Launch Day

Problems and Support
#1

Hey Folks,
I play online games and have noticed that when a game launches and is completely web based there tend to be a lot issues for logging in and playing for the first month or 2 (World of Warcraft, Pokemon Go, etc.) Tons of excited players all trying to get on and stressing servers and it takes a while to get a solid fix in place.

My question is are we anticipating this for the GF considering the ui and unit are all web based? We will be going from a few beta users to (I’m assuming) tons of excited 'forgers flooding the servers with our cuts. It is a small concern, but one I have been thinking about as I sit here waiting for the login servers on wow to let me in.

Thanks,
Drew

10 Likes
#2

I’m sure the launch of the glowforge will be massively staggered compared to games which often release worldwide within 24 hours or even simultaneously. And big online games like Diablo 3 or Destiny have millions of players which needs a constant and good connection while the glowforge just need a connection when you use it and i’m guessing not millions of user the first day :slight_smile:

12 Likes
#3

Yeah @Multimaker I had been thinking of that as well. Smaller population and slower roll out, but it is something that has a possibility of happening considering it is all web based. They are probably on top of it considering they know the exact population that will be using it. Just concerns from a gamer lol.:stuck_out_tongue:

2 Likes
#4

I’m with @Multimaker here. The units will ship out on different dates, only require the cloud when you are doing a job and it uses google cloud so I’m not really worried about it.

Glowforge has been using it for quite a while now. So, I foresee a steady growth in cloud demand that should be handled just fine.

5 Likes
#5

Also, our actual time on the cloud is limited. You will cut for FAR longer than you will upload/plan.

And, this is all on Google Cloud. So instead of comparing with launch day games, compare with launch day Google Apps. They have massive computing power in place already. Glowforge will not perceptibly increase the load on those servers.

5 Likes
#6

The online games with launch issues are using their own servers, and although they are load tested, it’s very difficult to anticipate the strain of real world loads.
Glowforge on the other hand is using Google’s cloud servers, which is unlikely to have any issue handling the load even if all the Glowforges made a cutting request at the same time.

4 Likes
#7

“Only” ~10k bought the Glowforge. They will do performance testing of their software (otherwise they have hired the wrong people) that should hopefully highlight potential issues before launch.

#8

so this is the wonder if the cloud as well as the micro scale of gf 10kvs games 10m

As well as the little amount of processing actually needed as well as games need a sub ms latency in user interaction and response, lasers not so much for real time protracted user interfacing

2 Likes
#9

Yes.

Will we have problems anyway? Quite possibly, but we’re doing our best to prevent that. :slight_smile:

12 Likes
#10

In the end of the day (or two) everything will work :slight_smile:

Although I also don’t expect the same problem as for example in World of Warcraft where everyone tries to login at the same time. I highly doubt we will all get our GF at the same moment and I also doubt we will all be waiting at the door to grab it and login within 1 minute of us getting it :slight_smile:

1 Like
#11

Well, I guess we know about you but I intend on playing with it before it even gets to me. I can do it, by the power of LAZRZ!!

#12

Pokemon Go was on google cloud too and it was almost catastrophically successful, but for the most part, Google shifted traffic and accommodated the overload. Google cloud has a better chance of covering those unexpected bumps than a private operation.

4 Likes
#13