Michael Bayne
ebab858d1f
git-svn-id: svn+ssh://src.earth.threerings.net/narya/trunk@210 542714f4-19e9-0310-aa3c-eee0fc999fb1
33 lines
1.7 KiB
Plaintext
33 lines
1.7 KiB
Plaintext
Whirled Design -*- mode: outline -*-
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* Overview
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Whirled builds on top of the Cocktail platform and provides a framework
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for building a virtual world made up of a node network of individual
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scenes. In the abstract, scenes contain only exits to other scenes and the
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world is one big directed graph. This is not unlike the structure of MUDs
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where one classically thinks of rooms and exits. We've chosen the term
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scene to avoid implying that we're indoors.
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Whirled provides a means by which clients can move from scene to scene,
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and to different locations within the scene (though restricting clients to
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movement only to a pre-defined list of locations within the scene is
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optional).
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The scene information needed by the client may differ from that needed by
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the server. Specifically, the server may need only know about exits to
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other scenes, whereas the client will need to know how to render a scene
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which may involve substantially more information (tile lists for top-down
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and isometric renderings or a 3D scene model). To this end, Whirled
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provides services for building static scene bundles that can be included
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with the client and then updated over the wire if the client enters a
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particular scene and needs updated scene information. Using these
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services, the world can change and evolve and the client can be sure to
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always have the correct scene information. Excessive downloading can be
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avoided by seeding the client's scene database with a snapshot of the
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system at the time the client is delivered, and subsequent snapshots can
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be provided periodically to bring all clients into sync with the runtime
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scene database, from which they can then continue to mirror updates as
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needed.
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* Notes
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