I am currently debating which databse to use for my MMORPG. SQL Server Express comes with VS2005, but I'm not sure if that will be big enough. The Developer Edition of SQL Server looks like it might be good, but how much space does that take up on the hard drive? Also, what kind of rights do you get with it (I heard that it can only be used for testing). Access is way too small, and I've heard bad things about MySQL. What db would you reccommened?

I can't comment further on SQL Server, but another one you might look at is PostgreSQL. It's free/open-source, and does all the things databases are supposed to do.

We use mysql for our database and we've not had any major issues with it. I also use mysql in a production environment at my regular day job ( not gaming related ) and have had 0 problems with it. Although, I've not used any other database system so I am bit biased I guess. I am looking forward to trying on MySql 5 which is supposed to have a lot of nice features.

We use MYSQL for most applications, and in all reality it is generally a very good and effcient system. The only thing we have noticed is that when tables get up towards 9-10 GB and you ahve lots of queries they do bog down quite a bit. Pruning is often your friend.

However given the choice I would go with oracle anyday, we use it on our newest platform and there really is no debate, we have tested tables over 30GB, and even in the highest query situations it has yet to show an ounce of lag. The issue with oracle is the cost.

I will however say that if your going with sql you should go with mySQL and not MSSQL, there are several flaws in their system esspecially when you have a high query rate.

I think MS SQL, MySQL, and PostgreSQL are all basically identical unless you're doing heavyweight work -- many GBs of data, complex queries, a sophisticated DB schema, etc.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, Oracle is free now.

Even the smallest database you can think of will be "big enough".

The amount of data in a MMORPG isn't all that big. You just think it is.

Actual large databases are relatively rare, even in industry. I have only worked on a few projects where there were more than a million rows in any table.

Even so, the largest database I've used in industry was about 2G, that is extremely small in comparison to the limits of even the least capable database server (MSAccess doesn't count).

Mark

Actually, you can also use aggregation of data within a database to ease the lookup costs - storing a variable size binary object rather than many individual cell entries pushes the load onto retrieval, not search mechanisms.

For example, keep all stats as a single binary object and store that, rather than store several integers separately for a single character.

This can also add flexibility (without having to do major table rebuilds) by including parsing headers in the object. Again, this places load on retrieval, so do some benchmarking on where your db solution staggers.

For my money though (none of it) I'd go with MySQL.

Thanks for the informative replies. I think I'll stick with SQL Server Express, since I already have it installed. If the need arises, I'll jump to MySQL. Thanks again!

I know mysql has it's fans and has come along ways in the past couple years, but I would be careful before comparing it to an Oracle or MSSQL. Is mysql ACID compliant yet? Does it finally support sub queries?

If you already have MSSQL, I would stick with it. I'm not sure what the limits are on the express version, but they are probably more than enough to get you up and going.

All i make with DB is using MySQL, specially now when it support so much (the latest versions got most that mssql have aswell).

its ligthweight and most people can learn to use it fast.