have taken time out of their busy schedules this week to explain some of the interesting developments that have recently gone on behind the scenes. GM Grimmi, well-known for his work battling EVE's RMT (Real Money Trading) problem, delivered an update on the problem and what CCP is doing to tackle it. Similarly, aptly named developer CCP Masterplan wrote two in-depth devblogs detailing the latest developments in the war on lag. Lag has always been an issue in EVE Online's territorial warfare, as each side in a fight will try to bring as many ships as possible to major battles. The point at which the EVE server lags and server nodes begin to drop has been increased over the years through hardware upgrades and software performance optimisations, allowing much larger fights than were previously possible. With the playerbase growing every year, however, the number of players who can potentially meet in one place for a major battle has similarly risen and the issue of lag has persisted. Skip past the cut for a roundup of three new devblogs detailing CCP's progress in the war on lag, recently deployed optimisations for fleet battles, and the progress made in the fight against RMT and botting.
MSI WindBox III gets a bit more oomph, still lives on your LCD
If your current WindBox is growing a bit long in the tooth, MSI has a newcomer with somewhat more respectable internals. Since it's a fanless machine designed to live on the rear of your LCD, you won't be ordering one with a Core i7, but the included Core 2 Duo chip is certainly a step above what's been offered in the past. It's designed primarily to be used as an ultra-low power solution for folks needing to handle the simplest of simple tasks, though the integrated graphics are purportedly capable of HD playback (on a good day). It's packing DVI, VGA and HDMI outputs, six USB 2.0 sockets, a pair of mini-PCIe slots, inbuilt 802.11b/g/n WiFi and a Bluetooth module, but your guess is as good as ours when it comes to price or availability.
EVE Evolved: The war on lag
It seems as though everywhere I go to read about EVE Online, someone is complaining about lag. Throughout the game's seven-year history, developers and server engineers have waged a constant battle against the lag monster. Frequent upgrades and code overhauls have ensured that the capacity of each server cluster increased at pace with the growing subscriber numbers. When the Dominion expansion came, something in it caused lag to get a lot worse. The issue has yet to be corrected and has even spurred some players to put media pressure on CCP to correct the issue. Until recently, the developers at CCP had been very quiet on the topic of lag and their efforts to combat it. Aside from the occasional fleet-fight mass testing event on the test server and the news that there was actually an entire team dedicated to lag, players were left largely in the dark as to what was being done to address the issue. In the absence of strong evidence to the contrary, many players began to assert that EVE's developers weren't working on lag at all. Earlier this week, we posted that CCP was planning a series of devblogs on lag to showcase the progress it's made. In a surprisingly rapid turn-around, four devblogs on lag and another on CCP's core technology groups have already been posted. They cover such topics as server scalability, the results of recent mass testing events, and CCP's new "thin client" testing tool. In this week's EVE Evolved, I introduce each of CCP's four recent devblogs on lag with a quick summary.
Linden Lab guns for service-based Second Life viewers
Service-based viewers for Second Life are a little different to the standard kind of viewer software that users might be used to. Standard viewers are downloaded to your PC, run on them and talk directly to the servers. Service-based viewers (also sometimes referred to as 'cloud-based') are either running on a remote server through a web interface, or running on a cloud (or other remote system) and sending data and graphics to a thin client that you run locally. The ill-fated Vollee client was one such example, and Comverse is another. Most Some of the (relatively few) extant viewers for mobile devices (iPhones, iPads, et al), and web-based Second Life viewers like AJAX Life are service-based viewers (as are a number in development), and Linden Lab seems bent on closing them down.
Google adding 'Chromoting' remote desktop functionality to Chome OS?
Well, this one's come a bit out of left field, but it looks like Chrome OS could be set to get a pretty big new addition: a remote desktop feature dubbed "Chromoting" (at least for now). That word comes courtesy of an apparently authentic message from Google software engineer Gary Kačmarčík posted on a Chrome OS mailing list, which goes on to explain that the feature would let you run "legacy PC applications" right in the browser, and that it would be "something like" Microsoft's Remote Desktop Connection. No more details than that, unfortunately, nor is there any indication that the feature will actually be included in the initial release of Chrome OS that's launching this fall, with Kačmarčík only going so far as to say that Google is "adding new capabilities all the time."
