UE4 & MMORPGs - Does it make sense to use this engine for such large projects?

I know of the MMO Starter Kit (CodeSpartan), so I know it IS technically possible. What I don’t know is…

  1. How would the engine perform / handle large open worlds keeping loading screens to a minimal?

  2. How would the engine perform with the possibility of having hundreds of people in a single location?

I was recently impressed with a GREENLIGHT project from STEAM, those two questions above however are not answered in what information they have provided to the public as of yet (Project Genom)

If anyone here knows anything I’d appreciate the information provided.

Thanks,

Kevin

It largely depends on how well you can design the game. The engine is very capable, but if you don’t know much what you’re doing then it won’t matter.

Project ARK is a good mmo example showing Unreal 4 capabilities . Ask yourself , how good is your code and how powerfull are your servers if you want to handle hundred of people on the same map ?

  1. UE4 handles levels that are up to 10km by 10km. With level streaming you can have multiple levels that stream independently as you run around.

  2. There is no fundamental reason why UE4 can’t handle hundreds of people in the same area, though that is really up to your execution. The primary difference between a normal game and an MMO is the network architecture.

If you don’t know servers, and don’t know anyone that knows servers, then UE4 isn’t going to make that easy for you.

  1. There is no fundamental reason why UE4 can’t handle hundreds of people in the same area, though that is really up to your execution.

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Based on our experience with a large amount of actors, this is not true. UE4 actors are very expensive, especially when you move them around. I would be very surprised to see a MMO with hundreds of players moving around in the same area and executing more or less complex game logic, at least not with average PC hardware or the current gen consoles.

Cheers,
Sascha

I never seen hundred of player on mmos, Within Guild Wars 2 when there is too much players you must downgrade a lot graphics to keep a playable frame rate. There is no magic engine or perhaps it’s possible if your characters are more simple like Minecraft, but you’ll encounter bandwith and servers problems. If you don’t have a company with strong load balancing servers and server specialists, there is no solution possible.

The multiplayer mod for Just Cause 2 allows you to have many many people in one area, and thousands of people on a server–but, there weren’t any character customization options, and the amount of data being transmitted was very small so the gameplay was a bit funky as far as what was going on.

Your PC doesn’t have to handle all of that info. The server should take care of the brunt of that and tell the clients who is where and doing what.

  1. UE4 handles levels that are up to 10km by 10km.
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20km square

Yup. And look at other games. WoW doesn’t echo the client information from every single client if the number of local players is over a certain threshold. Chat yes, but player models and other data? Only up to X players within a certain radius. Both to keep player clients from crashing and to keep the server bandwidth within a reasonable number.

As seen by now Genom and ARK, the “MM” in MMORPG is certainly possible, and even viable.

Also, people seem to think that massive has to mean that if 200 players meet together, then all 200 have to know what is happening between each other. This is simply not true. There are more twitchy (albeit simple) games such as Realm of the Mad God where any given number of players on an instance are limited to (if my memory serves me correctly) 85, but there are many, many servers and instances, so while they are an MMORPG, they are smart with handling player populations.