Online Multiplayer n00b

Networking & Multiplayer
#1

Yeah, im kind of a newbie when it comes to programming Online multiplayer games… I would like to learn how though if anyone could point me in the right direction… I just want to start off learning something simple, something where i could refer to a file off somwhere on my geocities account that would contain the X and Y coordinates for each character, and constantly refer to it and updated it as players would move… if anyone has any ideas help would be much appreciated. Im working in an applet btw.

-me-

#2

i dont tnink you want to do that. You need to have a server program of some sort running to handle stuff like that. do the tutorials on java.sun in networking.

#3

Generally speaking, how I would design it:
0. You will need a Server running + You connect with clients to the server. (You can
program both in Java, no big deal)

  1. You create a model of your world. Example.
    +class World (has People)
    +class People
  2. You will need an instance of World (incl. People) on BOTH the server
    and the client side.
  3. If the client changes something in the world, you do the following:
    I) send the changes to the server (e.g. new Person added)
    II) the server updates his World
    III) the server sends the update to all the connected clients
    IV) the clients update their World based on the changes propagated by
    the server

NOTE: The client does not actually update the world himself but sends the
update request to the server first: otherwise, you will run into synchronization
issues. This way ALL the connected clients are synchronized.

For the networking part: I would give Apache MINA a try. It’s built on top of NIO, so
it (1) should be fast and (2) simplifies the programming part:
http://directory.apache.org/subprojects/network/

#4

Hmm… thanks for the help… ill look into it and ill let ya know it it turns out well enough.