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A Supercomputing Cluster For FPS Gaming

Posted by timothy on from the imagining-is-now-useless dept.

Paul E writes: " An atlanta company seems to have developed (modified?) a linux clustering platform that is very conducive to FPS games. These guys apparently have built a cluster that will be pushing 2 TerraFlops, which would easily put it between Blue Pacific and Blue Mountain . Interesting that the same time the .mil starts making FPS's, FPS platforms are outperforming some of the top defense labs."

5 of 129 comments (clear)

  1. FPS server only, not client by Papineau · · Score: 4, Insightful

    At first I thought they had the client partof Q3A or UT or whatever other FPS running on a cluster of computers (along the lines of those x nodes control the graphics, those y nodes control the physics, etc.). But after readding their FAQ, the're only hosting servers on a farm of servers. It's a lot less appealing that way.

    1. Re:FPS server only, not client by Lux · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Not really.

      The client needs to run fast, but most of the problems it's solving scale well. The server needs to do things like collision detection that tend to grow O(nlogn)on large datasets (and you only get that if you're really clever.) Clustering your server gives rise to the possibility of hosting many more players with more diverse projectile possibilities.

      The client is a relatively 'dumb' rendering terminal in many FPS games. Unless you're talking about trying to make the cluster do the things the graphics card does, but I suspect that the latencies involved would inherently rule anything like that out.

  2. Re:Boewulf cluster of PS2s? by pi_rules · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Talk to Saddam Husein about that one... anybody else remember a fairly large amount of PS2's being bought by Iraq when they were first released?

    Now, I don't know if it ws their government doing it or not... but I found it interesting. The US doesn't allow high-end computers to be shipped over there, but the PS2's weren't restricted by the US export regulations.

    While I really like the idea of porting Linux to everything I think it's kind of odd that porting Linux the PS2 might actually help the Iraqi government build a super computer.

    Food for though?

  3. Re:Boewulf cluster of PS2s? by Ryan+Amos · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You seem to think that Iraq cannot get a supercomputer any other way. The US is not the entire world, hell, most of the rest of the world thinks the embargo has served its purpose and should be removed. Then there are technologically advanced countries which never participated in the first place, such as China. Besides, it wouldn't be too hard to smuggle American computer parts into Iraq if they really wanted to. I'm sure the Iraqi government could drive a truck to Kuwait/Saudi Arabia, buy a bunch of Athlon XP boxes and drive the truck back. It's not rocket science. Just because they're not allowed to buy them doesn't mean they can't.

  4. FPS platforms are outperforming by Torgo's+Pizza · · Score: 2, Insightful
    ...some of the top defense labs

    That you *know* about.