C # Network Library

Question

I am developing an online strategy using .Net v2. Although the game is mostly strategic, it has some tactical elements that require reasonable network performance. I plan to use TCP packets for strategic data and UDP packets for tactical data.

{EDIT} I forgot to mention that I deviate from WCF and .NET 3+ for several reasons. Firstly, because I want my download to be small, and most of my clients already have .NET 2.0. Secondly, because I would like to be able to port to Mac and Linux and am not sure about the availability of WCF in Mono. {/ EDIT}

I am looking for recommendations on a network library. I found several options such as Network Torque Network Library (C ++) GarageGames, RakNet (C ++) and the network library lidgren (C #):

http://www.opentnl.org/ http://www.jenkinssoftware.com/ http://code.google.com/p/lidgren-network/

Does anyone have real experience working with these or other libraries?

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I just stumbled upon RakNetDotNet:

http://code.google.com/p/raknetdotnet/

This may be what I'm looking for ...

Answer 1

Why limit yourself .NET 2.0..NET 3.0 (or 3.5) contains WCF and is a solid communication subsystem with good protection .. NET 3.0 is only .NET 2.0 with additional libraries (WCF, WF, WPF).

Answer 2

Microsoft, based on .NET based on XNA , allows you to create network games in Windows and XBox 360.

Answer 3

http://code.google.com/p/lidgren-network-gen3/

Lidgren.Network is a network library for a .net structure that uses a single udp socket to provide a simple API for connecting a client to a server, reading and sending messages.

Answer 4

I would also like to point out that the “Windows Games” that XNA uses for Windows with its Live! the network APIs are now free ... this means that if you are writing an XNA game that uses network features, your users should not have a gold membership :-)

http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/22/games-for-windows-live-now-free/

Answer 5

Despite the fact that this question is quite old, a system with a slightly higher level, developed specifically for games, APlay - there are also C # among the supported platforms, there are evaluation versions, and they are free for personal use.

You define your game objects in UML, and the online code generator creates assemblies containing your game objects. Send state updates are as simple as calling setter methods.

Wrong if you want to deal with sockets yourself. Also note that I'm an APlay developer, so this is a biased answer.

Answer 6

If you are new to game development, I would recommend XNA- easy to program. Torque's advantage, however, is that it has asset creation tools that can also be invaluable. For a higher end game or FPS, the source engine is different.

Answer 7

You can take a look at Entanglar ( http://entanglar.dunnchurchill.com ) if you are looking for something higher. Entanglar provides a complete lifecycle and synchronization.

Answer 8

An ancient question, but I will put it there for everyone who stumbles about it. We use OpenTNL for our game, Bitfighter, and I constantly wonder how well it works. And it's free if you can live with the GPL.