Problem in MMORPG Client/Server Network Programming

[Jagdish Gada]

hi there

1st - Client sends secure data to server to be processed.
2nd - Server takes that secure data and processes it.
3rd - The data processed on the server is sent back to the client securely.

Now my question is that using C#.NET or VB.NET what is the most efficient networking object to use to achieve a professional level of client/server network programming? TCP? UDP or something?

What is world of warcraft using for example or everquest 2?

Please provide information about this issue.

My first step is to create a client that communicates securely & efficiently with the server.

[Zecho]

Well, Blizzard used to use the same network stuff until it was reverse engineered, GPL'd and released as Bnetd (remember battle.net?). Well, that was shut down and now WoW uses a completely new network library. Not many details on it as it's in-house.

Battle.net is an online gaming service provided by Blizzard Entertainment. It was launched in January 1997 with the release of Blizzard's action-RPG Diablo. Battle.net was the first online gaming service incorporated directly into the games that make use of it, in contrast to the external interfaces used by the other online services at the time. This feature, along with ease of account creations and the absence of member fees, caused Battle.net to become popular among gamers and became a major selling point for Diablo and subsequent Blizzard games.

Since the successful launch of Battle.net, many companies have published online game services mimicking Blizzard's service package and the user interface.

[Reegan]

Everquest actually uses a P2P-based architecture for their network protocol. There's a good article on engineering EverQuest on IEEE Spectrum: IEEE Spectrum: Engineering Everquest. There's a not at the bottom on an article that talks about them using P2P protocols as their network backbone.

Up in the snow-covered hills, a guild of wizards and a group of blue-skinned dark elves close in on caves of ice. Inside lurk ominous frost spirits and who knows what other monsters in the shadows. The wizards summon their magic. The dark elves prepare for battle. It's showdown time in Norrath.

So let the data flow. After all, Norrath exists solely in the coded world of EverQuest, a best-selling computer game played over the Internet. As its often-fanatical devotees test their mettle in a rich fantasy world of fierce creatures, powerful servers and routers strive to keep up with them in humming computer rooms from California to South Korea.

Published by Sony Online Entertainment in San Diego, the EverQuest franchise is more than a game: it's the game competitors aim to beat in an industry that's becoming a dominant force in the entertainment business. According to the market research firm IDC, in Framingham, Mass., annual worldwide sales of video-game hardware and software will swell to almost US $30 billion by 2008.

In the United States alone, people are spending almost $11 billion per year on video and computer games—more than they spend on movie tickets. That $11 billion bought 248 million computer and video games, according to the Entertainment Software Association in Washington, D.C.—two games for every household. Included in the figure are online games, such as EverQuest, played on personal computers, along with other games played on PCs; console games, such as those played on Microsoft's Xbox; and the various software, graphics accelerator boards, and joysticks that give the games their zing. And as you might expect in a market so vibrant, there's serious technology ferment.

Computer games, not scientific visualization, have been driving the design of graphics chips, some of which have more logic circuitry than state-of-the-art microprocessors. Games are also among the biggest drivers of new and creative software.

EverQuest and its sequel, EverQuest II, are at the hard-core end of online gaming spectrum that includes games like Blizzard Corp.'s World of Warcraft and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.'s The Matrix Online. At the opposite extreme of this spectrum are casual games such as poker and bingo. The people most devoted to EverQuest and its kind—who spend nearly as much time gaming as they do sleeping—are a minority of online gamers, making up about 35 percent of the total in 2003, according to game industry market research firm DFC Intelligence, in San Diego. But it is a lucrative 35 percent, accounting for half of the industry's revenues. By 2009, DFC says, the hard-core gaming segment will not have grown as quickly as the other gamer categories, slipping to 27 percent, but will still account for 38 percent of online gaming's projected in annual revenue.

For Sony, the business of immersing people in imaginary medieval worlds has been a bonanza. Six years after EverQuest's release, nearly 600 000 PC gamers are now shelling out per month in subscription fees, in addition to the onetime fee for the CD-ROMs they need to start playing. That's quite a payback for a game that cost less to bring to market.

[opaper]

Here's some more information on what different games use.

If you don't want to reinvent the wheel, I'd go with blackspark's suggestions for libraries. However, if you want to pull a Blizzard and make something new and unique, go for it.

A community of developers has arisen around Battle.net. Many unofficial clients are available for Battle.net, and most of the protocol used by Battle.net-enabled games has been reverse-engineered and published by volunteers.

Also, several communication tools have been made, like a "whisper" tool, so that a player could talk to their friends even if they are in a game.

Custom games (using maps that were not made by Blizzard) have helped build the community, and now are a substantial portion of the games played. Among the most popular of these games in WarCraft 3 (Blizzard's most recent Battle.net game) are tower defense maps and Hero solo maps (like DotA, and arena maps) or pure RTS games like Civilization Wars, where the player develops their economy, tech, and unit diversity but the player has no control of their units.