subject: Massive Multiplayer Gaming Engine [print this page] Computer games form a major part of the computing industry. Modern computer games place great demand on a computer"s hardware often requiring a powerful CPU and a powerful GPU to render the complex 3D visuals used in real time. Traditionally, computer games have been either single player or multiplayer in a turn-based format. The advent of the internet enabled games to be played online by a limited number of individuals. This, in turn, led to the development of online multiplayer games which could be played by an extremely large number of people.
Massive Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) are a relatively new trend in the gaming industry. It involves an extremely large number of players playing the game at any given time. Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs), like World of Warcraft, Star Wars: The Old Republic, etc, which allow the gamer to take control of a fictional character in, very often, a fictional world, form the vast majority of MMOGs.
Massive Multiplayer Online Games, unlike their offline counterparts, involve a large number of players as well as a persistent world, usually hosted by the game publisher, which continues to evolve and develop even while the player is offline. This makes a Massive Multiplayer Gaming Engine more complicated to develop than a normal game engine.
A Massive Multiplayer Online Gaming Engine has to be able to cope with a number of technical challenges. Firstly, the game has to feature a custom, preferably 3D, world.
Secondly, the game is played online where the action of one player affects another player. While this is true for all multiplayer games, the challenge is greater in an MMOG due to the large number of players involved. Thirdly, the game must be persistent over a large period of time, even a number of years. Lastly, since the game is played online, there should be great attention paid to the security architecture as breach could compromise the personal details of the players, the game, and ultimately the publisher.
A Massive Multiplayer Game engine can employ either a centralized server or a distributed peer-to-peer network, each having its own pros and cons. While a centralized server is simpler to implement, and is a more viable business model, a P2P network claims to create much less network traffic which reduces network load, but is not as secure as a centralized server.
While building a Massive Multiplayer Game Engine is a complex task, it can be made easier by the addition of MMO middleware to a normal game engine. Certain middleware include a game engine while others include just the networking component which should be integrated with a standard game engine. Some prominent Massive Multiplayer Game Engine solutions include:
1.Abyssal Engine
2.Vision Engine
3.Bigworld Technology, etc.
A good Massive Multiplayer Game Engine architecture should provide a suitable framework to tackle all the incredibly challenging requirements of the sector while providing the users with an unparalleled and immersive gaming experience whilst protecting any and all private information of the user from malevolent forces.
