Dienstag, 3. November 2015

Game-Net: Simple RPC System for Games (C++11)

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.
Network RPC 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, Linux (Ubuntu) and Windows
  • C++11 based
Network RPC Lib Limitations
  • RPCs cannot be class member functions
  • No compression
  • No encryption
  • Only void functions supported. Non-void functions were tested but complicated everything.
  • Client to Client connections are not supported
Example Game Features
  • Lobby
  • Multiple Games
  • Handle spwaning/removing of game objects
  • Simple Shooting functionality
  • Intentionally textmode for simplicity
Benchmark
A first simple test on localhost (Core i7 Notebook) gave:
1 Call / Network Update:
  • 69.000 unreliable RPC calls/sec [client.call_ex(0,"hello_server", "Greetings")]
  • 74.000 reliable RPC calls/sec [client.call_ex(1,"hello_server", "Greetings")]
10 Calls grouped / Network Update
  • 144.000 unreliable RPC calls/sec [client.call_ex(0,"hello_server", "Greetings")]
  • 310.000 reliable RPC calls/sec [client.call_ex(1,"hello_server", "Greetings")]
20 Calls grouped / Network Update
  • 142.000 unreliable RPC calls/sec [client.call_ex(0,"hello_server", "Greetings")]
  • 364.000 reliable RPC calls/sec [client.call_ex(1,"hello_server", "Greetings")]
Note that this is not about the response time
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(clientid, "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();
}