Networking Libraries

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by psionic, Aug 30, 2009.

  1. psionic

    psionic Well-Known Member

    Dec 22, 2008
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    Hi everyone,

    I'm in the middle of developing our first game, and have been delving into networking programming as it progresses.

    I was wondering if anyone know of any iPhone multiplayer game libraries that do wifi type networking? (TCP/UDP)

    Obviously there's the peer-to-peer support in 3.0, but i'd like to have it done over the internet, possibly including the bluetooth mode as well, but internet as the primary way of connecting, stat storage, etc.


    Anyone know of a few libraries/sdks?


    Thanks,
    Chris.
     
  2. HappyFuntime

    HappyFuntime Active Member

  3. psionic

    psionic Well-Known Member

    Dec 22, 2008
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    #3 psionic, Aug 30, 2009
    Last edited: Aug 31, 2009
    thanks, i've contacted them about their neutron library.

    for their photon product though, it doesn't make too much sense for this market.. their service starts at $500 for 100 simultaneous users, up to $3500 for unlimited, which i would guess is a monthly fee.

    Given that the price point for apps is $0.99, I don't see how this is feasible for start ups, since you get the most traffic in the initial burst, and it's nearly impossible to gauge how much bandwidth you'd need.

    $42,000 a year for unlimited users for a project where you'd be looking at that *revenue* (after apple's 30%, local income taxes etc.) as being 'alright' for a project.. i don't see how it's a viable solution.

    EDIT: I've talked w/ the photon guys, and I got it wrong.. my apologies. It's a one-time license fee that can be upgraded as required, and it needs you to have your own windows server.

    from their guys:
    "The Photon license is a one-time fee, but must be hosted by you (basically on any Windows Server machine). It starts with a $500 license, which can be upgraded easily as needed."

    of course, renting a server is still $150 US a month.. $1800 a year. But this is much more of a reasonable target.
     
  4. psionic

    psionic Well-Known Member

    Dec 22, 2008
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    I've since also discovered "RakNet" and have made headway into implementing their doxygen documents into an xcode docset (i've posted a how to on their forums) and their library also has a fairly easy setup in xcode it seems (a few changes to their source.. i'll post updates soon on their forums)

    So I'm going to try that. Their Indie license is free (niiice) until $250k at which point it's like 5k for a single game license, which is fair enough.

    Server code you'd obviously need to run it on a dedicated windows server, which are priced at about $150/month through people they recommend, but I'm going to build our game as a more peer-to-superpeer architecture so that it scales w/out costing us too much, and use a web-architecture (php calls to server database for login/persistent stats). I may or may not release this type of infrastructure for free, maybe small payment for published projects.

    Anyhow, if anyone wants info on how I'm going about setting up RakNet, send me a PM.


    Chris.
     
  5. oioioi

    oioioi Member

    Mar 5, 2009
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    sio2 got a TCP/IP socket you could check out, http://sio2interactive.com. There is a tutorial on how to send data from you iphone to your pc over local wifi. It can also be used for device to device or to a server, but there is no tutorial on this so you need to know some network programming
     
  6. khangtoh

    khangtoh Well-Known Member

    May 31, 2009
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    Co-Founder/IPhone Dev @ LeftRight Studios
    Pittsburgh, PA
    I've also been experimenting with RakNet for the past few weeks, we're using it for development of our multiplayer version. I manage to get it running on a linux server, since RakNet is an cross-platform library. So you don't really need a windoze server in order to run the server side software.
     
  7. HappyFuntime

    HappyFuntime Active Member

    Somehow it didn't cross my mind that that was a monthly fee. Now I feel dumb :( Obviously that's not affordable in this type of market.

    Thanks for sharing the info about RakNet though, I'm going to check that out now...
     
  8. pharmx

    pharmx Well-Known Member

    Jan 29, 2009
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    Don't feel bad, I didn't realize it was a monthly fee either...I'm not sure why they don't have it listed as "/month" when it would be a lot clearer that way.

