MV3D 0.60 Released!
We are pleased to announce the release of MV3D version 0.60! This release focused on scalability of worlds and includes support for splitting a single area across multiple server processes with automatic load balancing and redundancy. Areas can now be connected together using gateways to build worlds limited in size only by the amount of available hardware. The Overseer Cluster Management tool was upgraded in order to better handle many processes across multiple physical servers. Camera controls across all content tools have been unified. Better support for Panda3D clients was added as well.
MV3D is an open source virtual world and multiplayer game framework written in Python. It was designed with scalability in mind and is able to distribute a world across as many servers as needed while dynamically balancing the load. The simulation framework is not specifically slanted towards any one genre of online game, and can just as easily be used for a space game as a fantasy setting. Objects on an MV3D server are simulated using the ODE physics engine. A single server can host thousands of simulated objects. MV3D can use either Python-Ogre or Panda3D on the client for visuals.
For more information on MV3D and this or future releases, please visit the website. The full release notes for version 0.6 are available online as well. For further inquiries, feel free to stop by our IRC channel on irc.freenode.net #MV3D.
Video and screenshots of our new Demo World, the Town of Wellston:
Retrospective:
What Went Well:
- Last minute shader and dynamic light support!
- The client is now authoritative for its movement which means things are much smoother.
- Fixed some crazy bugs including a few with the persist code which were pretty serious.
- The persist upgrade system works as designed! The old demo world’s databases were automatically updated with no intervention or errors!
- New Ogre .scene import functionality in Builder is pretty awesome and saved hours of work on the demo world.
- New triangle mesh colliders including automatic converter from Ogre/Panda meshes makes indoor world building much easier.
- The new representation file format is a definite win!
- Official support for Panda3D client and tools on Linux.
What Went Less Well:
- Client movement is still jerky (but at least we know it’s a client only problem).
- The release took 2 months longer than expected.
- Panda3D support is still not 100% there. Missing: sky, animation, and terrain texture splatting.
- The tool workflow needs to be simplified.
- Linux support for Ogre3D is still lacking due to inability to successfully build Python-Ogre.
Release 0.70 Planning:
The next release will be 0.70 and is focused on tightening up the toolchain as well as adding new client side features. The current list of tickets planned is available here. We will be meeting on #MV3D to go over the plans for 0.70. I’ll post a comment here when we decide on the time and date.