Where are you from?

[Marmor]

Germany

[r0ber7]

Hey guys, thanks for all the reactions! I've finished the low-level udp network layer. Basically, I can send stuff. Now I'm focusing on more high level decisions, such as what data to send and how to send it. Been reading up on multiplayer networking and man, there is a lot of things to cover. I want to try interpolation and lag compensation, and see how that works out. Many ways to go about this...

British Columbia, Canada.

r0ber7 this is a good idea for GLB multiplayer testing. We can try testing with different devices, too, if the game is going to be playable on tablets, etc.

Hmm, I think first it will just be Windows and Linux. I have no Android or Max devices myself, so testing my code is difficult. I intend to change this, but yeah. Eventually I want to get as compatible with everything as possible.

[Hemlos]

You making a modern warfare style FPSMMO game?

[bigsofty]

I like to change Barcelona for someplace like this...

Brrr, at this time of year, I would like to swap with Barcelona!

[Omadan]

I'm from Narnia. (stops daydreaming)

I'm from sunny Gibraltar.

Cool idea btw rober. I'll try to take part big time.

[D2O]

I'm from Austria.

[Schranz0r]

Kaufbeuren, Bavaria, Germany

[Wampus]

Hey guys, thanks for all the reactions! I've finished the low-level udp network layer. Basically, I can send stuff. Now I'm focusing on more high level decisions, such as what data to send and how to send it. Been reading up on multiplayer networking and man, there is a lot of things to cover. I want to try interpolation and lag compensation, and see how that works out. Many ways to go about this...

I don't envy you making a multiplayer action game. I gather its especially hard to do with games that started out being conceived of as single player experiences. Games with multiplayer networking are usually created with lag compensation, interpolation and player movement prediction at the heart of their design and framework. If they start as single player and get multiplayer later it typically involves a heck of a lot of structural changes in the code inevitably changing the single player experience of the game somewhat.

In contrast my Chaos Rematch thingy is easier because the game is turn based. Its a lot less problematic to set up. Unless there is a great deal of lag, too many corrupt or lost packets and players dropping their connections the pace of the game is going to be within perceived expectations. I still have to compensate for network speeds to make the game 'flow' nicely but nothing too complicated. Even if an entire game 'snapspot' has to be sent to a player the amount of data that requires is relatively tiny.

That thing I mentioned about multiplayer being at the heart of the design and framework? Well, even though turn-based is much easier to code it still makes the task more manageable to make sure the single player experience is built upon a multiplayer server layer. The server is initialised when a game starts and the player only interacts directly with the client part of the code. Data is still packaged and sent between the client and server, only it doesn't need to travel over a network in single player, just transferred from memory between the client and server. Testing and debugging the game is therefore pretty much the same for singleplayer and multiplayer. I can also simulate network disruption and see how the server handles it without having to compile to more than one device. A lot of work and yet much less than doing it some other way.

[r0ber7]

a heck of a lot of structural changes in the code

Yep, probably. But hey, I like a challenge!  Actually, that's part of the reason I like programming, the intellectual challenge to get something done. I just gave myself a big one, but if it works, woohoo.

Definitely interesting to read about the way you set your game up. I'm coding a UDP framework & game protocol seperately right now. Once it's working, I'll try to plug it into my actual game code. That's when the real fun starts I expect. But at least I' ve got everything nicely seperated and I can keep an overview. Maybe the changes won't be that big... I hope...

[tatakamucher]

México 

[matchy]

Australia 

[Cybermonkey]

The middle of nowhere, here... http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=durness&ll=54.76353,-1.46199&spn=10.268052,33.815918&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&hnear=Durness,+Highland,+United+Kingdom&gl=uk&t=w&z=6

Cool! I stayed once at the Wild Orchid Guest House. (Sorry for being off-topic  )

[erico]

brasil

[r0ber7]

The middle of nowhere, here... http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=durness&ll=54.76353,-1.46199&spn=10.268052,33.815918&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&hnear=Durness,+Highland,+United+Kingdom&gl=uk&t=w&z=6

Cool! I stayed once at the Wild Orchid Guest House. (Sorry for being off-topic  )

Hey, this is an off-topic subforum. I was actually concerned that I was being way too on-topic.

[Moru]

Hey, this is an off-topic subforum. I was actually concerned that I was being way too on-topic.

Topics are thread-specific so you are off topic on this thread.

...eh, I mean: I'm from Sweden! :-)