Dell slips out OptiPlex 980 desktop, FX100 Zero Client
Dell may be branching out with exciting new products like the Mini 5, but it still has to keep its base of business users well stocked with nondescript desktops, and it now has a new pair for them in the form of the OptiPlex 980 and FX100 Zero Client. The latter of those is a barebones remote desktop that was previously only offered when bought with Dell's Precision R5400 rack workstation, but it's now available on its own and boasts some added support for VMware View 4.0 with PCoIP for a bit more flexibility. The OptiPlex 980, on the other hand, is a traditional desktop, and is available with Core i5 or i7 processors, optional SSD drives, an optional Dell EcoKit that promises to cut noise by 50%, and your choice of three different chassis options (minitower, desktop or small form factor). Look for it to be available in the "coming weeks," with prices starting at $807.
Fujitsu's sleek FUTRO S100 gets VIA Eden implant
By and large, thin clients are relatively boring. That said, they're typically dead silent and plenty powerful to handle the most basic of tasks, and thanks to Fujitsu, this one's even halfway easy on the eyes. The new FUTRO S100 was revealed today, complete with a 500MHz VIA Eden ULV processor that enables the entire system to suck down just 11 watts under full load. Other specs include 1GB of DDR2 memory, a pair of USB 2.0 connectors, VGA output, Ethernet, a VX800 media processor, Chrome9 HC3 graphics and internal CF-based storage support. There's nary a mention of price, but it's ready to ship today for those with the correct change.[Via HotHardware]
Kinpo shows off 7-inch Android thin client tablet
First was the G1, and next came a slew of other cellphones. Now, we've got Android sashaying on over to netbooks, and just in case you're not really looking for that, there's Kinpo's 7-inch tablet. As the Google-sourced OS continues to show its versatility, the aforementioned company has thrown it onto a so-called thin client with a Freescale i.MX51 processor and WVGA display. From the video posted after the break, we'd say the system makes a good fit on this form factor, but feel free to hop on down and judge for yourself.
TechNovus intros Atom-powered Nova Navigator cloud computer
Cloud computing concepts for netbook / nettop-sized machines aren't all new, but TechNovus is looking to jump in head first with its Nova Navigator. The tiny machine gets powered by a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU and possesses no hard drive within; instead, it utilizes a 512Kbps or higher internet connection to access 50GB of online applications / storage. The unit runs Windows (Server) and SUSE Linux side-by-side, and aside from a few core apps (Firefox, Skype and a media player), everything else is ran from the cloud. As it stands, the box is scheduled to launch next month in India for around $199 plus a $15 to $20 monthly subscription, though there's no word as to when it'll be launched in other nations.
Abaco announces the production of Europe's 'first' Atom dual-core desktop
Italian Engadget readers, take note: Abaco Computers of Milan just announced the production of Europe's 'first' Intel Atom dual-core PC. Measuring up to a mere 27 x 20 x 10 cm (just under 11 x 8 x 4 inches) in the classic and classy "box" configuration, what appears to be a Betamax VCR at first glance is actually a reasonably stacked PC. The machine boasts a 1.6 GHz Atom CPU and up to 2GB RAM; oddly, the site says it sports a "generous" six USB ports, while the pictures clearly show only four and a single firewire jack (which they failed to mention altogether). The Abaco comes loaded with Ubuntu 8.04. Available in Desktop, Thin Client and Solid State flavors, according to your needs. Price varies by configuration, and needless to say, this isn't available Stateside.Update: According to an email from Abaco, we weren't seeing things when we noted a firewire port in those pictures on the site: they were promo shots from a different unit, albeit one with the same case.
