The Concept Behind Online Gaming
Saturday, March 3rd, 2012From the day the 8 bit console became popular in the 80s, the gaming industry has achieved so much and has gained more popularity than any other form of software. Starting out with 8 bits of graphics and cheezy storylines, modern games have almost mimicked the real world with infinite storylines.
Another milestone in the gaming industry is when network gaming was introduced, fusing the concept of gaming with social networking. MMORPGs or Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games have made the physical world smaller bridging the gap between players from various corners of the globe speaking unfamiliar languages.
Online gaming is playing PC games with other users via a LAN connection or the internet. The network is made up of a network of PCs connected via a server. At the heart of the network is the server which handles the environment including the movments of each player while each local computer handles graphics and sounds.
Before online gaming came about, hardcore gamers only needed high quality hardware specs. But the added factor of getting connected with other PCs means the internet connection speed is a big deal for seamless gameplay. The most common requirement is a broadband connection with a PC having at least 2GB RAM and 2.6 dual core processors with hyperthreading – quad core processors are still better.
In a massive network, servers may be composed of several dedicated computers to do all of the real time computing for the graphics and gameplay. MMORPGS though need more powerful and faster servers. Each end user computer is called a client. We can say the in the heart of the network lies the server. During the game play itself, the server receives data from all clients, and throws back processed data to these clients. For example, client one fires an arrow, client two casts magic, and client 3 swings the sword. All local movements from each client are sent to the server. All of these are simultaneously read, processed and distributed back by the server. This is how the real time effect is processed.
There are two categories when it comes to online games – centralized server based and distributed server based. The best examples for centralized server based games are MMORPGs. The environment exists 24/7, and players can join in and log out anytime. The game continues regardless of your character. The environment feels as if it were real.
On the other hand we have distributed server based games wherein a server is another PC linking other PCs in a specified game like those in shooting games or sniper games. Like Quake Arena or Counter Strike.
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