Directplay or Winsock?

I'm about to venture into multiplayer gaming.

Should I use Directplay or go for winsock?

I've had a brief brush with winsock (to post scores to a http server) but
never tried to retrieve with it.

Is directplay better for games?

"gappy" <fake@email.com> wrote in message
news:3f512228$0$46015$65c69314@mercury.nildram.net ...
> I'm about to venture into multiplayer gaming.
>
> Should I use Directplay or go for winsock?
>
> I've had a brief brush with winsock (to post scores to a http server) but
> never tried to retrieve with it.
>
> Is directplay better for games?
>

DirectPlay has some built-in features which makes it slightly easier to use
as you don't have to start from scratch.

OTOH, Winsock (sockets) is universal (i.e. it works on other platforms such
as Linux) and more flexible.

if i made my client using directplay - would the server have to be windows?


"Ultimate Buu" <majjinbuu@dragonball.z> wrote in message
news:3f51ef97$0$144$1b62eedf@news.wanadoo.nl...
>
> "gappy" <fake@email.com> wrote in message
> news:3f512228$0$46015$65c69314@mercury.nildram.net ...
> > I'm about to venture into multiplayer gaming.
> >
> > Should I use Directplay or go for winsock?
> >
> > I've had a brief brush with winsock (to post scores to a http server)
but
> > never tried to retrieve with it.
> >
> > Is directplay better for games?
> >
>
> DirectPlay has some built-in features which makes it slightly easier to
use
> as you don't have to start from scratch.
>
> OTOH, Winsock (sockets) is universal (i.e. it works on other platforms
such
> as Linux) and more flexible.
>
>

"gappy" <fake@email.com> wrote in message
news:3f51f33c$0$46004$65c69314@mercury.nildram.net ...
> if i made my client using directplay - would the server have to be
windows?
>
>

In theory no. But in practice yes, since the protocols used are proprietary.
At the very least you'll have to reverse-engineer them. If you want to use a
non-Windows server just use sockets.

"gappy" <fake@email.com> wrote in message news:<3f512228$0$46015$65c69314@mercury.nildram.ne t>...
> Should I use Directplay or go for winsock?

IIRC, DirectPlay uses Winsock. It just adds a layer that is supposed
to make the n/w programming easier. But a friend of mine (used to
write Internet s/w for Cisco) who writes n/w code for games says that
its poorly written. He always writes his n/w-ing code from scratch
using sockets. But then, he understands it pretty thoroughly. He
doesn't recommend it for someone who doesn't have a good grasp of
sockets & related programming. But then he doesn't recommend use of
DirectPlay at all...

Perhaps write some test apps using each approach and see which you
like better. Don't start the n/w game until after you have an
infrastructure you feel comfortable with...

"Frecklefoot" <chris@bucketobits.com> wrote in message
news:dfd57bb5.0309020528.3670e974@posting.google.c om...
> "gappy" <fake@email.com> wrote in message
news:<3f512228$0$46015$65c69314@mercury.nildram.ne t>...
> > Should I use Directplay or go for winsock?
>
> IIRC, DirectPlay uses Winsock. It just adds a layer that is supposed
> to make the n/w programming easier. But a friend of mine (used to
> write Internet s/w for Cisco) who writes n/w code for games says that
> its poorly written. He always writes his n/w-ing code from scratch
> using sockets. But then, he understands it pretty thoroughly. He
> doesn't recommend it for someone who doesn't have a good grasp of
> sockets & related programming. But then he doesn't recommend use of
> DirectPlay at all...
>
> Perhaps write some test apps using each approach and see which you
> like better. Don't start the n/w game until after you have an
> infrastructure you feel comfortable with...

Sockets aren't that difficult. It's just a communications channel and you
can send anything you wish over it. You'll have to devise your own protocol,
though. Take a look for example at the source code of BZFlag
(http://www.bzflag.org) to get a feel for it.

Frecklefoot wrote:

> "gappy" <fake@email.com> wrote in message news:<3f512228$0$46015$65c69314@mercury.nildram.ne t>...
> > Should I use Directplay or go for winsock?
>
> IIRC, DirectPlay uses Winsock. It just adds a layer that is supposed
> to make the n/w programming easier. But a friend of mine (used to
> write Internet s/w for Cisco) who writes n/w code for games says that
> its poorly written. He always writes his n/w-ing code from scratch
> using sockets. But then, he understands it pretty thoroughly. He
> doesn't recommend it for someone who doesn't have a good grasp of
> sockets & related programming. But then he doesn't recommend use of
> DirectPlay at all...

I played around with the sample game in the DirectX SDK and was apalled at the delay even
when connected across an empty 100bT LAN (Was doing my own UDP protocol anyway but wanted to
see what Microsoft had come up with).
The DirectPlay would probably be easy for a newbie to get the functionality working (cloning the
samples ) but you always have to wonder if your being given the hamstrung version (like MS usually
does).




>
>
> Perhaps write some test apps using each approach and see which you
> like better. Don't start the n/w game until after you have an
> infrastructure you feel comfortable with...