[Brainstorm] Seperate Game/Npc etc Servers

[kinshi88]

Hey guys, I've been planing on having separate programs for the Game/Npc etc servers, so I've just been thinking of the best way to about implementing it.

It's for my own scratch source so don't worry about giving source-specific examples.

But yeah, if you got any ideas lemme hear em =P

[pro4never]

Well for login>game you won't need much communication so a simple socket system can work. If you were doing something that required more data to be sent (such as a logic server, npc server, dmap server or anything) then namcode pipes are the way to go due to their speed and efficiency.

Sadly i haven't used named pipes enough to be able to give advice. Most i've done so far is read up on them and use some example code.

[kinshi88]

Originally Posted by pro4never

Well for login>game you won't need much communication so a simple socket system can work. If you were doing something that required more data to be sent (such as a logic server, npc server, dmap server or anything) then namcode pipes are the way to go due to their speed and efficiency.

Sadly i haven't used named pipes enough to be able to give advice. Most i've done so far is read up on them and use some example code.

Yeah Login->Game is no problem.

Sweet, I'll have to check them out, thanks.

[ImmuneOne]

Originally Posted by kinshi88

Yeah Login->Game is no problem.

Sweet, I'll have to check them out, thanks.

PipeServer wrapper

 Spoiler

    public delegate void PipeReceives(PipeClient Client, byte[] Arguments);
    public class PipeServer
    {
        private Thread readThread, EnableThread;
        private SafeFileHandle cHandle;
        public event PipeReceives PipeReceived;
        public string Name;
        private uint BufferSize = 4096;

        public PipeServer()
        {
            EnableThread = new Thread(new ThreadStart(Run));
        }

        public void Enable(string Input)
        {
            this.Name = Input;
            EnableThread.Start();
        }

        private void Run()
        {
            while (true)
            {
                this.cHandle = Native.CreateNamedPipe(
                    @"\\.\pipe\"+Name+"",
                    Native.DUPLEX | Native.FILE_FLAG_OVERLAPPED,
                    0,
                    255,
                    this.BufferSize,
                    this.BufferSize,
                    0,
                    IntPtr.Zero);

                switch (this.cHandle.IsInvalid)
                {
                    case true: return;
                    case false:
                        switch (Native.ConnectNamedPipe(this.cHandle, IntPtr.Zero))
                        {
                            case 0: return;
                            default:
                                PipeClient Instance = new PipeClient();
                                Instance.sHandle = this.cHandle;
                                Instance.ID = CPX.LastConnected++;

                                lock (CPX.ClientPool)
                                    CPX.ClientPool.Add(Instance.ID, Instance);

                                this.readThread = new Thread(new ParameterizedThreadStart(Accept));
                                this.readThread.Start(Instance);
                                break;
                        }
                        break;
                }
            }
        }

        private void Accept(object Param)
        {
            PipeClient Instance = (Param as PipeClient);
            Instance.fStream = new FileStream(Instance.sHandle, FileAccess.ReadWrite, 4096, true);
            int BytesReadedSoFar;
            byte[] Buffer = new byte[this.BufferSize];

            while (true)
            {
                BytesReadedSoFar = Instance.fStream.Read(Buffer, 0, (int)this.BufferSize);

                switch (BytesReadedSoFar)
                {
                    case 0: return;
                    default:
                        if (this.PipeReceived != null)
                            this.PipeReceived.Invoke(Instance, Buffer);
                        break;
                }
            }

            Instance.fStream.Close();
            Instance.sHandle.Close();

            lock (CPX.ClientPool)
                CPX.ClientPool.Remove(Instance.ID);
        }
    }

Pinvoke functions:

 Spoiler

        [DllImport("kernel32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
        public static extern SafeFileHandle CreateNamedPipe(
           String pipeName,
           uint dwOpenMode,
           uint dwPipeMode,
           uint nMaxInstances,
           uint nOutBufferSize,
           uint nInBufferSize,
           uint nDefaultTimeOut,
           IntPtr lpSecurityAttributes);

        [DllImport("kernel32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
        public static extern int ConnectNamedPipe(
           SafeFileHandle hNamedPipe,
           IntPtr lpOverlapped);

        public const uint DUPLEX = (0x00000003);
        public const uint GENERIC_READ = (0x80000000);
        public const uint GENERIC_WRITE = (0x40000000);
        public const uint OPEN_EXISTING = 3;
        public const uint FILE_FLAG_OVERLAPPED = (0x40000000);

