Irrlicht Engine

Sudi wrote:Really depends on what your server has to do. There is no magic answer for this. The server does not even need irrlicht probably since it does not have to display anything.

Sudi wrote:Well you will have to implement the gamelogic that has to run on the server. But generally it is a bad idea to use irrlicht objects(SceneNodes) as game objects. You can think of it as the rendering component of your gameobjects. But yes if you have collision detection and things like that you will need a physics engine(irrlicht is not a physics engine) running on the server. So a math lib is probably needed. A different language is totally fine for all those things but you probably wanna use c++ as well when it comes to physics.

CuteAlien wrote:I like to have server/client as similar as possible. Often it's not trivial to figure out which parts of the code should run where. And it becomes easier to move code when server&client run more or less a similar world. So Irrlicht on the server can be fine. For testing you might even render stuff on the server.

For example depending on the game collision might happen on server & client. You have server collisions to ensure you have an instance making the decisions (Han shot first), but you have client collisions to show effects even before the server has decided who get's the points. Generally the server should have as much objects & information to be able to make all decisions that matter.

But it all depends on the game. If you are new to network programming it might help doing first a game which isn't about realtime and fast actions (like shooters). Turn-based games or games at least allowing some lag without affecting the gameplay might be easier (not easy... network never is).

IrrlichtDevice *nulldevice = createDevice(video::EDT_NULL);

diho wrote:But beside debugging, how should I disable the rendering part? something like this maybe?

Code: Select all

IrrlichtDevice *nulldevice = createDevice(video::EDT_NULL);

Will this stop every calculation for rendering purposes?

diho wrote: How should I do calculations with in game objects, without irrlicht? Do you suggest that it's better to write own code for this?

diho wrote: But beside debugging, how should I disable the rendering part? something like this maybe?

Code: Select all

IrrlichtDevice *nulldevice = createDevice(video::EDT_NULL);

Will this stop every calculation for rendering purposes?

Sudi wrote: Own code for what? You know that irrlicht is only a 3d engine+some input. But CuteAlien is right about using irrlicht to load 3d models. It really depends on what you wanna do. Maybe be a bit more specific about what you wanna do? Then we might be able to give you a better answer.

hendu wrote:Usually your physics representation is different from the graphics. You wouldn't use a hugely detailed 3d model with every triangle being a physics triangle, you'd use a box/sphere/ellipse/whatever. Then your server only needs to know the physics world, not the graphics world.

diho wrote: The idea is to make a little fps game. The server needs to update player positions to all clients, post-check bullet hits, control AI pathfinding etc. I am planning to use raknet. But as I said, don't I need to use irrlicht to load in the terrain and ingame objects, for at least the pathfinding algorithm if not more?