well what you say it faster d-play or winsocks udp?? let''s say that i''ll implement the udp with multithreads... or i still should use direct play? btw-i''m working on a multiplayer 2d tanks game up to 32 players for a server... thanks

I haven''t used D-Play myself (I use Windows NT which doesn''t support that part of the DirectX API, from what I understand) but I have found that most online games use WinSock.

As it is, DirectPlay uses WinSock internally. DirectPlay is an API layer above WinSock which is built to provide support for games, groups, etc.

It may be easier to implement something with DirectPlay, but if you take the time to learn WinSock, you''ll find it much more flexible; allowing you to do more precisely what you want.

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I''d have to agree. Learn winsock if you think network communication might come up again in a non-game related task, but if you will only be making games with < 64 connections, Directplay should work.