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Menus - server or client?

by Mike Stoddart · in Torque Game Engine · 07/22/2002 (12:23 pm) · 3 replies

We will be implementing a simple text based menu system in our game. The menu system is basically a hierarchical text menu, which is navigated using the number keys. Much like in Day of Defeat, if you've played that.

I instructed our scripter to implement the core of the menu on the server, which then tells the client what to display.

Am I right in thinking that the server should instruct the client what to display? Or for something like this, doesn't it matter if the client contains the code to build and execute the menu?

I always thought that the server should control everything, and just tell the client what to do or display, but for some reason with this, I'm not so sure I believe myself!

Can anyone enlighten me on this?

Thanks
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Torque Owner Daniel Neilsen
#1
07/22/2002 (5:55 pm)
I think it depends on what you are going to use the menu system for. If you are going to use it for a "quick chat" system or something that does not impact on gameplay then I would make it client side. If it is an admin menu or game play menu I would definetly make it server side.

If you make a gameplay/admin menu client side then it can easily be hacked.

The down side with server side menus is that modem users may experience lag in menu updates, but there is not much you can do about that.

I have example code for each should you want it. I have a client side quick chat menu such as was used in tribes/tribes2 and my server side admin system is already posted as a resource.

Torque Owner Mike Stoddart
#2
07/22/2002 (7:03 pm)
Thanks for the offer Daniel. I believe my scripter is already using something based on the Tribes 2 menu. When he told me that he was using a client side menu system, I was confused, as it went against everything I thought. I was even more surprised when he said it was based from a mod (I think?) used in Tribes 2.

Thanks again.

Associate Kyle Carter
#3
07/23/2002 (1:29 pm)
So long as the game logic is safely esconsed on the server (ie, you only let clients tell the server, "I want to do X", instead of letting them tell it, "Give me 8 HP now."), and the menu is just a way to select what game logic to trigger, it doesn't really matter where the menu logic is. For lag issues, it might even be better to have it client side...