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Multiplayer Online Games over Scale-Free Networks: a Viable Solution?
- PROCEEDINGS OF 1TH ICST/CREATE-NET WORKSHOP ON DISTRIBUTED SIMULATION AND ONLINE GAMING (DISIO 2010)
, 2010
"... In this paper we discuss the viability of deploying Multiplayer Online Games (MOGs) over scale-free networks. We employ a general peer-to-peer overlay network; nodes have a number of neighbors which follows a power law distribution, pk ∼ k −α, the usual degree distribution that characterizes scale-f ..."
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Cited by 6 (3 self)
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In this paper we discuss the viability of deploying Multiplayer Online Games (MOGs) over scale-free networks. We employ a general peer-to-peer overlay network; nodes have a number of neighbors which follows a power law distribution, pk ∼ k −α, the usual degree distribution that characterizes scale-free nets. Game events generated by nodes during the game evolution are disseminated through the network, based on some (push) gossip protocols run over the created overlay. We experiment with different gossip protocols. Results demonstrate that the employed gossip protocol may greatly influence the ability of disseminating the game data through the scale-free network. In particular, when gossip is performed using a small dissemination probability, a nonnegligible percentage of the network is not able to receive the message. This implies that not all players might be able to perceive the game event. Hence, parameters of gossip protocols must be properly tuned to guarantee a full network coverage. Concurrently, it is shown that, due to their low diameter, the use of scale-free networks allows to disseminate game events in very few steps. This could ensure a high level of responsiveness on the dissemination of game events, which is the main objective to pursue when dealing with MOGs.
Adaptive Event Dissemination for Peer-to-Peer Multiplayer Online Games
"... In this paper we show that gossip algorithms may be effectively used to disseminate game events in Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Multiplayer Online Games (MOGs). Game events are disseminated through an overlay network. The proposed scheme exploits the typical behavior of players to tune the data dissemination. ..."
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Cited by 4 (3 self)
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In this paper we show that gossip algorithms may be effectively used to disseminate game events in Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Multiplayer Online Games (MOGs). Game events are disseminated through an overlay network. The proposed scheme exploits the typical behavior of players to tune the data dissemination. In fact, it is well known that users playing a MOG typically generate game events at a rate that can be approximated using some (game dependent) probability distribution. Hence, as soon as a given node experiences a reception rate, for messages coming from a given peer, which is lower than expected, it can send a stimulus to the neighbor that usually forwards these messages, asking it to increase its dissemination probability. Three variants of this approach will be studied. According to the first one, upon reception of a stimulus from a neighbor, a peer increases its dissemination probability towards that node irrespectively from the sender. In the second protocol a peer increases only the dissemination probability for a given sender towards all its neighbors. Finally, the third protocol takes into consideration both the sender and the neighbor in order to decide how to increase the dissemination probability. We performed extensive simulations to assess the efficacy of the proposed scheme, and based on the simulation results we compare the different dissemination protocols. The results confirm that adaptive gossip schemes are indeed effective and deserve further investigation.
Intelligent Path Finding for Avatars in Massively Multiplayer Online Games
- in IEEE Workshop on Computational Intelligence in Virtual Environments (EEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence
, 2009
"... Path finding is an essential feature of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG). In this paper, we propose a path finding algorithm for peer‐to‐peer online games. The proposed approach intelligently discovers a near optimal but cost effective path between any two points of a connected virtual worl ..."
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Cited by 1 (1 self)
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Path finding is an essential feature of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG). In this paper, we propose a path finding algorithm for peer‐to‐peer online games. The proposed approach intelligently discovers a near optimal but cost effective path between any two points of a connected virtual world. The search space is reduced by the use of artificial anchor points at each zone. As a result, computational cost and memory requirement for the system could be relaxed. Moreover, active peers participate in path discovering process that reduces load on the server. In order to avoid repeated computation of a path, many sub‐paths are smartly reused at each zone whenever possible. Considering its advantages, it is a good solution for path finding in MMOGs.
Minimum-Delay Overlay Multicast 1
"... Delivering delay-sensitive data to a group of receivers with minimum latency is a fundamental problem for various applications. In this paper, we study multicast routing with minimum end-to-end delay to the receivers. The delay to each receiver in a multicast tree consist of the time that the data s ..."
