Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!mayoff
From: mayoff@cs.utexas.edu (Robert Mayoff)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: Offending game?
Message-ID: <967@langtry.cs.utexas.edu>
Date: 17 Oct 90 23:22:40 GMT
References: <1990Oct17.095033.1034@urz.unibas.ch> <2274@gazette.bcm.tmc.edu>
Organization: Dept of Computer Sciences, UTexas, Austin
Lines: 26

In article <2274@gazette.bcm.tmc.edu> etaylor@wilkins.iaims.bcm.tmc.edu (Eric Taylor) writes:
>The X api operates using the network services calls.  Any X program
>will make these calls.

I have not looked at the acm code (the only 8-plane X servers I can use are
HP-3000's, which I can't stand), but I doubt that you have answered the
question fully.  There are two obvious ways, to my knowledge, to write a
multi-player X game.  One way (this is the way xtank works, for example) is to
have one program run on one machine, and connect to the X servers of all the
players.  This way has the advantage that it is easier to write, since one
program keeps track of all the variables, timing is easier, etc.  However, one
program does basically *all* the work, except actually drawing the images.

The other obvious way is to have each player run a program which connects to
some central server (or all the other players' programs) and to his own X
server.  This way, each program does its own work; the load is distributed.  My
guess is that this is the method used by acm, since its nature implies that it
does a *lot* of calculation.  If this is indeed the case, it must use network
function calls to connect to the other players' (or the server's) programs.

Perhaps the acm author(s) will clarify?

-- 
/_  rob		<mayoff@cs.utexas.edu>
 /_ Fun things to do with UNIX (#2 in a series):
  / exec trace -p $$