Colwyn
06-13-2006, 10:15 AM
Game Developer’s Guide to Pwning Second Life on Kotaku (http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/feature/the-game-developeras-guide-to-pwning-second-life-180044.php)
Since all content in Second Life is streamed onto users' computer, your game has to be designed on the assumption that there will be at least a little lag during play. Real time games that require high frame-rate, in other words, are right out. This was a painful learning experience for the creators of U:SL, an Unreal-style FPS created in Second Life last year. It was beautifully designed, with graphics almost on par with Half Life 2 or Halo, and elegantly coded--but when it opened to the public and the bullets started flying, lag promptly made it seem like it was underwater. This isn't to say no real time action is possible--the winner of the last SL game competition, for example, is Tech Warfare, a very cool, Total Annihilation-style RTS where hundreds of battle 'bots end up fighting at the same time. (But making the code lean enough for that to be possible was a painstaking task for its creator.)
via MMO Portal (http://mmo.portalsnetwork.com/)
Since all content in Second Life is streamed onto users' computer, your game has to be designed on the assumption that there will be at least a little lag during play. Real time games that require high frame-rate, in other words, are right out. This was a painful learning experience for the creators of U:SL, an Unreal-style FPS created in Second Life last year. It was beautifully designed, with graphics almost on par with Half Life 2 or Halo, and elegantly coded--but when it opened to the public and the bullets started flying, lag promptly made it seem like it was underwater. This isn't to say no real time action is possible--the winner of the last SL game competition, for example, is Tech Warfare, a very cool, Total Annihilation-style RTS where hundreds of battle 'bots end up fighting at the same time. (But making the code lean enough for that to be possible was a painstaking task for its creator.)
via MMO Portal (http://mmo.portalsnetwork.com/)