From what I have seen on this forum OpenTNL and Raknet are the two largest and most commonly used network libraries today for small developers. (Is there others?) Both libraries claim they are easy to use and implement. Can anyone who have used or know anything about any of these libraries comfirm that? Are they really that easy to use? Do they help with prediction for example? I have heard some complain on lack of documentation and examples. Many of the feature points on their websites is quite confusing too. Could you sum up their main/best features? Is there any games that have been released with Raknet? OpenTNL was used in Tribes 2. Why was it not used in Tribes 3? ( No offence meant, just seems strange to me ) What about the networking in the Unreal and Quake Engines, how does it compare to these libraries? Disclaimer: I have no experience with either library myself. Even if I look at them with critical eyes I'm not judgning their capabilities in any way. I'm only searching to know more from a more neutral source.

I have worked with Raknet, I found it easy to use and very, very powerful. I really haven't found a need that it did not serve.

theTroll

Can you list your favorite points with Raknet? Please.

Gee,, the list would go on forever...

First of all the ease of use, you can in minutes be sending data.
You can send your classes directly over the network.
You can call methods on other machines directly.
It supports reliable UDP, but also supports ordered packets.

theTroll

Quote:

Original post by Wave Is there any games that have been released with Raknet? OpenTNL was used in Tribes 2. Why was it not used in Tribes 3? ( No offence meant, just seems strange to me )

Just a minor correction, Tribes II didn't use OpenTNL or TNL. TNL is *based* on the networking architecture in Tribes II though, but heavily modified.

It was not used in Tribes III because they switched developers and the old developer retains rights to the engine, not Vivendi.
Tribes III is based on Unreal tech.

Quote:

Original post by Wave What about the networking in the Unreal and Quake Engines, how does it compare to these libraries?

Why compare to Unreal when you can't even get your hands on it without forking out cash? Anyway, I'll let someone else answer this one.

Quote:

You can send your classes directly over the network. You can call methods on other machines directly.

Can you give an example where you use that and why it would be prefered over sending direct packets. Just in teory.

The reason to compare unreal is that it has the best networking engine I know of. Even if one does not use the unreal engine you could still use ideas from it, and how could I know if some of those ideas perhaps already exsist in Raknet or TNL.

Quote:

Original post by Wave The reason to compare unreal is that it has the best networking engine I know of. Even if one does not use the unreal engine you could still use ideas from it, and how could I know if some of those ideas perhaps already exsist in Raknet or TNL.

Huh? Have you worked with the Unreal source? Perhaps you are speculating in it's usefulness? Because I can't see how *anyone* that knows their stuff can say what you just said.

Unreal's engine is a mess and the networking protocol is not an exception, I'm afraid. Not to say it's bad, but it's definatly questionable.

Here's a link I found while searching for anything to backup my statement above.

http://aluigi.altervista.org/adv/ueng-adv.txt

In any case, Unreal's network protocol in 2.5 looks very similiar to what it did in 1.0.

Hopefully someone else that knows this stuff better can chime in and tell you more.

The server creates a object class, say a sword in a room. The player walks into this room. The sword class is now passed on the the player's system and is created there. The player picks up the sword, the class is update automatically on both systems.

The Player class, is passed to all players the see the player and is updated has she moves.

On and on this goes.

theTroll

Quote:

Have you worked with the Unreal source? Perhaps you are speculating in it's usefulness?

That was not what I meant. No I have never worked with the Unreal source or Unreal Script (So I have no idea how easy it is to use code-wise). However I have played UT and have always thought they where were good at reducing visible lag. However, when I think about it, I have to admit I usually play on servers with low latency. So maybe the online smoothness does not has to do much with the networking engine itself that unreal use. It is the same with BF, if you play on a server with low latency the gameplay is great. I guess it is simply easier to find low latency servers in UT, which has nothing to do with the engine or this post. I had no idea the unreal network engine had that many and serious bugs, even more amazed they ignore to fix them. Thanks for the link I will have that one in mind when I look at different solutions.