[quote name='Kafuuka' date='27 August 2009 - 11:04 PM' timestamp='1251410685' post='40358']
Programming a 3D game isn't the largest part of the work. - It would be quite boring to do, since every line of MD code in existence would have to be adapted into the new engine. - There are good libraries available to jump start your project. However making 3D models for everything takes ages. Right now it already takes a lot of time for new 2D avatars to be released.
Efficiency: in a continuous 3D world every time a player moves even a single pixel, the server needs to recalculate the distance to the nearby players and determine if it is now/still in visible/audible range. All those that are in range should be told the player did move. In order for it to look natural, your visual range should be quite large: people shouldn't suddenly appear before your nose. Assume then that people would move about as often as the frequency of speech is now... the server load increases a lot. And then you should increase the update frequency, because you want fluid motion.
Making a 2d client that is not browser based, could improve efficiency by storing more data on the players' computers. This is valid for 3d too, but I doubt it outweighs the overhead from calculating and transmitting position updates.
RP: *sparkly blue text* will remain just that. You can only make a finite number of animations available and if you want to use a different kind of *RP action* than those that are animated... though luck.
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Good idea, Sign me up for the 2d client, I havent played around with dll injection in a while
3d client as you said would require 500 times more data to be processed. Not the mention the download size of something that is 3d.