More PSHome details revealed...

[shams]

Kwaad said: I find it really interesting that Home does NOT run off Sony's servers - it runs off YOUR PS3. This solves many of the distributed issues with it - but also means you have to be running home, for someone to connect/join your little virtual world. No... that's not quite the extent that I got. I got the. Your home/content/etc. is on YOUR PS3. Meaning when you log off... it's gone. When you log on. Pop, it's back. They say they plan on fixing that. As for the networking, I think it's a centralized server, and you only see the people on your friends list. (thus you dont get stuck with assholes attacking you for no reason.) if their on your friends list, You meet them. If their not... you dont. It's quazi P2P. ;)

Well, "connections" are obviously done through the Sony server - as everyone logs into that, then can connect to other machines. But I suspect you actually have to be "RUNNING" Home for people to get access (it says people can't see your apartment unless you are there). So you effectively act as the server - once you log off, or the connection drops - it dies. (whether this is gatewayed through a Sony server, I don't know or think is relevant). Imagine you decorate your apartment with some locally added wallpapers (I presume you can do this...). So if anyone joins your apartment, all this "custom" content has to be sent to their PS3 - from your PS3. Performance is going to significantly depend on uplink rates that people have. I can imagine that sometimes it could take minutes (or longer) to load someone's apartment (maybe it will be like a web browser - you get a "frame" appearing for an image, until it loads in the background - that would make more sense). Another bonus for this entire system - as its limited to friends only (i.e. people you have invited), the type of content is irrelevant. Porn becomes a non-issue. Its going to depend on the sort of mechanism they have to allow "friends" to sign-up. Can you meet someone in a lobby, have a quick chat to them - then get access to their apartment? Can you leave stuff there, or send them messages? Its all interesting.