Client Networking (network-client)

This document describes how the network-client package actually connects to a NetworkServerLibrary instance and the concrete APIs you will use from client-side code.

Overview

A client connects to a single server instance (one TCP/WebSocket control channel and optionally a single WebRTC data channel for unreliable traffic). Client responsibilities in a game are typically:

• Initiate a TCP connection and send control commands (join/play/input).

• Optionally negotiate a WebRTC data channel for receiving server snapshots or sending low-latency updates.

Example

It works exactly the same with UDP

// Wait for connection to be established
async function waitForConnection(): Promise<void> {
  if (network.tcp?.isConnected()) return;

  return new Promise((resolve) => {
    const check = () => {
      if (network.tcp.isConnected()) {
        resolve();
      } else {
        setTimeout(check, 50);
      }
    };
    check();
  });
}
await waitForConnection();

// Send a json encoded packet
network.tcp.sendData(new TextEncoder().encode(JSON.stringify({ hello: 'world' })));

// Receive raw server packets
const latestsPackets = getReceivedPackets();

// Decode packets if encoded in json
const decodedPackets = latestsPackets.map((packet) => {
  return JSON.parse(new TextDecoder().decode(packet));
});

Notes

• See docs/network/network-client-api.rst for the exact list available functions.

• For packet framing/terminator semantics see docs/network/packet-framing.rst.