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Delivering delay-sensitive data to a group of receivers with minimum latency is a fundamental problem for various applications. In this paper, we study multicast routing with minimum end-to-end delay to the receivers. The delay to each receiver in a multicast tree consist of the time that the data spends in overlay links as well as the latency incurred at each overlay node, which has to send out a piece of data several times over a finite-capacity network connection. The latter portion of the delay, which is proportional to the degree of nodes in the tree, can be a significant portion of the total delay as we show in the paper. Yet, it is often ignored or only partially addressed by previous multicast algorithms. We formulate the actual delay to the receivers in a multicast tree and consider minimizing the average and the maximum delay in the tree. We show the NP-hardness of these problems and prove that they cannot be approximated in polynomial time to within any reasonable approximation ratio. We then propose a number of efficient algorithms that heuristically build a multicast tree in which the average or the maximum delay is minimized. These algorithms together cover a wide range of overlay sizes and both versions of our problem. The effectiveness of our algorithms is demonstrated through comprehensive experiments on different real-world datasets and using various overlay network models. The results confirm that our algorithms can achieve much lower delays (up to 60 % less) and up to orders of magnitude faster running times (hence supporting larger scales) than previous minimum-delay multicast approaches. I.
An Auxiliary Area of Interest Management for Synchronization and Load Regulation in Zonal P2P MMOGs
"... Abstract – For better gaming experience, we propose an auxiliary Area of Interest Management (AoIM) in zonal MMOG that works in P2P manner. The concept, named Synchronized AoIM (S-AoIM), gives synchronization to the system. The S-AoIM runs along with the general/primary area of interest management ( ..."
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Abstract – For better gaming experience, we propose an auxiliary Area of Interest Management (AoIM) in zonal MMOG that works in P2P manner. The concept, named Synchronized AoIM (S-AoIM), gives synchronization to the system. The S-AoIM runs along with the general/primary area of interest management (G-AoIM) that provides most of the game services. The benefits are two-fold. First, the necessary data required for seamless zone crossing, a usual phenomenon in zonal MMOGs, are readily available from the S-AoIM. Second, the anticipated model can be tuned as a means against hotspot or excess load. Thus, the overall design supports synchronization and regulates load of the zonal MMOGs.
Abstract—Massive Multiuser Virtual Environments
"... (MMVEs) are rapidly expanding both in the number of users and complexity of interactions. Their needs of computational resources offer new challenges for the computer scientists. In this paper we present some ideas on the implementation of a Massive Simulation Environments, a particular MMVE, distri ..."
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(MMVEs) are rapidly expanding both in the number of users and complexity of interactions. Their needs of computational resources offer new challenges for the computer scientists. In this paper we present some ideas on the implementation of a Massive Simulation Environments, a particular MMVE, distributed over a Peer-to-Peer infrastructure. We analyze some of the problems related to the workload balancing on such distributed environments. In particular we discuss an hybrid Peer-to-Peer architecture in order to provide an efficient load balancing strategy. By some assumptions on temporal and spatial coherence, we use a predictor component which exploits previous phase workload as an estimate for next phase workload for load balancing purposes. Keywords-Peer–to–Peer; Massive Simulation; Load Balancing. I.
Adaptive Consistency for Replicated State in
"... Although massive multiplayer online games have been gain-ing most popularity over the years, real-time strategy (RTS) has not been considerate a strong candidate for using this model because of the limited number of players supported, large number of game entities and strong consistency re-quirement ..."
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Although massive multiplayer online games have been gain-ing most popularity over the years, real-time strategy (RTS) has not been considerate a strong candidate for using this model because of the limited number of players supported, large number of game entities and strong consistency re-quirements. To deal with this situation, concepts such as continuous consistency and location-awareness have proven to be ex-tremely useful in order to confine areas with consistency requirements. The combination between these two concepts results on a powerful technique in which the player’s loca-tion and divergence boundaries are directly linked, providing the player the most accurate information about objects in-side his area-of-interest. The VFC model achieves a balance between the notions of continuous consistency and location-awareness by defining multiple zones of consistency around the player’s location (pivot) with different divergence bound-aries. In this work we propose VFC-RTS, an adaptation of the VFC model, characterized for establishing consistency degrees, to the RTS scenario. We describe how the concepts of the original VFC model were adapt to the RTS paradigm and propose an architecture for a generic middleware. Later, we apply our solution to an open source, multi-platform RTS game with full consistency requirements and evaluate the re-sults to define the success of this work. Keywords real-time strategy games, massive multiplayer online games, VFC, continuous consistency model, locality-awareness, in-terest management. 1.
Toward Community-driven Interest Management for Distributed Virtual Environment?
"... Abstract. A fundamental requirement for the discovery and the re-trieval of the entities of a distributed virtual environment is the definition of a scalable Interest Management (IM) support. This paper presents a distributed protocol for IM that integrates two different gossip protocols. The first ..."
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Abstract. A fundamental requirement for the discovery and the re-trieval of the entities of a distributed virtual environment is the definition of a scalable Interest Management (IM) support. This paper presents a distributed protocol for IM that integrates two different gossip protocols. The first one based on a discrete tessellation of the Area of Interest of a peer in order to maximise its coverage by the peer neighbours. The second is based on a distributed algorithm enabling the peers to self-organise themselves in communities. The paper presents a set of experimental results showing the effectiveness of the proposed approach. 1
