However, TCP is perfectly acceptable for non-realtime things, such as multiplayer negotiation, chat messages, score updates, etc.
Yes, for non-realtime things it would be good, but still lacking the Punch-Through and ICE Servers.
So you would still be able to achieve more with the official one then with Socket.IO.
[quote:1id5ciah]ICE stands for Interactive Connectivity Establishment. They are the servers that help peers connect to each other even if they are behind NAT. These include STUN servers (which try to connect peers directly), and TURN servers (which if peers cannot connect directly, will act as a relay forwarding data between them).
The Multiplayer plugin uses a default list of public STUN servers hosted by Google and Mozilla. You could add your own STUN server, but I don't think there's much point, because the public servers do a good job already.
The most interesting case is to add your own TURN server. According to stats on our signalling server, about 10% of the time peers cannot connect directly due to NAT restrictions. These peers will simply fail to connect because there are no default TURN servers. If you add your own TURN servers then these peers will be able to connect still. The problem is this can degrade the connection quality, since the latency, packet loss etc. will accumulate since data must first go to the TURN server, then be relayed on to another peer. Also this makes TURN servers expensive to run, because you have to pay for the bandwidth of all the game data that passes through it, whereas normal direct peer connections run through their own ISPs and cost you nothing. Still, the option to add your own TURN server is there if you want to.
So, they are quite crucial to have the oppertunity to reach more players then with Socket.IO. +1 Official MP
[quote:1id5ciah]NAT traversal to work around connectivity restrictions imposed by common routers and network setups
Also called NAT Punch-Through. +1 Official MP
[quote:1id5ciah]LAN game support for near-zero latency gameplay, including support for mixed LAN/Internet games
Well, it explains itself. +1 Official MP
Of Course P2P = +1 Official MP (Since you then don't have to have a Server)
But Socket.IO has one good thing over the Official one, but that is only good for some:
Export option with the Free Version of C2. +1 Socket.IO
Socket.IO 1 : 4 Official MP
You can discuss how far socket.io is more compatible with most browsers etc. then the official one,
but overall you should see, the official one really has most benefits. (Including no coding - that is important for some)