Gkm-World is open-source massive multiplayer online game engine.
Gkm-World uses UDP protocol at all for a fast network communication.
Gkm-World consists from servers and clients. Only client for Windows is available now. Windows client uses BGFX framework.
Gkm-World server part consists of several servers:
- Proxy server
- Resource server
- Node server
- Balancer server
- Log server
All these servers are located in a local Gkm-World server network.
Proxy servers are servers which is visible from the public Internet and a local Gkm-World server network. Do not confuse Gkm-World proxy server with a generic web http-caching server (web proxy). The main goal of Gkm-World proxy server is to send UDP packets from clients to a corresponding node server and vice versa. We assume that a local Gkm-World server network will have only one instance of proxy server.
Resource servers are servers which store geometric (3D models) and texture (jpeg, png) resources. Gkm-World clients can download geometric and texture resources from resource servers in background. So, resource servers are visible from the public Internet.
Node server performs main game computation logic, like collision detection, updating game units coordinates. As computation resources as limited each node server responds only for its zone. It is possible to have many instances of node servers a local Gkm-World server network. A node server notifies its neighbor node servers about movement of game units when such game units are close enough to zone borders. Neighbor node servers could take responsibility of gaming computation for some units. Node servers are not visible from the public Internet directly.
Balancer server manages all node servers, changes their responsibility zones. Balancer server could spawns new node servers and stop the existing node servers, it could split the existing responsibility zones and merge the neighbor responsibility zones. We assume that a local Gkm-World server network will have only one instance of balancer server.
Log server is a single instance server inside a local Gkm-World server network. It accumulates log messages from the rest Gkm-World servers and makes them available for Balancer monitor.
Balancer monitor is GUI application which connects to balancer server and displays the current responsibility zones. Also it is possible to manually split or merge responsibility zones by using balancer monitor.
Proxy server is single-threaded network console application. The default port number is 17012.
Resource server is single-threaded network console application. The default port number is 17010.
Node server is two-threaded network console application. One thread is for network communication, another thread is for game logic computation. Port numbers are in the range from 17014 to 50000.
Balancer server is single-threaded network console application. The default port number is 17013.
Log server is two-threaded network console application. One thread is for network communication, another thread is for log dumping to disk. The default port number is 17011.
Windows client is two-threaded graphics & network Win32 GUI application. One thread is for network communication, another thread is for GUI interaction and 3D visualization.
- Client sends Login packet to proxy server.
- Proxy server checks for credentials (username and password) and sends answer by LoginAnswer packet.
- Proxy server changes the curren status of user (online flag).
- Client sends InitializePosition packet to proxy server.
- Proxy server checks user status and sends InitializePositionInternal packet to balancer server.
- Balancer server sends InitializePositionInternal packet to the corresponding node server.
- Node server registers a new user and sends answer to balancer server by using InitializePositionInternalAnswer packet.
- Balancer server resends answer to proxy server by using InitializePositionInternalAnswer packet.
- Proxy server resends answer to client by using InitializePositionAnswer packet.
- Client sends Logout packet to proxy server.
- Proxy server sends LogoutInternal to the corresponding node server.
- Node server unregister the user and sends answer to proxy server by using LogoutInternalAnswer packet.
- Proxy server resends answer to client by using LogoutAnswer packet.
- Client sends UserAction packet to proxy server which contains the current state of keyboard and mouse.
- Proxy server sends UserActionInternal packet to the corresponding node server.
- Node server updates the current state of keyboard and mouse in user internal structures and sends answer to proxy server by using UserActionInternalAnswer packet. Answer contains the actual user coordinates.
- Proxy server resends answer to client by using UserActionAnswer packet.
- Boost library 1.60 or higher (Boost.Asio for network)
- QT library version 5.x (for Balancer Monitor)
- BGFX library - https://github.com/bkaradzic/bgfx.git (for Windows client)
- vcpkg - https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg.git with installed the following packages:
- vcpkg install libjpeg-turbo --triplet x64-windows-static (for Windows client)
- vcpkg install boost --triplet x64-windows-static (for Windows client)
- vcpkg install tinyobjloader --triplet x64-windows (for resource packer)
- implement Windows client
- avoid InitializePositionInternalAnswer packet from Node->Balancer, send it directly Node->Proxy
- use successful double action policy for packet delivery
- prepare visible users list on node server for quick fetching
- Log::Logger is not thread-safe
- Log::Logger could lost some log messages