[gameprogrammer] Re: Networking for games

You only need to initialise video, you dont need to make the window 
appear :)

Vince wrote:

>That was actually my first choice.  The problem is
>that SDL doesn't receive events unless you have a
>window and I want the server to run without X.  If you
>know of a way around that, please tell me, I'd love to
>go back to FE and net2.
>
>Vince~
>
>--- Jake Briggs <jacob_briggs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>  
>
>>Isnt Bob Pendletons SDL_net2 library threaded? If
>>you used that, you 
>>would get network threading for free.
>>
>>Vince wrote:
>>
>>    
>>
>>>I've been reading through the Quake II source and
>>>      
>>>
>>it
>>    
>>
>>>heavily agrees with your advice here.  Now I'm in
>>>      
>>>
>>the
>>    
>>
>>>middle of a discussion with a friend about
>>>      
>>>
>>threading. 
>>    
>>
>>>I was contemplating having a thread dedicated to
>>>networking, but it looks like that will make my
>>>project more complex than I want it to be.  I'm
>>>      
>>>
>>also
>>    
>>
>>>hearing that debugging threads is a real pain. 
>>>      
>>>
>>Right
>>    
>>
>>>now we fork on new connections since we're not
>>>      
>>>
>>going
>>    
>>
>>>for multiplayer right now.
>>>What are your (or anyone's) experiences with
>>>threading?
>>>
>>>Vince~
>>>
>>>--- Olof Bjarnason <olof.bjarnason@xxxxxxxxx>
>>>      
>>>
>>wrote:
>>    
>>
>>> 
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>>>I don't know of any industry standard way for this
>>>>        
>>>>
>>-
>>    
>>
>>>>after all it is
>>>>your own protocol.
>>>>
>>>>One way of doing this, which is easily re-used
>>>>        
>>>>
>>later
>>    
>>
>>>>on, is NOT
>>>>putting any "type" specifier in the header, ONLY
>>>>        
>>>>
>>the
>>    
>>
>>>>size and the
>>>>data. The type could then be put in the data
>>>>        
>>>>
>>instead
>>    
>>
>>>>- making re-use
>>>>of this protocol easy in the future.
>>>>
>>>>Decide on a max-length first of all. Say you
>>>>        
>>>>
>>decide
>>    
>>
>>>>200 bytes to be
>>>>max length. Then a one-byte-header is enough, and
>>>>you could go with a
>>>>c structure like
>>>>
>>>>struct Message {
>>>> unsigned char length;
>>>> unsigned char data[200];
>>>>};
>>>>
>>>>.. and the corresponding read/write procedure
>>>>prototypes:
>>>>
>>>>int writeToSocket(SockStructure* sock, Message*
>>>>msg);
>>>>int readFromSocket(SockStructure* sock, Message*
>>>>msg);
>>>>
>>>>Decide whether you want these to be blocking or
>>>>non-blocking. If you
>>>>are already using threads, then blocking is quite
>>>>feasible. If your in
>>>>a single-thread situation, non-blocking (ie.
>>>>polling) is easier on the
>>>>responsiveness of the application.
>>>>
>>>>Be careful in the implementation, especially in
>>>>        
>>>>
>>the
>>    
>>
>>>>readFromSocket()
>>>>procedure, since the whole message might not
>>>>        
>>>>
>>arrive
>>    
>>
>>>>and also two
>>>>messages in a row might be concatenated. [ use
>>>>        
>>>>
>>some
>>    
>>
>>>>helper
>>>>array/structure in order to store parts of arrived
>>>>messages ..
>>>>memcpy() might be handy here ].
>>>>
>>>>Good luck!
>>>>
>>>>/Olof
>>>>   
>>>>
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>             
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>>>
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>>    
>>
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>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>-- 
>>Jacob Briggs
>>Systems Engineer
>>Core Technology
>>Ph: +64 (04) 499 1102
>>
>>--
>>
>>Named after its country of origin 'England', English
>>is a little known dialect used by up to 1.5 billion
>>non-Americans worldwide. Some interesting but
>>obviously incorrect features of the language
>>include:
>>
>>- queues of people
>>- wonderful coloUrs
>>- the useful metal aluminIum
>>- the exotic herbs (h-urbs), basil (ba-zil) and
>>oregano (o-re-gaa-no)
>>- specialiSed books called 'dictionaries' that tell
>>you how to spell words correctly
>>
>>Many people using this bizarre gutter speak also
>>subscribe to the pagan belief that water freezes at
>>0 degrees and that distances should be measured in
>>the forbidden mathematical system of base-10...
>>
>>
>>
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>>
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>>
>>    
>>
>
>
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>
>  
>

-- 
Jacob Briggs
Systems Engineer
Core Technology
Ph: +64 (04) 499 1102

--

Named after its country of origin 'England', English is a little known dialect 
used by up to 1.5 billion non-Americans worldwide. Some interesting but 
obviously incorrect features of the language include:

- queues of people
- wonderful coloUrs
- the useful metal aluminIum
- the exotic herbs (h-urbs), basil (ba-zil) and oregano (o-re-gaa-no)
- specialiSed books called 'dictionaries' that tell you how to spell words 
correctly

Many people using this bizarre gutter speak also subscribe to the pagan belief 
that water freezes at 0 degrees and that distances should be measured in the 
forbidden mathematical system of base-10...



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