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Networking and Online Games
Understanding and Engineering Multiplayer Internet Games

Grenville Armitage (Author), Mark Claypool (Author), Philip Branch (Author)

9780470018576, Wiley

Hardback, published 7 April 2006

240 pages
25.4 x 17.4 x 1.9 cm, 0.567 kg

The computer game industry is clearly growing in the direction of multiplayer, online games. Understanding the demands of games on IP (Internet Protocol) networks is essential for ISP (Internet Service Provider) engineers to develop appropriate IP services. Correspondingly, knowledge of the underlying network's capabilities is vital for game developers.

Networking and Online Games concisely draws together and illustrates the overlapping and interacting technical concerns of these sectors. The text explains the principles behind modern multiplayer communication systems and the techniques underlying contemporary networked games. The traffic patterns that modern games impose on networks, and how network performance and service level limitations impact on game designers and player experiences, are covered in-depth, giving the reader the knowledge necessary to develop better gaming products and network services. Examples of real-world multiplayer online games illustrate the theory throughout.

Networking and Online Games:

  • Provides a comprehensive, cutting-edge guide to the development and service provision needs of online, networked games.
  • Contrasts the considerations of ISPs (e.g. predicting traffic loads) with those of game developers (e.g. sources of lag/jitter), clarifying coinciding requirements.
  • Explains how different technologies such as cable, ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) and wireless, etc., affect online game-play experience, and how different game styles impose varying traffic dynamics and requirements on the network.
  • Discusses future directions brought by emerging technologies such as UMTS (Universal Mobile Telephone Service), GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), Wireless LANs, IP service Quality, and NAPT/NAT (Network Address Port Translation/Network Address Translation)
  • Illustrates the concepts using high-level examples of existing multiplayer online games (such as Quake III Arena, Wolfenstein Enemy Territory, and Half-Life 2).

Networking and Online Games will be an invaluable resource for games developers, engineers and technicians at Internet Service Providers, as well as advanced undergraduate and graduate students in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Multimedia Engineering.

Author Biographies xi
Acknowledgements xiii

1 Introduction 1

2 Early Online and Multiplayer Games 5
2.1 Defining Networked and Multiplayer Games 5
2.2 Early Multiplayer Games 6
2.3 Multiplayer Network Games 12

3 Recent Online and Multiplayer Games 15
3.1 Communication Architectures 15
3.2 The Evolution of Online Games 17
3.3 Summary of Growth of Online Games 27
3.4 The Evolution of Online Game Platforms 29
3.5 Context of Computer Games 32

4 Basic Internet Architecture 41
4.1 IP Networks as seen from the Edge 42
4.2 Connectivity and Routing 47
4.3 Address Management 60

5 Network Latency, Jitter and Loss 69
5.1 The Relevance of Latency, Jitter and Loss 69
5.2 Sources of Latency, Jitter and Loss in the Network 70
5.3 Network Control of Lag, Jitter and Loss 75
5.4 Measuring Network Conditions 79

6 Latency Compensation Techniques 83
6.1 The Need for Latency Compensation 83
6.2 Prediction 86
6.3 Time Manipulation 93
6.4 Visual Tricks 97
6.5 Latency Compensation and Cheating 98

7 Playability versus Network Conditions and Cheats 101
7.1 Measuring Player Tolerance for Network Disruptions 101
7.2 Communication Models, Cheats and Cheat-Mitigation 108

8 Broadband Access Networks 121
8.1 What Broadband Access Networks are and why they Matter 121
8.2 Access Network Protocols and Standards 123
8.3 Cable Networks 125
8.4 ADSL Networks 127
8.5 Wireless LANs 128
8.6 Cellular Networks 132
8.7 Bluetooth Networks 134
8.8 Conclusion 135

9 Where Do Players Come from and When? 137
9.1 Measuring Your Own Game Traffic 138
9.2 Hourly and Daily Game-play Trends 142
9.3 Server-discovery (Probe Traffic) Trends 145
9.4 Mapping Traffic to Player Locations 148

10 Online Game Traffic Patterns 151
10.1 Measuring Game Traffic with Timestamping Errors 152
10.2 Sub-second Characteristics 153
10.3 Sub-second Packet-size Distributions 156
10.4 Sub-Second Inter-Packet Arrival Times 162
10.5 Estimating the Consequences 167
10.6 Simulating Game Traffic 168

11 Future Directions 175
11.1 Untethered 175
11.2 Quality of Service 178
11.3 New Architectures 180
11.4 Cheaters Beware 181
11.5 Augmented Reality 182
11.6 Massively Multiplayer 182
11.7 Pickup and Putdown 183
11.8 Server Browsers 183

12 Setting Up Online FPS Game Servers 187
12.1 Considerations for an Online Game Server 187
12.2 Wolfenstein Enemy Territory 188
12.3 Half-Life 2 198
12.4 Configuring FreeBSD's Linux-compatibility Mode 206
References 208

13 Conclusion 209
13.1 Networking Fundamentals 209
13.2 Game Technologies and Development 210
13.3 A Note Regarding Online Sources 211

Index 213

Subject Areas: Electronics & communications engineering [TJ]
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