Summary
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Nicholas Herring discusses the incorporation of observability into the longstanding game infrastructure of Eve Online. The presentation covers various aspects of maintaining and enhancing a 20-year-old game system while introducing modern elements.
Key Highlights:
Observability in Legacy Systems: Nicholas emphasizes how Eve Online integrated head-based sampling into its architecture, bypassing tail-based sampling to reduce complexity and avoid additional maintenance burdens.
Dynamic vs. Deterministic Sampling: The game uses a blend of dynamic and deterministic sampling. Challenges associated with Python’s limitations on processing capabilities influenced the shift towards head-based sampling.
Player Expression and System Performance: The presentation highlights Eve's unique player-driven experiences like creating missions and showcasing ship skins, which contribute to player expression in the virtual environment.
Monolithic to Modern Ecosystem Transition: Nicholas discusses wrapping legacy systems and new technologies under an umbrella termed 'Quasar.' This includes using contemporary tech stacks like Kubernetes and gRPC.
Focus on Player Interactions: The game tracks significant in-game events, such as battles involving numerous costly Titans, to balance operational costs against experience fidelity.
The presentation concludes with a discussion of the strategies and technological choices that enable Eve Online to balance performance and cost while fostering a vibrant player-driven universe.
This is the end of the AI-generated content.
Abstract
A unique pattern in video game software is real-time interactions to express the personality of users.
Here we will talk about how we instrument the universe of New Eden to identify the traffic that matters, even the "fun" parts!
We'll explore how we achieve performant observability in a 20 year old legacy system running along side modern technologies:
- 100% Head base sampling ecosystem
- Blend of dynamic and deterministic sampling techniques
- The blessing and curse that is the Exponential Moving Average (EMA)
- Observing "fun" without breaking the bank
Speaker
Nicholas Herring
Technical Director, Eve Online @CCP Games, Refiner of Internet Spaceships and Explorer of Feral Gordian Knots of Python
With over twenty years combined across military and commercial application of video game technologies, Nicholas has built patented distributed system technologies which bridge military tactical networks and real-time game engine simulation networks. In addition to running multiple research and development projects surrounding real-time human bioinformatics, he has also delivered multiple game titles running at cloud scale. Currently applying this experience to modernizing imaginary spaceships for Eve Online.
Find Nicholas Herring at:
Date
Tuesday Mar 17 / 11:45AM GMT ( 50 minutes )
Location
Whittle (3rd Fl.)
