Two or more computers connected together via cable bound or wireless communication links for the purpose of information exchange.
54
votes
6answers
7k views
How to write a network game? [closed]
Based on Why is so hard to develop a MMO?:
Networked game development is not trivial; there are large obstacles to overcome in not only latency, but cheat prevention, state management and load ...
13
votes
5answers
4k views
Lag compensation with networked 2D games
I want to make a 2D game that is basically a physics driven sandbox / activity game. There is something I really do not understand though. From research, it seems like updates from the server should ...
24
votes
8answers
9k views
How can I make a peer-to-peer multiplayer game?
How can I make a p2p multiplayer game?
I would like to have a server-less multiplayer game. But then, how all the clients know each other?
Why the p2p-protocol is so famous in file transfer but not ...
9
votes
5answers
1k views
Network layer libraries [closed]
I'm looking for any network layers that are available to add to my game, either free or with fair pricing for indie games.
By network layers I mean some sort of library which I can interface with, ...
32
votes
8answers
5k views
Is the TCP protocol good enough for real-time multiplayer games?
Back in the day, TCP connections over dialup/ISDN/slow broadband resulted in choppy, laggy games because a single dropped packet resulted in a resync. That meant a lot of game developers had to ...
11
votes
3answers
2k views
Client side prediction + sync
So I've read Valve + Gafferon and literally hundreds of pages from Google but for whatever reason I can't get my head around client prediction.
The basic problem to my understanding is:
Client A ...
5
votes
2answers
2k views
What do you use to support multiplayer turn-based network game for iOS and Android games?
If I'm doing a turn-based card game, what kind of technique do you use to support multiplayer gameplay over Internet?
Is it socket? If it's socket, which SDK (CoronaSDK etc.) can provide solid ...
-2
votes
1answer
3k views
How do I start writing an MMO game server?
I am developing a multi-player on-line game.
I just started coding the server but I have no idea how to do it. Do I have to use threads ?
And if i do, do I need one thread for every client?
Knowing ...
2
votes
1answer
695 views
Lightwight cross browser library for server side push?
I am looking for a lightweight javascript library that allows the server to push update information to the client reliably and regularly. We use a fixed turn time of 300ms and often there are only ...
8
votes
3answers
4k views
Best solution for multiplayer realtime Android game
I plan to make multiplayer realtime game for Android (2-8 players), and I consider, which solution for multiplayer organization is the best:
Make server on PC, and client on mobile, all communition ...
30
votes
8answers
2k views
How are deterministic games possible in the face of floating-point non-determinism?
To make a game like an RTS networked, I've seen a number of answers here suggest to make the game completely deterministic; then you only have to transfer the users' actions to each other, and lag ...
8
votes
6answers
2k views
Which server platform to choose
I'm going to write a server for an online multiplayer with these requirements:
Pretty simple turn based game (think a card game) that is played entirely on the server (security reasons)
Must be able ...
14
votes
3answers
2k views
How to make a multiplayer game work reliably behind NAT?
Even games that are 100% client/server sometimes have issues when the client is behind NAT. Peee-peer games are even a bigger issues. Some games need to use multiple transports (such as UDP and TCP) ...
18
votes
9answers
1k views
Real-time Debugging Techniques
There's nothing quite like the routine of tweaking a variable, compiling code that takes a few minutes, executing the code, realizing that your tweak was in the wrong direction and repeating the ...
15
votes
4answers
3k views
Best strategy (tried and tested) for using Box2D in a real-time multiplayer game?
I am currently tackling real-time multiplayer physics updates for a game engine I am writing. My question is how best to use Box2D for networked physics. If I run the simulation on the server, should ...
8
votes
3answers
919 views
Is there a pattern for writing a turn-based server communicating with n clients over sockets?
I'm working on a generic game server that manages games for an arbitrary number of TCP socket-networked clients playing a game. I have a 'design' hacked together with duct-tape that is working, but ...
14
votes
2answers
821 views
Should the game host be the authority, or another dumb client?
When designing a networked multiplayer-game where one player hosts and others connect, there are two strategies I'm aware of:
Have the host-player's game be the authority, with all other players as ...