    I'm not sure if this fits what you are looking for, but is might be another option to consider:

    http://www.z2live.com/

    I'm also interested to see what some of the current games like Dinosmash or Sluggers are using...or is it all proprietary? What's the going rate for someone to build something like this? I've gotten varying quotes ranging from $5k all the way up to $50k just for the platform, not counting any monthly usage fees.
     
  9. xother

    xother Active Member

    Aug 18, 2009
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    You could also take a look at the xpilot source code. It's a open source game with networking capabilities for the iphone (link).
     
  10. HappyFuntime

    HappyFuntime Active Member

    Awesome, thanks for the links :D I'm definitely going to have a look at that code, xother.

    I very much agree, the Photon site needs to be more clear about what the costs are. Same goes with Z2Live, although I've gathered that it's based on a percentage of revenues generated by subscriptions. It seems to be the more interesting of the two, if you're like me and don't want to manage servers. The social aspect is interesting as well, although I wonder how players will react to having so many different social networks for all their different games.
     
  11. psionic

    psionic Well-Known Member

    Dec 22, 2008
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    i should note that i don't know whether it's a monthly or not for sure.. but i just don't see a dedicated server hosting being $XX for a lifetime service contract..


    as for costs, I'd estimate that i'll end up spending at least 100 hours on it from start to finish, and i'm billing $100/hr.. so ~$10k? not too bad for a single, and very complex, portion of development. If you want I'll let you know the approximate final figures.


    Chris.
     
  12. khangtoh

    khangtoh Well-Known Member

    May 31, 2009
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    Co-Founder/IPhone Dev @ LeftRight Studios
    Pittsburgh, PA
    Hi Chris

    Curious to know what you are doing with raknet since I've also started working with it few weeks ago.

    Here's a link to the xcode setup if anyone is interested

    http://www.jenkinssoftware.com/raknet/forum/index.php?topic=2657.msg13424#msg13424
     
  13. psionic

    psionic Well-Known Member

    Dec 22, 2008
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    I've talked w/ the photon guys, and I got it wrong.. my apologies. It's a one-time license fee that can be upgraded as required, and it needs you to have your own windows server.

    from their guys:
    "The Photon license is a one-time fee, but must be hosted by you (basically on any Windows Server machine). It starts with a $500 license, which can be upgraded easily as needed."

    of course, renting a server is still $150 US a month.. $1800 a year. But this is much more of a reasonable target.

    I'm still talking w/ them about their "neutron" product.. i'll update when i get word.

    Chris.
     
  14. psionic

    psionic Well-Known Member

    Dec 22, 2008
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    Yep that's my post on their forum, on how to build the doxygen help library that will show up in xCode. It's a relatively straightforward process, as far as these things go (still incredibly complicated for new users however).

    I'll be updating soon enough on how to get their actual code to build in xcode. there's a couple forum posts about it already.

    I've also talked with their main developer about working with them to build an objective c wrapper around the entire library for easy integration, we'll see how that pans out.

    Chris.
     
  15. pharmx

    pharmx Well-Known Member

    Jan 29, 2009
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    Wow, now this sounds pretty good then. I don't see an iPhone game that already uses this however. I'd like to try it out in a live application before taking the plunge.
     
  16. khangtoh

    khangtoh Well-Known Member

    May 31, 2009
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    Co-Founder/IPhone Dev @ LeftRight Studios
    Pittsburgh, PA
    You mean quotes from Z2Live? or what platform are you getting those numbers?
     
  17. pharmx

    pharmx Well-Known Member

    Jan 29, 2009
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    No, the quotes I got were from different developers when I asked them about building a proprietary system. The z2live platform is profit share based.
     
  18. ShadowsFall

    ShadowsFall Well-Known Member

    May 15, 2009
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    Summer job soon
    TA 09'
    New free multiplayer sdk program!

    http://www.openfeint.com/developers

    not shure if this is the right forum to post but now theres a free program for devs to have online multiplayer (beta) program for developers! This could be your chance to shine!
     

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