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Board » General Discussion » SOL - 3D Version

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Rod,
sorry to contraddict but technically speaking:

SOL is a Client - Server environment so every client (browser, mobile etc.) is syncronized to the server where the simulation takes place. the increase of the client affects server performance but it does not affect syncronization.

VSK/SailX is peer-to-peer based, so in order to race every participant has to be synchronized to all the others. Believe me, even in a total QoS network this starts to be impossible when the number of actors exceeds few tens.

a.
ahhh... very interesting. Wasn't aware of that.
so it is sheer NUMBERS of users at the same time.
So if SOL had a race of 20, like sailX then 3D would be possible.
But, since SOL has literally hundreds of users on in one single race 3D would not be possible.

OK Then... what about instead of having the simple map while racing.. have a satellite image all the time, while racing, plotting etc etc...
Not just a satellite image to track your boats and others which is just a static shot of the race.
St. Lucie - Jupiter Ocean Racing Association (SJORA)
It does make me wonder about the 150,000 sailors and/or boats that were accommodated during the Volvo.
If it breaks, it's not strong enough--if it doesn't, it's too heavy.
It does make me wonder about the 150,000 sailors and/or boats that were accommodated during the Volvo.
Consider they only update your boat once per hour, on a rather large weather grid.... And then compare to SOL updating your position and weather conditions every 20 seconds or whatever... from that alone you can see VOR can easily serve over 180x as many boats as SOL, which also has mutiple races running simultaneously....
VOR can serve so many because of the simplistic nature of the sim....
And it includes every boat ever registered in each race it does - even if no commands have been sent for years - so alot of those boats are just head to wind at the start line ;-)
I help develop the client interface for the best online ocean racing sim there is... __/)/)_/)__
totally true.
VOR simulation is a "rough and simplified" version of SOL. So it was possible to crank all boat position every hour. Moreover it was pointed that there has never been more than 5000 active users.

Having SOL boats overlayed on Satellite maps is not a technical problem. Just a matter of client burden. Nevertheless it would make it very difficult to round islands or so since the coastal profile used in the simulator is different from a photo snapshot. And there is always the possibility to donwload the race kml file and load it in GoogleEarth

To sum up, I believe the SOL gods are willling (and they have my total approval) to keep the interface as simple as possible without forgetting any crucial information. This allows for the usage of very simple clients or low performance platforms (such as mobile devices)
Throughout the VOR, but especially during the first legs, I and many other were not able to access for hours on end. At the time, it was said that they had created their own Denial of Service attack. :-)

Cheers,
Philip
same here...main reason why I quitted VOR.
Besides the 60nmx60nm wind squares were difficult to digest :D
Just to add to the "flogging of dead horses", I attach two competing views of the virtual sailing world:-

Please do not take this as a criticism of the Sailonline system, but rather as a suggested possible improvement. Bear in mind that the Virtual Sailor system is entirely contained within my own computer, yet has Internet connections to compare boat positions (just the same as SOL). The weather and winds in VS are at my choice rather than derived from NOAA, but I am sure that could easily be changed
My main point is that the VS view on your computer screen is much more engaging but yet allows for all the navigational features of SOL.
Someone, sometime, is going to develop a more "complete" sailing game site---why should it not be done within SOL?
If it breaks, it's not strong enough--if it doesn't, it's too heavy.
Attachments
again: you are missing the technical difficulties.
VS is peer-to-peer based. So it is virtually impossible to synchronize more than 50 boats. Especially difficult for those on ADSL connections with upload link slower than download.
If you like the 3D experience you have to stick to shorter races with less boats.
On the other hand SOL simulation runs on a single computer and we all peek to this server through our clients.
You need to understand that we are limited to nowadays technology. Maybe in 20 years we will all be connected with fiber-to-home 1Gbit links and your dream of having 3D regattas with 500 boats will become real.
Rod - the one thing that drove me from VOR to SOL (which I had initially thought would be too complicated for me) was the fact that periodically if one fell behind a tad, instead of just dropping a few tens of places it was a few TENS OF THOUSANDs of places.. a bunch of us sailing the VORG just called that the "stealth fleet effect". Apparently all boats ever registered EVER are automatically started in all races... so I have been led to believe anyway.

I love SOL.. and its always great to hear good ideas/dreams about how it can develop :-) Dreams tempered with practicality is what I like to think SOL offers!!

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