February 23 Packet Optimization - Weekly Devlogs
Packet optimization and sycnrhonization continues for multiplayer.
Work on multiplayer continues. Since multiplayer is such a large and involved thing that requires significant rewrites that break things, I'll be writing devlogs weekly but uploading new updates whenever I'm able to.
This week was spent on optimizing packets to be as small as possible. It used to be that the entire world was sent from the server to the clients piece by piece, which was a massive amount of data to send. It also meant the world didn't load in until the packets were received which slowed everything down. Further, it was possible to "max out" the network data, causing pieces of the world to not load. All this was pretty unnecessary since about 99% of the world is randomly generated and only a tiny portion is generally modified by players. It's ideal to have as much as possible handed on the client-side, and only use packets to resolve synchronization issues. This required some significant rewrites of the current multiplayer code, so I was doing that.
Fortunately now everything is more or less smooth. The server browser is working and the connectivity issues and errors have been resolved so you can connect to other servers and jump around at each other. What remains now is hunting down de-synchronization spots and writing multiplayer code to resolve them, which can be kind of a long and tedious process. Thanks for your patience during these rewrites.
Shout outs: Stacey, Phil Mehl, Wesley Muncy, elijah D. maben, R., bruschkin, Vincent Drone, thea musing, Brian Nunziato, Matt Yates, Elisa Martinez, Ryan Flagg, Jade Arrowood, Angelo Anderson, Dave Walker, Rhonda Seiter, Alexa Hobusch, Jonathan Lekse, Katie White, JollyGamer, Tiernan Greenman, Burlyfighter, Gillian Tolbert, David R Abbott, ツ Htz_Michelle, Rick Marsh, Brittany DeNicholas, Phillip Hash, Amanda Kettles, John Trent Dumproff, Lou Bliss, Pythor Sen, Desedent, Michael Isberg, Nat, Thomas Wilhelm, Krueger82, Irate The Pirate, Mark L, Conall Reilly, Cam Largent, Siren, AstroLass, Lizzie, Michael Hamilton, Vedie V, Mylon Schroder, Nathan, Jordan Florez, Robert Rich, Rodney O'Dell, Robin Ellis-Foster, Jess, Lars Yell, Zee Livezey, Kevin, Kerry Melton, Mary Kieser, SallySparrow132, Naomi B, J, Millergendraft, Federica Frezza, Nick Soucy, Ellen Mitchell, Melanie Warga, Jeremiah Walker, Bryan Sheairs, Bryan Kempka, chris wilson, Max Hops, Sarah Holland, Joshua David Maddox, Jennifer Smith, Liz Fontain, Ray Bissonnette, Joe Dalby, Joline Tran, Nicholas Zamora, ShortyMcgibble, Mr. Vinclair, mtnman1979@aol.com, KFB_Patreon, eric sun, Kayleigh Sulin, Dani, Gundar Wez, Nahellion, Nicholas Hanke, bilbens baggo, Stuart, Brysen Packer, Maxwell Mayer, Gannon Dubay, Thobek, Aaron Teupe, Mage1X, XMrMonkyx ., Miss Zilla M, Jordan Brazeal, Kyle Clark, Jake Lane, Adam Ruiz, Phillip P Torchia, Stefan Gottschalk's, Remora Jewel, Alex Harford (VA7OMM), jeremy baisch, Daniel Edwards, Zealot23, Shane Andrews, Brandon Mußiq, CJMAXP, Dylan Rintoul, Lisa Tucker, KingHavok1217, Mx Charlie, Justin Snyder, Zachary Burgess-Hicks, Shazear, Steve Rosenlund, Ezzela1891, John Nazario, Gordon Alexander Fallon, Justin Stensgard, Jason Clark, Trey Vickory
Their contribution stands as a beacon of hope for all adventurers!
