ok! so i hear all of you talk about how there's a game client and a game server that communicate via sockets. what about a game that is going to be very database oriented, meaning that there will be some heavy database usage? do i still have to have a server (*.exe) or a database server will do. i can still use stored procedures, triggers and udf's... am i misunderstanding the purpose of a game server?

In a game like you are talk about you would have "two" servers. You would have the game server that communicates with the clients, and then the database server that communicates with the game server to give it all the database objects. The reason I put "two" im quotes is because it really doesn't work that way.

You noramally have some login servers, they take care of authentication and showing the users the other server or games. Then you have your game servers, there can be lots of these. In some case "RPG"s they pass the person between them to handle different areas. Then you have your database farm, it is the database servers that communicate with the game servers. There is not a one to one relation between database servers and games server, there are many more game servers then there are database servers.

theTroll

@TheTroll

so is this a matter of connections that a DB server can support? like we don't want all clients to jump at our poor database server so we delegate these operations to game servers?

btw, how many active connections can MySQL server support?

No, the client NEVER connects to the DB. Your game servers connect to the DB servers.

theTroll

The defaul maximum connections for MySQL is 100, you can run about 300 if you really want if the traffic is not too much.

theTroll

@ TheTroll , Viktor

Thanks a lot guys for these practical considerations! I am going to need some more now ))

So I have to decide which data can be thought of as persistent and which not. I guess this is something that'll take some trying and adjustment.
Is there any "rule of thumb" for how often a game server(s) can fetch\send data from\to the DB server?

And one more... What about those online browser games that use php\asp to access DB? From what you say it turns out that they don't
actually manipulate the contents of the DB. So where do all those queries go to?

thanx a bunch X)

One a php/asp game you are playing on the server that is running is the php/asp code, it is connection to the DB. Now that DB could be on the same machine.

As for persensent objects, a lot has to do with memory. The more memory you have the more ojbects you can keep in memory. Then when a change to an object happens you update the DB. If you have less memory then you have to load objects in and out as needed. So the reality is there is no "rule of thumb" it all depends on the game and server power.

theTroll

@ Troll

what i wanted to know was how much traffic an average DB server could usually handle

pnroach there is really no way of answering that question. If depends on a lot of factors, the speed of your drives on the server, the amount of memory on your server, the database design (Layout of tables, size of fields in tables, type of SQL calls you make, number of records in tables). These will all factor into the DB server performance and what will determine the amount of traffic it can handle, well that and the network connection.

theTroll