Client Side - Receive Packets without Sending

Networking & Multiplayer
#1

Hello guys,

I am currently working on a multiplayer 2d top down racer and got a question about networking.

At the moment when a client wants the new postion of the players it sends an udp packet and with the packets inetaddress and port the server can send the position to the client.
Now i thought this is really inconvenient so tried saving the port and inetaddress of each player in a HashMap and start a new Thread on the server where i send the movement updates to every client whos in the map every 30 ms or so … unfortunately in this way the clients did not receive the packets.

So my question is: How can my clients receive udp packets from the server without sending an udp-packet before receiving?

Hope you guys understand my problem and i am looking forward to your answers!!! :wink:

#2

If the clients are firewalled like most home PCs are, there’s almost no way you’re going to get a udp packet through without them pinging you with one first. Are you sure you want to be using UDP?

#3

Well,i always read that udp is faster and should be used in fast paced games.

When i use tcp i can always send data from server to client without sending data from client to server, because i can write to the inputstream of the client,right?

If Tcp is really acceptable speedwise i would have no problem using it, but i dont know if it is :smiley:

#4

It might be a simplified view but my stance is like this:
If You don’t know why to use UDP, use TCP. Once You have enough experience or You are hitting a problem, You will know which one is better for You and why.