Performance, was RE: [CF-Devel] Future of Crossfire

[Mark Wedel]

On Thu, 17 May 2001, Yann Chachkoff wrote:

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      Agree. Idea: the client connects to the server, _may_ (not _must_) request a
     
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      list of pictures available with last update dates; if the client pictures are
     
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      not up-to-date, it may then be able to open a connection to a 'picture server'
     
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      to download the pictures needed. This is in fact a simple extension of the
     
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      actual image caching system where the pictures are downloaded only before
     
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      starting the game and requested from a separate picture server (the picture
     
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      server may be a specific one or simply an ftp server).
     
     
 To some extent, this can already be done -
The client can use its own local set of images.

 Currently, there is no way for the client to get a complete list of images the
server is using, but this should not be hard to do.

 The idea of separating the picture server from the crossfire server has been
discussed before.  These are the problems:

1) Reliability - if picture server is down and you need an image, your hosed.
2) Simplicity - setting up a new crossfire server now requires the potential
   that you add new images to the picture server.  This now requires
   authentication of some sort.
3) Client would need a bit of additional code to handle this (not
   insurtmountable).

 That said, perhaps forcing users of the client to use local images more
may be relevant - the code is all there, and there isn't a big reason
not to do this.

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      That's true, but you forget some clear facts: the fact that some quests are
     
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      simply unplayable because the server is unable to run fast enough to sustain
     
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      them (Didn't you made some comments about it not so long ago ?). The most
     
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      important thing for new players is certainly how the game looks like, but if
     
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      they discover that their characters die because of server slowliness, they'll
     
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      quickly go away. I don't think bringing lots of new players just to see them
     
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      go away a few time later is really a good idea. Certainly, high performance
     
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      server alone is not enough, but it is necessary.
     
     
 The big problem right now is lots of spell objects.  I plan to look
at that problem.  Not all quests suffer from that problem.

 Latency will always be a problem.  There would be ways to improve
performance in some regards.  But some of the problem is the relatively
high speed of crossfire - victory over death may be a difference of
just a second or two, and most combats are very quick, so if your
caught flat footed for even an instant, it can be toast.  You don't
have much time to move off from that bolt spell being cast on your
before your dead.