[gameprogrammer] Re: Rich Interent Application System for Games

On 6/11/05, Vince <uberneen@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I'm using tcp in my roguelike specifically because it
> requires very little bandwidth and in that scenario it
> seems silly to have to worry about packet loss.
> You should also keep in mind that since tcp is
> lossless, it _will_ catch up in times of latency,
> producing a rubber band effect in real-time
> applications.  Anarchy Online demonstrated this issue
> very vividly in their beta.

That is interesting. I figured there would probably be some sort of
effect like this.

>  The rule that I've
> adopted is this:  Use UDP for anything real-time
> (shooter, rts, etc.) and save TCP for things like
> authentication, turn-based games, or anything that
> doesn't require sync'ing a lot of clients.

That sounds like a wise rule of thumb. Thank you.

> The Quake engines and variants use UDP exclusively,
> but in the event that you're planning on having
> something more massively multiplayer, you could keep a
> socket open to each client, verifying that they're
> still there while broadcasting your more
> time-sensitive data in the background.

Since the goal is to make it as general purpose as possible, it seems
to me that the faster I can make it go, then the greater the domain of
usefulness. There does not seem to be any real disadvantage to UDP,
other than that it is more work for the programer.

So I think this is what my plan will be:

First I will convert my TCP application to UDP. This should not be too
difficult, and then I can have some metrics about how UDP performs in
comparison to TCP for my application in various network loads.

After this is done, then I will sepearate the channels into one for
each direction, and get rid of the ACK in the protocol, using UDP if
the gain is worth the trouble, or back to TCP if it is not.

That is a good point about being able to use both protocols (UDP and
TCP) at the same time, if needed. I will keep that in mind.

> Those are just my thoughts on the matter, good luck
> with your project, it sounds very interesting.

Thank you for your advice and encouragement,
Chris

--=20
E-Mail: Chris Nystrom <cnystrom@xxxxxxxxx>
Business: http://www.shaklee.net/austin
Blog: http://conversazione.blogspot.com/
AIM: nystromchris


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