        //Networking
        [DllImport("msvcrt.dll")]
        public static extern void* memcpy(void* dest, void* src, int size);

        public static void MemCopy(byte[] Dest, byte[] Src, int Size)
        {
            fixed (byte* src = Src, dst = Dest)
                memcpy(dst, src, Size);
        }

        public static void MemCopy(byte[] Dest, int DestOffset, byte[] Src, int Size)
        {
            fixed (byte* src = Src, dst = Dest)
                memcpy(dst + DestOffset, src, Size);
        }

        public static void MemCopy(byte[] Dest, int DestOffset, byte[] Src, int SourceOffset, int Size)
        {
            fixed (byte* src = Src, dst = Dest)
                memcpy(dst + DestOffset, src + SourceOffset, Size);
        }

        public static void MemCopy(byte[] Dest, byte[] Src, int SourceOffset, int Size)
        {
            fixed (byte* src = Src, dst = Dest)
                memcpy(dst, src + SourceOffset, Size);
        }

PipeClient wrapper

 Spoiler

    public class PipeClient
    {
        public SafeFileHandle sHandle;
        public FileStream fStream;
        public uint ID;

        public void AppendBytes(byte[] Args)
        {
            lock (this.fStream)
            {
                this.fStream.Write(Args, 0, Args.Length);
                this.fStream.Flush();
            }
        }
    }

Put it together for you as example.

[s.bat]

Named pipes offer the "benefit" of relying on physical memory instead of your network, but sometimes it's necessary to be able to extend beyond that boundary. The .NET Remoting Infrastructure seems like a great solution to your inter-process communication problem-since the architecture was built to answer specifically that issue, and I would really like to see you use it in your projects.

[joshvette001]

Originally Posted by kinshi88

Hey guys, I've been planing on having separate programs for the Game/Npc etc servers, so I've just been thinking of the best way to about implementing it.

It's for my own scratch source so don't worry about giving source-specific examples.

But yeah, if you got any ideas lemme hear em =P

Honestly Kinshi get ahold of Jack aka Korvacs he did a server in front of me that was a auth/game server that communicated and transferred date in between each other extremely well and very stable. He would be able to give ya some ideas.

[kinshi88]

Originally Posted by joshvette001

Honestly Kinshi get ahold of Jack aka Korvacs he did a server in front of me that was a auth/game server that communicated and transferred date in between each other extremely well and very stable. He would be able to give ya some ideas.

Auth/Game is (again) no problem. Since the Client connects to the auth, then the game.

But yeah, I spell all night checking out named pipes, and **** are they awesome.
How come I've never heard about these before?? =P

[pro4never]

Originally Posted by kinshi88

Auth/Game is (again) no problem. Since the Client connects to the auth, then the game.

But yeah, I spell all night checking out named pipes, and **** are they awesome.
How come I've never heard about these before?? =P

Because you didn't pm korv asking what to use lol. He's the one who told me about them... although i had seen them mentioned in some research before.

[kinshi88]

Originally Posted by pro4never

Because you didn't pm korv asking what to use lol. He's the one who told me about them... although i had seen them mentioned in some research before.

Haha, well thanks.

[s.bat]

I guess I'm alone with .NET Remoting then, huh?

[kinshi88]

Originally Posted by s.bat

I guess I'm alone with .NET Remoting then, huh?

Haha aww.
I'll check it out dude =P

[Korvacs]

Originally Posted by s.bat

I guess I'm alone with .NET Remoting then, huh?

Well, if no one else has used it before, and no one has posted any information about it, i hardly think people are going to just decide to use it based on one post with no explanation of how it works or what its advantages are over other methods.

Also Named Pipes are not limited to your local machine they can be used across a local network, so there is no limitation in that way.

[ImmuneOne]

Originally Posted by Korvacs

Well, if no one else has used it before, and no one has posted any information about it, i hardly think people are going to just decide to use it based on one post with no explanation of how it works or what its advantages are over other methods.

Also Named Pipes are not limited to your local machine they can be used across a local network, so there is no limitation in that way.

*cough* Some things shouldn't be released to this forum.

[s.bat]

Originally Posted by ImmuneOne

*cough* Some things shouldn't be released to this forum.

I suppose that's true to an extent, but in my case, there is a lot of valuable information already accessible on the internet that could easily supersede my attempt at explicating .NET Remoting.

As for the named pipes being used over a network, I didn't research it carefully enough, and I apologize for that.

Also, has anyone taken a look at the ? I'm asking because ImmuneOne chose to use P/Invoke instead.

[Korvacs]

Originally Posted by s.bat

I suppose that's true to an extent, but in my case, there is a lot of valuable information already accessible on the internet that could easily supersede my attempt at explicating .NET Remoting.

As for the named pipes being used over a network, I didn't research it carefully enough, and I apologize for that.

Also, has anyone taken a look at the ? I'm asking because ImmuneOne chose to use P/Invoke instead.

Personally i use the framework's classes and methods for named pipes, works like a charm.