Thursday, November 24, 2016

Space Engineers: Public Multiplayer Evaluations Started!

You may know about our internal competition to rework the Space Engineers multiplayer as mentioned in my previous blog post. Our progress is now at a state where players can directly help us evaluate the new multiplayer prototypes. Today we have for you not one, not two - but three multiplayer prototypes!

These multiple versions have been created by three different teams (two internal teams and one external team) with each one trying to solve the multiplayer from alternate perspectives, employing different methodologies.

We need your help to work out which one of these three will provide the best multiplayer foundation moving forward... In the following weeks, we will publish a survey for you to give feedback and comments based on your experience with the different versions.

The team that wins this competition will receive 1 million CZK (~40,000 USD) from me.

The multiplayer prototypes are code-named “Rock”, “Paper” and “Scissors” and can be accessed via the Betas tab in Steam. (for detailed guide go here)
You can switch from one build to another at any time - which will allow you to compare them. Saves are not compatible between the different prototype builds, but you can use saves from our live builds in any of them.

We know that our Space Engineers community is passionate, you guys care about the game a lot and have been calling for new multiplayer code for a long time. We heard you loud and clear – so now rally your fellow engineers together, get testing and help us make Space Engineers the best multiplayer game out there! ;)

---
Marek Rosa
CEO of Keen Software House
CEO, CTO of GoodAI
:-)

16 comments:

  1. Looked around and nowhere does it state the differences between these three builds other then name. :(

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    Replies
    1. That's the point!

      We want completely unbiased evaluations, so we chose this single-blind approach.

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    2. Great idea. Looking forward to hearing about the methods after the winner is announced!

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    3. Are we allowed to look in the code to find out which is which/what method is used?

      Delete
  2. Let's hope, that all these years of waiting were worth it. Let's hope, that all these hundreads of thousands ruined x1 survival servers will be avenged.

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  3. Hi Marek. I know you're a busy man, but did you notice the work of the Magellan server people?
    http://www.grandnuagedemagellan.fr/index.php?threads/present-systems-on-the-server.556/

    They also endowed with many "cute" features the MP game (market, leap between planetary systems, block enforcement by player/grid/faction much better than vanilla and help a lot to stability) they providing the server high stability, because to: antilag systems, new assembler and refinery systems to prevent lag, a concealment system of grids that is MUCH better than the current one of sese / essentials and makes much difference in performance because extracts and injects grids on the fly according to a player if is far or near to the position of the grid, etc.
    Many but -many- handlers to avoid lag and crashes . Is a great job for dedicated servers and MP. Something that sometimes is not noticed given its little "visual". You should put an eye on this work if you want to boost and improve multiplayer on SE.

    They were solving one by one the worst problems of multiplayer and dedicated servers in the space engineers, and they succeeded this without even modifying the network layer. I wonder what they could do if they had been one of the contest teams.

    Thanks.

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    Replies
    1. I agree with all points. Magellan is doing a great job with their stabilization. I've seen their simulation speed and it just refuses to drop below 1.0 even with heavy load. I think that server developer should also get involved in these multiplayer tests, I'd highly recommend that team.

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  4. This link is more detailed than the previous that i posted: http://forums.keenswh.com/threads/last-wipe-5-january-2015-server-le-grand-nuage-de-magellan.7386759/

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  5. Good blog,interesting information given about the blog.I am very impressed with the blog.Thanks for sharing the blog.

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  6. "The team that wins this competition will receive 1 million CZK (~40,000 USD) from me"

    Correction: from us, people who bought early access

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    Replies
    1. I think that means from Marek's paycheck/personal-income rather than from company profits.

      Delete
  7. great blog thank you for sharing great information

    ReplyDelete