Serious Sam handled massive amounts of enemies on 56k modem connections
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Re: Serious Sam handled massive amounts of enemies on 56k modem connections
#2Serious Sam was such a fun game - this was a really interesting write up too. I wish this kind of dedication to low latency and efficiency was more widespread.
Re: Serious Sam handled massive amounts of enemies on 56k modem connections
#3Serious Sam was such a fun game - this was a really interesting write up too. I wish this kind of dedication to low latency and efficiency was more widespread.
totally agree. it was revolutionary at the time for the number of enemies on the screen. even at the time the vibe was very much, “croteam knows what they’re doing”.
really neat to be reading about this so many years later.
Re: Serious Sam handled massive amounts of enemies on 56k modem connections
#4Serious Sam was such a fun game - this was a really interesting write up too. I wish this kind of dedication to low latency and efficiency was more widespread.
Agreed, have fond memories of the game! Just pure FUN for the sake of it! Really cool to read about the tech behind it so many years later, this is very well presented
Re: Serious Sam handled massive amounts of enemies on 56k modem connections
#5Isn't this exactly how Doom worked, long before Serious Sam?
But Quake went a different direction, sending the client updates about every entity they could see. Which had some benefits (players don't have to be perfectly synchronized) but also drawbacks (bandwidth proportional to scene complexity).
Re: Serious Sam handled massive amounts of enemies on 56k modem connections
#6The kind of game where I believe I moved backwards more often than moving forward.
Re: Serious Sam handled massive amounts of enemies on 56k modem connections
#7Is this the same idea as "1500 archers on a 28.8" for Age of Empires?
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/programming/1500-archers-on-a-...
Re: Serious Sam handled massive amounts of enemies on 56k modem connections
#8Serious Sam was such a fun game - this was a really interesting write up too. I wish this kind of dedication to low latency and efficiency was more widespread.
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Re: Serious Sam handled massive amounts of enemies on 56k modem connections
#9Isn't this exactly how Doom worked, long before Serious Sam? But Quake went a different direction, sending the client updates about every entity they could see. Which had some benefits (players don't have to be perfectly synchronized) but also drawbacks (bandwidth proportional to scene complexity).
This is covered at the very end of the article, in the "Comparison with Doom and Quake" section. And yes, that's exactly the comparison and distinction the author draws, and they explain why Serious Sam would have opted for Doom-style networking (the notoriously high scene complexity).
Re: Serious Sam handled massive amounts of enemies on 56k modem connections
#10Is this the same idea as "1500 archers on a 28.8" for Age of Empires? https://www.gamedeveloper.com/programming/1500-archers-on-a-...
Yes. Both are “deterministic lockstep” systems. Many many games have used such a system over the years. Although it’s probably less common these days for a variety of reasons.