Writing Game Servers with Elixir
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Eric Oestrich discusses the development of game servers using Elixir at ElixirConf 2020, introducing the concepts of MUDs and two frameworks: Exventure and Kalevala, the latter being a rewrite of Exventure's internals. The presentation covers improvements in architecture, the use of events as the foundational structure, and the implementation of behavior trees for AI. Oestrich emphasizes the functional programming advantages of Elixir in transforming data and enhancing modularity in game development.
![Sample Brain
brains "generic_hello" {
type = "conditional"
nodes = [
{
type = "conditions/message-match"
data = {
self_trigger = false
text = "bhib"
}
},
{
type = "sequence"
nodes = [
...
...
{
type = "actions/say"
data = {
channel_name = "${channel_name}"
text = "Hello, ${name}!"
}
},
{
type = "actions/say"
data = {
channel_name = "${channel_name}"
text = "How are you?"
}
}
]
}
]
}](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/writinggameserverswithelixir-200904153932/85/Writing-Game-Servers-with-Elixir-38-320.jpg)
Writing Game Servers with Elixir
- 1. First title line Second line here Subtitle goes here — no fancy color block kthough too fussy smartly. smartlogic.io Writing Game Servers With Elixir Eric Oestrich ElixirConf 2020 smartlogic.io
- 2. Who am I? Eric Oestrich Engineering Manager at SmartLogic
- 3. Who is SmartLogic? We build custom web and mobile apps. Based in Baltimore, we've built over 150 apps since 2005.
- 4. Agenda ● Why MUDs? ● What are ExVenture & Kalevala? ● The pieces of Kalevala ● What does Elixir bring? ● Demo
- 5. Why MUDs?
- 6. Games for Programmers No Graphix Anyone can write text
- 9. First Foray into OTP ExVenture was my playground for learning OTP Not everything was well laid out for Elixir FP written in an OOP style
- 11. An Ancient Finnish Text
- 12. Or a World Builder’s Toolkit
- 13. ExVenture 3.0 Kalevala is a rewrite of ExVenture’s internals The third iteration
- 16. Commanding Controllers Input and event processing Series of callbacks to hook into Breaks up functionality into smaller pieces Controllers -> Commands -> Actions
- 17. Before & After
- 18. Modules are broken up Session process delegates work Why is this better now?
- 19. The Conn
- 20. The Conn Struct Similar to a Phoenix Conn Character internals build up intents and then the foreman plays out the intents
- 21. Before & After
- 23. Why is this better now? Keeps the core functional See Gary Bernhardt’s Boundaries Commands do not interact with the world
- 24. Events
- 25. The Atom of Kalevala Everything in Kalevala is an event A generic struct with specific payloads Rooms act as local PubSub
- 26. Before & After
- 27. Why is this better now? Also passed a Conn, to not directly affect anything
- 28. Views
- 29. Think Phoenix Views Very similar to Phoenix views Render functions Builds up iodata lists
- 30. Output Processing Transforms data en route to players Text is reduced over processors
- 32. Before & After Output Processing
- 33. Why is this better now? Commands render views instead of outputting to the socket directly Iodata lists are fast List of processors can be changed
- 34. Character Brains
- 35. Behavior Trees A behavior tree is a mathematical model of plan execution used in computer science, robotics, control systems and video games. Per Wikipedia
- 36. Behavior Trees Simple AI A tree with branches and leaves Branches are selectors Leaves are evaluated and influence the selector
- 37. Before & After
- 38. Sample Brain brains "generic_hello" { type = "conditional" nodes = [ { type = "conditions/message-match" data = { self_trigger = false text = "bhib" } }, { type = "sequence" nodes = [ ... ... { type = "actions/say" data = { channel_name = "${channel_name}" text = "Hello, ${name}!" } }, { type = "actions/say" data = { channel_name = "${channel_name}" text = "How are you?" } } ] } ] }
- 40. Why is this better now? Nodes are just data Built with protocols
- 41. The World
- 42. The World See my talk from The Big Elixir 2019 All Aboard the State Train youtube.com/watch?v=YbTzKiZIrv4
- 43. What does better Elixir bring to the table?
- 44. Functional Core
- 48. Demo
- 50. Elixir Wizards - elixirwizards.io
- 51. wor.fi @wor_fi
- 52. Reach out for a sticker pack, I’ve got ~30 or so
- 54. Q&A
- 55. First title line Second line here Subtitle goes here — no fancy color block kthough too fussy smartly. smartlogic.io Thanks! smartlogic.io
- 56. First title line Second line here Subtitle goes here — no fancy color block kthough too fussy smartly. smartlogic.io We build custom web We’ve built 150+ applications since 2005. Need a custom web/mobile app? We can help. and mobile applications. 888-544-SMRT / contact@smartlogic.io