I had heard somewhere that Directplay (7 backwards) was not very good, and that Other ways (Like Winsock) were the way to go. But after reading the DirectPlay chapters in Programming Role Playing Games with DirectX® It says that there have been great Improvements in the latest version. Does that mean that DirectPlay is now a reasonable option?

DirectPlay from DX 7 is a reasonable option. I used it for Gang Wars which you can download the full source for (client and server) at my site.

Winsock (which I''m using for my current project) comes with it''s own issues. All of which DirectPlay handles for you. If you''ve never worked with net programming before DirectPlay would probably be the best place to start. That way you can focus on figuring out how to optimize your packets instead of worring about if they''re being recieved properly. You can always switch later.

The only advantage Winsock has over DirectPlay is portability. The reason I chose Winsock for this project is that the client is going to be public source so people can write their own for any platform.

Ben


IcarusIndie.com [ The Rabbit Hole | The Labyrinth | DevZone | Gang Wars | The Wall | Hosting | Dot Com ]

I use both sockets and DirectPlay. Each one can do the job for you it all really depends on your personal preference.

If you don''t want to mess with making your own packet queues, UDP guaranteed packets, etc. then you probably would go with DirectPlay. If you need support for other operating systems then you would go with sockets.

Personally I like DirectPlay as it handles communication quite nicely and isnt hard to use. But, I would only use DX8 or higher as 7 and lower arent very good.


LostLogic
www.lostlogic.com
Author, Multiplayer Game Programming