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camlorn · 12-02-2012, 11:10 AM

Well, no.

You will cache. It doesn't matter how much you don't want to, you will cache. KaVir's 2mb world was that small because it cached. Most muds, even smaller ones, cache (Not rom/diku...but lpmuds do).

Here's the thing. If you cache, well, disk space is cheep. You can put as many properties on the rooms as you want, etc. The problem with using bitwise operations to store properties is that, eventually, you'll want to add a new one. You'll have 3 bits, say, idk...open/closed, locked/unlocked, and whether I can go in that direction in the first place, and you'll be storing more than one direction in the same variable for size. Then you'll want to add, say, a forcefield spell, and you'll need a fourth...good luck. I really think that implementing caching now, while your world is still at an early stage, and not using bitwise operations will save you a lot of work in the long-run. There really is no avoiding it: your calculations only account for room objects, not corpses and players and swords that people drop everywhere. Capping how much stuff can be in a room isn't a bad idea, but it'll have to be a pretty high cap, if you want corpse delay; people will be running around with full sets of eq and as many items as they can save up, and so will mobs, or so I imagine...maybe you've got something different in mind, but if you don't, that's going to take another chunk of ram.

The second point. Have you looked at server pricing? I don't know for certain, but I suspect that a server with over 4gb of ram is going to be pricy. At that point, you're looking into a non-shared server solution, and vps providers really, really want you to share with other people.

I've looked into doing something similar to what you want to do, a sort-of cross between godwars2, empiremud, and dark legacy, with a huge world. I did talk to some people about it, people who know a whole lot more about all this than me, and there was one universal answer: disk caching. From everyone.

Finally, this isn't the thread for it, but if you open up the discussion of blind friendliness, I will help you. I've got qualifications after all: namely, being blind...so.

12-02-2012, 11:10 AM	#6
camlorn Member Join Date: Aug 2011 Posts: 144	Re: A huge grid world Well, no. You will cache. It doesn't matter how much you don't want to, you will cache. KaVir's 2mb world was that small because it cached. Most muds, even smaller ones, cache (Not rom/diku...but lpmuds do). Here's the thing. If you cache, well, disk space is cheep. You can put as many properties on the rooms as you want, etc. The problem with using bitwise operations to store properties is that, eventually, you'll want to add a new one. You'll have 3 bits, say, idk...open/closed, locked/unlocked, and whether I can go in that direction in the first place, and you'll be storing more than one direction in the same variable for size. Then you'll want to add, say, a forcefield spell, and you'll need a fourth...good luck. I really think that implementing caching now, while your world is still at an early stage, and not using bitwise operations will save you a lot of work in the long-run. There really is no avoiding it: your calculations only account for room objects, not corpses and players and swords that people drop everywhere. Capping how much stuff can be in a room isn't a bad idea, but it'll have to be a pretty high cap, if you want corpse delay; people will be running around with full sets of eq and as many items as they can save up, and so will mobs, or so I imagine...maybe you've got something different in mind, but if you don't, that's going to take another chunk of ram. The second point. Have you looked at server pricing? I don't know for certain, but I suspect that a server with over 4gb of ram is going to be pricy. At that point, you're looking into a non-shared server solution, and vps providers really, really want you to share with other people. I've looked into doing something similar to what you want to do, a sort-of cross between godwars2, empiremud, and dark legacy, with a huge world. I did talk to some people about it, people who know a whole lot more about all this than me, and there was one universal answer: disk caching. From everyone. Finally, this isn't the thread for it, but if you open up the discussion of blind friendliness, I will help you. I've got qualifications after all: namely, being blind...so.