(The following was adapted from a talk I gave at DWeb Weekend 2025 at the Internet Archive in San Francisco on August 17, 2025)
Simplifying WebRTC Datachannels for Games
First of all, to get some stuff out of the way, instead of using the “super complicated” WebRTC datachannels, why don’t we use something simpler?
Why Not Use Websockets?
Too slow : Most games use UDP with a reliability layer on top.
: Most games use UDP with a reliability layer on top. Suitable for turn-based games : Fine for games that are turn-based/slow-paced, like Runescape.
: Fine for games that are turn-based/slow-paced, like Runescape. For more details, see: UDP vs TCP Client-Server Connection
The Case for Web Transport
Replacement for Websockets, uses QUIC instead of TCP.
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