[vworld-tech] Introductions

[Jim Purbrick]

I'd like to say a big hello to everyone participating in this list. From
what I've read so far it could turn out to be a really useful resource.
Seems like I just missed the first introductions thread, so here's a new
one.

I'm currently leading the networking and distribution development on
Warhammer Online at Climax Nottingham and previously did a PhD on networked
virtual environments at Nottingham University where I worked with Chris
Greenhalgh on the MASSIVE networked VE systems.

There are a few aspects of the networking on Warhammer that some of you may
find interesting. The big one is that Warhammer is going to be a seamless
world spread across multiple dynamically load balancing servers, with no
hard boundaries or zoning. Each server uses a centre of gravity load
balancing mechanism developed from the WAVES networked VR system.
A lot of the other interesting bits stem from this high level technical
goal. Keeping the peered servers the cluster in sync is a big challenge,
which we're using synchronised reflective C++ objects and sufficient causal
ordering from MASSIVE-3 and PARADE to overcome. Sufficient causal ordering
removes the need for ordering or stalling in the network layer allowing us
to develop a low latency protocol over UDP providing optional prioritisation
and reliability based on a modified version of ENet.

I look forward to lots of interesting discussions with you all over the next
weeks and months and hope to see you all in Altdorf soon!