Running a Host

The following article shows how to run an example host.
For a more complete example, look at Unit Tests.

Create a Host

Note

The hosts in Reloaded.Messaging do the minimal amount of setup to enable asynchronous message handling.
They do not abstract the base libraries; for guidance on using them, please refer to their individual documentation(s).

Server = new LiteNetLibHost<MessageDispatcher<LiteNetLibState>>(true, new MessageDispatcher<LiteNetLibState>());
Client = new LiteNetLibHost<MessageDispatcher<LiteNetLibState>>(true, new MessageDispatcher<LiteNetLibState>());

// Start listening and connect.
// This is LiteNetLib specific code.
Server.Manager.Start(IPAddress.Loopback, IPAddress.IPv6Loopback, 0);
Client.Manager.Start(IPAddress.Loopback, IPAddress.IPv6Loopback, 0);
Client.Manager.Connect(new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Loopback, Server.Manager.LocalPort), DefaultPassword);

All pre-implemented hosts derive from the IHost<TExtraData> class.
TExtraData is a generic type used to encapsulate the current state of the host.
In the case of LiteNetLib, it is called LiteNetLibState.

Sending Messages

Each host implements the functions SendFirstPeer and SendToAll.

Recall the serialization example from earlier:

var sample = new Vector3(0.0f, 1.0f, 2.0f);
using var serialized = sample.Serialize(ref sample);

// Client is an IHost.
Client.SendFirstPeer(serialized.Span);

Receiving Messages

In order to receive messages, you must first register a handler for the message type.
You can do that by calling AddToDispatcher on the message type and providing:
- Class/struct that implements IMsgRefAction<TMessage, TExtraData>.
- The Dispatcher from the IHost instance.

var messageHandler = new LiteNetLibMessageHandler();
messageHandler.Received.AddToDispatcher(messageHandler, ref Client.Dispatcher);

// Class that will process received `Vector3`s from Host.
public class LiteNetLibMessageHandler : IMsgRefAction<Vector3, LiteNetLibState>
{
    public void OnMessageReceive(ref Vector3 received, ref LiteNetLibState data)
    {
        // Executed on every Vector3 received from host.
        // e.g. You can process message and send response with 
        //      data.Peer.Send();
    }
}

Any instance of a class/struct that implements IMsgRefAction is fine.
You can of course implement multiple IMsgRefAction in the same class/struct too.

The hosts are automatically configured to asynchronously receive messages, there is no need to manually call Receive or any similar function(s).