ml>> so tell us, does the new version have the capability of running on
 ml>> several computers tied together over a network acting as one?

 MT> Sounds interesting, but I've never heard of splitting it
 MT> across multiple systems.  Coulda been something that was
 MT> hacked together after id released the 1.0 source once 2.0 was
 MT> commercially available.

nope... was directly from ID software... i ran like that for a while... it
was good but some that found that i was configured and running like that
called it "cheating"... i guess, in a way, it was but not when
everyone had the same choices... it just took three more machines than
normal to do... i'll have to look and see if i can locate the command line
parms...

[trim]

 MT> However, it wouldn't be much of a stretch to get this working
 MT> on one machine. Nvidia is applying the SLI approach absorbed
 MT> from 3dfx/Voodoo days to gang-render across multiple GPUs in
 MT> the new PCIe version of their top-dawg card (6890?).  All I've
 MT> read about is distributing portions of each frame to separate
 MT> cards and that the load can be distributed asymetrically if
 MT> the cards have varying performance levels.  But since almost
 MT> all high-end ATI and Nvidia cards can manage 2 displays, it's
 MT> conceivable that 2 cards with 2 displays each could accomplish
 MT> what you're talking about...if frame rates are high enough to
 MT> afford halving.

hummm... i think i like the idea of individual machines better... they
would be faster and all rendering would be handled by each one... the main
things that would need to be sync'd between each box is the location and
view orientation... that would probably generate the greatest amount of
traffic... with each box running from the same game server, all would have
the same info for the rest of the game... or so it seems to me...

 ml>> the one thing that i wish was able to be done with the above was to
 ml>> toss a grenade behind you or to even just point your pistol or such to
 ml>> the rear or side without having to turn your body...

 MT> That would be cool, too...and require some extra UI
 MT> considerations for "shoot-right", "shoot-back", etc.  Of
 MT> course, if you're fast enough, you can end up with grenades
 MT> going off behind you now.

this is true... i was thinking of using the tophat to do the weapon aim
stuff... hummm...

)\/(ark