Collision Detection Client vs Server Side?

Troubleshooting physics
1

This really isn't a physics question directly, but I figured here is a good place to start.



I have been looking into using jME in combination with Project DarkStar and have run into a pretty basic question about collision detection. Should I be keeping the collision detection client side or server side? I mean basic collision detection, like walking in the game world, nothing complex like bullet collision, etc… If anyone could point me to a couple of examples that would be fabulous, or some articles on good design, I would greatly appreciate it. It seems like the issues of cheating vs server load are pretty simple, but I didn't know what good practice would be.



—LiquidMK2

2

This depends on whether you are concerned with cheating or not… If you simply let the client figure out its position, then you could have clients that go through walls! I am a fan of server-side game-logic because it is easy to implement. Ideally, you would have the logic partially in the client, and the server would act as a veto for some actions from the client.

3

You can do most collision-detection on the client, and make sure no-body cheats by having the server do collision checks at a much lower interval. That way you get smooth gameplay and no cheating…

4

Thanks for the info.  Does anyone have any examples of distributed logic I could look at?