OpenGLD - A Multi-user Single State Architecture for Multiplayer Game Development

Abstract

Multi-user applications can be complex to develop due to their large or intricate nature. Many of the issues encountered are related to performance and security. These issues are exacerbated when the scale of the application increases. This paper introduces a novel distributed architecture called OpenGL|D (OpenGL Distributed). This technology enables an application to pass through the graphical calls between a Virtual Machine (VM) and the graphics processing unit (GPU) on the native host across a network. This ability allows applications to run inside a virtual machine (VM), whilst still benefiting from hardware accelerated performance from the GPU for the computationally intensive graphical processing. This allows for the development of 3D software requiring no dependencies on specific hardware or technology other than ANSI C and a network stack, demonstrating our approach to platform agnostic development and digital preservation.