Why Solana MMO ‘Star Atlas’ Is Hosting a 1,000-Player Online Stress Test

ATMTA, the corporate behind the anticipated space-faring, Solana-based online game Star Atlas, is planning a 1,000-player on-line stress check to be launched on personal servers Wednesday. The main focus of the upcoming check, the corporate says, is to showcase Star Atlas’ high-density, immersive environments to customers.

“That is the primary demonstration of our MetaGravity integration,” ATMTA co-founder and CEO Michael Wagner advised Decrypt in an interview. “Our purpose is a stress check with actual gamers in a single foyer in a single server occasion, as much as 1,000 individuals.”

Gamers who’ve an entry code for the Epic Video games Retailer early entry model of the sport can take part on Wednesday. Star Atlas has been handing out extra codes to some individuals who work together with its official Twitter account.

In July, ATMTA partnered with London-based on-line world developer MetaGravity to leverage its expertise to enhance Star Atlas’ physics and server infrastructure. Star Atlas is a massively multiplayer on-line (MMO) house sport constructed round Solana NFTs and tokens, with a lavish persistent world deliberate

Because the strong imaginative and prescient for Star Atlas continues to be constructed, the workforce has delivered smaller-scale experiences to interact customers. SAGE Labs, a browser-based sport from the builders of Star Atlas, accounted for 15% of all Solana site visitors on October 8 final yr, quickly after launch.

Nonetheless in beta, Star Atlas was a spotlight of the 2023 Solana PlayGG occasion in San Diego, CA, a free two-day gaming occasion hosted by the Solana Basis. ATMTA confirmed off Star Atlas’ potential as an open-world online game on the occasion.

In an interview with Decrypt on Tuesday, Wagner differentiated MetaGravity’s method from that of Unbelievable, the unicorn startup behind the MSquared metaverse platform, which powered the early playtests for the Bored Ape Yacht Membership Otherside sport world.

“Firms like Unbelievable use spatial partitioning, which is only a option to determine and reference objects which might be in shared house,” Wagner mentioned. “MetaGravity makes use of a expertise and a brand new algorithm referred to as causal partitioning.”

Giant multiplayer video games typically divide the sport world into smaller sections or “partitions” to handle community site visitors and computational load extra effectively. Every partition might be processed individually, decreasing the pressure on servers.

Causal partitioning, Wagner defined, permits Star Atlas to have huge, single worlds that assist many customers concurrently with out efficiency degradation.

“What we have been capable of show at Solana Play GG utilizing network-connected bots was 5,000 concurrent customers. After which at Solana Breakpoint this yr, we showcased 30,000 concurrent customers,” he mentioned. “However these have been simply bots that have been network-connecting. Now we’re doing it with actual gamers.”

In response to Wagner, ATMTA selected 1,000 customers to make sure stability and can use servers primarily based in america. He acknowledged that worldwide play will likely be uncovered to lag throughout the check, however that is simply an preliminary multiplayer check.

Trying to stability the anticipated 24-hour person turnout with ATMTA’s present infrastructure capability, Wagner mentioned predicting the utmost variety of every day customers is essential, including that internet hosting a ten,000-user check is unrealistic if solely 500 to 1,000 individuals really be part of.

Wagner mentioned the check will have a look at efficiency metrics, together with frames per second (FPS), latency throughout time zones, and the specs on the PCs used to play Star Atlas, accumulating person suggestions on their expertise. The info, Wagner mentioned, will likely be compiled by a 3rd social gathering.

After the stress check, Wagner mentioned, the Star Atlas roadmap consists of on-chain character development, ship mastery, stock administration, hover racing, and full multiplayer assist that includes Seize the Flag and Crew Deathmatch modes.

Final summer season, Wagner advised Decrypt that regardless of ATMTA shedding 73% of its workers, the workforce is constant on with its long-term mission to carry Star Atlas to life.

“Nothing about our imaginative and prescient has modified,” Wagner mentioned then. “We’re solely reprioritizing our efforts on these issues which might be extra instantly repeatable, and we’re leveraging that as a option to develop the person base and generate income in a extra substantial quantity.”

Regardless of these setbacks and ATMTA shedding $16 million within the collapse of FTX, Wagner mentioned he’s nonetheless bullish on the way forward for blockchain gaming on Solana.

“I am nonetheless extraordinarily bullish; we have by no means misplaced our constructive sentiment round Solana even by way of 2023 with all of the negativity surrounding it, following the FTX stuff,” Wagner mentioned. “When it comes to tech, we nonetheless suppose [Solana] is essentially the most applicable, best suited, and most succesful for scaling to a big person base with real-time on-chain transactions and sport logic.”

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.