[Nel] Network Connections

[Vincent Archer]

According to Tom wright:
> 1) i think you are going to find it very difficult to scale a server
> to 5000 concurrent users, using any kind of scheme unless its a BIG
> server.  Look at EQ currently, they struggle with 2000.  But this is
> just my opinion :-) so feel free to ignore it.

EQ doesn't struggle with 2000 because of server size. A "server" on EQ
consists (to the best of my knowledge) of about 15 or so quadriprocessor
RISC boards, with all nearly 100 zones (now) spread of these. They
struggle not because the server can't handle the load, but because the
content of the game can't handle the load (i.e. problems stem not from
too many people for CPU time, they stem from too many people for not
enough spawns).

No MMOG so far can use a single server, no matter how big it is. What
we term server, or shard, or whatever, typical technical litterature
terms 'cluster'. And using the right architecture can make a cluster
very large, until it collapses not from load, but when adding a new
note consumes more CPU spent in inter-node communications than the node
itself adds to the whole.

> 2) On windows NT/2k, using async sockets with events is...
...
> 3) Windows did support something called micro threads, which had...

All these optimisation techniques are nice. But they're heavily dependent
on Windows itself. We do want our server to run under windows, for debugging
purpose (and for the odd amateur out there who would want to run a
smallish server on his home machine), but we clearly do NOT intend our
production servers to run under windows.

Which is why we're looking at a reasonably portable architecture, and why
these suggestions, as nice as they are, cannot be used, because they tie
too much the architecture :(

> PS A binary of the next release for windows would be nice, takes HOURS to build :-)

As much as people would love one, it's right now a "marketing" decision,
so that we attract people that really want to look at the source, and not
just people who want to look at the finished product without caring about
how it's done :)

(However, some Nevrax people, and maybe external people as well, have set
 up binary archives on their own private home pages. Ask, and you'll
 probably find it. But officially, we do not support or provide these
 releases. Yet)

-- 
Vincent Archer                                         Email: archer@nevrax.com

Nevrax France.                              Off on the yellow brick road we go!