Re: FLASH: Multiplayer / multiuser appz in flash (OT: performance compared with shockwave)

[Terry R. Schussler]

At 9:44 PM -0400 7/17/00, Jon Williams wrote:

>now that, ladies and gentlemen, is a man who's done

>his homework. And he technologically dissed two solid

>weeks of my work *sigh*


Don't get me wrong - I read through your site (skimmed actually) and

thought you're technique was quite cool!  I just want to differentiate

between hacking your way to a solution and utilizing the tools available.


>

>hats off. he's probably right.

>

>Terry, can you furnish some hard statistics?

>Like, let's say I have four users, each with an x/y value

>that the other three players need to share, as often as possible.

>Can you get me real-world data on how many "data-frames"

>you can get using this technique end-to-end? i.e. how many

>full updates for each player from flash, to flash per

>(let's say) minute? and no on-the-LAN stuff either...

>all the way across the net *grin*


This is really hard to do because there are so many latency factors.  I

just testing sending messages from my connection in Minneapolis (I'm

travelling) to my server in San Francisco and the average *round-trip* for

a message is in the 400ms range.  The amount of data I send or the

frequency has minimal impact - perhaps increasing the roundtrip time to

700ms.  Making the initial connection to the server and logging in took

about 2 seconds.


We've testing using 50-200 connections but I know that other have used more.


>btw, there is a non-peer-to-peer multi-user shockwave implementation.

>i.e. one WITH a server? got thruput data on that too? pretty please?


Note that in my previous email I was talking about peer-peer *on the same

machine* - which is nearly instantaneous and certain damn faster than using

js.  The data above is based on using a server.  A more normal peer-to-peer

connection would probably be as fast or a little faster than using a server

depending on the number of "peers" and the load on the peer host.


The multiuser features of Shockwave are certainly fast enough for any chat

experiences, but I wouldn't rely on that for "twitch" games.  You might

look into the RTIME Xtra (plugin for Shockwave/DIrector) by visiting

http://www.rtimeinc.com/ if you need more rapid messaging for games.


Again, the point here is that Shockwave using embedded Flash media seems to

be a really powerful solution for multiuser experiences.


Regards,


Terry


-- 


...---===|    Terry R. Schussler    |===---...

...---===|  DIA Chief Investigator  |===---...


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