7
votes
2answers
2k views
Information on seamless MMO server architecture
I'm looking for any material on seamless MMO servers! I do have a few articles in the "Massively Multiplayer Game Development" books and "Game Programming Gems 5." Has anyone experience on that topic ...
6
votes
2answers
1k views
MMO architecture - Highly Scalable with Reporting capabilities
A friend of mine is asking me to help out on a project of his, I have done a small amount of game development before, but mainly do application and enterprise development these days.
He is asking me ...
5
votes
1answer
2k views
Network client-server message exchange and clock synchronization help
i'm doing a fast paced physics game that is a table hockey. With two mallets and one puck. The game runs on iphone / ipad and i'm doing the multiplayer part through GameCenter.
This is how the ...
9
votes
2answers
1k views
MMO techniques, algorithms and resources for keeping bandwidth low?
Are there any resources and documentation on how current MMOs handle the action and movement data from the compression to the handling on the client?
Any resources for movement prediction algorithms?
...
7
votes
3answers
592 views
Prevent players from wallhacking in an online FPS?
Why do we still moan on wallhackers in multiplayer first-person shooters?
Isn't it possible to perform occlusion culling for all players server-side? For example, send player xyz information to ...
3
votes
2answers
728 views
How do I keep an MMO synchronized?
I'm making a 2D, top down MMO game. ATM I can connect a player to a server and they get the map data from a DB. They can move around and hit some stuff and if they move near a viewport edge, the ...
2
votes
1answer
5k views
Java multiplayer cards game
I need to develop a simple multiplayer card game. For example, a poker game; this is only for study. I am going to develop it in Java.
How I can I manage communication between the server and clients? ...
12
votes
3answers
1k views
Should I keep login server apart from game server?
I'm thinking of making a MMO server, and I've been looking at how other games structure their network. One of the things I've noticed is that there's always a Login server and then the game server(s).
...
8
votes
2answers
438 views
What are the restrictions of 3g online games
I am looking into make a 3g online multiplayer game for the iphone. Multiplayer is my main focus but I have noticed all game apps require wi-fi. Dose anyone know if this is simply an issue with the ...
6
votes
2answers
410 views
Using the DTLS protocol for multiplayer games
I am considering using the DTLS protocol for my online multiplayer game. For those who don't know, it is essentially a port of TLS to UDP datagrams.
According to this paper, the main overhead of the ...
3
votes
1answer
230 views
How to sync the actions in a mutiplayer game?
I connect the clients with UDP (its a peer to peer connection on a multicast network) and the clients are sending their positions in every frame (in WP7 it means the default 30 FPS) to each other. ...
6
votes
4answers
817 views
Where to start the coding of online leaderboards?
I NEVER, EVER did ANY sort of network code in C++, I don't know even the libraries that exist, but a popular demand for my game is online leaderboards...
So, what sort of libraries I should research ...
3
votes
3answers
227 views
Loadbalancing Questions
I have been learning networking for about 4 months. Wrote a single standalone Multiplayer server and succeeded with authoritative approach. Now I want to extend it by splitting the single server into ...
2
votes
2answers
92 views
Broadcasting terrain data
How can i send from server to client a large amount of tile data? Having chunks of almost 2MB of data seems prohibitive to send this information just like that. Minecraft compress each chunk and ...
2
votes
3answers
367 views
Best way to implement mouse-based movement in MMOG
I want to design an MMO where players click the destination they want to walk to
with their mouse and the character moves there, similar to Runescape in this manner.
I think it should be easier than ...
1
vote
1answer
265 views
Implementing an online database
I'd like to get into online games programming. I thought that as a start i'd be a good idea to implement an online database that would store the progress and score for a game i have made, i'll ...
1
vote
4answers
852 views
Client server design question
I'm working on creating a multiplayer game, with the client in ActionScript and the server written in Java. I'm using XMLSocket in the client to connect to the server. The server code looks something ...
0
votes
1answer
210 views
network programming: simultaneous IO over sockets?
In my curses based game, I decided to add multiplayer functionality over net, in addition to one-keyboard mulitiplayer game. I use switch loop and in case it's 1st user's buttons,
user 1 is acting ...
-3
votes
4answers
2k views
TCP vs. UDP on mobile platforms? [closed]
I am designing a mobile game, but I don't know much about it.
How do we differentiate HTTP, TCP and UDP in reference to mobile game?
