Hyperion

Hyperion is a Minecraft game engine that aims to enable a 10k player PvP battle to break the Guinness World Record (8825 by EVE Online). The architecture is ECS-driven using Flecs Rust.

hyperion.mp4

Event

The upcoming 10k-player PvP event draws inspiration from the class progression systems and tag mode from diep.io. The gameplay mechanics also draw influence from Hypixel Pit's combat systems. Players will gain levels (XP) from mining ore and killing other players.

We're partnering with TheMisterEpic to run an initial proof-of-concept event with around 2k players. Following its success, we'll host the full-scale 10,000-player PvP battle alongside numerous YouTubers and streamers.

Benchmarks

Players	Tick Time (ms)	Core Usage (%)	Total CPU Utilization (%)
1	0.24	4.3	0.31
10	0.30	10.3	0.74
100	0.46	10.7	0.76
1000	0.40	15.3	1.09
5000	1.42	35.6	2.54

*= with UNIX sockets, not TCP sockets. Once I get better tests, I will fill in core usage and CPU utilization.

Test Environment:

• Machine: 2023 MacBook Pro Max 16" (14-cores)
• Chunk Render Distance: 32 (4225 total)
• Commit hash faac9117 run with just release
• Bot Launch Command: just bots {number}

Note on Performance: The system's computational costs are primarily fixed due to thread synchronization overhead. Each game tick contains several $O(1)$ synchronization points, meaning these operations maintain constant time complexity regardless of player count. This architecture explains why performance remains relatively stable even as player count increases significantly - the thread synchronization overhead dominates the performance profile rather than player-specific computations.

The bulk of player-specific processing occurs in our proxy layer, which handles tasks like regional multicasting and can be horizontally scaled to maintain performance as player count grows.

Architecture

Overview

flowchart TB
    subgraph GameServer["Game Server (↕️ Scaled)"]
        direction TB
        subgraph FlecsMT["Flecs Multi-threaded ECS"]
            direction LR
            IngressSys["Ingress System"] --> |"1 Game Tick (50ms)"| CoreSys["Core Systems (Game Engine)"] --> GameSys["Game Systems (Event Logic)"] --> EgressSys["Egress System"]
        end
        
        TokioIO["Tokio Async I/O"]
        TokioIO --> IngressSys
        EgressSys --> TokioIO
    end
    
    subgraph ProxyLayer["Proxy Layer (↔️ Scaled)"]
        direction TB
        Proxy1["Hyperion Proxy"]
        Proxy2["Hyperion Proxy"]
        ProxyN["Hyperion Proxy"]
        
        MulticastLogic["Regional Multicasting"]
    end
    
    subgraph AuthLayer["Authentication"]
        Velocity1["Velocity + ViaVersion"]
        Velocity2["Velocity + ViaVersion"]
        VelocityN["Velocity + ViaVersion"]
    end
    
    Player1_1((Player 1))
    Player1_2((Player 2))
    Player2_1((Player 3))
    Player2_2((Player 4))
    PlayerN_1((Player N-1))
    PlayerN_2((Player N))
    
    TokioIO <--> |"Rkyv-encoded"| Proxy1
    TokioIO <--> |"Rkyv-encoded"| Proxy2
    TokioIO <--> |"Rkyv-encoded"| ProxyN
    
    Proxy1 <--> Velocity1
    Proxy2 <--> Velocity2
    ProxyN <--> VelocityN
    
    Velocity1 --> Player1_1
    Velocity1 --> Player1_2
    Velocity2 --> Player2_1
    Velocity2 --> Player2_2
    VelocityN --> PlayerN_1
    VelocityN --> PlayerN_2
    
    classDef server fill:#f96,stroke:#333,stroke-width:4px
    classDef proxy fill:#9cf,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    classDef auth fill:#fcf,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    classDef ecs fill:#ff9,stroke:#333,stroke-width:3px
    classDef system fill:#ffd,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    classDef async fill:#e7e7e7,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    
    class GameServer server
    class FlecsMT ecs
    class IngressSys,CoreSys,GameSys,EgressSys system
    class Proxy1,Proxy2,ProxyN proxy
    class Velocity1,Velocity2,VelocityN auth
    class TokioIO async

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Proxy

sequenceDiagram
    participant P as Player
    participant PH as Proxy Handler
    participant SB as Server Buffer
    participant R as Reorderer
    participant B as Broadcast System
    participant S as Game Server

    Note over P,S: Player → Server Flow (Direct)
    P->>PH: Player Packet
    PH->>S: Forward Immediately
    
    Note over P,S: Server → Player Flow (Buffered)
    S->>SB: Server Packets
    SB-->>SB: Accumulate Packets
    S->>SB: Flush Signal
    SB->>R: Batch Transfer
    R-->>R: Reorder by Packet ID
    R->>B: Ordered Packets
    
    Note over B: Broadcasting Decision
    alt Local Broadcast
        B->>P: Send to nearby players (BVH)
    else Global Broadcast
        B->>P: Send to all players
    else Unicast
        B->>P: Send to specific player
    end

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Running

Debug mode

docker compose up --build

Release mode

docker compose -f docker-compose.release.yml up --build

Features

Language: Rust

Goal: Game engine for massive events

Structure: flecs ECS

Platform Details:

• Version: Minecraft 1.20.1
• Proxy Support: Velocity
• Proximity Voice: Simple Voice Chat
• Max estimated player count: ~176,056

Core Features:

• Lighting
• Block mechanics (placing, breaking, physics)
• Collisions (entity-entity and block-entity)
• World borders
• Block Edit API (WorldEdit-like)
• PvP
• Inventory system
• Particle Support
• Chat Support
• Command Support

Technical Features:

• Vertical scaling (fully multi-threaded)
• Horizontal scaling
• Advanced tracing support (tracy)
• Proxy Support (Velocity)