Strange problem with Objects streams

Networking & Multiplayer
#1

Hey!

I’m writing a little multiplayer game and it goes kind of well. But right now I’m having a problem. The problem is that when I’m using ObjectInputStream/OutputStream the Objects are not transfered correctly…

I want to send a “ToServerPacket” to the server from the client. The ToServerPacket has only one instance variable (right now); a Position. The Position is a very simple class. It has only short x; and short y; and get/set methods. The ToServerPacket has a toString() which returns a String with the x and y values shown. Both ToServerPacket and Position implement Serializable.

What happends is that when I send a ToServerPacket, I receive a ToServerPacket on the other side, so far so good, but the values (x and y in the Position) are not correct! Whatever Position I send, I get x==0 and y==0 when I read them on the other side.

The way I tryed it was like this:
ToServerPacket p = new ToServerPacket(…);
System.out.println(p.toString());
out.writeObject§;

and

Object o = in.readObject();
System.out.println(o.toString());

The toString() works but as I said the values after I read are always 0 and 0.

Bummer… :frowning:

Edit: It appears that the values are not always 0 and 0, but instead equal to the values in the very first packet that was sent.

Some code: http://rafb.net/paste/results/0ppUfA98.html

#2

This is the mystifying problem everyone using ObjectIn/OutputStreams has to have. And after all of the pain trying to figure out what’s wrong, you’ll never forget the solution. What is happening is that after the first write, all writes to that same object are sent as a reference only even though you changed the original object.

After out.writeObject§ call out.reset() and it will be apples. :wink:

Good luck.

(Alternatively,

  1. you can send a new object each time, but that’s messy since any Object fields of that new Object need to be new as well, etc.
  2. create a new ObjectOutputStream for each new send, but make sure you create a new ObjectInputStream to recieve it as well, there must be this symmetry. This makes more work for the Garbage COllector though & each write(obj) will produce more bytes than by having a single stream that’s re-used.
    You’re better off overall by just calling reset(). :slight_smile: )