PARSEC: Building the networking architecture for a distributed virtual universe

Parsec (http://www.parsec.org/) is a real-time multiplayer 3D space-combat game giving the user the possibility to explore a whole virtual universe. The Parsec universe consists of a network of servers on the Internet, each representing a single galaxy containing multiple solar systems. The player can travel between solar systems and galaxies. The underlying client/server networking architecture transparently handles server transitions and tries to ensure best game-play even for low-bandwidth and high-latency connections. A special masterserver keeps track of all running gameservers, and can be used to easily find other players. This paper first gives an overview of existing architectures for distributed virtual environments and multiplayer games and then describes the structure and special properties of Parsec's networking architecture, its advantages and drawbacks. Special attention is paid to performance and portability issues.