Architecture

A quick architecture overview for those who want to understand the different building blocks:

[client]--|                              |--[server godot]
[client]--|--[Horizon server + plugins]--|--[server godot]
[client]--|                              |--[server godot]

• client: that's you, the players
• Horizon server + plugins: manages all objects (position, rotation, various properties), integrates GORC (which lets a player receive only the information near them), and manages the Godot servers
• server godot: computes all the collisions and talks to the Horizon server

Scenario 1

Test scenario 1:

• 1 Horizon server with 30 CPUs
• 1 Godot server with 20 CPUs

Results:

• more than 60 clients connected
• no server connection issues (so much better than during the previous test)
• no lag 😍 (except for the commands sometimes, but I'm not sure it's a network issue since it also happens with 1 player — still worth investigating)
• on the network side, between 45 and 60 MB outgoing from the Horizon server; messages aren't well optimized yet and there's no compression, so this can still go down a bit. That's about 1 Mbps per client

Scenario 2

Test scenario 2:

• 1 Horizon server with 30 CPUs, split at 20 players
• 30 Godot servers with 2 CPUs each

Results:

• the split works well
• the Godot servers are on their knees with 2 CPUs — need to look into why. A few leads to check (maybe too much computation in Godot on the server side too, to be verified)
• some players freeze; this happens when the player isn't physically on any Godot server. There are still a few issues lingering on that side. There are many cases to handle (a player moves and changes server, turns around, changes server again...).

Scenario 3

Test scenario 3:

• 1 Horizon server with 30 CPUs, split at 50 players
• 30 Godot servers with 2 CPUs each

Results:

• the split works well
• the Godot servers are still on their knees

Conclusion

A successful test — things are moving forward nicely. Not everything is perfect yet, but that's expected. These tests are really important for advancing the development of the technologies, so a HUGE THANK YOU 🔥!

Next steps:

• finish the split code, addressing the issues encountered
• write the server merge code (when there's nobody or almost nobody left on a server, everyone can be brought together on another server)
• optimize the Godot servers (CPU usage)