[plug] World Forge - general overview

[Oliver White]

Garth Atkinson wrote:

> Oliver - please tell us more about your contribution to Worldforge....

I just discuss design issues and so forth. Right now I'm working through
the mail archives here:

http://mail.worldforge.org/mailing-lists/archive-server/index.html

The project has been around for about a year now, you may or may not
remember the 'Altima' announcement on slashdot.org. That was soon after
the project started, and I just followed the links. The aim in reviewing
the mailing list archive is to document all the design decisions to date
- why we don't use CORBA, the map as a series of nested containters, and
so forth. 

I'm studying software engineering at Edith Cowan University at the
moment, and I'm looking at applications of the object oriented
methodologies to free software. For those not familiar with Grady
Booch's work, the macro process of application design is as follows

Conceptualisation (prototyping)
Analysis (requirements definition)
Design (software architecture)
Evolution (Taking the software to the point of delivery)
Maintenance (Managing the product after delivery - bug fixes, new
functionality)

We got to the point where we had a working prototype - characters walk
around in a world - then confusion set in as to our goals for both the
near term and long term. I suggested working on a requirements document.
This is a long way off from being done, but it has galvanised our
efforts. Currently there are 3 main server efforts (the clients have a
simple job, hence the emphasis on server). 

Cyphesis - a 'virtual world' server, with AI capabilities. The article I
wrote was in response to discussions I had with the server's designer.
This project also defines a protocol to use - Atlas. At the moment Atlas
is XML based. This makes it human readable while we develop it.
Eventually this will be optimised into a binary protocol. So the two
components being developed here are the protocol and AI capabilities.

Backstage - a test bed for the physics engine, among other things.

Stage - final (?) prototype for the v1.0 server. Used to flesh out our
final design. 

So we have a road map, and we've got a long way to go by the looks of
it. In the near term a cyphesis based game has been suggested - Acorn.

http://www.worldforge.org/website/rules/acorn/

I'll let you know when this is ready to play.

I'd like to jump into the server code in a few weeks time. I've just
completed a unit in C++, and I'm interested in working on the physics
engine in backstage. Right now my contribution is a bit of
documentation, interest in AI clients and general publicity.

I was the one who emailed LWN about getting our 'zine a mention. They've
been very supportive, so go have a read if you have time. Liz (one of
the editors) also asked if I'd let potential commercial advertisers know
about the site. So think about it next time you want some page views.
;-)

Thanks for the interest. I'll keep you folks posted.

--
Oliver White