Watch: Dual Universe Handles 30,000 Concurrent "Users" on a Single Planet

Dual Universe, the upcoming, crowd-funded, single shard MMO which some argue is the closest thing we have to a metaverse, just published this new video which strongly suggests they have an honest shot at that metaverse title: A stress test of 30,000+ "users" on a single planet, on an MMO that plans to have hundreds of planets. (Details on his blog here.)

I say "users" because almost all of the 30,000 are simulated, along with some actual players -- Dual Universe lead developer Jean-Christophe Baillie estimates hundreds of those.

"This is not a significant number (most people were not interested in participating in a test), " he allows, "but what matters is that everyone was invited and we have witnesses! It's not just a tech test done behind closed doors."

By point of contrast, Eve Online and Second Life, the two top single-shard grandaddies, manage peak concurrencies of about 40,000-70,000 players total. Whereas Dual Universe's stress test suggests many more than that can be handled across its galaxy.

To judge by the video, the stress test could handle many hundreds in the same proximate space (i.e. within a hundred square meters), but JC speculates they may have to add some promixity limits when they launch:

"Worst case scenario: we could have to introduce repulsion bubbles around players when the density gets too high."

Of course the real test is when thousands of actual players are in the same space fighting on the same planet or in the space above it.

"We expect it to scale! But again, too soon to tell. We will have to cleverly use gameplay restrictions to help manage the load. Especially since our combat will involve voxel destruction, which is CPU intensive."

Which is seriously the understatement of the month -- voxels! with tens of thousands! of players! -- but you can't fault the ambition.

Read more about this stress test and how it fits into Dual Universe's big picture on his blog.

Comments

[sirhc desantis]

"Which is seriously the understatement of the month -- voxels!" is possibly your best line ever.

Not bad for a stress test but 30k doing - what exactly? As in oh as a random example going dancing, sketching out a new build, having an argue on something esoteric, sticking something fun n cheap up on MP, maybe filling in a half hour needing some stream.. oh wait, that was yesterday :)

Also sorry re linky - medium wants me to be on the faceborg so nope =^^=

[irihapeti]

"JC speculates they may have to add some proximity limits ... We could have to introduce repulsion bubbles ... use gameplay restrictions to help manage the load ..."

:)

good on them for having a go at this but by any other names its sharding and draw distance