Learning XNA 3.0

Chapter 17: Multiplayer Games

Quiz Answers

1. If you create a two-player split screen, what should you use for the camera's aspect ratio to ensure that your graphics don't look squished?

   • Instead of using the width and height of the game window for your aspect ratio, you should use the width and height of the viewport for that split-screen view.

2. Fact or fiction: networked games in XNA use a networking API that works on the PC and Xbox 360 but is different on the Zune.

   • Fiction. The networking API in XNA is compatible with all three platforms (PC, Xbox 360, and Zune)—although each platform can communicate only with devices of its own type.

3. What's the difference between a peer-to-peer and a client/server network architecture?

   • Peer-to-peer networks have no server, and all machines send data to all other machines in the network. Client/server networks have a server and one or more clients. All clients send data to the server, and the server broadcasts all messages to all clients.

4. Which network type (peer-to-peer or client/server) is better?

   • That totally depends on the type of game you're creating. You'll need to consider the number of players involved as well as how much information needs to be updated throughout the game.

5. What will happen if you don't call NetworkSession.Update in your game?

   • The NetworkSession.Update call updates your session and pumps all network messages through the session. If you don't call this method, the machines on the network will not be able to communicate and sync up in ...