MMO backend

[Raeshlavik]

For the general edification of anyone interested in what hardware makes an MMO go, CCP posted up an inside look at Tranquility today:

http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=769

This is what you need to have 50,000+ players all in the same game-world.

And here I thought my 34 PE1950s (2x quad core @ 16gigs) was impressive.

[RuneDragoon]

*shields eyes* Ah! Don't look! Tranqulity without its client on! Its nekkid!

Anypoo, yeah, pretty impressive to see the servers involved in that stuff... bet most people think its just /a/ computer box, not a room of server racks.

[Takora Drakan]

What is also impressive is the ventilation they need to cool the server room down, a whole extra ventilation system just for the server room probably; to ensure that the cores don't heat too much up. :3

When I think about that my PC gives sometimes off too much heat and makes me go wtf why is the room so warm. Now try that in the server room, sauna anyone?

[Raeshlavik]

What is also impressive is the ventilation they need to cool the server room down, a whole extra ventilation system just for the server room probably; to ensure that the cores don't heat too much up. :3

When I think about that my PC gives sometimes off too much heat and makes me go wtf why is the room so warm. Now try that in the server room, sauna anyone?

Yep, a well-loaded 8-core 1U server from the back is much like facing the business end of running hair dryer.

My server room at work is still in the stone-age, relatively speaking... The room itself is 15 feet across and 30 feet long, and is cooled by two Liebert "Challenger 3000" 5-ton units. I'd love to get into hot/cold containment, but it's just not in the budget cards right now.

So I just oggle other folk's setups and dream.

[Raeshlavik]

*shields eyes* Ah! Don't look! Tranqulity without its client on! Its nekkid!

Anypoo, yeah, pretty impressive to see the servers involved in that stuff... bet most people think its just /a/ computer box, not a room of server racks.

Hehe, yeah.

The inner workings of an MMO are pretty fascinating; it's a real lesson in high speed interconnects and superfast databases. But, it's also interesting to see that your character's entire universe, everything you've done or seen in-game with everyone you've ever met and everything you do there - is just this rack of servers in a datacenter somewhere.

[Thicklesip]

OooOOOooo, server farms! I won't pretend I understand even half of it, but I think I get juuuust enough to appreciate chillier hamsters and faster chatter between servers.

Although, who DOESN'T want to keep their servers under nitrogen pools? That'd mean we're living in the future! (Yes yes, I'm sure it's absurdly expensive and woe unto you if something goes wrong, but... future. Livin' it.)

[skott_karlsson]

Its cool though how they have all the players in one big world instead of many different servers/shards.

[Ahael]

Think about it... the Matrix is just a very advanced version of CCP's server farm Our lives could be virtual too, and we wouldn't know it

[Takora Drakan]

Think about it... the Matrix is just a very advanced version of CCP's server farm Our lives could be virtual too, and we wouldn't know it

Thanks for the high octane nightmare fuel.

[velveeta]

ah my dears, you need to watch more star trek.....