New demo of a vast MMO powered by UE 5.5, able to realitsically render in-game player-made spaces and cities. With support for a reported 8,000 players using multiple servers, the game world is over 150 square miles in area and now available in early acccess.
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GamingTranscript
00:00Thanks, Dana, for having us.
00:05I'm Thor Gunnarsson, co-founder and CEO at Mainframe Industries.
00:09And I'm Sol Kahrauk, co-founder and chief product officer.
00:12It's super exciting to be here.
00:14So we're a European-based independent developer,
00:16a small team passionately crafting a one-of-a-kind MMO.
00:20It's a project some of us have been dreaming of for more than 20 years.
00:24We call it PAX Day.
00:26Our game is what we call a social sandbox MMO.
00:29Taking inspiration from medieval Europe,
00:31PAX Day is a vast open world shared between thousands of players.
00:35Here, you choose the role you want to play,
00:37explore the land, build your home, and forge your reputation.
00:41First and foremost, PAX Day is a place.
00:44As we set about creating an MMO for the modern age,
00:47we knew the first thing we had to get right was the world.
00:50We spent a lot of time establishing the right atmosphere.
00:53We want the world of PAX Day to feel grounded and familiar,
00:56while at the same time looking cinematic, more vibrant, and larger than life.
01:01Unreal Engine empowers our relatively small team
01:04to punch way above our weight class in terms of project scope and quality.
01:08Lumen allows us to achieve unparalleled realism in our environments,
01:12while Nanite ensures that even the most intricate details
01:15are rendered flawlessly without compromising performance.
01:18And we have the ability to render player-made structures
01:21in real-time, in minute detail, and at great distances.
01:25Players can gaze out over miles of terrain,
01:28spotting distant landmarks and player-built cities that invite exploration.
01:33One of the most powerful extensions we've made to Unreal
01:36is the ability to seamlessly transition player state between Unreal servers.
01:40By stitching together a fleet of Unreal servers,
01:43we create a game world over 150 square miles in size
01:46that can support over 8,000 players in a single game instance.
01:50As players travel, servers are automatically spun up,
01:53ensuring a smooth gameplay experience.
01:56PAX Day is a true sandbox.
01:59The world's a stage, a blank canvas for players to make their own.
02:03Everything players use in the game has to be crafted, starting with your home.
02:07We've been amazed at the level of creativity our players have shown
02:11using the modular building system in the game.
02:14And when full clans join forces,
02:16whole player-created civilizations start to emerge.
02:19Our vision for PAX Day required us to address
02:22heads-on the classic challenge any MMO faces,
02:25how to handle high player density.
02:28To tackle this, we created tech that dynamically distributes players across layers.
02:33This allows the server capacity to temporarily scale in the same location
02:37whenever that zone requires higher concurrency.
02:40Player and world state is persisted across all the layers,
02:43with each layer corresponding to a single Unreal server.
02:46While layering, clans can work together to build huge structures, such as cities,
02:50while still sharing the same persisted world.
02:53An old persisted state, such as buildings, inventories, and market stalls,
02:57is intelligently shared and replicated using a robust backend
03:00that ensures transactionality and data integrity.
03:03And it's not only buildings.
03:05Every weapon, dress, or piece of armor in PAX Day is player-created.
03:10We work hard on giving each item a level of detail
03:13that will make players proud of having crafted it.
03:16And soon we're going to be adding a lot of depth to this aspect of our game.
03:20We're currently upgrading our war and terror system
03:22to dynamically adjust the appearances of individual pieces of equipment,
03:25reflecting how much damage is received, so you know if it's time to repair.
03:29We also built each item from the ground up to be modular,
03:32making it easy to adjust the fabric and color, add patterns or symbols,
03:35or change the trim.
03:37With these options, players will soon be able to express as much creativity
03:40in customizing their appearance as they already enjoy in the building side of the game.
03:45Our game requires the community to come alive.
03:48To all the players that have joined us in Early Access so far, thank you.
03:52We've been humbled by your feedback, support, and passion,
03:55and we couldn't do it without you.
03:57If you want to support a team making something fresh in the MMO space,
04:01please join our Early Access now and help us build the virtual world
04:04that we can all inhabit for years to come.
04:07Thank you very much.
04:09♪