Logically sperating players and entities

s&box coding
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#1

While developing a gamemode for Garry’s Mod I eventually gave up due to the inability to logically separate players from each-other on a server, effectively creating different scenes/dimensions that each player would be in, without having multiple game-servers.

While it was possible to do it to a degree using functions like using Entity:SetPreventTransmit (which was broken for a long time) and overriding hooks like EmitSound (only worked for build-in entities) & GM:ShouldCollide, it was extremely hacky.

Will s&box / does source2 have some method to have a number of players inhabiting the same map space, but logically & network separated from each other / seeing and interacting with different dimensions?

The best analogy I can think of right now would be the Condos from Tower Unite. When TU was still a gmod server, they had to create a map with the same room duplicated x amount of times, which meant that if all those rooms were physically occupied, no more players could effectively play. To overcome this limitation, the only way i can think of currently is a way to logically disconnect players and entities to effectively create different ‘dimensions’ the players inhabit.

I am keenly awaiting s&box to reinvigorate the big ideas and concepts that in source1/gmod I just couldn’t feasibly accommodate without bending over backwards thrice.

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Suggestion: More control/power over networking (Instances?)
#2

Sounds nice but not like something an engine would support by default/out of the box. Maybe we get more stuff to actually implement stuff like this.

#3

I’ve wondered this as well, and it seems with the greater control we have over engine networking already that it would certainly be possible to be more selective with how we transmit entities(including other players).

Is there a better way we could do this with physics, though? Weird hooking would be a lot less efficient than proper layering/scenes for this, which would make those ideas much easier to implement and potentially grander in scale.

This would be particularly good for RPGs games, where it’s common to support “channels” so one area where you need to kill monsters is much less likely to be hogged.
Would also be good for things like spectator deathmatch to keep dead players engaged as if they were alive. Without a different physics realm it’s like you really are a ghost.
If you wanted to make a Minecraft clone(you know people will), how else would you feasibly handle hopping dimensions through portals?

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