Networking with Nx

xadh00m

15-02-2008 10:51:06

Hi!

We are currently discussing the best way of designing a multiplayer network environment.
We are using RakNet and try to find out which would be the best way of calculating the physical behaviour of a scene.

Possibilities would be:

The hard clean way:
Let the server calculate all physic and just update the actor/character positions/directions on the clients.
Problem: Lagging will be recognized early, because nothing moves on.
Problem: Position updates of wake actors and characters have to be done very often to ensure smooth movement.
(Local movement prediction can only be made with movement information)

The clever(?) smooth way:
Let every client calculate its physic including actors and characters and just send key commands of the other players over the net. Lagging wont be that bad, because, physic is calculated locally.
Problem: There will be a cumulative error, so you have to sync the physical world with a reference client.
Problem: Which data of e.g. an actor has to be synced? Just the position nad orientation? Or current movement behaviour?

At our NxOgre specialists:
What should be done best with NxOgre and PhysX?

Did anyone has experience regarding to this problem.

gugus

15-02-2008 12:48:18

Well it depend of the number of client.For a (very)small number of client,I think the first solution should work.But for most games,it use the segond metode with imput prediction.

http://www.gaffer.org/articles/
http://www.ogre3d.org/wiki/index.php/External_Links#Network
It should help you.