Outback Online claims ability to have 10,000 avatars on a single server
While Linden Lab is starting to admit they have scaling problems they will soon have competition claiming — and possibly actually having the ability — to scale up to 100 times or more what a single sim/server on SL will do, better family permission system, better graphics and more stability.
Some of these claims come from an interview Robert Scoble had with Randal Leeb-du Toit and John Wolpert, executive producer of Outback Online a newcomer in the 3D MMO space coming in alpha form this summer:
Imagine if it was possible to build any world you dream of that was just for you and your friends. A club, a new planet, a race track with less gravity, a city in the fog…all infinitely scalable. Then imagine that you create the rules of these virtual worlds – the games to be played, the things to be done.
via scobleizer:
1) The quality of graphics on Second Life aren’t good enough to do lots of things.
2) The scalability of Second Life isn’t good enough to hold really large events (only about 100 people can fit into a single island, in Outback Online they claim they can get 10,000).
All we have at this point is the word from those in the Outback Online camp claiming this is possible, no third party unbiased sources have verified these claims, so don’t get too excited just yet. Still Linden Lab better expect the competition will be coming someday and smart competitors will target SL weaknesses (of which there are many). Linden Lab could deflect and diffuse this competitor momentum and advantage by opening the source of their server ASAP. Remember Google came out when other search engines dominated so being #1 doesn’t last forever.
Compared to the MMORPG camp — and forgive me for making the comparison as I do realize SL is not a ‘game’ — Second Life is still a long ways in the rear view mirror of World of Warcraft. For what SL does they are clearly the leader of their niche but nothing lasts forever, especially on the web.
This VTOR author is signed up for the Outback Online beta and will be happy to report back his findings when the site goes into alpha later this year. I’d like to see 10,000 avatars being able to meet on a single sim/server. Heck, I’d just like to see a service with sims that don’t crash several times a week.
Not sure that Outback Online will be able to deliver but I believe there is a Google-type company that will rise in the virtual world area. Will it be Linden Lab? This field is still fertile ground.
February 19th, 2007 • 
TD Goodliffe • 
trackback | February 20, 2007 at 05:07 | individual trackback-link
A second Second Life – new competition in virtual worlds
Hey, how come I read about this on Scobleizer? Randal Leeb-du-Toit and I are due to catch up for lunch when he’s back from Silicon Valley, so he can tell me about Outback Online, a new 3D virtual world his…
comment | February 20, 2007 at 07:59 | individual comment-link
I think it is already Blizzard.
comment | February 20, 2007 at 17:32 | individual comment-link
You can’t get 10,000 people on one server in WoW. At least not that I’m aware of. Any links or supporting evidence of this?
pingback | February 26, 2007 at 12:10 | individual pingback-link
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comment | February 28, 2007 at 22:32 | individual comment-link
This is serious technology. It remains to be seen about the company. I gather the folks at NICTA are behind this. NICTA is well funded and packed to the gills with smart people. It’s not three people in a basement cobbling together algorithms but a well funded research institute.
comment | March 20, 2007 at 05:27 | individual comment-link
From what I’ve heard, the Outback thing isn’t about 10k people on an “island” but rather that users can make what they call “outbacks” that are entire virtual worlds unto themselves, where any number of people can go. But like all systems, you can have millions, but not if they all show up at the same place and time. But here the claim is more interesting. What they are saying, I think, is that you can have many times more avatars showing up in the same place and time than your client could render, which is a heck of a lot more than most client/server systems can handle. 10k people in the same spot would not be fun for a client to render, but even if it is just a few hundred, it’s better than we see in a lot of current offerings. And if I can make any number of “outbacks” just the way I want them and have any number of people experience them without having to pay some kind of hosting fee, hell yeah! Bring it on!