Status update - Back to SQL
Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 11:05 pm
In my last few updates I had mentioned that I dropped SQL for a fully custom C++ engine to see if that would work better. I did not want to waste too much time on it but in the end it proved to not be better, so decided to drop that idea. I have redesigned the SQL code as there was some issues with atomicity.
At this point, I have a working system and so far it looks stable and all saves are atomic. There are basically snapshots. They are currently set to every 30 seconds, but that could change. I might make them every 5 minutes or maybe even 10 minutes. The shorter, the more stress on the SQL server but the less progress loss should the server crash. So far 30 seconds seems to actually work out nicely. That's minor details to tweak and play with later.
I have to code some extras such as the server restart sequence so it can handle the new storage system and force a save, etc... also planing on redesigning server wars/restarts altogether. If my plan works, a server restart will basically involve a period of server wars after a final save, a disconnect, and immediately being able to reconnect. Basically, no wait period as the world loads. Again, minor stuff.
All this needs to be beta tested heavily once it's all done and production worthy, to ensure it has no issues. I don't want to rush this, so I am still looking at a month or so of beta testing at least. If an issue is encountered, it is fixed, and the beta testing period is reset.
Here's the good news, we have looked at the possibility of releasing some content before the new engine goes live, and some of the content is possible to add to live, such as drop in stuff that does not require core modifications. We have no immediate plans on specific content, but we will be talking more about it in the new year.
Overall, things are going rather smooth, just running behind is all. We can only hope we don't run into big issues with this new engine, and we'll be set. There are still a few minor issues to address, but nothing really major.
Once the minor issues are fixed I will release to TC1.
Archived topic from AOV, old topic ID:5412, old post ID:34115
At this point, I have a working system and so far it looks stable and all saves are atomic. There are basically snapshots. They are currently set to every 30 seconds, but that could change. I might make them every 5 minutes or maybe even 10 minutes. The shorter, the more stress on the SQL server but the less progress loss should the server crash. So far 30 seconds seems to actually work out nicely. That's minor details to tweak and play with later.
I have to code some extras such as the server restart sequence so it can handle the new storage system and force a save, etc... also planing on redesigning server wars/restarts altogether. If my plan works, a server restart will basically involve a period of server wars after a final save, a disconnect, and immediately being able to reconnect. Basically, no wait period as the world loads. Again, minor stuff.
All this needs to be beta tested heavily once it's all done and production worthy, to ensure it has no issues. I don't want to rush this, so I am still looking at a month or so of beta testing at least. If an issue is encountered, it is fixed, and the beta testing period is reset.
Here's the good news, we have looked at the possibility of releasing some content before the new engine goes live, and some of the content is possible to add to live, such as drop in stuff that does not require core modifications. We have no immediate plans on specific content, but we will be talking more about it in the new year.
Overall, things are going rather smooth, just running behind is all. We can only hope we don't run into big issues with this new engine, and we'll be set. There are still a few minor issues to address, but nothing really major.
Once the minor issues are fixed I will release to TC1.
Archived topic from AOV, old topic ID:5412, old post ID:34115