Hi everyone my name is Sebastian Wloch I am
the CEO at Asobo Studio.
Welcome to this new episode of the Feature
Discovery Series about Multiplayer.
First I'll be going about how we created one
shared world for the simmers to fly in.
Then I'll be going over the ways you can engage
in multiplayer, the different modes you can
fly in, and the different filters we have.
And finally I'll give you some technical details
about how this service functions and how the online
multiplayer works.
Our goal with multiplayer was to provide users
with a new experience that would bring all
the pilots on the planet together in one shared
online world.
We wanted the experience to be through the
power of Azure which gives us multiple clusters
of as many servers as needed to host all users.
We have a robust solution that is instantly,
extremely scalable and enabled us to create
all the features we wanted.
For the multiplayer in Microsoft Flight Simulator
we created one shared world.
The goal was to bring all the pilots together,
whether they're flying in the real world and
real world traffic, or whether they're flying
virtually in the simulator.
The experience is seamless and there is nothing
to manage nothing to configure you don't have
any game to create any session to create or
anything to join.
Also to bring the real world pilots together
with the virtual pilots we have real word
live air traffic which is available it is
augmented by AI when required, that means
that we have most if not all the airplanes
which are flying in the world at one moment.
Which in this simulator whenever a signal
is lost the AI will take over and continue
flying that plane until data comes back online.
As this is one single world we've enabled
users to choose filters which allows them
to decide who they want to fly with and how
they want to fly.
The first mode is going to be what we call
"live players only".
It is for those of you who want to fly by
the rules, who want to fly in a more strict
space respecting all the rules and all the
ways how to fly and this filter you have to
fly by real-time live weather so it's exactly
the weather which is outside.
You have the option to enable real-time traffic.
The reason for this shard to be in real-time
is because everybody in order to follow the
same rules needs to have the same times, same
weather, and same situation otherwise the
rules would become different all the sudden,
and for the biggest number of players to be
able to be together there is one shard which
is just live and so everybody can just choose
this one and enter into this world where everybody
fly's by the rules.
Another mode is what we call all players,
so that's a filter where you turn this filter
on you just see everybody and you can fly
by whatever rules you want, you can choose
any weather, you can choose anytime, any situation,
online traffic or not, and you just see everybody
and in this mode this is really made for those
who don't want to follow any rules they just
want to fly around try a new airplane discover
the world without following any routes or
any regulations and just fly around.
That mode is perfect for that.
It's super easy you turn it on and you're
with a lot of multiplayers a lot of players
online and maybe you want to fly by certain
rules but not add live weather or live time,
or maybe you just want to fly with a small
group or you want to do your own session and
just fly crazy without any rules, you can
basically create your own shard.
It's what we call groups.
You create a group.
People join the group, so the creator of the group
can choose what weather he wants, what time
he wants, he basically sets the rules and
all the people who join follow the same rules.
So this is really like a mini shard.
This is like a mini session.
It allows you to do whatever you want, but
because you're the creator only those who
join your group will see you and will see
what you did.
About the technology.
So we've built multiple clusters around the
world.
So a cluster of servers is a place where we
have data in a data center, several servers
which you connect to.
When you launch the simulator it automatically
chooses the best location for you based basically
on ping.
Currently we have one running in Western Europe,
and one in Northern America.
Based on ping it's gonna select automatically
the best one for you, but you can always manually
choose one.
For example if you want to join specific players,
or if you want to be with a group of people.
Then you can choose a specific server.
Because live air traffic can be tens of thousands
of planes, multiplayer traffic can also be
tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of
planes you will not see hundreds of thousands
of planes when you fly.
The servers automatically optimize the data
they stream to you, and so for the live traffic
you will receive from the servers all the
planes which are within 200km, and for the
multiplayer traffic you will receive also
planes which are within 200km, but limited
to the 50 closest planes.
So if there is less than 50 planes within
200km you will see all planes.
If there is more than 50 planes around you,
you will only receive from the server the 50
closest ones.
This is to save bandwidth in a situation where
there would be thousands of planes gathering
in the same place and which would be less
than 200km away, to make sure you don't get
to many planes sent and to much data we limit
to the 50 closest.
So the server does this automatically to you.
You are in one single shard all the players
are in that shard, all the planes are there,
all the multiplayer traffic is there, it is
like if the servers where automatically creating
mini sessions for everybody who's around,
make you join the session and only send you
what you need to see.
What I just explained was the planes that
the server sends you.
Then there is the planes which you can display.
So this is really something which is mostly
depending on the performance of your machine.
There is going to be a limit, and a limiting
distance to how far you're going to see each
aircraft and basically based on your graphics
setting if you tune this down you will see
less planes or you will see them closer to
the camera.
But the planes will always be there because
the server sends them to you so you can always
enable an optional on screen display of names
of who's playing of information, and also
you can see them on the radar even if they
are further away even if there is more planes
than you can display in 3D you will always
see the planes, all the planes the server
sends you on your radar.
And finally, we have developed advanced technology
to make sure the flying experience is smooth
and you see all the planes flying very smoothly,
and so we have a dead reckoning interpolation
which works pretty well and all the planes
are super smooth and you're not going to see
them disappearing or bouncing around you're
going to see them flying super smoothly in
space and this allows for a great and smooth
multiplayer experience to fly together.
If you're going to go explore in a group this
is perfect to have this seamless experience
and not be annoyed by any online glitches
or lag problems.
Thank you for listening and see you all soon
in the multiplayer of Microsoft Flight Simulator.
