idTech3, how to start your own game using this engine?

panJames,

You certainly can use the idTech stuff as a basis for your game engine.

The essential difference, though, between say an MMO game and one of the smaller FPS games, is that the fundamental communication layer between the server and the clients is different.

Generally, an MMO game like WoW can be expressed as a 'client/server' model.  These games generally run with some sort of a server process, and they look a lot like a client/server game, but the expected times to go without updates are not quite as long.

The reason, in a nutshell, is that combat is the FOCUS of an FPS, whereas the environment and quests form the bread and butter of most MMORPGs.

This distinction is a big one.

Combat resolution will be where you need to decide how appropriate the FPS model is versus the WoW model.

This gets kind of abstract, so I'll try and form a discussion to help...

Let's say we're doing QuakeWoW!!   We'll kill Onyxia as a Raid Group of 40 members.... but instead of Warriors and Shamans, we'll be using Quake dudes with chainguns and rocket launchers.

40 people in the raid... Onyxia is the target....

We go into the room, Onyxia attacks... yay.

40 people unload with their chain guns...    3 bullets per second.

That would mean (traditionally) that you'd create a "bullet" actor in the simulation... and that bullet actor would have it's vector information sent to the server...  So 3 new vectors per second...

40 people...

that's 120 vectors in the first second

After 10 seconds.. 1200 of them...

and all of them need to be compared against all the other objects in the simulation... did your buddy step in front of you?

This is all a big deal.... 1200 objects compared against everything else.. including those 1200 objects... you're looking at (potentially) a million and a half collisions to work thru.

That's why most MMOs have those long "cooldown" periods, on what actions you can do, and when.

This is just a small example.

You'll need to also handle 'sources of truth'.  

I'll post some links to some places where we've discussed these things in the not too distant past, to save myself some typing.


-john

These links, if you read them, will cover most of the basic questions and information you need.

After you read these, though, I'd expect you'd have more questions.

Feel free to ask them.

-john

https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/22977038/What-is-the-best-way-to-design-a-multiplayer-game-syncronization-for-2-to-4-players.html
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/23360499/Game-Algorithm-Resolve-Battle-with-many-units-and-damage-done.html
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/23177527/How-to-build-a-football-management-simulation-game-in-J.html
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/22903227/ping-for-client-and-server.html
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/22640525/Resolving-disputes-in-a-peer-to-peer-network.html
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/23252753/what-is-the-network-hierarchy-for-mmorpgs-such-as-world-of-warcraft.html
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/23540202/collision-detection.html
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/23497119/Developing-Web-Games.html
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/23434594/Multiplayer-LAN-game-detection-techniques-how-do-they-work.html

It is all very nice but I need to start first and then after a year or two I will solve problem of 40 players againts a monster :-)

panJames

Okay, sure.

So... I guess... where do you want to start?

I know that GTK Radiant allows people to create their own maps for different already created games like
Q3 arena, Tremulous.

What I do not know is how to create my own stand alone game using idTech3 engine (like Kingpin by Xantrix).

I know that this is wrong question with no simple answer so I would like to know where to start, what should I begin with really.

thank you

panJames