The Reason Behind Solana MMO 'Star Atlas' Organizing a Stress Test with 1,000 Online Players

ATMTA, the creators of the upcoming video game Star Atlas on Solana, will conduct a 1,000-player stress test on private servers this Wednesday. According to the company, the primary goal of the upcoming test is to demonstrate the captivating and immersive environments in Star Atlas to users.

"This is the first demonstration of our MetaGravity integration,” ATMTA co-founder and CEO Michael Wagner told Decrypt in an interview. "Our goal is a stress test with real players in a single lobby in a single server instance, up to 1,000 people.”

Players who possess an access code for the early access version of Star Atlas on the Epic Games Store will have the opportunity to participate in the test on Wednesday. Additionally, Star Atlas has been distributing extra codes to individuals who engage with their official Twitter account.

In July, ATMTA announced a partnership with MetaGravity, a London-based online world developer, to enhance Star Atlas' physics and server infrastructure using their cutting-edge technology. Star Atlas is an MMO space game that revolves around the use of Solana NFTs and tokens, offering a rich and persistent virtual world for players to explore.

While the ambitious vision for Star Atlas is being brought to life, the team has already provided smaller-scale experiences to captivate users. SAGE Labs, a game developed by the creators of Star Atlas and playable directly in a web browser, represented 15% of total Solana traffic on October 8 last year, shortly after its release.

Even in its beta phase, Star Atlas stole the spotlight at the 2023 Solana PlayGG event in San Diego, CA. The event, hosted by the Solana Foundation as a free two-day gaming event, showcased ATMTA's demonstration of Star Atlas' potential as an open-world video game.

During an interview with Decrypt on Tuesday, Wagner highlighted the distinct approach of MetaGravity compared to Improbable. Improbable, the unicorn startup responsible for the MSquared metaverse platform, powered the initial playtests for the Bored Ape Yacht Club Otherside game world.

"Companies like Improbable use spatial partitioning, which is just a way to identify and reference objects that are in shared space,” Wagner said. “MetaGravity uses a technology and a new algorithm called causal partitioning.”

To handle network traffic and computational load more effectively, large multiplayer games often utilize a technique known as partitioning, where the game world is divided into smaller sections. Each partition can be processed independently, which helps alleviate the strain on servers.

Wagner explained that Star Atlas employs causal partitioning, enabling the game to sustain large, unified worlds that can accommodate numerous users simultaneously without compromising performance.

"What we've been able to demonstrate at Solana Play GG using network-connected bots was 5,000 concurrent users. And then at Solana Breakpoint this year, we showcased 30,000 concurrent users,” he said. “But those were just bots that were network-connecting. Now we're doing it with real players.”

According to Wagner, ATMTA opted for a limit of 1,000 users in the test to prioritize stability, and the servers will be based in the United States. Wagner acknowledged that international players may experience lag during the test, but emphasized that this is an initial multiplayer test.

In order to manage the expected user turnout over a 24-hour period while considering ATMTA's current infrastructure capacity, Wagner emphasized the importance of accurately predicting the maximum number of daily users. He stated that hosting a 10,000-user test would be unrealistic if the actual number of participants is only between 500 to 1,000.

Wagner mentioned that the test will evaluate various performance metrics such as frames per second (FPS), latency across different time zones, and the specifications of PCs used to play Star Atlas. User feedback regarding their experience will also be collected. Wagner further stated that the data will be compiled by a third.

According to Wagner, the Star Atlas roadmap includes several exciting features after the stress test, such as on-chain character progression, ship mastery, inventory management, hover racing, and comprehensive multiplayer support with Capture the Flag and Team Deathmatch modes.

During the previous summer, Wagner informed Decrypt that although ATMTA had to lay off 73% of its workforce, the team is determined to stay committed to their long-term mission of bringing Star Atlas to fruition.

"Nothing about our vision has changed,” Wagner said then. “We're only reprioritizing our efforts on those things that are more immediately repeatable, and we're leveraging that as a way to grow the user base and generate revenue in a more substantial amount.”

Even in the face of these setbacks, including ATMTA's loss of $16 million in the collapse of FTX, Wagner remains optimistic about the future of blockchain gaming on Solana.

"I'm still extremely bullish; we've never lost our positive sentiment around Solana even through 2023 with all the negativity surrounding it, following the FTX stuff,” Wagner said. “In terms of tech, we still think [Solana] is the most appropriate, most suitable, and most capable for scaling to a large user base with real-time on-chain transactions and game logic.”