Darknet

Multiplayer & Networking
1

While browsing for alternatives for a small scale mmo server to work with unity3d, I came across Darknet
http://darkbasicpro.thegamecreators.com/?f=darknet

regarding their product specs it states:

“It uses both UDP and TCP protocol making it suitable for virtually any type of online game ranging from fast paced first person shooters to large scale massively multiplayer online games. It is very easy to use and well documented with several code examples. DarkNet is compatible with Dark Basic Professional, C++ and .NET compatible languages (e.g. C#, VB.NET).”

Does this mean it can work with Unity3d right out of the box, without too many mod hassles or tweaks?

I searched on unity forums but could not find any posts of threads regarding Darknet

Has anyone used it before?

comments pros and cons are welcome.

If it can work with unity3d that will be a great alternative for $32.99 I must say.

thank you.

2

I will let you know later tonight.
edit:
this will have to wait until tomorrow, I’ve purchased the library but since they take from 24 hours to 72 hours to confirm and release the product for download, this could be sometime tomorrow or monday before I can test.

3

Thank you zumwalt,
keep us updated

4

would be the first TGC product that does not only sound nice but also work as advertised.
But looking forward to get your opinion on it zumwalt and potential comparisions to photon and especially lidgren

5

DarkNET is actually MikeNet, found that out after purchasing and downloading it. He has built it with VS 2008 so none of the projects compile or work with < VS 2008 extensions. Another down side is that the assembly file that he gives (MikeNet.dll) was last updated on Janyuary 10’th of this year, so no new updates in the past 9 months, not that this is bad, it just means it has no active current development on the release build.

I created a project first in VS 2005 C#, added the library which went ok, no errors on adding it, the methods are understood, however, when attempting to actually use it, I get assembly errors, like something is missing. Well the missing item has to be a library only found from VS 2008 so I am installing that now to see what I find out.

This is going to go 1 of 2 ways, either he is using libraries which are not going to be supported by Mono at this time, or I will identify which additional libraries that have to be added to the project folder for this thing to actually work. I am disappointed that the creator who is an independent developer, geared his library for only VS 2008 and used Framework 3.5 dependent calls which I think is the case.

If this is true, and I will know sometime later today after VS 2008 finishes its install in my Parallels desktop, then the answer is almost a definite no about it working with Unity, at least not on the Mac, although it possibly will work on the PC since I think you can use native framework with Unity on the PC.

6

Well, first I can say that the thing works with VS 2008 C# and I created a simple client and simple server to test CPU load with them both in IDLE state. The image below represents a total of 4 threads running, the server has 2 threads, on thread is the server the other thread is the message handler (I separated the two out), the client is done the same way, the client itself is one thread the message handler is a different thread.

Getting ready to see if I can get what I have done to now work in Unity without me creating any sort of bridge library. (basically this is the point where we go either hmm / doh / yay)

207350--7637--$darknetvs2008cpucheck_159.png
207350--7637--$darknetvs2008cpucheck_159.png704×609 32.4 KB

7

And the answer, is…

DOH

All MikeNET is good for in Unity at the moment is MDK.
(for those who never played the game or watched Demolition Man with Stalone…) Murder / Death / Kill

The library is using some features beyond just framework 2.0, so not only getting null reference exceptions in Unity, but it is bad enough for the bug reporter to open and then Unity locks up, have to force quit Unity and then let Unity rebuild its manifest for the project.

Seems like a good windows engine for entry level networking at the moment though, just way to many limitations. I sent the developer an email asking him if he has a version that works with VS 2005, if so then hopefully that version uses a lower framework.

Sorry

Moving on to Photon now to play with it some and see what it can do!

8

Thank you for taking the time and review DarNet for us,

I guess it was just too good to be truth, it sounded really nice features and price wise on advertisement but unfortunately not what we expected, after reading your review, well at least it wont work with unity3d,
I guess it may be good and as described specially cratfed for its native product category which is DBpro.

I just hope the developer of DarkNet will look into this and he can come up with something or a new version that can be compatible or will work with unity.

