About Networking

[Pwned231]

Hey guys,

would it be a bad practice to make something like this?:

hook.Add("PlayerDeath", "stuff", function()
    ...CODE...
    net.Start("Info")
        net.WriteTable(Kill_Info)
    net.Broadcast()
end

I wanted to send some info to the client everytime the player dies, would this be ok?

Thanks in Advance :)

[c👌de_g🎷]

Make your net message name more unique and instead send each piece of data you need; don't use WriteTable.

[Pwned231]

[QUOTE=code_gs;52373133]Make your net message name more unique and instead send each piece of data you need; don't use WriteTable.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the info :)

Should I always discard WriteTable and send them separately?

[kantalketche]

[QUOTE=Pwned231;52374459]Thanks for the info :)

Should I always discard WriteTable and send them separately?[/QUOTE]

WriteTable is fine for debugging but for anything else it can be incredibly slow and clog up the network.

[c👌de_g🎷]

[QUOTE=Pwned231;52374459]Thanks for the info :)

Should I always discard WriteTable and send them separately?[/QUOTE]

You should try to avoid it when possible since you know the structures of most tables you're sending. It just adds a lot of extra bloat since it has to send the length of the table and the type of each value.

[Pwned231]

[QUOTE=code_gs;52374951]You should try to avoid it when possible since you know the structures of most tables you're sending. It just adds a lot of extra bloat since it has to send the length of the table and the type of each value.[/QUOTE]

But between doing this:

for i=1, 20 do
    net.Start("XP_PlayerDeathInfo")
        net.WriteInt(InfoTest)
    net.Broadcast()
end

and

net.Start("XP_PlayerDeathInfo")
    net.WriteTable(InfoTestTable)
net.Broadcast()

WriteTable is the best no?

[bigdogmat]

[QUOTE=Pwned231;52375824]But between doing this:

:snip:

and

:snip:

WriteTable is the best no?[/QUOTE]

You can send multiple values in a single net message. [img]http://wiki.garrysmod.com/favicon.ico[/img] [url=http://wiki.garrysmod.com/page/net/WriteTable]net.WriteTable[/url] will in 99.9% of cases be worse than sending the values in a structured way. The 0.1% of cases are when the keys and values you're sending are very sporadic and have absolutely no order or relation.

[Kris101]

Pwned, instead of doing either of those. You should write number of values in say 8 bits, then loop through the data within the player sending just the number of bits necessary.

net.Start("PlayerDeathInfo");
  net.WriteInt(20, 8);
  net.WriteInt(val1, 8);
  net.WriteInt(val2, 8);
  -- Do until val20
net.Broadcast();

Remember every bit doubles the prior value: (Although please consider whether it's signed or unsigned ((- & +) or +)
1 = 2 unsigned (0 or 1)
2 = 4 unsigned
3 = 8 unsigned
4 = 16 unsigned
...
8 = 256 unsigned [B]or[/B] -127 to 128 signed
16 = 65,535 unsigned [B]or[/B] −32,768 to 32,767 signed
...

[Pwned231]

Ok guys just one more question.

Can I use the same:

net.Start("JustATest123")

In 2 different hooks?

I wanted to start the same "JustATest123" in 2 different files basically.

[c👌de_g🎷]

If you have the same send structure, yes.

[Kris101]

[QUOTE=Pwned231;52376654]Ok guys just one more question.

Can I use the same:

net.Start("JustATest123")

In 2 different hooks?

I wanted to start the same "JustATest123" in 2 different files basically.[/QUOTE]

You'll probably want to make a server-sided wrapper function which basically takes a player(s) and would send the information relevant to that player(s). So you could easily reuse it at any time.

[Pwned231]

Thanks for everything guys <3