ORTS: A hack-free RTS game environment

Abstract

This paper presents a novel approach to Real-Time-Strategy (RTS) gaming which allows human players as well as machines to compete in a hack-free environment. The main idea is to replace popular but inherently insecure client-side game simulations by a secure server-side game simulation. Only visible parts of the game state are sent to the respective clients. Client-side hacking is therefore impossible and players are free to choose any client software they please. We discuss performance issues arising from server-side simulation and present ORTS - an open RTS game toolkit. This software package provides efficient C++ implementations for 2D object motion and collision detection, visibility computation, and incremental server-client data synchronization, as well as connectivity to the Generic Game Server (GGS). It is therefore well suited as a platform for RTS related A.I. research. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2003.