Special Features:
VIDEO GAME EXPERIENCES TO BE
EXPANDED BY GRIDS
When we think about the possible use of grid computing, we may often think
of
a supercomputer, being used by scientists and researchers, to seek cures for
diseases or for chunching data about the human genome.
But now, Butterfly.net and IBM Corp. have showed off a smaller, yet
potentially lucrative, use for grids: video games. In doing so, these
companies set the stage for millions of players on different platforms --
personal computers, mobile devices, or Sony's PlayStation 2 console -- to
compete against each other in virtual worlds larger than any before.
"It's really treating gaming as an extreme sport of computing," said Scott
Penberthy, a vice president with IBM's Global Services division.
The Butterfly grid network, running on the freely distributed Linux
operating
system, also highlighted the competing approaches of two industry titans,
Microsoft Corp. and Sony, in migrating the multibillion-dollar video game
market to the Internet.
On a computer screen in a tiny booth at the Game Developers Conference, the
annual geek-fest for engineers who make video games, dozens of hunched
creatures waddled through the vast deserts. In a typical online game, the
virtual world would be broken into different segments, each controlled by one
server computer. Several thousand other Internet-connected players could
compete in that world. But in "Burned," the game created to demonstrate the
Butterfly.net grid, the invisible walls between each of those server-
controlled segments dissolved. Each piece of the world was controlled by one
of the 14 IBM blade servers filling a rack on the floor, then linked together
through IBM and Butterfly.net software.
The achievement allows much larger worlds with many more players. Game
developers who host their games on the Butterfly.net grid can use the system
like a utility, using more or less of the grid's power based on the number of
players online.
In another change for the industry, the distinction between PC games and
console games was blurred. Several PlayStation 2 consoles in a back room
inserted into the game characters who could interact with characters from the
personal computers in the booth.
Sony, which has sold more than 50 million PlayStation 2 consoles, granted
Butterfly.net a license to run PlayStation 2 games on its grid. Now the start-
up is seeking developers to create games for it. David Levine, chief executive
of West Virginia-based Butterfly.net, said 10 developers are working on games
for the grid, with the first expected to reach the market in the first half of
2004.
"By joining with Butterfly.net, we're going to be on the ground floor of
the
standardization of online game play," said Curt Benefield, the chief executive
of Sherman3D, the Atlanta developer of a multiplayer online game called
"VibeForce."
Sony and Microsoft, which is a distant second in the industry, are taking
very
different approaches to connecting their video game systems to the Internet.
Nintendo, the third-largest console maker, has been largely ignoring online
games for its GameCube console.
Sony has created an open system, giving game publishers their choice of
hosting PlayStation 2 games on their own networks or through Sony. Sony, which
did not include an Internet connection in the PlayStation 2, has sold about
500,000 adapters that allow players to go online through broadband or dial-up
connections.
In sharp contrast, Microsoft bet heavily on online games by building an
Ethernet port into its inaugural console, the Xbox. Microsoft tightly controls
its proprietary network, called Xbox Live, and charges users $10 a month for
access. Microsoft said this week it has signed up 350,000 subscribers for the
service, which has received critical praise for its ease in connecting players
over the Internet.
Microsoft's relative success with Xbox Live has surprised analysts. P.J.
McNealy, an analyst with the research firm Gartner Dataquest, said the grid
computing initiative should help Sony better compete with Xbox Live until the
introduction of the PlayStation 3, expected in 2005.
"Sony has been looking for a way to catch up in online gaming, in the most
economical fashion," McNealy said. "They'll be fast followers, not leaders, in
this generation of boxes."
Sony is working with Toshiba and IBM to develop a chip, codenamed "the
Cell,"
to power the PlayStation 3. The company has been tight-lipped about its plans,
but many analysts believe the new console will use grid computing not only to
connect players, but to power the consoles themselves. By harnessing the
processors in other consoles sitting idle on the network, as other grid
computing initiatives do with PCs, some analysts expect the new console to run
up to 1,000 times as fast as the PlayStation 2.
"All that computing power now is accessed out the back of the PlayStation
2,"
Penberthy said. "Now it's just a matter of creative minds figuring out how to
leverage that."
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