November 2011
Beginner
238 pages
6h 19m
English
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Sending Only What Is Needed
One of the vital mistakes that first-timers make when designing a network is sending too much data. It is easy to just send everything. In the beginning of this chapter, we talked about a game that exhibited this very problem.
“If I had more time I would write a shorter letter.”
— Blaise Pascal
Pascal could have very well been talking about network packets, in this often-misattributed quote. The size of the packet can be directly related to the speed, stability, and scalability of your network. It is important to spend the time to figure out what the absolute bare minimum is that can be sent.
Take a look at a hypothetical example that some of you might encounter while designing a game. For this example, let's say ...