This article focuses on the general infrastructure behind your game, rather than the exact details of how to get multiplayer networking working, as that will depend on your engine and how your game is programmed. Consider Whether You Need to Run Servers At All Some games can manage without dedicated servers. If you’re building a game that’s mostly player-to-player interaction, without a ranked competitive system, you may not need servers at all....

You may be familiar with the ability to “broadcast” a message to a Google Nest speaker or display. While this can be useful in certain situations, it can also feel limiting. Sometimes, a two-way conversation is better. RELATED: How to Broadcast Messages on Google Assistant Speakers and Displays Requirements There are a few things that you’ll need to make this calling feature work. First, of course, you need some Google Home or Google Nest speakers and smart displays....

If you’re hosting a meeting in Zoom but need to leave early due to unforeseen circumstances, you can pass off the host privileges to another member instead of ending the meeting. Here’s how. Before we get started, there’s an important limitation you’ll need to be aware of. Zoom has a free version for all to use, but it also offers a couple of packages for businesses. In the case of passing host controls to another user, if the original host is a licensed user, then the meeting can continue for an unlimited amount of time once the controls are handed off, even if the user who received the host controls is a free user....

If you have ever followed Apple Maps’ voice navigation while listening to music, then you probably know what it’s like when Siri cuts in loudly to give you the next prompt. It can be startling, but luckily there’s an easy fix. In Apple Maps, there is an option to adjust the volume of Siri’s voice. That way you can listen to your tunes as loudly or quietly as you want, without Siri’s voice prompts being jarringly loud (or so quiet you can’t quite hear them)....

Google Maps allows you to set a home address (and work address) so you can quickly find directions to and from your home. When you move, you should update it in Google Maps, too. We’ll show you how to do that. By keeping your home address updated in Maps, you always get the right directions to and from your home. This helps you avoid getting directions to the wrong places....

Windows 10 lets you personalize the mouse cursor beyond changing the color and size or making it easier to see. You can customize the pointer theme or even download and install cursor schemes, just as you could on previous versions of Windows. Change the Default Cursor Scheme Windows has a few built-in cursor schemes that let you change the default appearance of the mouse pointer. This method will change the color (white, black, or inverted) and size (default, large, or extra-large)....

Microsoft Word can help ensure inclusive language in professional communications by checking your writing for gender bias, age bias, and more. This feature is turned off by default, so if you want to avoid using exclusionary language, here’s how to turn it on. The inclusive language addition to the grammar checker is only available in the version of Word that comes with a Microsoft 365 subscription. If you’re using a stand-alone version of Office 2019 or an earlier version of Office, you won’t have access to this feature....

Windows 10 users often have to switch between several sets of speakers. Some might be built into a monitor, while others might be included in a headset or headphones. Here’s how to set certain speakers as your default output devices. You Can Also Set Your Default Speakers in Some Apps While it’s easy to choose a default set of speakers that applies to every app, it’s also worth nothing that certain apps (such as Zoom) allow you to choose speakers just for that program that override the system defaults....

Turn On Bluetooth on Your Windows 11 PC Before you can connect your AirPods to your Windows 11 PC, you’ll need to make sure Bluetooth is turned on, which you can do in the Settings app. First, click the up arrow in the system tray, and then click the Bluetooth icon from the menu that appears. Next, click “Open Settings” near the bottom of the context menu. You’ll now be on the Bluetooth & Devices page of the Settings app....

Adding a table of contents to your document is a useful way to show readers each topic/chapter listed inside your file. When you create a table of contents in Google Docs, it automatically generates one and adds links that jump to each section they reference when clicked, allowing for quick access to specific parts of your document. How to Create a Table of Contents in Google Docs Place the insertion point in your document where you want the table of contents to go....

Notifications are a big reason why people use smartphones, so you should make sure they work well. You can customize the notification sound for all notifications, but what about for individual apps? We’ll show you how it works for Android. Taking the time to do this can greatly improve your experience. You’ll know by sound which app the notification came from. If it’s not an important app, you can save yourself some time and ignore it....

Microsoft will one day enable DNS over HTTPS (DoH) for all Windows applications, but you can enable it in the new version of Microsoft Edge today with a hidden flag. DoH will improve your security and privacy online, but it isn’t yet enabled by default in Microsoft Edge 80. Like Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge won’t actually use DoH unless you’re using a DNS server that supports DoH. There are many options: Google Public DNS, Cloudflare, and even Comcast’s DNS all support this feature....

Picture-in-Picture (PiP) has become a popular feature for watching videos that don’t encompass your entire screen. Mozilla Firefox offers PiP as a built-in feature that you can simply click to use. Here’s how. Why Use Picture-in-Picture in Firefox? If you find yourself scoping out videos on YouTube or Vimeo while you’re working, you can keep them from distracting you. With Picture-in-Picture, you simply pop the video out from its website in Firefox....

If you’re browsing the web with Google Chrome and you discover a website image that you’d like to see other sizes of (or perhaps research its origins), Chrome makes it easy to do a quick reverse image search with just a right-click on Mac, PC, and Linux. Here’s how to do it. First, open Google Chrome and navigate to a web page that includes an image you’d like to investigate....

Use the Force Quit Option to Kill Running Apps macOS only showcases the “Force Quit Applications” window when it’s completely out of memory, including physical RAM and virtual memory on your boot drive. When you see this window, you’ll need to force quit non-critical applications to stabilize your system. Apps you’re not using or those running in the background that you’ve forgotten about should be the first to go. Your system should become responsive again after you’ve gotten rid of a few apps....

What Does Force Quitting Do? When you close an app on your iPhone or iPad and go back to the Home screen, you don’t actually quit the app; it’s still running in the background. You can think of it as “pausing” the app. If an app crashes, is stuck, or generally behaving badly, force quitting is likely the best option. This actually quits the app, and when you open it again, it loads up fresh....

Need to stamp a date on a spreadsheet? In Microsoft Excel, you have multiple ways to add today’s date in your spreadsheets. You can add both static and dynamic dates, and we’ll show you how. Static vs Dynamic Dates in Excel When you add a static date in your Excel spreadsheet, the date does not update when you recalculate your worksheet or you reopen the spreadsheet. It remains the same no matter what you do....

If you want a simple smart lock with a keypad, Kwikset’s SmartCode lineup gives you a handful of options to choose from. Here’s how to install and set them up. RELATED: Are Smart Locks Secure? We’re using the SmartCode 916 lock, specifically, which comes with a touch screen of sorts that hides the keys until you touch it. It can also connect to a smarthome hub via a Z-Wave or ZigBee connection....

Microsoft is working hard to enure that parents have easy access to user-friendly tools, which can control all the various aspects that make up our digital lives. With Microsoft Family Group, you can easily set a healthier schedule for when certain accounts in your group can use the Xbox One and for how long. To access these settings, open any browser, and navigate to the Microsoft Family Group website....

If you’re the kind of Windows 10 user that likes to spice things up, why not move your taskbar to a new location—like the top of your screen? Once there, it works just as you would expect it to, including the Start menu. It’s also a great party trick. Here’s how to do it. First, right-click your taskbar and uncheck “Lock the taskbar” in the menu that pops up. This enables you to move the taskbar to a new location....