Why should I use Crystal Space for a MMORPG?

[GooZaan]

Hi there!

I´m quite new to Crystal Space. Me and some guys (we´re about 15 people) want to start a MMORPG-Project. We´re planning and discussing for about one year now between our university courses and in our forum.

Now it´s time to get started and i´m searching for a usable 3d-Engine. I´ve read much about Crystal Space and it looks very well to me, but i also read much about "Nevrax" with it´s NEL Development Tool which is especially done for MMORPGs. The Project "Ryzom" also looks great.

Please don´t flame me, but I just want to know if i can get such a good approach with Crystal Space, too!
E.g. Nevrax supports over 250 Chars at the same time, involved in a battle by lowering details if a char is far away, geomorphing for speed up big outdoor areas, etc.

Therefore, CS looks more congenial to me.  

What do you mean?

[dirkk]

I don't know much about MMORPG, but you may want to have a closer look at Planeshift, which is very impressive. And it works.

[Anonymous]

Sure, i took more than one closer look at planeshift , but i hoped to get some technical and API information. How does the Server-Client structure work and how can i support about 200 Characters on a screen without having speed problems and things like that...

Maybe there´s someone who´s used to problems like these and a bit experienced with CS?

[dingobloo]

everone needs their own mmorpg nowadays  

About supporting 200+ characters simultaneously, it depends entirley on the detail of the characters really, it's not as if there's a set character limit or poly limit on chracters etc, also CS has several lod(level of detail)  functions including the ability to cull whole frames of animation from chracter models after certain distance as well as cached polygon LOD, as does the terrain engine, this should be a preety standard feature of most 3d engine, not really a boast. perhaps a better place to look around for you would be www.crystalspace3d.org.

[Trent]

As Dingobloo said, the amount of characters on screen is limitted to the amount of polygons the computer can push. If you have high detailed models with no LOD then you have no chance, but if you have 100 poly characters you could get hundreds on screen without slow down. The amount of characters on screen is more dependant on your graphics department making the models optimised and with LOD, as well as how you code it to deal with the said characters, rather than what engine you use.

[GooZaan]

Okay, thanks.