Multiplayer #71

collinalexbell · 2024-05-09T18:57:50Z

As part of the Game Design book of lenses book, the first lens is Emotion.

What emotion do I want from a game built on HackMatrix? I want a feeling of Connectivity and Competence.

To generate a feeling of Connectivity, the engine must support multiplayer... players can join up to solve computer problems (programming, Linux stuff, even graphics design and asset creation).

So my current focus based on the game design book is going to be multiplayer.

collinalexbell · 2024-05-09T20:15:21Z

Claude's thoughts:

Milestones:

Networking and Communication
Screen Sharing
Player Movement Synchronization
Voice Chat Integration
Server and Party Management

Tasks:

Networking and Communication:

Choose a networking library for low-level network communication (e.g., Boost.Asio, ENet)
Implement client-server architecture for connecting players
Design and implement a protocol for exchanging messages between clients and the server
Handle connection establishment, disconnection, and error handling

Screen Sharing:

Research and select a library for capturing and encoding screen content (e.g., FFmpeg, libVNC)
Implement screen capturing and encoding on the client-side
Design a protocol for transmitting screen updates to other players
Implement screen decoding and rendering on the receiving clients
Optimize screen sharing for performance and bandwidth efficiency

Player Movement Synchronization:

Design a protocol for synchronizing player movements across clients
Implement client-side prediction and server-side reconciliation for smooth player movement
Handle latency compensation and interpolation to ensure consistent player positions
Implement collision detection and resolution for player interactions

Voice Chat Integration:

Choose a voice chat library or service (e.g., Mumble, Discord API, WebRTC)
Integrate the voice chat functionality into your game engine
Implement voice chat channels or proximity-based voice communication
Handle voice encoding, transmission, and decoding
Ensure low-latency and high-quality voice communication

Server and Party Management:

Design and implement a server browser or matchmaking system
Create a party system for players to join and invite others
Implement server creation and configuration options
Handle player authentication and authorization
Provide tools for server administrators to manage players and settings

Libraries and Off-the-Shelf Code:

Networking: Boost.Asio, ENet
Screen Sharing: FFmpeg, libVNC
Voice Chat: Mumble, Discord API, WebRTC
Serialization: Protocol Buffers, FlatBuffers
Compression: zlib, LZ4
Encryption: OpenSSL, libsodium
Logging: spdlog, Boost.Log
Testing: Google Test, Catch2

collinalexbell · 2024-05-09T20:23:52Z

Me: First, the networking library. I'm currently using ZMQ for other purposes. Is that too high level? What are the tradeoffs vs using the other ones you suggested?

Claude:

collinalexbell · 2024-05-09T20:39:39Z

Ok. I'm choosing ENet. Reddit says it is battle tested.

I'm keeping a design doc of decisions on the new multiplayer branch: https://github.com/collinalexbell/HackMatrix/tree/multiplayer

collinalexbell · 2024-05-09T20:51:08Z

I asked claude to generate Client, Server, and Gui classes:

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collinalexbell · 2024-05-09T21:01:25Z

HackMatrix already has a preexisting Imgui class with tabs that Claude didn't know about. I had claude rewrite the Gui class so that it can plug into the engineGui class.

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collinalexbell · 2024-05-09T21:23:44Z

Barebones GUI works. Connect button still needs something to call, but that will be implemented in the Client class. I also thing the GUI needs an option to make a particular instance into a server.

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