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DarkBASIC Discussion / Does DBC have online capabilities?

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21
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Posted: 30th Dec 2006 09:15
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Simple as that, I know. Really dumb. I wanted to know if I could make a game with online multiplayer using DBC...or rather, if it's been done before. If it has, are there any tutorials?

I just want to be pointed in the right direction for adding online co-op to my game, and I currently have DBC, but my PC probably can't handle DBP (it barely runs my own games in DBC). Thanks!

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indi
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Posted: 30th Dec 2006 10:09
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From memory you need the last upgrade enhancement pack for DBC to have multiplayer

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TDK
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Posted: 30th Dec 2006 15:13
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Even with the enhancement pack, the multiplayer commands in DBC aren't all that good (they use DirectPlay which is aimed more at LAN playing rather than online).

The commands also don't support port assignment which is a problem for anyone with an ADSL router that wants to play your game because they can't set up the NAT side of things.

You are better off looking for a third-party online dll package that will work with DBC, but I'm afraid that having never used one myself I can't give you the name of one - sorry.

TDK_Man

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Chris Franklin_
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Posted: 30th Dec 2006 15:40 Edited at: 30th Dec 2006 15:40
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Tempest with dbce should work

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s0l1dsnak3123
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Posted: 30th Dec 2006 20:47 Edited at: 30th Dec 2006 20:47
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Quote: "You are better off looking for a third-party online dll package that will work with DBC, but I'm afraid that having never used one myself I can't give you the name of one - sorry.

TDK_Man"


even if you want to use a 3rd party dll, you need the enhancement pack in order to use them.

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Posted: 31st Dec 2006 04:55
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Apparently I have...

Quote: "DARK BASIC V1.12 ENHANCED"


...I'm guessing that's it then?

I haven't heard of Tempest before, can you give me a link?

And thanks TDK, but uh, ASDL and NAT are a bit over my head right now... (hence why I want to find a tutorial if possible, I've never tried this stuff before in any program).

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TDK
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Posted: 31st Dec 2006 13:37
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Quote: "And thanks TDK, but uh, ASDL and NAT are a bit over my head right now... (hence why I want to find a tutorial if possible, I've never tried this stuff before in any program)."


But, until it's not over your head you won't be able to write games which can be played over the internet.

All data which arrives at a computer via ADSL (broadband) and a router comes in through a port. If other users of your game have routers then they will probably have some form of firewall which closes all unwanted ports.

NAT (Network Address Translation) is simply a section in the router's setup which allows you to send all traffic received on a certain port directly to the IP address of a given computer - rather than blocking it.

As DB's commands do not allow you to specify what port you want to use, there's no way the router users of your game can receive data while playing your game, unless they open ALL ports - at which point they would be vulnerable to all kinds of attacks.

DB's commands only let you set IP addresses, so sending and receiving data over a Local Area Network with IP is fairly straightforward.

http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=59539&b=10

TDK_Man

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Benjamin
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Posted: 31st Dec 2006 16:33
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Quote: "If other users of your game have routers then they will probably have some form of firewall which closes all unwanted ports."

However, this shouldn't matter as long as the host isn't using a router. Clients generally shouldn't have a problem connecting from behind a router.

Quote: "unless they open ALL ports - at which point they would be vulnerable to all kinds of attacks."

I'm not sure if you meant this, but DirectPlay uses a range of ports, which means the router can set up to forward data on all possible ports. Unfortunately it appears that through different DirectPlay versions this range changes.

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Posted: 31st Dec 2006 18:49
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Oh, wow, yeah - now it makes a lot more sense. Okay, so LAN should be a piece of cake with DBC then, right? (well, in comparison to online...)

I know a guy who's been trying to show me a "highly recommended" LAN-to-Internet program that lets you play LAN games as though they were online games. I may just make a LAN game and show people how to use that then...?

Thanks again guys, I really appreciate the detail you've gone into for me TDK.

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Benjamin
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Posted: 31st Dec 2006 19:02
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Quote: "I know a guy who's been trying to show me a "highly recommended" LAN-to-Internet program that lets you play LAN games as though they were online games."

Hamachi? It should work.

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Posted: 31st Dec 2006 22:25
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Ah, yep. Hamachi sounds right. So this could work for having an online DBC game?

In that case...are there any LAN DBC tutorials out there? I don't want to spend another 6 months of trial and error if I can get something working more efficiently, quickly, and more easily.

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TDK
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Posted: 6th Jan 2007 01:54
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Check out my tutorial on the subject (in the thread at the top of the Newcomers board).

TDK_Man

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Posted: 15th Jan 2007 04:08
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Ah, you mean this one? That's great, thanks for the heads up!

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heartbone
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Posted: 16th Jan 2007 15:17
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The Direct Play performance in DirectX7 is atrocious. While OK for turn based, it's unusable in a real time environment.

So if you want to use the builtin DBC multiplayer,
you should stick with turn based multiplayer. (think chess, othello)

If you want real time multiplayer action (think pong) you'll need DBP.
I had success with the original DX8 based DBP version 4.1.

I'm unique, just like everybody else.
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Posted: 18th Jan 2007 07:01
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DBP requires a graphics card though, I thought? My current PC barely handles DBC. And, would I be able to dump the code into DBP and just keep going from there? Or would I have to rewrite it?

Just to stay on topic, I was able to get this working (amazingly enough) on 1/3 tests with three different people. I followed the tutorial, created a room that showed who was present (under a unified, single EXE that had both host and client! Horray me), and was able to see if someone had successfully joined or not. Simple as that.

So each person downloaded and ran Hamachi. I had a Hamachi room running already, they would join in and run the program. One guy there was no connection, one could see the room but not successfully join, and the last everything worked fine. I don't know about the first two guys, but the last had port forwarding, which is (what I'm guessing) did the trick.

One last thing on DBP: Does it have REAL online support, with workarounds for routers and ports and whatnot, or would I have to go through similar issues?

Thanks again for all your help so far guys.

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