What I wonder is how much you can build on the work of others and how much involves reinventing the wheel / building from scratch. I guess I should play the game to get a feel for it.
I'm not sure about these long distance claims, you would probably need
a huge capacitor, but it doesn't matter because really we don't need
to go such long distances on a single charge.
How about a system in which cars connect to electric lines along the highways, like they use for electric busses and trollies,
and use ultra-capacitors to get from the highway to your home?
The capacitors could charge while you are on the highway, and then you would only need
enough charge to go 5-10 miles.
Secondly - about Content. User created content... have you played Second Life? 90% of the model in that game suck (look like 3 grader's drawings with crayon) and secondly the game has extremely poor performance problems (it runs worse on my system then Half-Life 2, Oblivion, Age of Empires III [max settings] and any other game on their).
One would hope that the content would improve over time. Performance is definately a big issue, perhaps the main issue.
to make a "professinal" grade game you need a professinal development team. Your not going to see something great unless you have good developers that can work on it FULL TIME
If we make it easy to copy and modify content then perhaps just a couple of professionals could prime the pump by providing some nice building blocks.
So if I wanted a rule where I could delete anything from any users inventory or take all their gold that would be ok?
Sure you could opt out - but you would still get scams:
That's probably true, but the victim could simply restore a backup of himself and move on. There may be problems, but I'm not convinced that they are insurmountable.
Interesting. It looks like they offer a GPL game engine and proprietary content plus customizable roles and features. I wonder why it is not more popular? Perhaps they would have more of a following if they made it more extensible. I think that in the future the most successful and enduring games will be those that facilitate user-created custom content with the fewest possible restrictions.
Oh, and, replying to myself again, here's a link to something called The Croquet Project that seems to be almost exactly what I was looking for.
The Croquet project is an effort to develop a new open source computer operating system built from the ground up to enable deep collaboration between teams of users. To do this, the project seeks to define and develop a system is focused on the simulation and communication of complex ideas. We call this "communication enhancement" - the direct extension of the abilities of humans to develop, understand, and describe even the most complex simulations. Croquet enables this communication by acting as the equivalent of a broadband conferencing system built on top of a 3D user interface and a peer-to-peer network architecture. Through the public release of this software technology, we are seeking to harness the creative power of thousands of software developers and seed the development of transformative technologies.
Suppose each server is responsible for the interactions within a given region. From what you say it looks like it would be necessary to limit the maximum number of players within each region. And there would need to be a protocol for players to transition from one region to another. And there would need to be a torrent/rsync-type process to keep the worlds in sync. And there would still be anomolies caused by concurrent events on different servers and those would have to be smoothed out somehow. Not to mention:
How do entities advertise their properties/capabilities/preferences? How do entities get upgraded (Ice facets)? Does the framework specify different plugin models e.g. for avatars vs. edifices? Probably not.
Are the laws of physics immutable? Provide defaults that can be overridden locally?
How is "real estate" parcelled out? Idea: let anyone build anywhere and let users decide which version they wish to see at any given time. Various rating systems could provide "default" views. Slashdot? Metamoderation?!
Can the experience degrade gracefully in the face of bandwidth issues?
Is it possible to be agnostic wrt modeling, e.g. ray-tracing vs. triangles vs. ??? ? I have absolutely no experience in graphics, modeling, or game playing, so I don't even know what questions to ask.
Can Grid computing be used to model particularly complex interactions?
What large building blocks are available? ICE of course. What about FOSS game engines? CAD engines? Graphics engines (blender?)?
Ideas for extensible widget toolkit: Avatars: stick figures, basic features. Edifices/landscapes: universe, star, planet, river, mountain, building, door, window, etc.
What security precautions are needed? DOS seems like a possible threat in addition to cheating already mentioned.
The whole thing may be unrealistic. Maybe the idea is flawed. Nevertheless, it doesn't hurt to dream.
That's very helpful. Thanks for the info. I know nothing about games or graphics, but I do know that there are some great FOSS tools available like ICE for distributed computing, blender for graphics, so maybe the time is ripe for such a project. Or maybe the idea isn't feasable. Time will tell.
Thanks for the detailed answer. So the problem is the complex interactions which need to be handled by a single server? How powerful does it need to be? Could the grid delegate a server for these interactions and then fall back to P2P mode so-to-speak? Don't games like WoW run multiple servers? How do the servers stay in sync?
Hmmm, yes, that looks good. However, it looks like it is one world per server, with the possibility of worlds/servers being connected via "portals". What I have in mind is worlds being distributed/mirrored/cached across the net.
I would like to see a MMORPG or MMO-virtual-reality that is
Free Open Source
P2P - No server, no centralized control
No rules of engagement - Users can define their own roles and interactions, opting in or out as they wish
Extensible - Provide framework and encourage users to create landscapes, features, graphics, etc. In short, to create the virtual reality. All such features must be freely licensed so that each can build on the work of others.
