In this demo we present a testbed environment for Peer-to-Peer (P2P) game architectures. It is based on Planet PI4, an online multiplayer game whose gameplay provides a standard workload for a set of gaming-specific network interfaces. Its pluggable architecture allows for the evaluation and comparison of existing and new P2P networking approaches. Planet PI4 can run on a real network for prototypical evaluation as well as in a discrete-event simulator providing a reproducible environment.

In this demo we present a performance evaluation testbed for peer-to-peer gaming overlays. It consists of a 3D first person shooter game that is designed to run in a simulated network environment as well as on a real network. Simulation with autonomous players (bots) guarantees scalability, a controlled workload, and reproducible results; a prototype deployment on a real network can then validate the simulation results. The information dissemination overlay pSense is implemented as a first subject for evaluation.

We propose a global system for acquisition, maintenance and communication of achievements in the real-world. The main focus of the proposal lies on a context-aware notification service for achievements. Users of the system can browse the achievement web application and will only get notifications of users within the same context. The definition of context is based on the network infrastructure of the client accessing the system. Our server utilizes information derived from IP-routing traces to build the notification groups.

We present an approach for integrating voice communication into massively multiplayer online games (MMOG). The currently available third-party software solutions involve additional fees and are not connected to the game logic. Other approaches use the game servers directly for mixing and transmitting speech. Doing so allows for a tight coupling of speech and in-game events but consumes large amounts of bandwidth and computational power on the servers. Our novel idea is a mix between server-based signaling and peer-to-peer data transmission. While the entire game context resides on the server, audio streams are transmitted in a peer-to-peer fashion and processed at the peer nodes only. This technique splits up the workload among all machines while still allowing to relate speech processing to game events. We further improve the processing performance on the clients by using SOUND, a novel technique for distance based resampling.

In this demo proposal we present Planet Π4, a Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) developed to evaluate and compare peer-to-peer-based MMOG systems with scalability in mind. The game requires low network latency and creates frequent game state updates. It has a modular architecture that can be adapted and extended with new functionality. Using this modular design we have developed different peer-to-peer infrastructures. Workshop participants will be able to play the game and compare the versions with each other.