Ashes of Creation Stream Breaks Down New Server Meshing Network Technology
The upcoming MMORPG Ashes of Creation boasts fluid systems in a single massive world that changes with players’ actions and development, which sounds like no small task to anyone who knows how multiplayer video games work. The ambitious task is held up by the studio’s unique Intrepid Net (named after the studio itself), and a recent stream gave insight on the unique tech and processes, including the special “server meshing” taking place in Ashes of Creation.
The stream, and the deeply informative presentation goes on for over an hour and change, which is to say it gets very in-depth about the various processes that take place.
The main takeaway is that the different parts of the world are held up on servers—and server meshing will permit players to interact and have collaborative (or combative) experiences no matter what server they’re on. It’s essentially clients talking to a massive network of servers instead of just one, which connect, take input, and give output to other clients as needed.
Dynamic Gridding, a much talked-about feature by devs and players with their eye on this, allows the servers to adjust usage and even break off into new ones under heavy player loads or in other circumstances. Different “services” are available simultaneously throughout all clients, which also gave the team a chance to create its own monitoring system called Shol’s Eye. Plus, there's a lot of verification happening.
This presentation has these and a lot more discussed, so if you’re into network architecture, this is going to be one to watch, especially with Alpha 2 coming in Q3.
It’s no small task, with Ashes of Creation boasting a slew of PvP combat features and in-game commerce and world development systems, but with news such as Eve Online’s engine becoming open source, it’s fascinating to watch these forward-looking technologies being built and tapped into.
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