project DarkStar providing Panda3D integration?

[radu]

I've been browsing for panda3d related projects to see how far things can go. I am obviously in the research phase with Panda3D but already experimenting with it.

This is one interesting find:
http://www.etc.cmu.edu/projects/darkstar/

Here's one interesting statement I found there:
"we will be providing The project darkstar server and a python/Panda3d client interface To The students currently Taking building virtual Worlds in order To get more perspectives and feedback on The system as well as see how easy it is To Teach others how To use it, which is an important usability factor out in The real world."

I've seen 2 previous references to darkstar in the forums, but nothing suggests anything remotely close to the above statement.

Is anyone at least aware of what's happening with project DarkStar and is related to panda3d? I will start deepening my research and answer myself if noone else knows more than me, but I thought you might all be interested in how project that goes.

[drwr]

The CMU ETC has recently received a grant to integrate DarkStar with Panda3D. More than that, I don't know, other than what's posted on the page you linked. Should be exciting stuff when it's done, though.

David

[radu]

Seems the project is finished at ETC and a darkstar integration example exists now.

I'll check the demo and report back in a new thread.

[treeform]

Hmm,

Further, our framework is scalable and we know for a fact that it will work
for at least 25 people, so 32 and 64 are easily foreseeable for just about any game. Combined with a
MMOG like our demo, it can likely scale to thousands, which is pretty good considering it was built in
under a semester.

We integrated Panda3D and Project Darkstar. Panda3D has been cited as having three main
weaknesses: visibility culling, level editing, and networking.

Whats wrong with padna3d's visibility culling and networking?

We did started play testing and stress testing late in the semester, so we did not get in many iterations
with feedback from both players and the server. Also were not able to stress test the server to its limits,
partially because we were not expecting it to scale so well and partially because we did not plan enough
time to both test the server, and write a proper dummy client to test the hundreds and thousands levels
of scalability.

So its like a learning project?

What about the direct networking stuff panda3d already has?

[radu]

DarkStar is clearly oriented towards providing all the stuff you need to run the server side and now thanks to this ETC project it works with Panda3D.
That's my take on it, and while you may have already done this part in your projects, others might find it quite interesting.

Anyways, for those that do want to see it in action here are some tips on getting darkstar to work with panda3d 1.7.0 and particularly for the ETC project of Darkstar - panda3d integration.

Step 1. Go to
http://www.etc.cmu.edu/projects/darkstar/?p=134
and follow the instructions but before installing stuff please observe my comments below if you are already on Panda 1.7.0:

Basically the instructions provided in the above referenced page do work perfectly except for the pywin32 installation, which should be replaced with pywin32 for python 2.6, corresponding to panda3d 1.7.0. The right pywin can be dl-ed from https://sourceforge.net/projects/pywin3 ... e/download and should be installed instead of the pywin32 included in the pack provided in the instruction page. At least until the ETC team will pack a separate archive for the new 1.7.0 release.

Also, on certain installations, running the server may throw a jdk related error like "java/lang/NoClassDefFoundError: java/lang/Object".
Simply reboot and reinstall the java kit provided one more time with no other progs running in the frontend (it's windows and if that doesn't solve it just see if you have a rt.jar somewhere in your program files\java\ subdirectories (probably C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_16\lib) and copy it manually to your C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\lib directory . That did it for me.

Good luck

[dsjolie]

Has anyone tried this "Project Darkstar Python Client"?

https://sgs-python-client.dev.java.net/

/Daniel

[radu]

It wasn't really maintained. Folks that have used it have developed their own classes. Have a look at the project done by the ETC team here: http://www.etc.cmu.edu/projects/darkstar/?p=134
It's a functional example that uses the server.

Unfortunately there is some really bad news about PDS. Oracle, who is the new owner, decided to drop support for it so it is very likely it will stall...

[neopangaia]

Oracle allowed the project to become Open Source

It is now known as RedDwarf Server
See http://reddwarfserver.org for code/info

See NPHOS (http://www.nphosweb.com) for more information about scaling and multi-node capability

[radu]

Yes, unfortunately by going to their website you would confirm what I was guessing some 2 years ago... it stalled.

[neopangaia]

i agree.. im hoping to sort of spark interest in it over time. really its pretty amazing