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64 lines
2.5 KiB
64 lines
2.5 KiB
15 years ago
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kdemultiplayers library
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-----------------------
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Copyright (c) 1998-2000 Nicolas HADACEK (hadacek@kde.org)
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Distributed under the GNU Library General Public License
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Introduction
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------------
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The "kdemultiplayers" library is an attempt to address the realization of
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multiplayer games localy on a computer (the players have each a "board" on
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the screen and they use the same keyboard) or/and by network (between several
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computers). The implementation is not so simple but this library gives
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a basic API which allows a lot of flexibility.
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Note: The headers which defines the API have names beginning with "mp".
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The library provides three services :
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* a set of dialog widgets to allow the players to configure/create/join
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a game.
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* management of all the sending/receiving data between
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player boards so you as a game programmer will *not* have to deal with
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sockets or network programming.
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* a framework for simple multiplayers game (for instance ksirtet) with a
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very simple API ("mp_simple" headers).
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Semantics
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---------
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"player" : an individual which take part in the game (it can also be an AI).
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"AI" : artificial intelligence (a game that is played by a program).
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"board" : there is one board per player ; it is the widget where the player
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acts in the game.
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"host" : a computer which hosts one or several players.
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"server" : the host that has created the game.
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"client" : a host that is not the server.
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Basic description of the API
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----------------------------
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From the game programmer point of view there should be no difference between
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a local multiplayers game (one host with several players) and a network game
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(several hosts with one or more players).
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Each player has a board which is a widget inherited from the class "LocalBoard"
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(see "mp_board.h").
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On each host there must be a class inherited from "MPInterface"
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which manages local boards and the data transport with other hosts.
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(see "mp_interface.h").
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During the game at given intervals of time, the server asks data from clients
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and from its local boards. After treating this data, the server dispatches back
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results to all boards.
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General advice
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--------------
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There should be no blocking operation or long computation as it will freeze
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the user front-end and will also block the multiplayers data exchanges
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which operate by timer signals.
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There are general rules to avoid such blocking :
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* answer to X/QT events such as keyboard/mouse/window events with
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short methods.
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* use timer(s) to make things evolve in time or to break long
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computation in shorter parts.
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