[Adonthell-devel] How client/server deals with maps

[Alexandre Courbot]

I had some thought this afternoon about how the map engine will behave,
and what the server and client needs to know, especially what the client
CAN safely know.

It quickly appears that a player who wants to see the maps can easily
download the "server package" and have a walk on the whole land. This is
why I think that map files should also be shared by the client. That
way, the server doesn't need to send the landscape itself and can use
the bandwith for other stuff.

The fact the client knows the entire map doesn't mean it is of any use
at all: others stuff, like characters positions, objects status
(opened/closed door for example) are still controlled by the server
which sends to the client only what it strictly needs to know to display
it's part of the map. If you think about it, all the games (Quake III
comes to mind) stores the maps on the clients too. I don't think this is
a cheating issue.

What do you think?
Alex.

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