SYSTEM
REQUIREMENTSCan you handle it?
MINIMUM- Windows 95/98
- Pentium 166+
- 32MB RAM
- Direct3D or Glide compliant accelerator
card w/ 4MB RAM - 500MB Hard drive space
- 28.8k+ internet connection
- Windows compatible sound card
- Microsoft compatible mouse
- 6x CD Rom drive
RECOMMENDED- Pentium 200+
- 64MB RAM
TOP: When you’ve
run out of expansion
ideas, there’s always
the moon.
ABOVE: Xanamech
Nezmirthafen is
tough to both fight
and spell.McQuaid, Clover, and the rest of
EverQuest’s programmers were
tackling very different kinds of
problems. EverQuest wasn’t just
ambitious in its use of
groundbreaking 3D technology,
but also the scope of its world
and combat. McQuaid envisioned
14 classes and 12 races that players
could combine to create their
avatar. But the real challenge
was getting that information
across the slow-as-hell 28.8 kbit/s
modems that most people used. “If
that underlying tech wasn’t there,
there would be no EverQuest,”
McQuaid says. Thankfully, there was
Vince Harron.
There are two common
protocols for communicating on
the internet: TCP/IP and UDP.
Though complicated, the gist is
that the former is slow but stable,
and will send packets of information
with delivery confirmation notices.
If a packet goes missing, TCP/IP
will send a new one. UDP is
much faster, but couldn’t care less if
packets arrived at their destination.
“Vince, who is a brilliant
programmer, came in and wrote what
we ended up calling Reliable UDP,”
McQuaid says.
It was a protocol that let
EverQuest determine when to send
reliable or unreliable data. “When
you’re running around and updating
the server with your character’s
location,” McQuaid explains, “that
was usually sent unreliably because if
there was a lost packet it was no big
deal. Those packets were being sent
out often because everyone is
constantly running around. But if it
was something like trading an item,
we sent that reliably. That was a
critical piece of technology that most
people aren’t even aware of. And
Vince is an unsung hero because he
was down there in the trenches
working on this network code.”