Procedural Virtual World Generation in a Massively Multiplayer Online Game
Nguyen, Phuong (2016)
Nguyen, Phuong
Metropolia Ammattikorkeakoulu
2016
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201605188477
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201605188477
Tiivistelmä
The purpose of this thesis was to create a virtual world platform in a massively online multi-player game through the usage of procedural generation. The target for the practice is the Galaxy Map implementation in Last Planets, a massively multiplayer mobile game aiming at revolutionizing social gameplay, developed by Vulpine Games. The study introduces the business challenge that Vulpine Games was facing, requiring a newly designed and robust replacement for the existing placeholder implementation of the Galaxy Map.
The research approach in this study is action research, which involves the analysis of the existing solution to look for problems. This leads to the literature research process, where good solutions can be found to apply to the current context. The changes to the implementation are then evaluated against the original requirements, which ultimately yield suggestions for future improvement iterations.
The study focuses on how to improve the existing Galaxy Map through the process of using various procedural generation techniques and algorithms to create a persistent and unique environment for a multiplayer game using Unity and C# on the client side. The study also covers the technical solutions when dealing with a mass number of objects in a video game as well as how to manage and optimize network resource usage in such a multiplayer environment.
Based on the results of the final implementation, the project succeeded in creating a virtual world platform which is entirely procedurally generated through the usage of various solutions discovered during the study. Despite rare occasional crashes that happen on low-end devices, the implemented Galaxy Map has managed to meet the requirements presented by Vulpine Games’ designers and achieved a reasonable network utilization performance. The knowledge explored and used for the implementation is still rather basic. Procedural generation in video game is a very broad topic with many challenging difficulties from both technical and design perspectives. This suggests that the Galaxy Map can be improved further in the future by using more advanced techniques, especially when more demanding requirements surface. This study, however, can be considered a good fundamental reference for developers who aim to achieve similar virtual world design by using procedural generation.
The research approach in this study is action research, which involves the analysis of the existing solution to look for problems. This leads to the literature research process, where good solutions can be found to apply to the current context. The changes to the implementation are then evaluated against the original requirements, which ultimately yield suggestions for future improvement iterations.
The study focuses on how to improve the existing Galaxy Map through the process of using various procedural generation techniques and algorithms to create a persistent and unique environment for a multiplayer game using Unity and C# on the client side. The study also covers the technical solutions when dealing with a mass number of objects in a video game as well as how to manage and optimize network resource usage in such a multiplayer environment.
Based on the results of the final implementation, the project succeeded in creating a virtual world platform which is entirely procedurally generated through the usage of various solutions discovered during the study. Despite rare occasional crashes that happen on low-end devices, the implemented Galaxy Map has managed to meet the requirements presented by Vulpine Games’ designers and achieved a reasonable network utilization performance. The knowledge explored and used for the implementation is still rather basic. Procedural generation in video game is a very broad topic with many challenging difficulties from both technical and design perspectives. This suggests that the Galaxy Map can be improved further in the future by using more advanced techniques, especially when more demanding requirements surface. This study, however, can be considered a good fundamental reference for developers who aim to achieve similar virtual world design by using procedural generation.