C# multiplayer chess

Roy S

If this is the wrong section for this type of questions, move it please?

About three months ago I asked a question about making a game lobby (for playing chess online). I've been thinking about it and a week ago one of my teachers said to us that they wanted that everyone makes a website (of their end-work) which will be hosted (or whatever the proper term is) on a server in school. That reminded me of this problem.

The people posting in the last topic gave me the idea that the clients connects to a server that tells them who is online and who wants to play. The server also handles the game requests and the games themselves.

But I'm not sure what will happen if 10 games are played simultaneously, wouldn't that be too stressful on the server? I thought about letting the server handle the requests but the clients connect to each-other and handle the games themselves.

This is my idea of what needs to happen:

Client connects to server.
Server takes info from client (name, ip, ...).
Server sends info about new person to everyone else.
If someone wants to play a game he sends to server a sort message saying "I want to play a game with [name]".
The server sends a message to the right person saying "[name] wants to play a game, do you accept?".
The other person sends something back to confirm.
The server sends to the first person that he can connect to the second.
And if someone leaves (even if the internet connection fails if possible) or enters a game, the other clients should also be notified.

Eventually, I'd like to add an option to view one of the games but that's for later...

The actual question is "how?", how should I do this? Please, help me with this.

Try to avoid saying "search google" or "go to [section] of this site", I can't find it.

7 Replies

Know the answer? Post it — somebody with the same question will find it here.

Sam Hobbs16y ago
Searching is the only way I know to find something relevant. You could add to your search something like TCP/IP.

I think you need to learn how to search. Try something such as: http://www.bing.com/search?q=chat+server+sample&go=&form=QBLH&qs=&sk=
Felipe Ramos16y ago
Roy you can do it in C#, there is a book from Wrox title Professional XNA Programming 2nd Edition. Chapter 15 is about creating multiplayer games and even though the book is about XNA because at the time of publishing the XNA version out didn't support it, the author wrote the network classes using the .NET classes. If you can get your hand on that book or chapter it will be great because he explains about the different options and when to use one over the other or a combination. If you can't get the book, you can definitely download the source from the page and check out the classes.
Roy S16y ago
I found a few results on google about making chat programs but none of them were clear on how to do that server thing. Is it possible to use a c# program or do I need to use another language?
Sam Hobbs16y ago
Most of what you describe here is the type of thing that chat programs do so you should find articles and samples of chat programs. The very simple chat programs won't use a server but most of them that support multiple users will use a server.
Felipe Ramos16y ago
No all I think the client should do is validate that the move is legal, you don't want to burden the server with a check like that. However your server will need to make sure each player doesn't take forever to make their move unless you want to allow that style. Your server should update statistics, check winning condition, and if you are playing against cpu best moves.
Roy S16y ago
Bump

Roy I am sure that you will get better answers, but I think you won't have an issue with handling everything at the server. The most intensive calculation you may perform is if you are calculation best moves for the cpu. Since chess doesn't concern itself with many graphics, your packages to update the player should be relatively small. The .net library offers libraries for UDP and TCP so you have alot there as well. You can also create a WCF service to manage all of your concurrent games.
You mean that the clients still make their decisions and the program on their computer checks if it's possible but I fail to see any benefits to have those moves go through the server (the server just passes them to the correct person).
Felipe Ramos16y ago
Roy I am sure that you will get better answers, but I think you won't have an issue with handling everything at the server. The most intensive calculation you may perform is if you are calculation best moves for the cpu. Since chess doesn't concern itself with many graphics, your packages to update the player should be relatively small. The .net library offers libraries for UDP and TCP so you have alot there as well. You can also create a WCF service to manage all of your concurrent games.