How To: Receive Data

Describes how the local players on a gaming machine receive data from the other players in a networked game.

Receiving Data

To receive data

1. Create a PacketReader to assist in reading the incoming network data.

   A PacketReader is a helper for efficiently reading incoming network packets. A multiplayer game can create a single PacketReader instance at startup. It can reuse it any time the players want to read a packet.

   PacketReader packetReader = new PacketReader();
   

   Each LocalNetworkGamer playing on the same game machine might receive data. At this point, players can loop through the LocalGamers collection.

2. To read a packet, pass the PacketReader to ReceiveData, and then use the various PacketReader.Read methods to extract data from the reader.

   foreach (LocalNetworkGamer gamer in session.LocalGamers)
   {
       // Keep reading while packets are available.
       while (gamer.IsDataAvailable)
       {
           NetworkGamer sender;
   
           // Read a single packet.
           gamer.ReceiveData(packetReader, out sender);
   
           if (!sender.IsLocal)
           {
               // Get the tank associated with this packet.
               Tank remoteTank = sender.Tag as Tank;
   
               // Read the data and apply it to the tank.
               remoteTank.Position = packetReader.ReadVector2();
               remoteTank.TankRotation = packetReader.ReadSingle();
               remoteTank.TurretRotation = packetReader.ReadSingle();
               remoteTank.IsFiring = packetReader.ReadBoolean();
               remoteTank.Health = packetReader.ReadInt32();
           }
       }
   }
   

See Also

Tasks

Third-Party Firewall Settings