The Essential Guide to Creating Multiplayer Games with Godot 4.0: Harness the power of Godot Engine's GDScript network API to connect players in multiplayer games

Cover
Title Page
Copyright and Credits
Dedications
Foreword
Contributors
Table of Contents
Preface
Part 1: Handshaking and Networking
Chapter 1: Setting up a Server
	Technical requirements
	Introduction to a network
	Understanding the ENetMultiplayerPeer class
		What is the ENet library?
	What is the UDP protocol?
	How does this connection happen?
		Creating the server
		Creating the client
		Testing our handshake
	Summary
Chapter 2: Sending and Receiving Data
	Technical requirements
	Understanding packets
	Introduction to the JSON format
		Serialization
	Sending packets with PacketPeerUDP
		Creating an AuthenticationCredentials Autoload
		Sending players’ credentials
	Listening to packets with UDPServer
	Authenticating the player
		Loading a fake database
		Replying to the authentication request
		Maintaining the player’s session
	Loading the player’s avatar
	Summary
Chapter 3: Making a Lobby to Gather Players Together
	Technical requirements
	Calling functions remotely with RPCs
		Introducing the @rpc annotation
		What’s necessary for an RPC?
	Understanding the multiplayer authority
	Comparing UDP and ENet approaches
	Remaking the login screen with RPCs
		Establishing an ENetMultiplayerPeer connection
		Creating the RPC functions template
		Authenticating the player
	Adding the player’s avatar
		Cleaning AvatarCards
	Retrieving players’ avatars
	Testing the lobby
	Summary
Chapter 4: Creating an Online Chat
	Technical requirements
	Understanding data exchange and channels
		Reliable and unreliable packets
		Understanding channels
	Sending chat messages
	Updating peer’s data remotely
	Summary
Part 2: Creating Online Multiplayer Mechanics
Chapter 5: Making an Online Quiz Game
	Introducing the online quiz game
	Setting up a lobby for the quiz game
		Displaying new players
		Starting the match
	Implementing online turns
		Updating players about the round
	Turning local mechanics into remote gameplay
		Understanding the questions database
		Loading and updating questions
		Sending players’ answers to the server
	Summary
Chapter 6: Building an Online Checkers Game
	Technical requirements
	Introducing the Checkers project
		Understanding the Checkers Piece scene
		Comprehending the FreeCell scene
		Introducing the CheckerBoard scene
	Serializing players’ turns
		Working with MultiplayerSynchronizer
		Updating and syncing the CheckerBoard
	Handling remote turn shifts
		Setting up players’ teams
		Enabling and disabling team pieces
	Managing win and lose conditions
	Summary
Chapter 7: Developing an Online Pong Game
	Technical requirements
	Introducing the Pong project
		How the player paddles work
		Understanding the Ball scene
		Managing players’ scores
		Tying everything together
	Setting up online multiplayer paddles
		Changing the paddle’s owner
		Assigning the players’ paddles
	Syncing remote objects
		Updating the ball’s position
		Coordinating the paddle’s position
	Summary
Chapter 8: Creating an Online Co-op Platformer Prototype
	Technical requirements
	Introducing the platformer project
		Understanding the Player class
		Unveiling the Crate class
		How the InteractiveArea2D class works
		Understanding the PlayerSpawner class
	Spawning players in the match
		Giving players control in PlayerSpawner
		Setting up the Player multiplayer controls
	Syncing physical objects
		Synchronizing the player’s position and animations
		Updating the crate’s position remotely
	Summary
Chapter 9: Creating an Online Adventure Prototype
	Technical requirements
	Introducing the prototype
		Understanding the Player scene
		Gauging the Asteroid scene
		Unraveling the quest system
		Breaking down the World scene
	Logging the player in to the server
		Authenticating players
		Syncing the World scenes
	Separating server and client responsibilities
		Shooting bullets on all instances
		Calculating an asteroid’s damage
	Storing and retrieving data on the server
		Implementing the quest system’s client side
		Implementing the quest system’s server side
	Summary
Part 3: Optimizing the Online Experience
Chapter 10: Debugging and Profiling the Network
	Technical requirements
	Introducing Godot’s Debugger
		Mastering the Stack Trace tab
		Debugging with the Errors tab
		Exploring the Profiler tab
		Exploring the Visual Profiler tab
		Exploring the Monitors tab
		Getting to know the Video RAM tab
		Grasping the Misc tab
	Understanding the Network Profiler
	Identifying the project’s bottlenecks
		Using the Network Profiler
		Using the Monitors tab
	Summary
Chapter 11: Optimizing Data Requests
	Technical requirements
	Understanding network resources
	Decreasing the requests count
		Reducing the weapon fire count
		Decreasing Asteroid’s syncing count
	Compressing data with the ENetConnection class
	Summary
Chapter 12: Implementing Lag Compensation
	Technical requirements
	Introducing lag issues
	Dealing with unreliable packets
	Common compensation techniques
		Implementing server-side motion
		Bridging the gaps with interpolation
		Playing ahead with prediction
		Gazing into the future with extrapolation
	Summary
Chapter 13: Caching Data to Decrease Bandwidth
	Technical requirements
	Understanding caching
	Setting up the HTTPRequest node
		Understanding the HTTP protocol
		Setting up the scenes and database
	Implementing texture caching
	Implementing database caching
	Going further with caching
	Summary
Index
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