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Multiplayer and Networking

This section covers all aspects of network and multiplayer programming.

For more information about Multiplayer and Networking, check out:

Resources Listed: 39

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General	WinSock


Subcategory: General
Topic		Author	Description
	Beej's Guide to Network Programming [Added: 1/25/2002]	Brian Hall	An excellent guide to programming with sockets.
	Cyberspace in the 21st Century: Scalability With a Big S [Added: 3/1/2001]	Crosbie Fitch	Discusses how to engineer scalability into a distributed modeling system.
	Cyclic Redundancy Checking [Added: 5/16/2003]	Clifford M. Roche	This article addresses the basic, as well as the slightly less basic, aspects of the CRC32 algorithm.
	Dead Reckoning: Latency Hiding for Networked Games [Added: 10/19/1999]	Jesse Aronson	Discusses overcoming latency by predicting the actions of other entities. Requires a Gamasutra membership to access.
	Defeating Lag With Cubic Splines [Added: 2/14/2000]	Nick Caldwell	This article explains a technique for eliminating the "jerk" of lag by employing the power of cubic splines in a dead-reckoning algorithm.
	Designing Fast-action Games for the Internet [Added: 10/19/1999]	Yu-Shen Ng	Discusses the issues involved with designing a game for online play. Requires a Gamasutra membership to access.
	Distributed Gaming [Added: 5/31/2003]	Omar A. Abdelwahed	It is the goal of this document to show how distributing gaming will dramatically benefit network intensive games.
	Distributing Object State for Networked Games Using Object Views [Added: 4/20/2003]	Rick Lambright	Describes a technique for managing the distribution of object state using an encapsulation mechanism called an object view.
	DNS Resources Directory [Added: 9/10/1999]		Quite a useful site, several RFC's associated with DNS are available including some great DNS sites. DNS is one of the few things you'll have trouble finding source code for, so here's a good place to start when doing it the "hard" way.
	GameDev.net Multiplayer and Network Programming Forum FAQ [Added: 9/8/2005]	Jon Watte	An extensive collection of answers to common networking questions.
	Half-Life and Team Fortress Networking: Closing the Loop on Scalable Network Gaming Backend Services [Added: 6/13/2000]	Yahn W. Bernier	Examines how to provision a variety of backend services to provide a seamless user experience for gamers as they go on-line.
	How to Hurt the Hackers: The Scoop on Internet Cheating and How You Can Combat It [Added: 7/26/2000]	Matt Pritchard	Ensemble Studios' Matt Pritchard shares his insight on the methods and motivations of hackers, based largely on his experience with the Age of Empires franchise.
	Introduction: Designing Multiplayer Games [Added: 9/14/1999]	Jered Wierzbicki	Jered touches on some of the aspects of multiplayer game design.
	MUD Game Programming Chapter 1 [Added: 12/15/2003]	Ron Penton	A chapter from the book MUD Game Programming, by Ron Penton, from Premier Press.
	Multiplayer Math [Added: 10/19/1999]	Larry O' Brien	Compares turn-based and real-time games, and discusses optimal time and space granularities. Requires a Gamasutra membership to access.
	Multi-User Chat Client and Server [Added: 3/1/2001]	Francis Shanahan	The article walks the user through the concepts and coding techniques involved in building a multi-user chat application in Visual Basic.
	Networking for Games 101 [Added: 7/26/2000]	Jake Simpson	Raven's Jake Simpson covers the main issues involved with network programming.
	Of Internet Servers and SQL Databases: Designing the Backend for Power and Performance [Added: 4/20/2003]	Pete Hallenberg	Discusses the technical issues faced when deciding upon the hardware your online game will require.
	Roll your own Intranet [Added: 9/10/1999]		On an introductory level, this is probably one of the best sites to visit as it will get you on your feet and coding various sockets related programs pretty quickly. The source code isn't that great, but you can easily figure out what needs to be done to generalize the code. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
	Security in Online Games [Added: 2/17/2002]	Andrew and Chris Kirmse	The developers of Meridian 59 speak out on game security, defense strategies, and more.
	Security Issues of Online Gaming [Added: 3/10/2004]	Greg Byrne	:ooks at several of the issues regarding security aspects of online based games and virtual worlds.
	Shaving Ping [Added: 5/11/2006]	Doug Helbling	Discusses optimization techniques for getting the most out of your game server.
	Statistical Client Prediction [Added: 12/2/1999]	Jakob Ramskov	An algorithm for predicting the player's actions using statistics.
	Synchronizing Threads in Java-Based Games [Added: 10/19/1999]	Paul Tyma	I think the title says it all. Requires a Gamasutra membership to access.
	Targeting - A variation of dead reckoning [Added: 5/17/2001]	Chris Haag	Describes a variation of dead reckoning where a remote player moves about a local player's game instance through persistent interpolation toward an uninterpolating and dynamic position.
	The Essentials of Multiplayer Games [Added: 9/15/1999]	Jered Wierzbicki	The title says it all
	The Universal Game-Find Server [Added: 6/16/2001]	Chris Haag	Presents an idea of using a DNS-like mechanism to standardize locating game servers.
	Using Groupings for Networked Gaming [Added: 6/27/2000]	Jesse Aronson	Networked computer games present new data distribution challenges to the developer. With stand-alone games, all game information is available in one place, on one computer, all the time. When designing networked games, however, the developer has to consider what information the other players on the network need, when they need it, and how to deliver it to them.
	What is Lag? [Added: 9/14/1999]	Geoff Howland	A discussion of the plague of networked games.
	Why Pluggable Factories Rock My Multiplayer World [Added: 11/10/1999]	Mason McCuskey	Making a network messaging engine in C++ can be easy, if you know a few tricks. Mason shows you how the Pluggable Factories pattern can be used to help you get your network code up and running easily.

Subcategory: WinSock
Topic		Author	Description
	A Win32 Approach to Multi-threaded Servers Part I - WinSock [Added: 4/18/2002]	Kurifu Roushu
	Advanced WinSock Multiplayer Game Programming: Multicasting [Added: 11/9/2001]	Denis Lukianov	What is the magic behind multicasting and how can it be used in our games?
	Programming Resources for WinSock 1.1 and 2 [Added: 9/10/1999]	lewis@sockaddr.com	Contains the winsock specification and some well documented C code samples for performing various tasks with Winsock. The source is from the book "Winsock 2.0", and should be useful on an intro level.
	Programming with Asynchronous Sockets [Added: 2/1/2001]	Drew Sikora	Describes how to create and use asynchronous sockets. Assumes a basic understanding of Winsock.
	The Game Programmer's Winsock Reference Guide [Added: 5/31/2001]	Johnnie Rose	In-depth coverage of all Winsock subjects and valuable links to other game development sites
	The Internet, A Summary Introduction to TCP/IP, and Losing Underwear [Added: 9/14/1999]	Jered Wierzbicki	Jered Wierzbicki has written this comprehensive introduction to programming with the Internet.
	Windows Sockets Programming (Winsock) [Added: 9/10/1999]	Ed Snible	Contains some answers to various general Winsock questions. It does provide links to various code examples and other sites where you can further your knowledge of sockets programming. Very general.
	WinSock2 for Games [Added: 6/15/2000]	Stefan Hajnoczi	If you've never really used WinSock, this extensive article will provide you with everything you need to get going, including source code and a demo.

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