RAM vs Online (Xbox2)

[Ender]

Sorry for being RAM-obsessed, I wrote a previous thread about more ram = benefit for Xbox2, if someone can remember..

My questions is now.. how helpful is having more RAM when talking about online-games and "more players".

For example, Xbox now manages 16 players in some games, RSC2 manages 4 players with collision, 5-16 then all cars are ghosts and so on.

Well, MS has been adamant of pushing XboxLive and will continue to do so with Xbox2. More online-games will come out and more games with the ability to have more and more players at the same time will come aswell.

So, could the whole online-venture be something that makes MS have more RAM than the others? Besides the other benefits of having more RAM, online-games are the ones that could benefit "the most", because of the amount of players you could have at once.

I think that MS needs to stop waiting for what Sony will have and look more on how THEY might benefit by having more RAM than others. Those huge MMOFPS or RPGS or MMO-whatevers are the ones that benefits most and there will those games in abundance with the next generation of hardware.

So, question to developers/know-it-all:ers in here, is RAM the most important thing regarding having lots and lots of players on screen at once in online-games?

 

[Guden Oden]

The ram neccessary to keep track of collisions on cars in a racing game for example is insignificant compared to the computational load required to handle said collisions. Remember, a celeron can't perform miracles.

 

[wco81]

I don't think it's just about RAM on the consoles. I think it's whether they set up servers on the other end. For instance, on the PS2, MoH Rising Sun supported like 4 players online but you could dedicate a PS2 as a server and you would have 8-players online.

NASCAR from EA supported only 2 players online for the PS2 but either 16 or 32 with PC, probably because you could have a dedicated server.

SOCOM II obviously supports a ton of up to 16-player games, which you can pop in and out of at will, because they obviously set up a huge infrastructure (and not charge for it, is the amazing thing).

There are 16 or even 24-player games coming to the lowly PS2 this year, again probably because the publishers are devoting servers and huge bandwidth, which probably is at least as significant as RAM or pure processing power.

But this just points out another important condition: The publishers have to be committed to multiplayer online games, so that they're willing to invest in infrastructure. Even when they don't have to invest in infrastructure, they have to be thinking about multiplayer. For instance, Tiger Woods on the PS2 only had 2 player online when a turn-based golf game could easily have supported 4-players.

It's a lot cheaper overall to set up some servers than to put more RAM on millions of consoles. Although obviously we gamers wouldn't mind.

ETA: A few months back, Sony signed a deal to license some infrastructure middleware. GRID is what it was called, I think. Not sure what they'll use that for but with games like Battlefield Modern Combat and Starwars Battlefronts, it sounds like there is some middleware to set up servers with PS2 clients.

Also, here's an interesting article about how developers are looking at online gaming business models. More of a shift from subscriptions towards mini-transactions. Might have implications for how they invest in online gaming and infrastructure:

http://news.com.com/2100-1043_3-5212473.html?tag=nl

 

[Guden Oden]

Console game manufacturers should release a win32/linux server for their online titles so people can set up their own dedicated servers.

Would be better and cheaper for everybody.

 

[jvd]

Console game manufacturers should release a win32/linux server for their online titles so people can set up their own dedicated servers.

Would be better and cheaper for everybody.

I agree with that .

Its one of the great things about the dreamcast .

You could have unreal and set up your own server on your pc . Or was that the quake ...

One of them you oculd cause i used to do it .

 

[Farid]

Console game manufacturers should release a win32/linux server for their online titles so people can set up their own dedicated servers.

Would be better and cheaper for everybody.

Link to Homelanfed

There were infos about PC dedicated server for Tribes: Aerial Assault(PS2), i don't know if it was ever released.