Path: chuka.playstation.co.uk!news
From: doug mansell <doug@it.net.au>
Newsgroups: scee.yaroze.programming.libraries
Subject: Re: pc-side server (was Re: pc file handling ioctl etc)
Date: Mon, 21 Apr 1997 22:33:58 -0700
Organization: PlayStation Net Yaroze (SCEE)
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Message-ID: <335C4DC6.3DE7@it.net.au>
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Mark wrote:

> >I think the main reason this hasn't been looked at is due to the
> >use of the serial connection making things slow;
> Serial connection is slow? What about all the linkup games currently
> in existence.
> 
> May I point out at this point the slowness of 28.8/33.6 modems which
> are used in TCP/IP-IPX based network games (eg. Doom, Quake). 

Exactly!  I remember attempting multiplayer Linux Doom across 14.4k and
flooding my modem, but these days the games are written with modem
players in mind and I believe are actually quite playable at 28.8k.  I
still have a slow modem, so I don't try these things at home.  :)

> Seeing
> as you can drive a Yaroze at 115200bps, you can get approx 240bytes
> (NTSC) 288bytes (PAL) or of data into the Yaroze per frame refresh. I
> don't know what kind of processor load this would impose, but surely
> it can't be that high?

Obviously across the internet and down a modem then into the yaroze, the
modem is going to be the slowest part, so you'd want to write your game
with a target bandwidth of 28.8k.  I'd imagine the yaroze could manage
that.  :)  

I'm no expert in the field but I suspect you could get away with as low
as 10 updates per second.  I believe Quake keeps the frame rate high by
not waiting about for updates and predicting user and object movement
when updates get dropped.

("finger johnc@idsoftware.com" for lots of interesting stuff)

> >Will think about it though.
> 
> Have a process running on the PC as a server to just download world
> data to the Yaroze, and talk TCP/IP to a server housed somewhere at
> SCE[EAI]? :-) If you can't then I can probably get a server housed on
> our DMZ. I'll have to think a bit more about this...

Yes, certainly lots to think about.

> <FX: runs off burbling about a Syndicate Wars-type game played over
> the internet.. :-) >

Mmm...  :)

> Or am I talking rubbish?

No, I don't think so.  Now we need someone to just do it.  <grin>

cheers,
doug