I read a while ago, well in INternet terms a while is maybe 1-2 weeks, that a program called Gnutella was out, it was a networked program that allowed people to transfer files without using a server. I was wondering if there is a way that the network code could be addapted for an online gaming company? or possibly a cool multiplayer game? Like an rpg or something. I could imagine a large world that is maintained by several computers, and that when one computer is down then the others still can play and the world runs as normal. This idea of networking would be benefitial to an extent, for a game like diablo or so because it would be a lot more stable etc.. Plus could someone direct me to where I can get a hold of the Gnutella Source if possible, and any comments would be welcome Dæmin (Dominik Grabiec) sdgrab@eisa.net.au CyberPunk RPG http://www.eisa.net.au/~sdgrab/index.html

This is the Gnutella homepage: http://www.gnutella.co.uk/. I don''t think source is available, but I didn''t browse it too thoroughly. Anyway, it should at least be able to tell you about the architecture, etc. of the system.

Gnutella was released by AOL''s Nullsoft division, then quickly recalled. New versions have been "appearing", however, and people have reverse engineered the protocol.

A Gnutella-type system could be implemented to find people to play games with (like instead of Battle.NET or Zone), but as far as actually implementing gameplay, I don''t think it would work very well.

Gnutella works by connecting to a known server, getting a list of servers from that server, and connecting to N servers arbitrarily. More clients may then connect to your client. Searches propagate through the network up to an arbitrary M layers of connections, then results are returned to the person who initiatied the search. Obviously this can create a bandwidth problem with many people searching. Could you imagine if gameplay information were exponentially propagated like this?

Also, since not all machines talk to each other in the same network, not all players would receive all game-state information, unless either:

1. All players were connected to all others. This is not really feasible for a large scale game.

2. Game topology could be mapped to network topology. For example, there could be a system to determine an arbitrator of a physical area in the game out of all players in that area. If a player left an area he was the arbitrator of, a new arbitrator would be determined. Note there must be at least 1 person in all areas or the game state information for that area will be lost.

The idea is intriguing and probably possible but I don''t think it would make for very good gameplay. Response times would be really slow with the network topology constantly changing, and you''d have to be really careful to avoid any kind of "implosion" response. All clients would need the bandwidth to transmit not only their own information but any arbitrary amount of other''s information, that may or may not apply to that client''s gamestate.