Android Question Best approach online game playing (php server <=> android devices)

[Toky Olivier]

Hello,
Can you tell me please the best approach to implement an online game playing? I have one server with php (for me, the most affordable) which plays as the game server (online players, receive and send message from one device to one or multiple devices,...). It's a simple board game but another devices can watch the game party.
I see some examples with MQTT and Firebase or B4J server but I would like to implement it with php only as It's what is available to me now.
What I did is:
- I implemented a rest api server with php on the server
- With android devices, I used okhttputils2 for the communication. Devices send command to the server and wich interprets the command and sends the response immediately to the sender or store some information in the database and wait for another device command before putting some response in the database for the initial sender. The initial send checks regularly that response via http get/post and acts depending the response.
I think it's not a good approach as many datas are sent from the device to the server just for checking some availaibility of response on the database. And also, I didnvt check battery power consumption.
With sockets and only 2 devices, it's okay and easy to implement but with multiple devices and a php server, I didn't find how to do it.
Should I use MQTT for this?
Thank you

 

[Toky Olivier]

Seeing posts and tutorials in the forum. It seems that the solution is Firebase realtimedatabase. Never used it but I'll try.

 

[alwaysbusy]

MQTT would be a good solution I would think. Players in the same game would subscribe to the same channel and can communicate quickly with each other.

 

[Toky Olivier]

MQTT would be a good solution I would think. Players in the same game would subscribe to the same channel and can communicate quickly with each other.

Yes but we don't have MQTT broker service payable in Madagascar and free plan available online are very limited as far as I know. Do you know any free plan usable of MQTT broker service please?

 

[Alexander Stolte]

Firebase realtimedatabase

is very expensive if you have many write and read access.

 

[alwaysbusy]

Can't you setup a broker like Mosqutto yourself on your server? If it is a Linux server you have, using SSH it isn't that difficult to install:

How to Install Mosquitto MQTT Broker/Server on Ubuntu 16.04 | Vultr Docs

www.vultr.com

 

[Peter Simpson]

Can't you setup a broker like Mosqutto yourself on your server? If it is a Linux server you have, using SSH it isn't that difficult to install:

How to Install Mosquitto MQTT Broker/Server on Ubuntu 16.04 | Vultr Docs

www.vultr.com

@Toky Olivier is probably using a shared server solution which means he does not have access to any desktops, ftp, emailing, hosting just a basic hosting package I presume, no VPS...

 

[Toky Olivier]

@Toky Olivier is probably using a shared server solution which means he does not have access to any desktops, ftp, emailing, hosting just a basic hosting package I presume, no VPS...

Yes. I use shared server solution, no VPS. But yes, client side ftp, emailing, etc are available. No need here I think. But the node.js selector is active. I didn't test yet if I can use socket.io and the b4a library available in the forum.

 

[Toky Olivier]

I tested with php, It works but too much requests needed from the devices to the server.

 

[Biswajit]

One thing you can try using firebase messaging,

1. Share your token before the game starts.
2. On player action send a request to PHP server with opponent token and data.
3. From PHP server fire a firebase notification to that token.
4. On receiving the data in the opponent device parse the data and use it as you want.
5. Do the same on the opponent side (2-4).

 

[Alexander Stolte]

One thing you can try using firebase messaging

with it I have already successfully implemented a "live" chat.

 

[Toky Olivier]

One thing you can try using firebase messaging,

1. Share your token before the game starts.
2. On player action send a request to PHP server with opponent token and data.
3. From PHP server fire a firebase notification to that token.
4. On receiving the data in the opponent device parse the data and use it as you want.
5. Do the same on the opponent side (2-4).

I like your idea. I'll try it. I'm sure it'll work. Thank you.