16 replies to this topic

[regular]

I'm making an ingame chat where in theory unlimited number of people should be able to chat. The problem is that because the game checks for new chat messages too often, it creates a DoS attack on the server and it stops responding to the client.
There are two ways to solve this problem: either make the game to check for new chat messages every 10 to 15 seconds, or to make it use IRC. Does an irc dll for gamemaker exist?
(yes, i did search and found nothing)

[crashhelper]

Chat messages should be push, not pull. Have the server send the messages to the clients, rather than have the clients request them from the server.

[TheMagicNumber]

If you're using 39dll you can implement the protocol yourself.

[regular]

Have the server send the messages to the clients, rather than have the clients request them from the server.

How do I do this? Is it possible? Echo function replies only to requests, I think. Besides, is it possible to make a webscript to execute without a request? And how will the game know it has recieved a message without sending a request first?

If you're using 39dll you can implement the protocol yourself.

Can it be done with HTTPDLL2.dll, too?

[TheMagicNumber]

If you're using 39dll you can implement the protocol yourself.

Can it be done with HTTPDLL2.dll, too?

No. You need TCP.

[crashhelper]

How do I do this? Is it possible? Echo function replies only to requests, I think. Besides, is it possible to make a webscript to execute without a request? And how will the game know it has recieved a message without sending a request first?

I seriously hope you're not using php with http for the chat. You should just make the chat part of the multiplayer protocol that your game uses. IRC isn't really the tool for this job either, as it's intended for large networks with many users and multiple servers and channels.

[regular]

How do I do this? Is it possible? Echo function replies only to requests, I think. Besides, is it possible to make a webscript to execute without a request? And how will the game know it has recieved a message without sending a request first?

I seriously hope you're not using php with http for the chat. You should just make the chat part of the multiplayer protocol that your game uses. IRC isn't really the tool for this job either, as it's intended for large networks with many users and multiple servers and channels.

I don't have much choice - the game has one room which has a chat for all players - that is whenever a new player joins that chat, he must see everything others are chatting and all others must see whatever he writes. Using peer to peer for this is not suitable - a common server is needed.

No. You need TCP.

I thought http dll 2 supports TCP and not UDP.

[crashhelper]

Using peer to peer for this is not suitable - a common server is needed.

I'm not suggesting you go peer-to-peer, but rather make chat part of your game's multiplayer protocol.

[regular]

Using peer to peer for this is not suitable - a common server is needed.

I'm not suggesting you go peer-to-peer, but rather make chat part of your game's multiplayer protocol.

I can't get what you are saying - do you mean I should make every client to request new messages from every other client? o.O If not, then a common server which every client to communicate to is the only way - I dont see any other.

[crashhelper]

I can't get what you are saying - do you mean I should make every client to request new messages from every other client? o.O If not, then a common server which every client to communicate to is the only way - I dont see any other.

No, the client should send the chat message to the server, and the server should relay this message to the other clients. There should be no requests involved in this process.

[TheMagicNumber]

I thought http dll 2 supports TCP and not UDP.

HTTP is built onto TCP. You need TCP, not HTTP.

Do as crashhelper says.

[Revel]

Ignore TheMagicNumber, he doesn't have a clue what he's talking about.
Yes http dll 2 supports TCP sockets, so go ahead and use it.

[TheMagicNumber]

Ignore TheMagicNumber, he doesn't have a clue what he's talking about.
Yes http dll 2 supports TCP sockets, so go ahead and use it.

Oh excuse me for not knowing an HTTP DLL supported TCP sockets.

[Maarten Baert]

The name is a bit confusing: It does support sockets, so you should be able to implement the IRC protocol in GML if you use Http Dll 2.

IRC uses a text-based protocol, the commands are separated by a newline character (chr(10)). You can read the commands with

while socket_read_message_delimiter(socketid, bufferid, chr(10)) {
    command = buffer_to_string(bufferid);
    // ...
}

You can send your own commands to the server with socket_write_message_delimiter. Wikipedia has a list of all commands you can send:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_Relay_Chat_commands

I also found this:
http://colinhorne.blogspot.com/2005/01/irc-protocol.html

That should be enough to get started.

Edited by Maarten Baert, 21 June 2011 - 05:07 PM.

[regular]

You can send your own commands to the server with socket_write_message_delimiter. Wikipedia has a list of all commands you can send:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_Relay_Chat_commands

Does it matter which server I use? Most of these commands seem not to be working on rizon.

Also, will the game client have nick, join and create channels just as normal users?

[stoneyftw]

Did you ever get this irc thing working? I'm planning on adding irv integration into my app. Irc is PERFECT for in game chat integration.

[DarkDev]

If anyone is interested in something like this, give me a PM I would like to know if there are people who would actually benefit from having an IRC extension.