Reflexes in SL, Source Thoughts

So I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and I have a few things to say about C:SI and other skill based games, in the realm of SL.

Second Life is a wonderful platform for builders and programmers to produce a game such as C:SI. It’s got a robust scripting language, a persistent environment, and a wide userbase.

However, It also has problems. It’s physics engine is buggy, its script speed is fairly slow, the servers are less than stable, and all in all, it’s amazing that it functions as well as it does.

Reflex based games rely on relative lag being somewhat similar, which due to distance from server, and any number of black magic factors, is hardly ever the case, leading to lag frustration.

Also, the high video cost of SL as an environment means that few people can run the game without FPS issues, even if the server is behaving. I know I can’t, and I have a fairly decent video card. It even runs Bioshock on medium graphics. But I’ve got my SL sliders flatlined, and Av impostors off to save me from the laggyness, and I still have about 25-30 fps STANDING STILL and watching a fight. When I move, this can vary anywhere from 25-15, depending on my oppoents dress and hairstyle.
You won’t ever catch me bitching after a fight though, because these things are fairly constant. Everyone has the same sort of problems with SL, and even if they didn’t….

I choose to play the game.

That’s right. I, knowingly, and willingly, subject myself to glitchy servers, random FPS flatlines, physics engine bugs, and ugggggly graphics, because I like this game. I like C:SI as a system.

Thinking about this for a while, and looking over Robby’s blog, I’ve decided to try to look at Source (valve) as a moddable platform, with the intent to see if I can figure out enough to make it into a valid swordfighting engine.

Probably nothing will come of it.

But it’s an interesting side project.

Anyone who has any insight into the mod process, or knows anything about Source, animations, or anything else that I’ll need for this project, please, feel free to drop me a comment.

I don’t intend to abandon SL. But I thought, you know, if I could make a stable, server based swordfighting game, I might as well try it.

Don’t get too excited. I start projects like this all the time. I’ve never finished a whole lot.

EA