diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'doc/media_pools.md')
| -rw-r--r-- | doc/media_pools.md | 53 |
1 files changed, 53 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/doc/media_pools.md b/doc/media_pools.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d2bf68b --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/media_pools.md @@ -0,0 +1,53 @@ +# Media Pools + +All servers must be part of a media pool. By default the name of the server +is used. + +## Background +When the proxy sends any content-related packets to the client, +it prefixes any content names such as node names or media file names +with the media pool of the current server and an underscore. +The purpose of this is to allow servers to have different media +with the same name and to avoid some other multiplexing issues. + +## When to use media pools? +In general, custom media pools are not required. +There are reasons to use them: +- reducing memory and storage usage on the client +- dynamically adding servers + +### Reducing RAM and disk usage +The client has to store all media it receives in memory and in its cache. +Minetest doesn't do this very efficiently: Identical files with different +names will not share memory, a copy will be made. Even if they did share +memory the references would still consume memory themselves but that would +probably be negligable. + +This may not look like a big issue but it is. Many machines, especially +phones, still only have 4 GB of RAM or even less. It's quite easy to +exceed this limit even with lightweight or basic subgames. This will make +devices that don't have enough memory unable to connect. The game will crash +while downloading media. + +The unnecessarily redundant caching will fill the permanent storage with +unneeded files too. This isn't as big of a problem as the cache isn't +(or at least shouldn't) be required for the engine to work. However +inexperienced players are going to wonder where their disk space is going. + +### Dynamic servers +These are a whole other mess but all you need to know is that they won't work +without media pools. The reason is that connected clients can't get the new +content without reconnecting due to engine restrictions. Media pools are +pushed to the client when it connects. This requires the first server of the +media pool to be reachable. This means you can make a dummy server for the +media and prevent players from connecting to it, or just use a hub server +as the media master. + +## How to use media pools? +Simply specify the name of the media pool you'd like the server to be part of +in the MediaPool field of the server definition. All server you do this for +will be part of the pool. Alternatively you can specify the name of another +server if that server doesn't have a custom media pool set or if it's the same +as its name. This will result in the servers being in a media pool that has +the same name as that server. You can use it to your advantage when creating +and naming dummy servers. |