Crossfire Mailing List Archive
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: A few thoughts on client/server in multi-player games
Ah yes, a persistent cache is nice, perhaps even a must. That doesn't
necessitate always referring to images by name, though. If we keep the
"pixmap array" in the server for every connection (~10kB), we can have
this communication:
Server doesn't yet know whether the client has the images a firewall
or fireorc:
Server -> client
have? firewall fireorc
Client -> server
send fireorc
have 2123 2788
Server -> client
transmit fireorc 567
.... 567 bytes of arbitrary 8-bit binary ....
map 1,1 1,2 2123
map 2,2 2788
The above isn't perfect, and introduces even more state in the server
-- it needs to keep a queue of names it has asked for with "have?".
Datapoint: the average length of a bitmap name is currently 12
characters.
I look forward to seeing your proposal. It will be good to have a
concrete protocol to comment on. We could even calculate the number of
bytes needed :-)
Kjetil T.