Check The Data Has Updated At Server Without Requesting Every Frame Of The Game

I have a game where I have to get data from the server (through REST WebService with JSON) but the problem is I don't know when the data will be available on the server. So, I deci

Solution 1:

It is clearly difficult to provide an answer with little details. TL;DR is that it depends on what game you are developing. However, polling is very inefficient for at least three reasons:

• The former, as you have already pointed out, it is inefficient because you generate additional workload when there is no need
• The latter, because it requires TCP - server-generated updates can be sent using UDP instead, with some pros and cons (like potential loss of packets due to lack of ACK)
• You may get the updates too late, particularly in the case of multiplayer games. Imagine that the last update happened right after the previous poll, and your poll is each 5 seconds. The status could be already stale.

The long and the short of it is that if you are developing a turn-based game, poll could be alright. If you are developing (as the use of Unity3D would suggest) a real-time game, then server-generated updates, ideally using UDP, are in my opinion the way to go.

Hope that helps and good luck with your project.