Microsoft has announced the open-source release of the back-end cloud software that powers its popular game Halo’s multiplayer capabilities. Called Project Orleans, the software is the creation of eXtreme Computing Group at Microsoft Research based on the .NET platform and is used to develop massive-scale cloud applications to run on the Microsoft Azure cloud infrastructure.

This software can be used by developers who do not want to have to manage all the necessary networking infrastructure for multiplayer gaming.

The Microsoft Research project has already been used in the development of distributed cloud services that were provided for Halo 4. It uses a system based on asynchronous programming model actuators. Microsoft is now plans to put all its large Project Orleans framework out as open source. The framework used by cloud developers on a large scale – for example, the developers who write on the popular Halo 4 game.

The framework is used to coordinate and handle millions of tasks and information that zips crisscrossing between the thousands of servers, which are used in the daily work to build cloud services to a large number of users. Project Orleans is built on .NET and is designed for developers in need of cloud services that can scale to handle very high demand and still maintain a very high performance. Initially, it was designed to build services for Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform.

Ready at the beginning of 2015

Sergey Bykov from the eXtreme Computing Group wrote in a blog post that code for the framework will be opened and released under an MIT license and published on GitHub in early 2015. Microsoft has also launched its own open-source site, CodePlex.

“The preparation work has already commenced, and we expect to be ready in early 2015. The code will be released by Microsoft Research under an MIT license and published on GitHub. We hope this will enable direct contribution by the community to the project. We thought we would share the decision to open-source ‘Orleans’ ahead of the actual availability of the code, so that you can plan accordingly,” he said.

With the publication of the code, Microsoft’s intention is to accept and apply contributions to the code from users. Project Orleans is designed to build cloud code for providing real-time analysis, interactive entertainment and services that work with very large number of devices at one time. When it comes to Halo 4, Project Orleans is used for the so-called presence service that keeps track of all the different sessions, players and each game’s current status.