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.netclient-servermmo

How to organize interaction between .NET online MMORPG server and client

I'm currently considering building a simple MMORPG.

The idea is to have a .NET server and downloadable client app.

What's easiest yet efficient way to organize client-server interaction?

I thought of a webservice, but it looks pretty inefficient as long as clients have to perform many game actions quickly (e.g. movement, picking up items, attacking other players, etc)

Creating a custom communication protocol is a very complex task.

Do any off-the-shelf solutions exist?

Solution

  • I'm not very experienced in development of communication protocols for games, however, since no answers appeared here for some time I can share my opinion with you.

    Communication protocol choice

    I suppose you can combine two methods of communication:

    • UDP for information that needs to be received quickly and which you send very often, so a loss of a single packet won't be a problem. You can use UDP to send information like: player position of movements for animations
    • TCP for information that is important and that you have to be sure is received, like an object picked up, player hitting other player, quest start/completion etc.

    Choosing data to be sent

    Another important thing to remember is to send minimum amount of data, so rather send only X;Y for player position than serialize the whole player object ;).

    Designing the communication API and splitting responsibilities between server and clients can depend on few things, like game type and safety vs performance: doing more calculations and putting more responsibilities on the client side can result in better performance of the server, but decreses safety of a game, because it's then more likely someone will try to cheat).

    Some sample links just to get you started: