Using DirectPlay For Online Net Games?

Alexander

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Feb 13, 1998, 3:00:00 AM2/13/98

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I would like to create an online RPG similar to those of Diablo, GMUDs,
and Ultima; and I would like to know if there are any books available on
creating client/server online games like Ultima or Meridian 59 using
DirectPlay.

--
Alexander
mind...@earthlink.net
http://home.earthlink.net/~mindhaven/
ICQ:7745673

David Springer

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Feb 14, 1998, 3:00:00 AM2/14/98

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Alexander (mind...@earthlink.net) wrote:
> I would like to create an online RPG similar to those of Diablo, GMUDs,
> and Ultima; and I would like to know if there are any books available on
> creating client/server online games like Ultima or Meridian 59 using
> DirectPlay.
>

None that I know of and I watch for books like that...

David Springer
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* *
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* *
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Karl Steinmueller

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Feb 18, 1998, 3:00:00 AM2/18/98

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Are you joking there are many many books on using directx to create games,
graphical applications networking applications esc. you will never by your
self succed in making a game. First of all you have to love math to make
anything 3d ecspecialy geomotry but there are books out there usualy very
expensive 100$+ very technical so you probaly have to go to a pretty techy
book store ; )
sorry for spelling mistakes =)

Karl Steinmueller
karl...@earthlink.net
http://www.best.com/~karlhome/
David Springer wrote in message <6c3tsh$1bt$1...@boris.eden.com>...

renota schoepp

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Feb 19, 1998, 3:00:00 AM2/19/98

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You probably won't find any books about directx for gaming, most of the
larger companies have written their networking from scratch and don't use
directx.
Your best bet is to sit down and design what information your game is going
to need to send and receive (everything from establishing the game and
connection, to movement and info packets). Figure out what information your
client has to send to your server, what it has to receive. Then incorporate
that into DirectX using a combination of your own packets (say for passing
along a weapon to another player) and their packets (like their
DPMSG_CREATEPLAYERORGROUP packet).

Alexander wrote:

> I would like to create an online RPG similar to those of Diablo, GMUDs,
> and Ultima; and I would like to know if there are any books available on
> creating client/server online games like Ultima or Meridian 59 using
> DirectPlay.
>

José Ivey

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Feb 20, 1998, 3:00:00 AM2/20/98

to Alexander

Try The Following:

Visaul Basic 4 Network Gaming Adventure Set

yes. i know its VB. That's not the point. It has excellent examination of
the DX3 implementation of DirectPlay, which is a very good starting point.

Most of the other DX books out there are heavy on graphics and light on
networks.

PS
I'm kicking aroung the idea to, but for very large worlds (5 k players +)
We should stay in touch.

Adam J. Weissman

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Feb 20, 1998, 3:00:00 AM2/20/98

to

Thanks for the recommendation. But it is the DirectX version 1.0 DirectPlay
that I describe in the book. (Though most of it is still applicable to DX5.)

Adam

phil.

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Mar 1, 1998, 3:00:00 AM3/1/98

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>PS
>I'm kicking aroung the idea to, but for very large worlds (5 k players +)
> We should stay in touch.
>
>Alexander wrote:
>
>> I would like to create an online RPG similar to those of Diablo, GMUDs,
>> and Ultima; and I would like to know if there are any books available on
>> creating client/server online games like Ultima or Meridian 59 using
>> DirectPlay.
>>

Ok, I know I'm going to regret this post (I always end up getting six
months of constant spam mail when I post to this group).

DONT, I repeat *DO NOT* use directplay for online games!!!!!!!!!!!

I am speaking from a LOT of experience with directplay, including
implementing ALL of the DP5 interfaces etc...

There are quite a few bugs still left in directplay, even after 5.0a
was released, some bugs are just so stupid that its unreal..

I am only just getting over how incredibly contrived directplay is,
and I must admit to kicking myself for ever starting down the
directplay path, it just sounded so *complete* when you read the
specs, its got billing, member management etc... only problem is that
NONE OF IT IS IMPLEMENTED YET!

So, take my advice, learn to use winsock, its no harder than
directplay, and directplay uses it anyway, so its not like you get
much out of DP, if you implement a send buffer for the TCP in winsock
(so you can use async winsock and not worry about blocking), then you
get the best network implementation I can recommend.

Phil.

Matthew Busigin

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Mar 1, 1998, 3:00:00 AM3/1/98

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phil. <phil.c...@team17.com> wrote:

: >PS

: Phil.

Socket coding really isn't that hard.. sheesh........
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