Comments on: Challenges When Programming for Home

By: John C. Ardussi

John C. Ardussi — Sun, 22 Sep 2013 18:07:13 +0000

Cutthroats is now Sony’s responsibility. I left around the time it shipped version 1.0.

I have no idea whether glitching effects server performance. That is back end code that we have no access to.

By: Danger_Dad

Danger_Dad — Sun, 22 Sep 2013 00:59:22 +0000

;^) Thanks for taking the time to write this. Insights into Home’s inner workings and limitations are very informative and always welcome.

By: navelgazer

navelgazer — Wed, 18 Sep 2013 13:20:01 +0000

Interesting article. Thanks for giving us a developer’s perspective.

Speaking of Cutthroats…ahem…is it ever going to be fixed? Loved that game.

And could you write something about how users glitching in public and private spaces impacts server performance or otherwise adversely affects other users’ experience? I’ve heard conflicting information about that. Some glitches occur through no fault or deliberate action on the part of the user while other times the glitch is quite intentional.

By: Dr_Do-Little

Dr_Do-Little — Tue, 17 Sep 2013 23:02:58 +0000

Good “for dummy” answer!

Now I can also understand the “5 pilots crash” we had in Novus. Thankfully it was fixed promptly.
As for my teleport problem… I’ll have to ask an oracle I guess

By: ted2112

ted2112 — Tue, 17 Sep 2013 21:45:25 +0000

Yet another outstanding behind the curtain peek John!

We have grown so accustomed to out of the box and endless updates and patches, not to mention plug-ins crashing our browsers that it is the new normal and like your Mac example, people just assume it’s going to happen.

Thanks for the article John

By: John C. Ardussi

John C. Ardussi — Tue, 17 Sep 2013 21:22:06 +0000

Most games that cost $60 or an MMORPG have servers that handle all transactions. When you press fire on your weapon, you don’t really fire until the server gets the message and decides what to do.

On Home game creators cannot run any code on the servers. While they are there, they blindly pass packets around without looking at the contents. They do facilitate some tasks like players entering the space and joining the game, but that is it.

So developing for Home is like being the chairs in a game of musical chairs. You have to make sure that is two people or more are trying to do a conflicting thing that you resolve it by negotiating between the clients.

Let’s say you have a chair and two people try and sit in it at one time. The server is no help. The clients have to send messages to each other and ask if the other intends to sit. Then they have to decide between them who wins.

Luckily, most of the time there is no opportunity for a conflict. But doing the right thing when there is a conflict separates the amateurs from the pros in my book.

By: Dr_Do-Little

Dr_Do-Little — Tue, 17 Sep 2013 20:04:12 +0000

Great great read. I know have a better understanding why having friends at my new place increase the issue with the built in teleport pad.
I always been the type to prefer simplicity and stability over complex and unstable. Thanks to your little graph I can explain why now.

Every one of your article are informative and goes beyond the simple sales pitch.You just prooved it’s possible to explain to customer what the issue are without giving any “industrial secrets”. Too often we are left in the dark like if this industry was rated “secret defence”

Most 3rd party rep do a good job… whithin the specification they are given. You visit us on the week-end! That’s going the extra miles.

Only one question. Is it possible to explain a little further the “client-client-server”? A for dummy version.

By: Burbie52

Burbie52 — Tue, 17 Sep 2013 10:22:35 +0000

Excellent article John, I am glad you decided to write this and explain to people just how much it takes to do things in Home. It is easy to complain a lot when something goes wrong, but understanding what is involved gives one pause and makes you want to adopt a wait and see attitude instead.
Thanks for writing this in layman’s terms too for those of us who aren’t technologically adept.