Sun Game Server Technology

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Guests: Doug Twilleager
Moderator: Edward Ort (MDR-EdO)

This is a moderated forum.

MDR-EdO: Welcome to today's Java Live chat on Sun Game Server Technology. Our guest today is Doug Twilleager, the Chief Architect in Sun's Game Technology Group. He's here to answer your questions about Sun Game Server Technology. But to get things started, Doug, can you give us a brief summary of the technology, and its benefits to game developers and providers?

Doug Twilleager: The Sun Game Server technology is a prototype technology that we first showed at the Game Developer Conference this year. It is a server software technology architected and optimized for executing server components of networked games. It is unique in its ability to handle multiple games types and its ability to be deployed on different types of hardware.

aNt: When can we start using the Sun Games Server?

Doug Twilleager: The technology is still in its prototype phase. We are still working on product schedules, but sometime late this year or early next could be possible for early access.

aNt: How do we add game Logic into your system?

Doug Twilleager: Game objects are represented as Java objects in this system. It is a message-based, or event-driven, system. So, game logic is simply methods on the objects responding to events.

itistoday: Will we be required to purchase licenses to use this technology?

Doug Twilleager: We hope to have a simple/really cheap way for developers to develop against the system. We don't have details for how it will be licensed for actual deployment of games yet.

oliver: I assume it is based on Java 2 platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE)?

Doug Twilleager: No - it is all based upon Java 2 platform, Standard Edition (J2SE) and provides a very simple programming model to game developers.

David-UNAM: I'm a video game developer, what benefits will I have with Sun Games Server?

Doug Twilleager: The programming model that is presented to the game developer appears to be a single threaded model. The system takes care of scalability, threading, locking, and failover. This allows the game programmer to focus just on the game objects and how they should behave.

abies: Do you plan to have a free-for-development edition? Something you can play with and pay only when the game goes into production?

Doug Twilleager: That is the goal. We have even talked about having a public playground of sorts, where large betas could be tested without incurring large costs.

Juha: Can you detail some main technical points about the server architecture - How is the client state handled for thousands of active connections, how is the persistence handled for high number of concurrent writes? What kind of hardware requirements do you expect for 100, 100, 10000 concurrent users?

Doug Twilleager: Wow - lots of detail. I'll address a bit. It is an asynchronous, message-based system that simply processes messages on objects. Persistence is handled through a highly optimized in-memory database which is backed up to a real database. How often you flush to the real database is a tunable parameter. We are aiming for about 100 users per CPU. We are architecting the system to deploy on very horizontal scaling systems.

Heliosphere4: How strong is the communication with publishers/developers in the MMOG market regarding architecture of the server?

Doug Twilleager: We have strong relationships with a number of developers and publishers in the industry. They are always looking to reduce costs on all fronts, and we have been getting feedback from them on a number of product fronts - including the game server technology.

Rodrigo: Where can we get more info about the technology?

Doug Twilleager: There is a whitepaper on the game technology groups website. It gives a very high level overview of the technology.

rdragon: I read the PDF on the technology, and see that you are trying to eliminate the whole shard/region separation. While I like the idea, what, if anything, do you plan to do about those customers/players on dialup or slower connections, if they want to participate, perhaps, in an event that gets 'big' - say, 300 or more layers standing in the same immediate area, all doing different things?

Doug Twilleager: Our goal is to remove the region limitation, but as you correctly point out, there are other limitations that may hinder the game. More than connection speed - which can be designed for - are things like: can the client machine display that much player info? And what is the game play like for a no-region world? So, there still need to be a bunch of things solved by the game designer once the region limitation has gone away.

go4win: Are there plans for an early-access program?

Doug Twilleager: Yes there will be - the date is still to be determined.

Herkules: What about the protocol on the line .... are objects just serialized?

Doug Twilleager: The game objects in the game server are currently serialized in the database. The protocol is actually API agnostic. In the prototype, we used gamespy technology under the covers - so we could support a native client plugging into this server technology.

Chester_G: On a windows OS, I consider a Java-based client (versus a windows direct X-based client), to be one of the biggest weaknesses of Java technology. Will Java clients be able to compete with the performance of direct X for games? If so, how?

Doug Twilleager: With the release of the game technologies on java.net, we have all the technology needed to build a high performing game. For example, JOGL gives access to OpenGL though Java. And, OpenGL is widely used in games - one of the most prominent being the upcoming Doom 3. So, yes, I believe Java can now compete with Direct X.

itistoday: Will this system be very secure from hackers?

Doug Twilleager: This is an interesting topic. The Java execution model provides one level of security. The encryption of messages provides another level. And, actual game play logic in the server provides more places to secure the system. This technology allows for all of those levels - even though it may not implement direct solutions for all of them.

Guest: Is there any sample code available?

Doug Twilleager: Yes there will be - with the early access program.

MDR-EdO: A chat server problem caused us to end the session early. I'd like to thank everyone for their questions, and of course, our guest Doug Twilleager for his answers. Last moderator (me) signing off. The forum is now unmoderated.

Doug Twilleager: If you have additional questions, please post them to the discussion forums at the games community on java.net. The games technology group monitors those discussion forums.