Those Little Hateful Things...

[SinOfSuns]

The "engine" isn't so much a bottleneck in client performance as the way it's being used right now.

Everything you see in game, except for the UI, is part of an abstract, hierarchical structure called a "scene graph". (Think of a graph in terms of computer science or information theory with verticies and edges, not a grid.). Before every frame is rendered, the scene graph is traversed to build the list of commands to send to the GPU. This traversal is currently the most time-expensive part of the render loop (besides I/O). Why? It's complex (lots of nodes) and probably overly so. Decreasing the number of nodes will reduce the time cost of a traversal. After having seen a scene graph with 40,000 nodes, I'm surprised that the client runs as fast as it does.

There's an ongoing effort to reduce the node count of the scene graph, however it's pretty much an all-or-nothing process due to the way everything ties together. Don't expect anything soon on this front. :/

In other news, "self documenting" code does not exist.

Yeah, that's more or less what I thought as far as the graphics were concerned, though I assumed it was through a less finely-turned partitioning system than through a sheer number of nodes. I'm a little confused with what you said though, were you saying that the scene graph's nodes represent vertices and edges? If that's the case then I can definitely imagine such a high amount of nodes... personally I was assuming each node would represent an entire graphical object, each with some kind of bounding box which could then be sub-divided in order for quick traversal of the vertices and the like. That said, I've never really written a real graphics engine, just sample ones that were a lot less complex, as part of my degree.

I actually greatly fear graphics and physics engines, and respect anyone who works with them. Both are incredibly complex and difficult subjects and require not only a good grasp of programming and design, but top-notch mathematical skills too. So.. respect for you! XD

[Shian]

I'm a little confused with what you said though, were you saying that the scene graph's nodes represent vertices and edges?

I could be way off on this, but there were a couple times I loaded into bris and the world was nothing but flat and grassy. Seeing a plot sit next to me when I knew it was one 'down the hill' put things into perspective.

Umm... darn looks like I don't have an actual screenie of it, but the world is flat. Very flat. So you need something to represent mountains and hills and places where a character can't just walk to. I'm.. hoping that's what that means

[Valherus]

I would like to start by banishing one of the favorite myths in Istaria. The engine that is currently being used to drive the game is the Alchemy game engine from Vicarious Visions, Inc. I have VERIFIED this fact by looking at the game DLLs. Since the game supports DirectX 9.0c I am relatively certain they are using version 2.5 of this engine which is the current version as far as I know.

This is the same game engine that drives many popular games that are much more graphically intensive than Istaria. The problem is probably NOT the game engine as far as the appearance of the world and the performance of the client. That may have been true at one point, but it is not as true now. I am not saying there are not some engine issues. I am just saying that the engine has become and excuse for other problems.

The problems in Istaria lie in several places. One of the foremost is that the network protocol is not very good. It appears to be inefficient and unreliable. I have not looked deeply into this, but many of the game performance issues appear to be network and server related. Session management appears to be spotty, and client server communications has a latency factor that contributes to dropped packets and game play issues. It may be as simple as an old router or not enough bandwidth on their communications lines.

The graphics issues are more about the art assets in the game than the engine. The models are inefficient. The textures are often good, but you can't see them from all the fog and detail blurring that is put into the game. Fixing this is a major undertaking.

The main problem is that VI just does not have the funds or the staff to fix everything that is needed. While I feel that the community could chip in here, the communication that would be required between VI and the community concerning technical questions is not there at this point.

[Firebrand]

I would like to start by banishing one of the favorite myths in Istaria. The engine that is currently being used to drive the game is the Alchemy game engine from Vicarious Visions, Inc. I have VERIFIED this fact by looking at the game DLLs. Since the game supports DirectX 9.0c I am relatively certain they are using version 2.5 of this engine which is the current version as far as I know.

Google Earth uses version 3.
And this thread could bring some elements: http://community.istaria.com/forum/s...d.php?p=208369

[Valherus]

Thanks Firebrand, that is interesting. I was unaware that Activision had gotten control of the Alchemy engine. That makes for some possibilities. But still, Activision is primarily a console publisher. They have some PC titles certainly. But I am not sure if they will spend a lot of time developing Alchemy past a console/PC compatibility platform. I will have to look at v3 and see what is there now.

[Frith-Rae]

Heh...Well that's "Blizzard Activision" or "Activision Blizzard" now to you...lol.

Though I think Activision just lets Blizz develop its own stuff..I doubt they moved any employees over..lol.