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World / Zone Servers for online rpg
Author
I am developing an online rpg for me and some friends to play. I was talking to some dude from everquest and he says that they used a server for each zone, and a world server to link all of the zones (or maps) together. can anyone fill me in on the details?
thanks
-D@rk3nb@n3
Author
hmmm... btw he told me they used a console app for each zone server and world server. How exactly would you transfer data between the zone servers and the world servers?
thanx
thanx
The basic EQ setup is something like this:
There is a login / chat server cluster that handles user logon and the chat rooms that are external to the game. They keep a list of the available worlds and display that to the client.
The client selects a world and then disconnects from the login/chat server and connects to the world server. The world server sends a list of available characters for the given user to the client. The client selects a character and the client connects to the zone server that the specific character is in.
The server side could be done a couple ways. One way would be to have a ''game'' session for the login/chat and world servers, where each world server advertises its'' availability. Then there could be one ''world'' session for each world where the zones and world server communicate. I''d bet money that''s how their login/world setup runs. As for the world/zone sessions, that could be done another way:
Basically, when you zone, if you have ''world'' sessions, the zone server you''re zoning from can send your player information to the zone server you''re zoning to(either directly or via a world server relay). If you don''t have a ''world'' session, when zoning, you store the character information back to a database, modifying their ''current zone'' field to point to the new zone. Then the client just tries to connect to the new zone as if it was a new connection and the zone servers won''t know if it''s a client zoning or a client logging in, either would look the same to them.
As for my preference, I would rather see there be a world session and have the data sent to the zone that the character is zoning into.
There is a login / chat server cluster that handles user logon and the chat rooms that are external to the game. They keep a list of the available worlds and display that to the client.
The client selects a world and then disconnects from the login/chat server and connects to the world server. The world server sends a list of available characters for the given user to the client. The client selects a character and the client connects to the zone server that the specific character is in.
The server side could be done a couple ways. One way would be to have a ''game'' session for the login/chat and world servers, where each world server advertises its'' availability. Then there could be one ''world'' session for each world where the zones and world server communicate. I''d bet money that''s how their login/world setup runs. As for the world/zone sessions, that could be done another way:
Basically, when you zone, if you have ''world'' sessions, the zone server you''re zoning from can send your player information to the zone server you''re zoning to(either directly or via a world server relay). If you don''t have a ''world'' session, when zoning, you store the character information back to a database, modifying their ''current zone'' field to point to the new zone. Then the client just tries to connect to the new zone as if it was a new connection and the zone servers won''t know if it''s a client zoning or a client logging in, either would look the same to them.
As for my preference, I would rather see there be a world session and have the data sent to the zone that the character is zoning into.
JonStelly,
You are right about EQ. The world servers currently handle global inter-player chat that is not proximity based. guild, out-of-zone tells etc go through the world server, while local communication is handled by the zone server. Keep in mind also that EQ has a massive back-end infrastructure that has many, many dedicated developers.
You are right about EQ. The world servers currently handle global inter-player chat that is not proximity based. guild, out-of-zone tells etc go through the world server, while local communication is handled by the zone server. Keep in mind also that EQ has a massive back-end infrastructure that has many, many dedicated developers.
quote: Original post by dark_stalker
I am developing an online rpg for me and some friends to play. I was talking to some dude from everquest and he says that they used a server for each zone, and a world server to link all of the zones (or maps) together. can anyone fill me in on the details?
thanks
-D@rk3nb@n3
Let''s just say that for the type of project you''re making, a dual PIII 850 with 512 Megs of ram would suffice to start you up. At least, IMHO...
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I''m working on an MMORPG and a AMD K6-3 333 w 768MB of ram running Win2K Pro was able to handle several (2-3) thousand players roaming around at once no problem. I maxed it out at 12000 and it nearly stalled (actually my computer rebooted the first time I tried it). I upgraded to a 1000MHZ Duron but havn''t retested the server to see if it can handle the 12,000.
NPCs are handled by a seperate bot. One mid range PC can handle about 750 NPCs at once and maintain an acceptable speed though the bot isn''t coded with a limit. One PC running the bot can handle 12,000 characters. Just not well.
What kind of computers (processor speed, memory, OS...) are handling the Everquest World?
Ben
NPCs are handled by a seperate bot. One mid range PC can handle about 750 NPCs at once and maintain an acceptable speed though the bot isn''t coded with a limit. One PC running the bot can handle 12,000 characters. Just not well.
What kind of computers (processor speed, memory, OS...) are handling the Everquest World?
Ben
EQ uses less horsepower than you would think. The server side processes shouldn''t hit the disk at all, and since the "worlds" are broken down to individual zone servers, the cpu processing isn''t too horrible either. Something >=500MHz, 512 MB RAM and an excellent ''net connection should be ample in most cases. If you choose to upgrade from that, choose RAM over cpu...
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