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stux 25 minutes ago [-]
> Before any networking occurs, the client runs a breadth-first search using the local collision map to build a path from where you are to where you clicked, and then writes the packet for the server to read. [...] The packet contains the absolute position of the first waypoint in the path, followed by the delta of each waypoint in the path against the first one
How come the client sends waypoints rather than just the destination? Naively it seems like sending less data would be better. Is the pathfinding so expensive that you'd want to avoid doing it on the server? I suppose it works out as long as it's cheap to validate/correct the client's path?
fufi2022 8 minutes ago [-]
The algorithm is very cheap to run for a client (linear first, then diagonal to target, stitch together as many of these as it takes in the fewest number of hops), as they have full map data downloaded. For 2k concurrent players on mid range 2004 hardware (you have to remember they had kind of old school tech even for the time, though I'd love to be proven wrong on this), and with all the other interactions that needed to run before the next game cycle, I think they probably decided it was better to be clientside.
It's also possible they could have made it work, and it would have been a technical win, but just didn't need to since they had an MVP.
connicpu 19 minutes ago [-]
Validating that a path on a grid doesn't move through impassable objects is definitely much cheaper than running a pathfinding algorithm, especially on 2004 hardware. You'd have to make those checks as well in order to run the pathfinding.
percentcer 35 minutes ago [-]
I don't understand how RuneScape managed to get the traction it did. 2004 was the same year World of Warcraft came out!
VertanaNinjai 28 minutes ago [-]
It was free to play when that wasn’t a popular financial model for games at the time. The memberships were also much cheaper than WoW and accepted different payment methods that would be more available to minors at the time.
junon 25 minutes ago [-]
Also no need to install or commit to a guild or clan or whatever. You could just log in, screw around for an hour or ten, and log off. Then log in again from somewhere else. It was miraculous for a kid like me.
connicpu 18 minutes ago [-]
Could even run on the computers at my middle school, nobody thought to block it
cyphar 6 minutes ago [-]
As a kid, I didn't have a computer that could run WoW, nor would I have been able to convince my parents to pay for the subscription. I suspect most of the popularity was from kids in a similar situation, probably playing it on library computers when they should've been studying.
MapleStory was also quite popular back then for similar reasons.
thothless 12 minutes ago [-]
in addition to what others said...
2004 runescape, now "old school runescape", which is actually successor 2001 Runescape "Classic", were both playable in a browser.
and my (parent's) PC couldn't even install, let alone run WoW. despite me trying with all my might.
so I'm sure I wasn't alone.
it was absolutely magical to me.
terribleperson 2 minutes ago [-]
Yep. You could play it almost anywhere. School, friends house, parents work laptop. It required little hardware and, as you said, ran in a browser.
Meanwhile, WoW had to be installed, took a fairly large amount of space (I remember 14gb on my 28gb HDD), and Ironforge ran like garbage on my PC.
pton_xd 29 minutes ago [-]
It's free and you could play it in the school library, for one. Also it came out a few years before WoW.
ZYbCRq22HbJ2y7 1 hours ago [-]
not to take away from the article, but some did with similar fidelity on 14.4k
How come the client sends waypoints rather than just the destination? Naively it seems like sending less data would be better. Is the pathfinding so expensive that you'd want to avoid doing it on the server? I suppose it works out as long as it's cheap to validate/correct the client's path?
It's also possible they could have made it work, and it would have been a technical win, but just didn't need to since they had an MVP.
MapleStory was also quite popular back then for similar reasons.
2004 runescape, now "old school runescape", which is actually successor 2001 Runescape "Classic", were both playable in a browser.
and my (parent's) PC couldn't even install, let alone run WoW. despite me trying with all my might.
so I'm sure I wasn't alone.
it was absolutely magical to me.
Meanwhile, WoW had to be installed, took a fairly large amount of space (I remember 14gb on my 28gb HDD), and Ironforge ran like garbage on my PC.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_massively_multiplay...
i think the author would find ultima online emulators interesting
What you linked is nowhere near the same genre or remotely the same concept, nice try though
[0] https://github.com/LostCityRS