What Engine will ns2 run on ?

sacmo2 · June 2009

I know its not anything to do with the valve half life engine.

But have they released any info to what kinda engine it is, and is there any engine similar to the one NS2 will be running on ?

Slaught · June 2009

Check these out, should answer a few of your questions.
<a href="http://www.naturalselection2.com/faq/game-questions/what-engine-are-you-using.html" target="_blank">FAQ:What engine are you using?</a>
<a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=104567" target="_blank">Development Blog Update - Engine questions answers</a>

sacmo2 · June 2009

Yeah ive read those, but did NS2 base there engine off of any other game engine. Or did they completely code and create a totally new engine.

WhiteZero · June 2009

I'd assume it's 100% original.

Kalabalana · June 2009

Pretty sure Max was brought on because of his extensive experience in creating graphics engines. Maybe not, either way Max knows how to do it, and as we can see the engine's here, and I'm sure it's a safe bet to say he had no small part in it.

sacmo2 · June 2009

Wow, thats very very sweet, kinda makes me wonder though how its going to compare performance wise with all the other game engines out there.

But I am happy they did that instead of basing it around source engine or the UT engine or big time game engines, I cant wait to see how this game engine works.

Superfly · June 2009

One of the biggest advantages to having your own engine is that if there is a performance issue, there is nobody stopping you from getting it fixed. Plus like UWE has stated before, they can make their engine do what they need it to do, they do not have to use any hacks/tricks in order to get it to work the way that they intend.

sacmo2 · June 2009

You know what that makes me feel 100% better because they have access to the engine 100% and they know it better and ur right then can fix it quick.

I hope it isnt too high performance and bandwidth eater on servers, I would love to get 8 servers going on my new server box <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" /> makes me excited <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />

JAmazon · June 2009

I'm actually rather optimistic about the performance of the engine. When game companies use out of house engines, it has a lot of overhead processing because the creators of the engine have no idea what the game makers need it to do (kind of like a swiss army knife). In this case they can streamline it to process only what they need to run the game. So performance will probably be pretty bangin.

homicide · June 2009

You can pretty much guarantee 8 servers won't run on 1 box, not unless they made the physics pretty horrible.

Superfly · June 2009

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (homicide @ Jun 5 2009, 03:19 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1710466"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'>You can pretty much guarantee 8 servers won't run on 1 box, not unless they made the physics pretty horrible.</div>

He may have a Cray Supercomputer....

sacmo2 · June 2009

the new xeon core i7 can run 7 tf2 32 man's and that is crazy, im sure ns2 wont be as cpu hungry and bandwidth hungry as tf2.

and look at the specs for ns2 to run it,

A 1.2 GHz Processor, 256MB RAM, a DirectX 9 level graphics card, Windows 2000/XP/ME/98, mouse, keyboard and of course, an internet connection.

yeah and tf2

Minimum: 1.7 GHz Processor, 512MB RAM, DirectXÂ® 8 level Graphics Card, WindowsÂ® Vista/XP/2000, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection

Recommended: Pentium 4 processor (3.0GHz, or better), 1GB RAM, DirectXÂ® 9 level Graphics Card, WindowsÂ® Vista/XP/2000, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection

Yes, these are client specs, of course, but they correspond well in terms of how well the server can run.

so you cant guarantee anything buddy, Making a estimate ns2 will not be near as hungry as tf2 is, and tf2 is one of the most bandwidth and cpu hungry games out there at this time as far as 32 man servers goes.

WhiteZero · June 2009

And minimum specs (which it appears is all we have for NS2 so far) only shows how scalable the engine is. We have no idea how taxing the game will be on max settings... sense I doubt max settings have even been set yet. hehe

aeroripper · June 2009

I am imaging the actual game will be much more taxing with all the many things going on. IIRC, NS1 still ranks better high even among modern games with bandwith usage.

