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EVE Online News - Apocrypha and Hardware
Posted by Keith Cross on Feb 17, 2009 | 12 comments in our forums
The folks at EVE Online have prepared a new dev blog in the run up to the launch of the game's Apocrypha expansion next month, this time around the focus is on the technical side of the game and CCP's efforts to keep the game running smoothly while preparing for growth.
With all of these fabulous new blogs about the fancy new things coming to EVE in the rapidly approaching Apocrypha expansion, I thought I would take some time to give you all an update from down here at the Tranquility command console of Virtual World Operations.
As EVE moves towards its 7th year of operation, we are continuing to improve and expand the hardware of the servers running the game, ensuring that everyone gets the most lag free experience possible. The preparations we are making for Apocrypha are no different - we have been working quietly behind the scenes with quite a large number of significant improvements that allow us to keep growing our user count. Of course, with the retail launch of EVE just around the corner, we are making sure that when thousands more players come into EVE, everyone still gets the best performance ever!
)
Exciting times for CCP and EVE players. I didn't realize any of this when I reactivated my account this past weekend so it's like a bonus for me. :)
I've seen some things from the coming update and most of it looks very tasty. Can't wait!
Coming from the severe hardware geek inside me:
"WOW CCP!!!" seriously not many companies are this transparent about what kind of hardware they use to run a game infrastructure.
Those Nehalem boxes are going to rock! I got to play with some pre-production stuff and all I can say is that they run fast as hell and the core density is just going to keep getting bigger, helping to pack even more of a punch in a smaller package size.
The bad / sad part is that right now there server code software is only designed for single core use. Meaning it wasn't designed for multi-threading. But from what they where saying on the forums that is going to change once its rewritten. Then they can really put them boxs to good use. (More so then just the pure clock speed they are getting now)
That was my first impression as well, that until the SOL systems are fuly multithreaded, there will be little gain from the Nehalem, as it's biggest boost is in multithreading. Still, they HAVE been working on a multithreaded system manager for quite some time, so hopefully this will provide for an insane amount of performance in the future.. after true multithreading, imagine Jita being able to spread across every core in a given blade, providing 8-16 times the performance/capability... can you say 15000 peeps in local!
It will be insane at that point and I can imagine some fairly impressive fleet battles kicking out on these things. Just have to clean up some of the client side graphics lag.
Sooner or later CCP will need to purchase a nuclear reactor to run their server !
Why would they want to replace their Microsoft sponsored Cold Fusion reactor?
Maybe they could buy one of the russian nuke subs, park it in Iceland and plug in cables
Trust me, that would SERIOUSLY hurt system stability... Can't think of anyhting more scary than Russian Nuclear "Engineering".
The server farm/cluster for EVE isn't in Iceland, the Head office for CCP is though.
Also does anyone else have any concerns about how the new minimum system requirments are going to affect the amount of people that actually play the game? (With the removal of the classic client which will be replaced by a Premium Lite client players will need to at least have a graphics card that supports Shader 2. Yeah it's not a new thing Shader 2 but a lot of people don't have cards that support it & can't really afford to run out and buy a card that does) (BTW> I have a card that supports it so it shouldn't be an issue for me, but what about other people?)
Anyway it is great that CCP upgarde the server hardware so much as it helps us to be able to enjoy a smoother game play, just don't forget about the players that have stuck by the game for a long time when the new client is released. (EVE's player base is the best player base I have ever come across and it would be disappointing to have it all fall apart)
The server farm/cluster for EVE isn't in Iceland, the Head office for CCP is though.
Also does anyone else have any concerns about how the new minimum system requirments are going to affect the amount of people that actually play the game? (With the removal of the classic client which will be replaced by a Premium Lite client players will need to at least have a graphics card that supports Shader 2. Yeah it's not a new thing Shader 2 but a lot of people don't have cards that support it & can't really afford to run out and buy a card that does) (BTW> I have a card that supports it so it shouldn't be an issue for me, but what about other people?)
Anyway it is great that CCP upgarde the server hardware so much as it helps us to be able to enjoy a smoother game play, just don't forget about the players that have stuck by the game for a long time when the new client is released. (EVE's player base is the best player base I have ever come across and it would be disappointing to have it all fall apart)
Based on the feedback CCP recieved about the proposed change, it really won't affect numbers that much. Most the people who said they connect with SM1.0 equipment either said they will have no real problem upgrading, or that they just won't be able to connect from work or with their old crappy laptop, but would not stop all their play. The benefits of them going to a single client greatly outweigh the small amount of people that might ONLY have a SM1.0 PC to use, and who can't upgrade.
Based on the feedback CCP recieved about the proposed change, it really won't affect numbers that much. Most the people who said they connect with SM1.0 equipment either said they will have no real problem upgrading, or that they just won't be able to connect from work or with their old crappy laptop, but would not stop all their play. The benefits of them going to a single client greatly outweigh the small amount of people that might ONLY have a SM1.0 PC to use, and who can't upgrade.
not mention you can get a shader model 2 card for less than 30 bucks, here's proof.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010380048%204093&bop=And&Order=PRICE
and for agp users (since it is an outdated tech) it is a little more but still cheap. Here's one for less than 50 bucks.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131134
P.s Everyone is aware that Sm 2.0 is a 6 year old technology right? We are on SM 4.1 now to put it in perspective.