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Re: [pygame] LAN vs Internet



On Thu, Jan 31, 2008 at 12:43:45PM -0500, David wrote:
> I have been making gentle progress towards a networking module for my
> game, but have doubts about the value of my approach.
> 
> I have been working toward the goal of having a module that will find
> peers on a LAN, via a UDP discovery process, or on an internet server.
> The game is basically a one-on-one contest, so the player-finding
> process is just to setup matches, and not as a many-playered universe.
> 
> The UDP discovery process makes the whole module much more complex,
> and I am wondering whether it has any real value.

Perhaps you could make it simpler by reusing an existing implementation
of Zeroconf, e.g. Avahi:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avahi_(software)

It's LGPL, so no licence taint.  It's also cross-platform.  And it has
Python bindings.  OTOH it might make the distribution of the game
somewhat more complicated (another library to install).

> Do any of you play network games on a LAN that is *not* internet
> connected?  How common is that usage case?

I don't play multiplayer games much.

> I ask, because if LANs are generally internet connected, the game can
> just use an internet server to find competitors, including those
> within that LAN.

That would require the server to proxy all communications between
players, to work with NATed LANs.  Is the latency decrease worth
maintaining complex code?  You decide.

Marius Gedminas
-- 
Never assume the reader has read the subject line.

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