i''m the chief software architect at butterfly.net: saw this
thread an thought i''d weigh in ;-)

we''ve applied distributed computing principles to a mesh
of servers mediated by gateway proxies that route your
game packets to the server you''re currently "on". using
low level proprietary protocols for "in-band" game traffic
to minimise latencies end-to-end, we allow you to stand
on a server in one region and (via boundary proxies called
sentinels) receive packets from other nearby players
even across server-boundaries.

overall the engineering effort has been to reduce the overhead
involved from roughly n-squared to n * log(n) for large numbers
of concurrent users distributed over the server grid.

application of higher level standard Grid protocols is reserved
for configuration, commissioning, administration, logging, billing, and monitoring of game systems (including reconfiguration if necessary).

there is more "secret sauce" to the Butterfly Grid than
mentioned in this summary... per packet strong cryptographic
authentication and security... server side rules enforcement...
remote script invocation... distributed artificial intelligence
to control non-player characters. but all the extras are layered
on top of an efficient working protocol.

bart whitebook

Hi Bart, could you provide some performance metrics in terms of latency. Say an estimaition of the transactional overhead of reciving a packet, processing it within the main executable loop(s) and bounching back the packet to the client, a simple ping. Would it be possible to create a FPS using Butterfly.Net?

-ddn

Hey Bart, ddn3''s post is extremely relevant and I''m interested as well in your performance metrics. ;-) BTW, you should update your "Games" page to remove some of the projects that were canned/put on hold since you put that page up last year...

Sylvain Beaudry
Quazal Technologies Inc.

I spent some time reading the Butterfly net site + technical docs some time ago. Its all very impressive, but my technical knowledge of Networking and Grid technology isnt up to the standard to be able to make any judgements about it.

Since then, I''ve been waiting with baited breath for a Game release using the technology to see if it really delivers what it promises. I''ll be damned impressed if it does what it says it can, and I''ll be seriously considering some start-up ideas of mine that would not be possible without such technology.

Jon