I imagine that some of the existing game engines could be modified so that every client becomes a server as well. Does anyone know of any projects like this?
"(1) shall be imprisoned not more than 5 years, or fined in the amount set forth in this title, or both, if the offense consists of the reproduction or distribution, during any 180-day period, of at least 10 copies or phonorecords, of 1 or more copyrighted works, with a retail value of more than $2,500;
I'm a member and big proponent of EFF, but I have to say: this looks like crap.
The anti-piracy ads put out by the MPAA are slick, viceral,
and they get the (wrong) message across. EFF just doesn't
know how to compete on this level.
On the other hand, Downhill Battle
has been doing a brilliant job of exposing the RIAA and MPAA for the pigs that they are.
We need more such agitators.
Slashdot Mirror
What I wonder is how much you can build on the work of others and how much involves reinventing the wheel / building from scratch. I guess I should play the game to get a feel for it.
How about a system in which cars connect to electric lines along the highways, like they use for electric busses and trollies, and use ultra-capacitors to get from the highway to your home? The capacitors could charge while you are on the highway, and then you would only need enough charge to go 5-10 miles.
sharing should be mandatory.
I can keep driving my Hummer!
and after careful consideration of the issues, I have concluded that the appropriate amount of time to wait before going public is 10.853 days.
Thanks for clarifying. I thought your post was a subtle play on RE's, Bill Clinton, and Max Headroom!
No, it's more like when people sit down to a game of poker. They decide in advance what are the wildcards, stakes, etc. And then they play.
Interesting. It looks like they offer a GPL game engine and proprietary content plus customizable roles and features. I wonder why it is not more popular? Perhaps they would have more of a following if they made it more extensible. I think that in the future the most successful and enduring games will be those that facilitate user-created custom content with the fewest possible restrictions.
By the way, I just discovered this thread which touches on P2P and custom content.
Can you provide any references or links regarding those tricks?
- How do entities advertise their properties/capabilities/preferences? How do entities get upgraded (Ice facets)? Does the framework specify different plugin models e.g. for avatars vs. edifices? Probably not.
- Are the laws of physics immutable? Provide defaults that can be overridden locally?
- How is "real estate" parcelled out? Idea: let anyone build anywhere and let users decide which version they wish to see at any given time. Various rating systems could provide "default" views. Slashdot? Metamoderation?!
- Can the experience degrade gracefully in the face of bandwidth issues?
- Is it possible to be agnostic wrt modeling, e.g. ray-tracing vs. triangles vs. ??? ? I have absolutely no experience in graphics, modeling, or game playing, so I don't even know what questions to ask.
- Can Grid computing be used to model particularly complex interactions?
- What large building blocks are available? ICE of course. What about FOSS game engines? CAD engines? Graphics engines (blender?)?
- Ideas for extensible widget toolkit: Avatars: stick figures, basic features. Edifices/landscapes: universe, star, planet, river, mountain, building, door, window, etc.
- What security precautions are needed? DOS seems like a possible threat in addition to cheating already mentioned.
The whole thing may be unrealistic. Maybe the idea is flawed. Nevertheless, it doesn't hurt to dream.That's very helpful. Thanks for the info. I know nothing about games or graphics, but I do know that there are some great FOSS tools available like ICE for distributed computing, blender for graphics, so maybe the time is ripe for such a project. Or maybe the idea isn't feasable. Time will tell.
Thanks for the detailed answer. So the problem is the complex interactions which need to be handled by a single server? How powerful does it need to be? Could the grid delegate a server for these interactions and then fall back to P2P mode so-to-speak? Don't games like WoW run multiple servers? How do the servers stay in sync?
Hmmm, yes, that looks good. However, it looks like it is one world per server, with the possibility of worlds/servers being connected via "portals". What I have in mind is worlds being distributed/mirrored/cached across the net.
But if it were Open Source, wouldn't it be easy to detect who was cheating and simply not play with them? How did Diablo solve the problem?
- Free Open Source
- P2P - No server, no centralized control
- No rules of engagement - Users can define their own roles and interactions, opting in or out as they wish
- Extensible - Provide framework and encourage users to create landscapes, features, graphics, etc. In short, to create the virtual reality. All such features must be freely licensed so that each can build on the work of others.
I imagine that some of the existing game engines could be modified so that every client becomes a server as well. Does anyone know of any projects like this?Or a pretty stiff jail sentence. From COPYRIGHT FELONY ACT:
You must also take into account the fact that the signal is travelling slower because the spacecraft is moving away from us.
Orwell was writing about contemporary society. We have been living 1984 for a long time.
On the other hand, Downhill Battle has been doing a brilliant job of exposing the RIAA and MPAA for the pigs that they are. We need more such agitators.
That's hilarious. Corporate dominance is exactly what one would expect from Ayn Rand's brand of capitalism.
Addiator was a mechanical computer for adding and subtracting.
remember downhillbattle and EFF. They are fighting for your rights.