C++ with RPG Maker?

[AllenCross]

I'm not sure if this is where i'm supposed to post this here or not but here it goes. I'm a c++ coder, now to keep my question plain and simple. Is it possible to Make an MMO client using RPG maker and then make the server in c++? Does RPG maker support that?

 

[Galenmereth]

RPG Maker VX Ace uses RGSS3 as its scripting language, which is based on Ruby 1.9.2. Now, if you want to do create multiplayer scripts that's perfectly doable; what software the server runs doesn't matter as long as the language used for communication is something both ends can understand. For example JSON or XML. I'm not entirely sure about initiating network connections and transferring data in RGSS3. You might have to create a DLL to offload this work to and to add this functionality.

In short, what software the server runs isn't the challenge; it's more getting the scripts you add to RPG Maker to support networking.gr

 

[Andar]

no, RPGM is purely for local ply, there aren't even networking codes in default.

Theoretically it's possible to implement such a system, because the game code is completely in the script editor, but it would require you to start from scratch - it'll probably be easier to write both client and server from scratch since that way you wouldn't be bothered by the existing code (which isn't intended to be secure for networks).

There are a few (very few, two that I've heard of) attempts to create those networking codes - one stopped at the ability to transfer data on the level of highscore lists, the other hasn't been published yet (the author claims to have included a lot more, butit's still in alpha and unpublished according to my knowledge)

 

[Galenmereth]

no, RPGM is purely for local ply, there aren't even networking codes in default.

[...]

I gathered since his question was "is it possible", then the answer is "yes" as I described. But like you say, it's not in any way built in. It's still doable theoretically due to the script functionality.

 

[Andar]

I gathered since his question was "is it possible", then the answer is "yes" as I described. But like you say, it's not in any way built in. It's still doable theoretically due to the script functionality.

Yes, as I said in my post it's theoretically possible.

But I'm a programmer myself, and because of this I know that in this case the "theoretically possible" goes to such a large amount of work that for all practical purposes it's no.

The reason someone is asking such a question is usually in order to seek a way to reduce his workload, and not because he has too much time on hand. Any try to reduce that work by using RM as a basis would be a difficult choice - especially because the code of the scripts would be interpreted, not compiled. And for internet purposes (especially MMO) you'll need fast and reliable data transactions, not something interpreted by a slow language interpreter...

 

[Galenmereth]

You're absolutely right about that. I managed to somehow read the word "MMO" as "multiplayer"... Any form of massive concurrent player networking with the RM engine is practically undoable.

 

[AllenCross]

I understand, so in this case, it is 'doable' but it wouldn't be practical. You see I want to do a personal project to learn a bit more about networking between clients and server, and I don't want to go through the whole process of making a full game client and server just to have a bit of experience of that side of programming. I might still dabble in it though, if its doable, maybe this challenge is exactly what I need ^-^.

 

[Zalerinian]

It is possible, connections through the internet have been done before. You need to do it one of two ways, though.

1. Use Ruby's builtin Win32API to connect to the internet using the dll files provided by windows
2. Make your own dll file that allows internet access and use it with Ruby's Win32API

Doing so will not be easily. A lot of things will need to be fixed and changed to work properly.

It will be a very large amount of work to do what you want, and I can't promise the FPS will be any good, but it'll work. You are a C++ programmer (I know a bit and am still learning more of it. Pointers are a huge area of what.), so I believe there is a better solution for you. First off, if you're familiar with the company Valve, creators of Steam, the Portal series, the Half-Life series, and the Team Fortress series, then just use what they do. Their Source engine uses the Simple DirectMedia Layer. SDL. SDL is preparing a V2.0 release soon. In fact SDL 2 RC 1 is already out, and steam was updated to use it already.

SDL provides you libraries for audio, visual, support for 3D with OpenGL, native support for 2D (SDL_Image loads image files. Shocker), support across Windows, Mac, and Linux (As in all SDL components work on all the operating systems. Your own code might still need to change to work with that OS, but SDL itself will work), there is a library for internet access (Surprise, it's called SDL_Net), and a lot more.

If you'd like to use C++ and you understand it well, try making something with SDL. And start with easy things, going for MMO from the beginning won't go well, especially if you don't know what you're doing. If you'd like to learn SDL, there's a website with some great tutorials for you to use over at lazyfoo.net. S/he is already working on tutorials for SDL 2, so you can really get a lot out of that website.

Using SDL will most likely be your best option if you insist on creating an MMO, or any multiplayer game. You will need to make your own audio and visual resources, as well as build every part of the game yourself, but you'll have a cross-platform way to distribute it, and that itself is more than RPG Maker gives you.

With whatever you choose, though, good luck.

  ~Zale

P.S. SDL is also free to use, you don't need to pay for it, but again, you don't get any resources.

P.P.S forgot to mention, the SDL website is libsdl.org

 

[Tsukihime]

But I'm a programmer myself, and because of this I know that in this case the "theoretically possible" goes to such a large amount of work that for all practical purposes it's no.

RMXP had a huge set of scripts for an online system for RMX-OS: http://forum.chaos-project.com/index.php?topic=3869.0


Never tried it, never seen any projects for it, so I don't know whether it's any good or not, but if anyone has experience with RPG Maker MMO's that would probably be good enough to say whether it's practical or not.

 

[BigEd781]

I understand, so in this case, it is 'doable' but it wouldn't be practical. You see I want to do a personal project to learn a bit more about networking between clients and server, and I don't want to go through the whole process of making a full game client and server just to have a bit of experience of that side of programming. I might still dabble in it though, if its doable, maybe this challenge is exactly what I need ^-^.

If this is a practice project, write a simple HTTP server or something.  You can then implement a text based game on top of it if you like.    If the goal is to learn about TCP and client/server type stuff then you'll just be wasting your time doing it in RM where you'll spend 95% of your effort on trying to shoehorn the feature into the engine.

 

[tigerstudios]

I know that this does seem like a challenge, I wonder how much of a challenge it really is.

I mean, in my code I call Win32 API medthods directly to get info on the display resolution, adjust the windows size.

So, what if you did the bulk / all of the actual client / server code ( creating packets, sending, recv, perhaps even make a simple event manager in the DLL to deal will incoming date and then just have a way to pass the data to RPG maker to do whatever.... move players, update data.. what ever

So, if you could minimize the amount of dll functions needed to pass the data back and forth between your dll and the rpggame.

I would, and I will ( I am interested in this too )   look into having a block of shared memory between 2 processes...

If I come up with anything I'll post my findings...

I just think it is possible, and if successful could really open the door to some cool games

RPG Maker can never do mmos....  but, coop games with a limit on players could be done...

Anyway...  MSDN, here I come

 

[Shaz]

tigerstudios, please refrain from necro-posting in a thread. Necro-posting is posting in a thread that has not had posting activity in over 30 days. You can review our forum rules here. Thank you.