Summary

The library provides basic client / server network functionalities for games using RPCs. The major strength of the library is the template based RPC class. It allows to register and call RPCs effortless. It further includes a tutorial game server and game client (each around 300 lines of code ) for a very simple multiplayer shooting game as a proof of concept.

The tutorial game only has 300 lines of server code and 300 lines client code.

Lib Features

• Register RPCs in one line. The RPC class autodetects all paramters from the function pointer
• RPC Data-type mismatch or wrong number of parameters are stated as error to ease debugging
• Numbers are automatically sent as the smallest possible datatype (byte, short , .. )
• Supports GLM datatypes for use in 3D Games
• Supported Datatypes : (u)char,(u)short,(u)int,float,double,vector,map, GLM vec,mat and quat
• Support for nested Datatypes like map [ string , vector ]
• Reliable and unreliable calls possible
• Function pointers of remote functions are not required
• Based on ENet
• Tested on Cygwin and Windows, should compile in Linux too
• C++11 based

Lib Limitations

• RPCs cannot be class member functions
• No compression
• No encryption
• Byte order will be supported in the future (htons..)
• only void functions can be used. I tested with non-void functions, but it made the client/server programming much more complex

Game Server Features

• Lobby
• Multiple Games
• Handle spwaning/removing of game objects
• Simple Shooting functionality

Example Usage

Call Server Function:

Client Side:

NetClient client;

void set_pos(vec3 pos)
{
    // do something
    exit(0);
}

int main()
{
    rpc_register_remote(client.get_rpc(), login);
    rpc_register_local(client.get_rpc(), set_pos);
    client.connect("localhost", 12345);
    client.call("login", "myname", "pass");
    while(1) client.process();
    //client.disconnect();
}

Server Side:

NetServer server;

void login(uint clientid, string name, string password)
{
    // clientid is the first parameter for server functions
    server.call("set_pos", vec3(1,2,3));    
}

int main()
{
    rpc_register_local(server.get_rpc(), login);
    rpc_register_remote(server.get_rpc(), set_pos);    
    server.start();
    core_sleep(10000) ; // wait client to do stuff
    server.stop();
}

RPC System, how its done: http://cpp.sh/9jc5

(C) by Sven Forstmann in 2015