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I have been designing an online game. Winsock works great because I can send data, messages or whatever, and make the recieving game react. But I think that I should be using directplay. I don't know directplay very well, and my question is should I switch, why, and if what I am doing works, why should I change.
I'm not sure if this is true, but directplay may be faster. Also, it won't bulk up your game (requires DX to be installed, not the Winsock OCX). It also makes it easier to make a lobby-like interface similar to that found on MSN's Gaming Zone.
DirectPlay has many of the interfaces you might end up using already implemented (Lobbies are a good example). Using WinSock, you will end up having to write all of this yourself.
Otherwise, there is very little difference between the two. I believe that DPlay uses UDP, because the packets dont have to be verified and possibly resubmitted (this causes a major slowdown in TCP/IP. Most games use UDP, because it is fast). Both allow Multi-Casting (leading edge Multiplayer technology that involves using a sever's ISP to send a single packet sent from the server to a group of IP addresses. Some ISP dont support this yet). Anything you can do with one, I would say that you can do with another.
The decision you need to make is if you really need the extra interfaces DPlay makes availible.
Z.
Oh, and Id just like to point out that, like the Timer Control, and The INet control, the WinSock OCX is simply a COM wrapper around a set of API calls.
Z.
Isn't that what all controls are?
They dont have to be. Many controls released by 3rd party companies are thier own product, not just a wrapper. The Internet Explorer Browser control is also a good example of a control that is more thena wrapper.
Z.
Yeah, I knew I should've stated that more carefully. I meant the VB controls. Mr. Timer Mr. Picture Box, etc.
*loooool*Code:Mr. Timer Mr. Picture Box, etc.