[ODE] networking

Brad Friedman Brad at fie.us
Wed Oct 16 13:28:02 2002


I highly recommend hopping onto www.GameDev.net and looking up articles 
on dead reckoning.

In particular, I recomend this one as a start:
http://www.gamedev.net/reference/programming/features/targeting/
You can then dive down to other articles for actual code.

You'll also want to think in terms of TCP, UDP and half TCP solutions in 
your networking.  Half TCP solutions will likely want to guarontee order 
but not receipt of packts.  Or alternatively, you could guarontee 
receipt but not order.

Generally speaking, you need to design a simulation from the ground up 
to work with physics over the network.  Its not something to add in 
later.  And you need to get used to the idea that the client will always 
be in error.  The server's representation will not be 100% accurate.  It 
will likely be making spontaneous changes.  The clients smooth out the 
changes at the user's end.

If you're designing your program for a LAN with less than 10ms lag, 
thats a different story of course.  But you do also need to factor in 
the processing time.  Its not just netoworking lag.

-Brad