Simutronics' HeroEngine Adds Large Single-Shard Capabilities

Simutronics has announced that its HeroEngine MMO development platform now supports more than 100,000 concurrent users on a single shard. The company refers to it as its "Seamless World" technology, and says it allows developers to connect several areas to create one large space without boundaries. "There is no limit on how large a single seamless world can be," Simutronics explains, adding that the worlds themselves can be instanced as needed for specific requirements. HeroEngine is currently being used by BioWare on its Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO. Simutronics also says it will continue developing scalability features between worlds to increase the maximum capacity per shard over time. At the same time, the company's also added Linux server support for HeroEngine -- noting that both Windows and Linux servers are interoperable within the same environment. Finally, the latest version of HeroEngine adds Autodesk Maya 2009 support and content packages for publishing via LivePush so that players can deploy content updates without ending their session. "Creative visionaries are no longer bound by arbitrary limits on the size of their virtual worlds or how areas in those worlds can connect together”, said Simutronics CEO and HeroEngine Architect David Whatley. "And, they can choose to run their virtual worlds on Windows or Linux, or any combination, in order to meet their cost and performance goals."