Grapple - better network lib?

[thelusiv]

I found this today...It looks like a decent network library, its reliable UDP mode might help us fix the "lost connection" problem we have. It looks like it can do some things that we don't have yet, but indeed will need for a full featured networking system. Also it's LGPL so we could include it into our source.

http://opensource.linuxgamepublishing.com/grapple.php

[joevenzon]

We actually don't have anything that needs reliable UDP yet... the current problems are due to the multiplay architecture & code (as opposed to the lower level network code). However, in the future we'll probably need this, and it might simplify the network code, so it's a good find. The documentation is sparse, just the README that comes with the package, but it's a long README, at least. :-)

Now, go find us a better sound library....

[Nigo]

it doesn't say anything about win32

there is this one as well (with a proper Doxygen doc) http://enet.cubik.org/ and that does work on Unix/Win32

(remainder : I claim that we DO need a proper network library )

PS : I tried Enet this afternoon and it now works beautifully

[thelusiv]

Enet is interesting, looks like it was used in the open source game Cube. I didn't realize Grapple didn't work on Windows, but this looks like perhaps it's a little further along in development anyway, so that is indeed a better option. It also seems to provide the same basic features.

Joe, are you sure the problems are all just the multiplayer code? Even so, I think maybe we should go ahead and switch over to a library like this, since as you say we'll probably want to eventually.

Nigo, if you want to work on setting this up with VDrift I'm happy to give you SVN commit access.

[joevenzon]

I think we're all agreed that we should switch to a bit more fancy network library than SDL_net.

[Nigo]

Nigo, if you want to work on setting this up with VDrift I'm happy to give you SVN commit access.

the problem is I don't have Internet at home right now... I´m working on it :lol:

beside, changing from SDL_net to Enet won't resolve anything it itself, the multiplayer has to be rewritten almost from scratch. I´m thinking about it, I´ll let you know :wink:

[thelusiv]

OK, well just let me know when you're ready. The network/multiplayer aspect of the game really needs someone to "make it their baby"...only then will it get the attention it truly needs

[Nigo]

the thing is that I'm not interested (and I don't understand) much about multiplayer, that is, how informations are interpreted, what about collisions stuffs and so on...
I'd like to stay focused on the network engine with some QoS features, but of course it's hard because they need to communicate closely