TCP Question

[WeedDealer]

I've been messing around with the source tring to find out how it works.And i have seen that when u send data from client to server it use clsBuffer.If somebody can explain me why clsbuffers when it could send data as string or long to server I would be gratefull.

[Guest]

Basically the Buffer (cls is just a naming convention) packs all the data into a sendable format, writes how long each piece of data is and sends it off to the server. The server will then begin reading and unpacking it. The point of using the Buffer is that you can send lots of different data with different types e.g:

```

Buffer.WriteString Player.Name

Buffer.WriteByte Player.Age

Buffer.WriteLong Player.X

Buffer.WriteLong Player.Y

```

And the server is able to read this. It's a lot faster than sending data one by one and a lot more flexible.

[WeedDealer]

So the buffer its like a suitcase and with (.write"data") u put variables in it and (.toarray) is the entire datas from the buffer?

[Guest]

A typical packet looks like this:

```
Public Sub SendLogin(ByVal name As String, Pass As String)

Dim buffer As clsBuffer

Set buffer = New clsBuffer

buffer.WriteLong CLogin

buffer.WriteString name

buffer.WriteString Pass

SendData buffer.ToArray()

Set buffer = Nothing

End Sub
```

Let's break it down.

```
Set Buffer = New clsBuffer
```

This is part of Object Orientated programming. It basically creates a new instance of the Buffer class so we can use it.

```

buffer.WriteLong CLogin

buffer.WriteString name

buffer.WriteString Pass

```

These lines add the various pieces of data to the Buffer. "CLogin" is a header that allows to server to know how to unpack the data and how to handle it (i.e. which sub to use).

```

SendData buffer.ToArray()

Set buffer = Nothing

```

Finally we send all the packet data to the server. "Set Buffer = Nothing" simply removes the Buffer class we just used from memory.

[abhi2011]

Yes.

[WeedDealer]

I just noticed that cls buffer is a different module.So its not something that is from standard vb6 is somethign that the designer of the game did.So i must see a tutorial for classes to undertsand buffers better?

[Guest]

The Buffer is a class. You should read up on Object Orientated programming.

[WeedDealer]

thank you for your quick answers.I shall read the OOP tutorial