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<meta name="date" content="2010-03-16T18:20:11+01:00">
<meta name="author" content="Manuel Moos">
<title>Armagetron: network code documentation</title>
<meta name="description" content="Armagetron: network code documentation">
DEFINE(Armagetron Advanced, Armagetron)
</head><body>
<table width="90%" align=center>
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<td align=center width="25%">
<a href="index.html" target="_top">Introduction</a>
</td>
<td align=center width="25%">
<a href="lower.html" target="_top">Layer One</a>
</td>
<td align=center width="25%">
<a href="middle.html" target="_top">Layer Two</a>
</td>
<td align=center width="25%">
<a href="upper.html" target="_top">Layer Three</a>
</td>
</tr>
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<a name=><h1 align=center>Armagetron: network code documentation</h1></a>
<p align=justify><strong>
Warning: These document are basically obsolete. The demo programs don't work
currently and the docs for Layer 1 have not been updated for the recent refactoring.
However, Layer 2 and 3 still are mainly intact and give the basic ideas about
the system.
</strong></p>
<p align=justify>
This document is not designed to explain every detail of the network
subsystem; it is intended as a sort of user's manual for people who want to
integrate Armagetron's networking into other GPL'd games and don't know
much more about networking than the average Quake fan. You will not read
anything about the "equal ping" technology here; I didn't know that before
I started writing this either :-) "equal ping" is not part of any of the
three network layers, it's in the way the game timer is handled and how
client control messages are interpreted by the server.
</p>
<a name=><h2 align=left>General structure</h2></a>
<p align=justify>
Just like most other network games, Armagetron uses a client/server
architecture. The server has full control over the game, to minimise the
possibility of cheating: the clients send only their players' input to the
server (and of course, don't wait for the server's response to interpret it),
the server executes the commands and sends all clients the updated game
information.
</p>
<p align=justify>
As you probably expected, Armagetron's network code is organised in layers,
where the lower layers deal with the details of network communication and the
upper layers use the functionality provided by the preceeding layer to
implement more complex tasks. In detail:
</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="lower.html">Layer 1 (Network protocol abstraction):</a></li>
<li><a href="middle.html">Layer 2 (Network messages):</a></li>
<li><a href="upper.html">Layer 3 (Network objects):</a></li>
</ul>
<p align=justify>
The game itself uses the login/logout functions of layer two, and of course
a lot of layer three. The layers two and three are a little interconnected:
some stuff that should be happening in layer two already is postponed to
layer three (i.e. cleaning up after a client quit from the server), so it's
not possible to compile a program just with layers one and two.
Sorry about that...
</p>
<a name=><h3 align=left>Common data types</h3></a>
<p align=justify>
<code>string</code> (declared in <code>smartstring.h</code>): this
is a better substitute for the normal <code>char *</code> with several
enhancements (you can simply append characters to it...).
</p>
<p align=justify>
<code>REAL</code> (declared in <code>stuff.h</code>): just a basic
<code>float</code>.
</p>
<a name=><h3 align=left>Common global objects</h3></a>
<p align=justify>
<code>con</code> (declared in <code>console.h</code>):
this is the console and used just like <code>cout</code>
or any other stream. Messages written to <code>con</code>
are displayed on the screen or written to standard output.
</p>
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<p align=center>This Page was created by
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Last modification: Tue Mar 16 18:20:11 UTC 2010
</p>
<table width="90%" align=center>
<tr>
<td align=center width="25%">
<a href="index.html" target="_top">Introduction</a>
</td>
<td align=center width="25%">
<a href="lower.html" target="_top">Layer One</a>
</td>
<td align=center width="25%">
<a href="middle.html" target="_top">Layer Two</a>
</td>
<td align=center width="25%">
<a href="upper.html" target="_top">Layer Three</a>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</body>
</html>