NEC intros diminutive US110 thin-client PC
Unfortunately, the wee US110 isn't a full-fledged PC, but it should perform quite nicely as a thin-client machine. Measuring in at just 5.9- x 3.7- x 1.2-inches and weighing 0.77-pounds, this device features a fanless design, 128MB of RAM, 128MB of NAND flash memory, five USB 2.0 ports, a VGA connector, resolution support up to 1,600 x 1,200, gigabit Ethernet, audio in / out and support for RDP5.5 / ICA10.0. Those interested can pick one up at the month's end for around ¥49,000 ($417).[Via AkihabaraNews]
Macedonia to give every student a PC
While the OLPC continues its slow rollout and finds its price slowly climbing, it looks like other companies are aggressively going after NickNeg's target markets -- Macedonia just announced a deal with NComputing to provide every student with a thin client "classroom computing device" that will link up to an account on a Linux server PC. The deal calls for NComputing to deliver 180,000 of the devices at a price that's only quoted as "less than half the cost of any other proposed solution," -- a number we're guessing is in that all-important $100 range. Macedonia's schools were also impressed with the device's ability to be remotely updated and maintained, a feature that significantly cuts support costs. No word on when Macedonians will see these things pop up in schools, but we'd bet quite a few people in other countries wouldn't mind getting their hands on one either.Update: Okay, that's all for comments. While we're sensitive to the many viewpoints surrounding the formal name of the country, Engadget isn't really the place for that debate. Take it outside, kids.
Devon IT intros SafeBook thin client laptop
King of Prussia, Pennsylvania's own Devon IT looks to be doing its small part to make the town known for something more than the biggest mall on the East Coast, today introducing its latest thin client laptop for those ready to give hard drives the boot. From the looks of it, the new SafeBook retains many of the same specs as its predecessor, including a 12.1-inch display and VIA C7-M processor, with the notable addition of 3G AirCard support this time around, along with 802.11 a/b/g WiFi. Despite those additions, this model actually boasts a lower starting price than before, now coming in at $599, which the company says makes it the "most competitive on the market."
Ndiyo's "Hubster" USB-based thin client
Last we heard from Nidiyo, they were developing a thin client intended for use in developing nations. They're apparently still working on it, but they're also now developing another, even thinner client that goes easy on the ethernet and heavy on the USB. Cleverly dubbed "Hubster", the system's based on a USB-to-VGA adapter (like the USB Nivo seen here) with some added USB ports to connect a keyboard and mouse. Mix in the proper software, including a customized version of Ubuntu Linux, and you've got yourself a full-fledged computer terminal. Being USB-based, Ndiyo says the Hubster could also easily be expanded to support additional devices like a Skype headset, a flash drive or a second monitor. The biggest downside to the system, however, seems to be the 15-foot limit of USB 2.0 connections, which should be fine for something like an Internet cafe but probably not the best option if you're looking to trick out every room in your house with its own thin client.[Thanks, David]
No future for desktop and laptop PCs?
According to Graham Brown-Martin, founder of UK-based Handheld Learning Ltd., the PC as we know it will be extinct by 2010. Its replacement? The portable consumer devices you use today, connected to server farms where all of your personal media can be accessed. At this week's Interactive Entertainment Festival in Edinburgh, Brown-Martin commented, "I've spent quite a lot of time talking to computer manufacturers and they are seeing more value in selling servers that connect to consumer electronic devices such as the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS. They see this as the food chain, rather than lots of desks with computers on them."Oracle's Larry Ellison made a similar prediction a decade go when the Network Computer was thought to be the eventual successor to the PC. The thin client NC had no secondary storage and required constant network access to application and data servers. Brown-Martin believes this concept is the path to true mobility: "Mobility isn't just about little devices – it's about the user being mobile and having all their stuff in one location, on a hard-disk farm."Do you agree? What impact would such a paradigm shift have on the gaming industry, and how comfortable would you feel if all of your game data and personal media were stored remotely?
Jack PC strikes back
It's been a while since we've seen the Jack PC's smarmy mug around these parts, but it looks like that concept render we saw last year is finally coming to fruition. The wall-socket residing unit lost its DVI port, opting for a plain old VGA connection instead, but still runs Windows CE and a 500MHz AMD RISC processor. With 64MB of flash memory and 128MB RAM, the little unit is quite dependant on a server, and has Citrix ICA and Microsoft RDP clients built in, along with Internet Explorer 6.0 for running around the interwebs. The biggest news here -- beyond the size, of course -- is that the unit can actually run off of power-over-Ethernet, just to make your fellow IT buddies jealous. At $392 you could really get a whole PC for this price, but if the low power or minimal footprint appeals to you, you'll be able to pick one up mid-June.
