[Beowulf] clusters in gaming

[Dean Michael Berris]

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Eugen Leitl wrote:
> 
> While I do see what a usual C/C++ MPI approach wouldn't
> be probably enough for a highly dynamic and flexible virtual
> environment, the result still strikes me as inelegant,
> and killing architectural deficiences by throwing enough
> hardware at it (not necessary always wrong, mark, just
> not in this case).
> 

I don't see why a usual C/C++ MPI approach wouldn't work, though the
scaling issues of adding a new node to the cluster is certainly a
problem that may be a hindrance from the implementation -- but one that
can be remedied by having local clusters "gridded" together using some
protocol.

As for throwing hardware at it, I don't think that's a problem -- that's
actually a good solution. That being said, if the implementation was
already good to start with then adding more hardware would have
(supposedly) better effect on the overall performance/experience.

> Can things be compiled in realtime by passing code snippets
> in conventional compiled languages, or is this always limited
> to highly dynamic environments like Smalltalk (which OpenCroquet
> is based on) or Lisp (with sbcl and cmucl there are now great
> compilers for Lisp, though I don't know about MPI support)?
> 

Short answer is yes: it can even be done in C++. However what I would
rather use in these situations would be a dynamic language like as you
mention Lisp or things like Python (embedded in C++ or the other way
around, see Boost.Python).

I think it's an architecture problem more than anything as far as the SL
server side is concerned. But then when you're faced with a problem like
full-3D physics engine in the server side, that's not something "as easy
as Hello, World" to implement (or fix for the matter).

Though it certainly is not "impossible", "hard" would be an
understatement especially now that it's in full-deployment with
thousands of people getting on it at any given time.

- --
Dean Michael C. Berris
http://cplusplus-soup.blogspot.com/
mikhailberis AT gmail DOT com
+63 928 7291459
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