Microsoft Releases Technology to allow a CS Match with 1000 Players
Microsoft has been working on a project called DonnyBrook that will allow FPS (First Person Shooters) to support matches with hundreds and even thousands of players.
Currently games like Halo and Counter Strike have limitations close to 16 - 32 players because of bandwidth matters. Keeping the game smooth requires knowing what everybody in the map is doing and refreshing this information several times per second.
Microsoft's technology uses smart focus to determine which players are more important and only refreshes those. The other players in the map get refreshed less and less according to how far they are from our attention. Then, to avoid having a bunch of laggy-looking players in the background, Microsoft ads a guided AI which basically gives background players a bot behavior between refreshes so that the gameplay runs smooth.
They have released documentation behind their techniques for all game makers to use and also plan to continue developing these concepts into standards for the industry.
Perhaps that match with 1000 players is closer than we think... although imagine being the first guy to die and then having to wait until every last camper gets fragged.
