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Well, with such a quick response from Jason, I got kind of excited and figured I'd throw out the IM based Server as Client model that I mentioned in the previous entry. This is a simplification protocol in that it doesn't rely on a server, and many of the features of voting players out are now delegate toa single client that is acting as the server. There is no match-making since all game-play is done on the invitation model which is simply easier.
How are we doing to take advantage of the invitation model? Well, for now, you can invite any of your messenger buddies. However, they won't respond with a yes/no, unless they are actually running the poker application, so give em a quick IM, tell them to get off their arse, and jump on the poker game. While playing poker, the IM layer is being used exclusively by the poker game itself. You can build in some chat features in case someone sends you a message while playing (see the IM Chat in yellow?) otherwise a simple busy message can be sent over each new conversation, followed by a prompt disconnect.
The IM Networking protocol is where the client's actually respond, as each responds in turn they are added to a game conversation. At this point, you can chat, and the network protocol can send any game related messages. The games will begin and the users can start playing. The actual protocol used for the game to operate is pretty basic, and will have to be covered in code later. For now, just realize a series of messages, basic text messages, are sent for poker commands, and that GUIDs are used to identify cards. To prevent any form of cheating adding some encryption on top of the text messages is easily done when doing private things like sending card information.
If you followed the RTC web-cast or want to view it online you can see how easy the network layer will be when we rely on an existing networking protocol to make things happen.
More to come, so stay tuned. I'm doing the Visio diagrams for now, but I'll be switching over to the whiteboard photocopies soon enough as I start doing the real design work. |
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