Quote:Original post by godsenddeath
what would be your options for networking if you're designing games for XP?

I'd say use Winsock. Pretty much everything you learn from that will port quite easily to other APIs, and the Winsock API itself is simple too.

Quote:Original post by godsenddeath
i've been reading through "Programming Role-playing games With DirectX" and i've been reading the chapter on directplay, but i looked around and apparently its all but obsolete, apparently in favor of a ported version of XBOX live? if this is the case and the info i was reading is correct, they stopped including DirectPlay headers and lib's in 2004, but the XBOX live port is only for vista? what would be your options for networking if you're designing games for XP?

Games for Windows Live came out recently and it's basically a ported version of Xbox Live for PCs. GforWL are Vista only (but they can be hacked to run on XP) but the idea is that games (Shadowrun IIRC is the only one yet) can run cross-platform so you can be playing on your PC and be in the same online match as people playing the same title on the Xbox 360. MS is trying to push this idea forward (although few PC games support it as of yet) so it makes sense that you're seeing all this reference to Xbox Live.

Winsock is your best bet, but it's Windows only. Seeing as you're working with DirectX which is Windows only in any case, I don't see using a Windows only networking library as being a problem.

ukd.