It's actually lua, but there's not much difference there.

So I'm making a turned based strategy game and it does a lot of work with lua scripts server side. I created a wrapper class that I really like to use. So far I've been using it to interact with objects in the lua environment and save and load data etc. Then I thought: 'why not just use lua to send data across the network too?'

I figure the biggest bottleneck would be interpreting the code at the client and that doesn't worry since each individual client won't be receiving that many messages.

I know it's more bulky than binary, but it seems pretty convenient. Do you think it'll have a big impact on how many users the server can support? Sorry if this is a dumb question.

[quote name='BinaryStorm' timestamp='1357848257' post='5019982']

I know it's more bulky than binary
[/quote]

My friend, you've answered your own question. If you can use binary, then use binary... or maybe you should try both and do some performance testing.

A JSON like format - great. It will make debugging easier, that's for sure.

But Lua? Unless you have a Lua parser that will treat it purely as data and not try to execute it, it would be extremely dangerous. Anybody on the internet could craft some malicious Lua code and send it to your server to be executed.

Didn't think about security. For what it's worth, messages would probably be executed in their own lua states, and I won't even load the standard libraries into those. I use states like that to load data.

Why not use google protocol buffers instead? It'll be much faster and it has inter-language communication capabilities. The only drawback is the awkward build process.

I use json all the time for turn based networking for mobile games. I only use simple dictionaries though. One thing to watchout for with LUA though is if you are targeting iPhone. I know somebody who tried sending lua scripts as part of in app purchase downloadable content and his app was rejected.