Hey, I'm not a coder and don't begin to understand the underlying communications that bzflag is using (I'm guessing the initial connection is tcp based, but the gameplay data is udp-based for speed, right?).
However, two features I'd like to see added or at least considered. They have both a geek coolness aspect (as well as testing newer technologies), and also a potention for benefitting multiplayer areas.
Ok, so adding IPv6 by itself probably wouldn't be that hard on unix-based platforms from what I've read (again, I'm not a coder). I'm interested in it just as another notch in the apps supporting the new protocol (every daemon on my Linux box is running IPv6 except ntp and bzflag).
The bigger improvement would be multicast support, but I don't know how bzfs and bzflag communications work. My guess is the clients are always updating their status and bzfs is always relaying that same info back to the other clients (almost like a ethernet hub), plus doing other admin aspecs like respawning, etc.
What if a player was on a multicast supporting network (router and switch supported multicast RP) and all commo from bzfs would be done via multicast, which would help outbound bandwidth from the bzfs site to a site with 2+ players as it would only require the same amount of outbound traffic.
Again, no real need for either, but the geek factor is there and the practical programming and network protocol knowledge would be useful elsewhere.
IPv6 & multicast
-
purple_cow
- Private First Class
- Posts: 63
- Joined: Sun Dec 15, 2002 9:24 pm
Welp, I know this thread is a little old, but might as well point out a couple things:
IPv6: there's no reason this isn't supported, other than the fact that noone has done it yet.
Multicast: BZFlag used to support multicast, but the problem is that the general internet infrastructure doesn't really support it yet. This will hopefully change once everyone is switched over to IPv6, but right now it doesn't really work unless you're playing on a LAN, in which case it's kind of silly anyways. The core problem is that unless everyone is on multicast, you still have to relay, and the bookkeeping can get messy. It's a nice long-term goal, but for now is probably just a pipe dream.
IPv6: there's no reason this isn't supported, other than the fact that noone has done it yet.
Multicast: BZFlag used to support multicast, but the problem is that the general internet infrastructure doesn't really support it yet. This will hopefully change once everyone is switched over to IPv6, but right now it doesn't really work unless you're playing on a LAN, in which case it's kind of silly anyways. The core problem is that unless everyone is on multicast, you still have to relay, and the bookkeeping can get messy. It's a nice long-term goal, but for now is probably just a pipe dream.
I agree, and wasn't going to respond at first. However, for those of you that don't know, Internet2 just upgraded the Abilene backbone to 10Gbps. Many of the node connections are operational at 1Gbps into I2. So, if you're on one of those sites, and there are a heck of a lot of them, bzflag might be a good test of bandwidth and multicast. I would call it a high-speed interactive simulation system. It just means you'd have to set up a special server for I2 sites to access w/ IPV6. Maybe not as out of reach as you think, from a college or campus environment, at least.
-toaster
"So there I was, all alone, facing all of the enemy. I started driving in circles, until I had them surrounded, and then I escaped in the confusion."
"So there I was, all alone, facing all of the enemy. I started driving in circles, until I had them surrounded, and then I escaped in the confusion."