Nima_ · June 2009

Max sits upon his cloud of programming glory, throwing down bolts of graphics goodness. That is how the engine was made.

homicide · June 2009

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (sacmo2 @ Jun 5 2009, 04:21 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1710517"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'>the new xeon core i7 can run 7 tf2 32 man's and that is crazy, im sure ns2 wont be as cpu hungry and bandwidth hungry as tf2.

and look at the specs for ns2 to run it,

A 1.2 GHz Processor, 256MB RAM, a DirectX 9 level graphics card, Windows 2000/XP/ME/98, mouse, keyboard and of course, an internet connection.

yeah and tf2

Minimum: 1.7 GHz Processor, 512MB RAM, DirectXÂ® 8 level Graphics Card, WindowsÂ® Vista/XP/2000, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection

Recommended: Pentium 4 processor (3.0GHz, or better), 1GB RAM, DirectXÂ® 9 level Graphics Card, WindowsÂ® Vista/XP/2000, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection

Yes, these are client specs, of course, but they correspond well in terms of how well the server can run.

so you cant guarantee anything buddy, Making a estimate ns2 will not be near as hungry as tf2 is, and tf2 is one of the most bandwidth and cpu hungry games out there at this time as far as 32 man servers goes.</div>

And 1 box can run like 30 TFC servers, turns out TF isn't NS. I would be amazed if an NS2 server ends up using less resources than a TF2 server.

sacmo2 · June 2009

I see where your coming from, and yes it might be a lot more cpu and bandwidth heavy later on with the modded functions people will make, but I highly doubt it will be like that one the 1st release of the game arrives. I think that the ns team wants to make this game as efficient as possible to get the most servers and the performance out of it, I think once people start customizing the LUA files to fit there needs with the game that's when the game will start getting a lot more heavy as far as the cpu and bandwidth usage comes into play.

NeoSniper · June 2009

I'd like to add my two cents here.

I was under the impression that TF2 was not very bandwidth intensive. Seeing as how it doesn't have too many physics, AI, nor vehicles in it that would make sense. As far as I know games like BF1942 or UT2004 are much more bandwidth intensive due to there having vehicles in there, particularly fast ones. When you have such mechanics then you'll need much more ticks in order to have smooth gameplay. TF2 is only characters running around with only a few sentries with AI and few weapons with physics so I don't see this game as being necessarily bandwidth heavy. Of course that doesn't stop people from setting up super high tick server for extra smooth gameplay.

With NS1 having all those buildings, turrets, "fast" moving aliens, dynamics maps, commander, aura effects, etc... I wouldn't be surprised if its more bandwidth intensive than regular non-vehicle-having FPS games, but It should be too much more.

And a big issue is how good the netcode is. Which means that going into the alpha/beta NS2 will likely be more resource intensive for both clients and server, and then this should become more optimized as we move closer to release and beyond that too.

Mod are a whole other issue.

sacmo2 · June 2009

Actually your wrong, no offense, but almost all server companies will tell u that one of there top bandwidth heavy games is TF2, yeah UT3 is a very bandwidth heavy game as well, but COD is the most ram and bandwidth heavy game there is out at the moment.

Now reason being when i tested this, 32 man tf2 vs a UT3 32 man the performance was cut in half, the TF2 was using tons more resources, and ut3 on a warfare map(thats the one with vehicles mind you) ran a lot better and barley ate any heavy resource. Now I cant tell u why, or how it ran better then the TF2 32man, but your right it isnt a very intesive physics game, but 16 vs 16 with 6 sentrys going nuts and rocket and demo's going crazy in 1 area it will start eating resources, cant tell u why it eats more then most games, all i know is that ive witnessed it.

as far as tf2 goes its a lot more CPU heavy then Ut4 and ut3, ive ran both and found and been confirmed by other server runners and companies that tf2 is the most cpu hungry game at 32 man full.

more so then any of the other games we have ran in the past.

My buddy dan at ultimate game servers, says he runs a very nice server and he says he cant get more then 4 32 man TF2 servers out of it without the CPU bogging down the the rest of the servers.

Kalabalana · June 2009

This topic has completely run off on a tangent.

The only things we can realistically predict, is the bandwidth required by the servers.

As for running the game, because it's a custom engine, we cannot realistically make any concrete judgments based on other products out there. For all we know, there will be a low poly mode, or even, they design a special server build that doesn't even run in a traditional sense, it could have an ultra low footprint with comparison to the client.

What Engine will ns2 run on ?

Comments