A proxy server-network for real-time computer games

Abstract

Computer games played over the Internet have recently become an important class of distributed applications. In this paper we present a novel proxy server-network topology aiming at improved scalability of multiplayer games and low latency in client-server data transmission. We present a mechanism to efficiently synchronize the distributed state of a game based on the concept of eventual consistency. We analyse the benefits of our approach compared to commonly used client-server and peer-to-peer topologies, and present first experimental results. © Springer-Verlag 2004.