I guess they should of have a demo or trial for Darket, so user can try it beforre purchase to test if it is right for their needs or compatible.

Thanks again.

9

My pleasure, if you run across any other .Net type networking you want me to look into, please let me know.

Best regards.

10

So for C# / .NET only it is and will remain lidgren then I guess, aside of photon naturally

11

So far, I got a hold of the latest build of that library, going to work with it some, interesting that it is a free library set for what it appears to do. More on that and Photon later. Still setting up my Photon project.

12

How is lidgren?

is it any good, features? easy to use, etc…

will it work with unity right out of the box?

documentation?

I was searching here on the forums but could not find any info about it or reviews.

thanks

13

lidgren is dead simple to use.
if you require any realistic documentation for it, then you basically will just need to do a basic network programming refresh before, as it is as simple as networking can get.
Kind of Enet meets C# to put it simple. a handfull of methods and you putting data in and out and the rest is your job. it only gives you the network layer nothing more

14

Latest version of lidgren is july 7 of this year, it has samples that come with it and documentation, on top of that, it is free and comes with visual studio projects.

Find it here:
http://code.google.com/p/lidgren-library-network/

Image of zip contents of lidgren:

207506--7642--$lidgrennetwork_572.png

15

thank you,

nice,
it looks good, I will definately take a look at it.

have you guys tested it out yet?

how does it compare to photon.

I am more inclined to building an mmorpg, well, we might take out the first “m” let put it more appealing and credible for an indie morpg.

So basically here what matters is a good reliable and expandible networking system client - server, something that in the future will meet the demanding of concurrent connections.

You know, Its is quite impressive how those open source mmo server like arcemu work great, I have seen up to 5000 concurrent online players connections in 1 single hardware server, not bad, I gues the developers have been polishing the code all this time.

Its time for unity to become more unite and start a mmo community project, a lot of other game engines outhere do it now adays,
take for instance leadwerks, they got now their own community mmorpg project going on right now, they pretty much got a base on that and they are using raknet.

might want to check them out,
so far they started the project a couple of months ago and now they pretty much got a working client and server using raknet and adding extra game logic basic rpg features stuff to it.
all c++ coding source code available client and server.
http://forum.leadwerks.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3807&hilit=mmorpg
its called LE Community MMO (LEC MMO)

Torque: they have or had their own mmorpg , tmmokit
whhich was avaiable to all users, even non license users. but I guess that just changed, ever since t3d rc came out, th emmokit website mmoworkshop.com got shut down, and its been almost 2 to 3 weeks that the kit is not available and so the website, the site is up now but under construction, they posted a note saying that the websit eis migrating to another server, but so far almost 3 weeks and no migration or content on it.

I dont think is the migration thing what shut down mmoworkshop.
migrating a site can be done in matter of hours and not weeks, just redirect dns to point to new host, backup your site and restore site, as simple as that.
I mean I have completely restored a full production hosting server with over 700 hosting account from scratch in no more then 3 to 4 hours, hardened the server configured and all accounts migrated.

I think is because their new t3d license deal,
ohh well, is their loss and our gain.

Some thing like community project needs to be started here at unity, I mean it doesnt have to be a complete fully featured mmorpg demo, but something very basic that will jump start someone interested on unity to ease up the pain of putting together a networked game.

ohh well, let me hear your comments on photon vs lidgren

regards

16

lidgren has no server backend. its a network layer only, so comparing it to photon is actually impossible.

One is one and the other is the other :slight_smile:

17

yes, I just noticed that. :frowning:

Ohh well, still looking for more alternatives server backend.

thanks guys

18

Have you looked at SmartFoxServer - http://smartfoxserver.com/ ?

I haven’t tried it, but it’s the only product I’ve seen besides Proton/Neutron that advertises a Unity client lib, and I’ve seen some mention of it on the forums here.

19

Ahh yes,

I have looked at it and it is nice, Thomas has done a great job on the api, although I was looking for both UDP, TCP capable one.

But I may look at it again and see if it will do the job for what i need it for.

20

TCP + UDP + Unity likely means Photon only unless you develop it yourself I fear