Multiplayer Mobile AR Gaming With No Dedicated Server

MIT's Technology Review discusses a new augmented-reality game for Android phones called Photoshoot, which allows multiplayer without the need for an additional server. Quoting: "Multiplayer games on mobile devices like phones usually require remote servers for communication between devices and game hosting, says Roelof Kemp, a computer scientist at Vrije Universiteit, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, who codeveloped the game. But the game allows phones to communicate without the cost and added complexity of maintaining this additional infrastructure, he says. 'We hope it's going to open the door for new and interesting distributed computing applications,' says Kemp. The game uses a computing middleware system, called Ibis, originally developed for high-performance, distributed computing tasks, such as image processing or astrophysics research, but which Kemp and colleagues have adapted to run on Android phones. 'It allows each phone to run a lightweight communication server,' says Kemp. The devices can communicate directly with the game, which is hosted on both handsets, using a 3G connection or Wi-Fi."

Comments

The 90s called

[AuMatar]

They want their tech back. Thats how all the old games worked- one client acts as the host. If you don't particularly worry about cheating, its a simple way to do it.

Re:The 90s called

[KazW]

RTFA, it's hosted on BOTH headsets, both act as a server.

Re:The 90s called

[pantherace]

No kidding. Total Annihilation did this, where one person would host the lobby, and I think that machine became the host for everyone in the lobby.

If you want a more modern example: Supreme Commander. Fully p2p (and all clients run the sim, which theoretically eliminates cheats, though I think there are some things people do with the network to mess it up. Which would be more than )

The article strikes me as in the same vein as taking something fairly well known and adding 'on the internet!' or in this case 'on networked phones!' and claiming it's a brand new idea.

Re:The 90s called

[tepples]

How about just about any game for Game Boy?

Doesn't work on iPhone?

[wisebabo]

Being a SUPER apple fanboi, I have to admit this is the kind of app that I'm afraid won't run on an iPhone. Am I right? Do you need multitasking (to run a server in the background) or can you do the same thing with multi-threading.

Otherwise this is a definite plus for the android camp.

Re:Doesn't work on iPhone?

[tepples]

Threads are just tasks that share the majority of memory. Give the server its own dedicated thread that does not access the client thread's memory, instead communicating with message-passing.

Re:This isn't scalable.

[peragrin]

depends. AT&T least uses some sort of NAT system. every couple of hours your phone gets a new IP to work from. I know this as I let my phone check my gmail account and when i get a message log in to gmail using my work computer. however gmail shows the last login ip address as one from AT&T it isn't constant and changes regularly.

Also there was that incident with AT&T and facebook, where AT&T was sending the wrong pages to the wrong phones.

Battery Life?

[SixGame]

My phone has a hard enough time staying charged running its wireless connection and camera simultaneously. Placing additional power demands on mobile devices doesn't make sense at the moment as an end-user, but as power becomes less of a concern (whether due to improved battery technology or more efficient processor design) these devices become more like PCs and less like phones. I'm just waiting for Folding@Anywhere to run when I have my phone plugged in.

phone

[suzieque]

My phone has enough fun and games turning itself on!...:-)