Quote: "The Dead Reckoning object solves the problem of handling object movements in multiplayer games where it isn't feasible to constantly send updates over the network. The Dead Reckoning object predicts the movement of the objects in-between updates from the server and makes their movement look more natural and realistic."
Now if there was only an example file I'll have to figure it out.
Originally Posted by Sumo148 Yeah I know that too, but its good to have this extension if your games simple, such as a top down movement.
I disagree still. I'm against using extensions unless they're absolutely necessary mainly because they're rarely reliable when it comes to maintaining backwards compatibility. Most people when they first got MMF2, MMF2 Java, MMF2 HWA, MMF2 Flash... were all suffering big time because they had to sit back and twiddle their thumbs while they waited and ultimately hoped for the extensions they relied so heavily on, to be ported up and over. An issue you wouldn't have if you learned how to do it the right way.
Extensions are excellent when you need to bring in some external programming that MMF2 is otherwise incapable of doing natively without them... for example Lacewing. MMF2 cannot communicate with the necessary outside parts of the computer through it's own native shell, so an extension was made to bridge that connection. Stuff like this is quite frankly, kind of lazy to be honest.
About the jigglyness:
For the example file it is kinda intentional.
I wanted to demonstrate how it behaves while not receiving updates. For any real-world example you would send the updates about twice as fast which would almost eliminate the jigglyness completely. For the next beta version I have implemented some simple movement smoothing which should reduce the effect even more.
I'm aware that one size can't fit all stuff.
Movement prediction without any knowledge of the game mechanics can lead to unpredicted results.
This is mainly why I will encourage people to only use the dead-reckoning as a guide for their multiplayer object movements.
Another thing: You can improve the effect if you give the dead-reckoning controlled object the exact same movement as the one it should imitate. That way you can apply local clientside game rules on your object's movement (like collision with objects or backdrop) and make it stop.
The next beta will also give you very fine-grained control over every parameter. You can give x-movement completely different behavior from the y-movement for example.
Silverfire:
I can only disagree with you on never using extensions. I know many extensions have the problem of not being ported to the different runtimes (including some of my graphical ones). However I also think it's a bit of a waste to convert an extension to another runtime if there is zero interest in it. If you really need a port of an extension for a specific runtime you can always ask the author for it.
I try really hard to make this object as flexible as possible so it will fit most needs. If it doesn't please tell me.
I don't think you can call people lazy for using an extension like this. Implementing good dead reckoning is a tough job, and if something exist that does it for you then it is just stupid to reinvent the wheel. Only if the extension is inadequate then people could implement their own.
On a sidenote:
The next beta of Dead Reckoning object will have a Flash port as there was a lot of interest in that.
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Here's the link:
I'll have to figure it out.
Edited by Sumo148
