Jim Hunter wrote: > > The basic idea was > that I added a structure (user_variables_t) to CBaseEntity > and then used pev->iuser4 to hold a pointer to the > structure. [...] > Then I > created a user message to send the data during each call to > UpdateClientData in client.cpp. On the client, I caught the > user data message and held the data until the next client > update came in (since the user data message got sent just > before the client update) and then associated the > user_variables_t struct with the network update that came > in. [...] > but have not released it yet since I > wanted to make *absolutely* sure it was bug free first, > considering the potential for total havoc with the use of > dynamic memory allocation.
That looks like a pretty nifty idea to me. And I guess it works. But since you asked, I'll add a comment, too. :) I don't really think you will be getting into trouble with this since HL runs only on Windows and Linux, both for i386 (and thus iA32) architecture and little endian. So you will not be likely to come across 64bit pointers. On the other hand, it is not guaranteed that an int will be 32bit large. So your code is living on some assumptions not necessarily true. They will be true for most probable cases. I'm just saying that your code is not _guaranteed_ to work. So if you want to spend the time and cover all possible cases you would have to write wrappers for accessing the struct which would take care of the case that an int is only 16bits large. But I also think you'll hardly get into any trouble if you spare yourself the work. The same is true for endianess. I guess the engines transport functions take care of that, so it shouldn't be a problem for you. If you have a fixed structure you might gain some performance by sending the structure members one by one with the respective WRITE_ function. Sending byte by byte has the advantage that you don't have to change the Send function when you change the structure. Since you said that you add a structure as a member I don't see where the dynamic memory allocation comes in. Unless you allocate the structure dynamically. But you could take care of that by creating/deleting it in the constructor/destructor and be fine. (BTW, the engine uses a similar ugly hack to expose a pointer to an objects private members. *yuck*) Just my 2 cents. Florian. _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders
