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dek / Multiplayer Systems Engineer

I create networking, rendering and gameplay systems for multiplayer games /
MMORPGs. Below is a selection of my work, most of which has been on Hordes.io.
If you feel like I could help you with a project, please reach out to me via
email. I am also on X / Twitter and GitHub.



Real-time Networking
Navigation Mesh Generator + Pathfinding
3D Renderer (Open World)
Combat Engine
World Editor
Game Editors & Tooling
MMORPG Systems
Backend / DevOps Systems
Asset Pipeline
Moderation Systems



===


REAL-TIME NETWORKING

Created a dynamic tick rate netcode system to handle spike loads while
maintaining a playable experience for players:

 * 3D movement and combat (🎞️ Video: Basic movement and spell usage)
 * Stable, large scale encounters: (🎞️ Video: PVE Bossfight, 🎞️ Video: PVP
   Skirmish)
 * Selective visibility (faction-based visibility, ghost mode)
 * Bucket-based culling (🎞️ Video: Proximity based net data)
 * Dynamic tick rate adjustments for net data
 * Diff checker for state change detection
 * Data serializer and schema generator


NAVIGATION MESH GENERATOR + PATHFINDING

Custom navmesh generation and baking, allowing for seamless navmeshes in large
open world spaces without size limitations.

 * Large scale open world navmesh generation (📷 Image: Mob Navmesh Overview)
 * Seamless transitions for indoor spaces/caves (📷 Image: Indoor / Outdoor
   Transition)
 * Triangulation post-processing for low memory consumption (🎞️ Video: Navmesh
   Post Processor)
 * Support for different actor types (large vs. small monsters, NPCs, bot
   players)
 * Chunk-based processing for parallelization
 * Octree for efficient "nearest triangle" queries
 * Long-distance hierarchical + A* pathfinding (🎞️ Video: Pathfinding)


3D RENDERER (OPEN WORLD)

A custom-built WebGL 3D renderer for an MMORPG (Hordes.io), optimized for
typical high-load situations, e.g., many moving entities as well as large open
worlds with full freedom of movement. This renderer achieves 144+ FPS in the
browser on consumer-grade hardware.

 * Large Environment Streaming (🎞️ Video: Large Forest with 2 Biomes and Ocean)
 * Frustum-based culling (🎞️ Video: Debug Frustum Cull)
 * Seamless distance-based LOD terrain (🎞️ Video: Terrain LOD)
 * Prop batching for drawcall reduction (📷 Image)
 * Effect system (🎞️ Video: Effect with particles, ribbon + UV texture shift)
 * Foliage + Terrain System (🎞️ Video)
 * Underwater Scenes & Texture Based Water Depth Effects (🎞️ Video)
 * Day / Night Cycles (🎞️ Video)
 * Real-time cascaded shadow maps
 * Seamless biome transitions (📷 Image)
 * Pre-baked vertex lighting (📷 Image)
 * Custom 3D file format with lossy compression


COMBAT ENGINE

 * Line-of-sight testing (🎞️ Video: LOSing Pillars)
 * Quadtree optimized querying for AOE spells
 * Buff system: stacks, timers, event triggers (🎞️ Video: Spell Reflect Buff)
 * Spell system: spell points, spell modifications, passives, etc. (🎞️ Video)
 * RPG Stats: HP / Def / Block / Crit % / Haste % / MinD-MaxD (📷 Image)
 * Spells vs. Environment sliding / collisions (🎞️ Video)
 * Stuns, status effects, disorientation (🎞️ Video: Blind CC server-sided path
   takeover)
 * Mouse-raycast vs. environment (🎞️ Video: Spell Placement)


WORLD EDITOR

A fully featured 3D world editor in the browser allowing the creation of large
open worlds as well as placing monsters + real-time network connection to the
game server. Features:

 * Terrain height & texture map editing (brush + mask based) (🎞️ Video:
   Heightmap Editor)
 * Prop placement + manipulation
 * Placing water bodies & sloping (🎞️ Video: Water Editor)
 * Area / Tile ID editing / Hole placement (🎞️ Video: Tile ID Editor)
 * Spawn, Node & Path editing (🎞️ Video)
 * Debug visualizations: chunks, prop colliders, elevation, walkability,
   nav-mesh (🎞️ Video)
 * "Movie mode" to record and play back pre-set camera paths with hidden UI
 * Automatic reloading of changed assets
 * Multiplayer editing: (🎞️ Video 1, 🎞️ Video 2)


GAME EDITORS & TOOLING

Multiple editors for quick editing of MMORPG content as well as getting
comprehensive overviews over already existing content. Automatic compilation of
all data into a single binary file for clients to read.

 * Foliage Editor (🎞️ Video)
 * Buff Effect Editor (🎞️ Video)
 * Projectile Editor (🎞️ Video)
 * Particle Editor (🎞️ Video)
 * World Overview + Editors (🎞️ Spawn + Path editor, Navmeshes)
 * Terrain & Biome Set creator
 * Sound & Sound Sets
 * Loot & Drop rate management
 * Table inspector: quick insights + fuzzy search into the entire game's content


MMORPG SYSTEMS

A complete MMORPG database with several systems and atomic transactions using
PostgreSQL.

 * Trading: Auction House / Merchant System for player trading (📷 Image:
   Merchant UI)
 * Items: Inventory, Stash, Upgrading (🎞️ Video: Blacksmith Upgrading)
 * PVP: Fame Steal System, ELO based Arena, Prestige System (📷 Image: Prestige
   System)
 * PVE: Boss Kill Analysis, Class Performance Analysis, Reward Systems (📷
   Image: Boss Logs)
 * Social: Chat, Friend System, Party, Clan Systems
 * Economy: Player farming behavior, Economy logging and analysis


BACKEND / DEVOPS SYSTEMS

Various systems useful for running live service / multiplayer games. I've worked
with common backend tools for scaling and delivery.

 * Single writing + multiple read-only DB connection
 * Tested up to 80M transactions per day
 * Low frequency + high frequency selective database backups
 * Transactional emails & Marketing/Newsletter system
 * Stream integration: Twitch streamer in-game display
 * UI Localization allowing for community members to contribute
 * Player feedback poll collection & analysis/visualization
 * Discord bot: allow players to look up items and player gear + alert
   moderators
 * Daily & Weekly automated maintenance tools
 * Test runners for simulating organic player load and behavior
 * NGINX reverse proxy and load balancing
 * Cloudflare CDN for cache utilization


ASSET PIPELINE

Content pipeline which allows for tracking of asset MD5 hashes for quick diff
checks and automatic re-bundling. The primary use of this system is to ensure a
consistent post-processing step for all assets, normalizing export settings and
allowing a non-destructive creative workflow without having to manually
re-export files. When an asset is saved by a designer, the game files are
exported into output formats with the correct compression settings.

 * Auto resize, crop, encoding of textures in DXT / ASTC / AVIF formats
 * Compiling and updating of texture atlases
 * Compiling minimaps from world data
 * Post-processing of alpha textures (foliage, etc.) for improved MipMaps
 * Automatic reloading of assets in 3D editor, improving the creative process
 * Audio file volume normalization and OGG / WAV compression
 * Lossy compression of geometry into custom 3D file format


MODERATION SYSTEMS

Created a moderation platform for staff members, allowing moderating player
accounts. Systems include:

 * Chat log analysis
 * Merchant / Auction house activity
 * Player account management locking
 * Permission system for fine-grained access control
 * Player report system
 * Neural network-based chat sentiment detection
 * Moderation logs