Java serialization and compression overheads vs. UDP

fractoid · 2004-03-25T23:33:08

Okies, here''s the next step in my quest to know everything pertinent about netcode programming before actually embarking on my netcode. This time it''s somewhat java-dependant, although it could relate to other languages too. I''m planning on sending UDP game updates from the server between 10 and 20 times a second. Each game update is going to consist of an array of 2(n+1) 16-bit integers, where n is the number of players that the client in question (x, y for each player, plus timestamp plus ''game id'' so stray packets don''t make things go weird). I expect no more than 20 players onscreen at once, so say 84 bytes per datagram max, raw. The simplest and most obvious way to do things is just stuff those ints into a byte array and send it, which I was going to do. However, every time I start thinking about doing bit shuffling in Java I realize that I''m thinking like a C++ programmer again (which, let''s face it, is mostly what I am). Sitting back and putting on my unigoggles (like beer goggles, but make theoretically fine solutions look good even if they''re ugly hags in the real world), I realize that what I should be doing is using an ObjectOutputStream, piped through a ZipCompressionStream or whatever it''s called, into a byte buffer output stream thingie, then getting the bytes from that and sending it. Advantages of this are that the data is munged and hence difficult to snoop, and that it means if I want to send a string and some ints instead it''s easy to change. Also, the built-in compression may even result in a smaller datagram than I would previously have made. Disadvantages are that, knowing java, I could easily end up sending far more data than I need to, due to overheads caused by generic-icity. Also, object serialization tends to lock the protocol to java, so I couldn''t, for instance, rewrite the server (or client) in C++. I''m not too worried about that last problem, but I *am* worried about taking up twice as much room as necessary, since I''m trying to squeeze the game''s bandwidth requirements to fit down a 56k modem. I could run some benchmarks and so on to figure it out for myself, but I wondered, with so many knowledgeable people floating around, if it''d been done before and someone already konws?

Networking and Multiplayer Programming

Started by fractoid March 22, 2004 08:48 AM

9 comments, last by fractoid 20 years ago

Aldacron

4,545

March 25, 2004 11:33 PM

quote:Original post by fractoid
Hmm... this brings us to another of my main points of consternation, which is what runtime to target. I''ve been intending to require only Java 1.1, as many people are limited to the standard IE java plugin still.

Ah, this is something I wish people would stop doing

There''s a little tool that comes with the JDK which can generate code around your applet tags to trigger the download of the latest Java plugin for most browsers. Plop that on your webpage and you''re good to hook for most platforms/browsers.

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Java serialization and compression overheads vs. UDP

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Java serialization and compression overheads vs. UDP

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