netcode

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netcode is a secure client/server protocol for multiplayer games built on top of UDP.

Design

Real-time multiplayer games typically use UDP instead of TCP, because head of line blocking delays more recent packets while waiting for older dropped packets to be resent. The problem is that if you want to use UDP, it doesn't provide any concept of connection so you have to build all this yourself, which is a lot of work!

netcode fixes this by providing a minimal and secure connection-oriented protocol on top of UDP, so you can quickly get to exchanging unreliable unordered packets and get busy building the rest of your game network protocol.

Features

• Secure client connection with connect tokens. Only clients you authorize can connect to your server. This is perfect for a game where you perform matchmaking in a web backend then send clients to connect to a server.
• Client slot system. Servers have n slots for clients. Client are assigned to a slot when they connect to the server and are quickly denied connection if all slots are taken.
• Fast clean disconnect on client or server side of connection to quickly open up the slot for a new client, plus timeouts for hard disconnects.
• Encrypted and signed packets. Packets cannot be tampered with or read by parties not involved in the connection. Cryptography is performed by the excellent sodium library.
• Many security features including protection against maliciously crafted packets, packet replay attacks and packet amplification attacks.
• Support for packet tagging which can significantly reduce jitter on Wi-Fi routers. Read this article for more details.
• Support for both IPv4 and IPv6 connections.

Usage

Start by generating a random 32 byte private key. Do not share your private key with anybody.

Especially, do not include your private key in your client executable!

Here is a test private key:

static uint8_t private_key[NETCODE_KEY_BYTES] = { 0x60, 0x6a, 0xbe, 0x6e, 0xc9, 0x19, 0x10, 0xea, 
                                                  0x9a, 0x65, 0x62, 0xf6, 0x6f, 0x2b, 0x30, 0xe4, 
                                                  0x43, 0x71, 0xd6, 0x2c, 0xd1, 0x99, 0x27, 0x26,
                                                  0x6b, 0x3c, 0x60, 0xf4, 0xb7, 0x15, 0xab, 0xa1 };

Create a server with the private key:

char * server_address = "127.0.0.1:40000";

struct netcode_server_config_t server_config;
netcode_default_server_config( &server_config );
server_config.max_connect_token_lifetime = 30;
memcpy( &server_config.private_key, private_key, NETCODE_KEY_BYTES );

struct netcode_server_t * server = netcode_server_create( server_address, &server_config, time );
if ( !server )
{
    printf( "error: failed to create server\n" );
    return 1;
}

max_connect_token_lifetime is the longest lifetime in seconds your backend issues connect tokens with. The server refuses any connect token that could have been issued before it started, and this is how it knows which those are, so set it to the lifetime your backend uses.

Then start the server with the number of client slots you want:

netcode_server_start( server, 16 );

To connect a client, your client should hit a REST API to your backend that returns a connect token.

There is an example showing how to do this here.

Using a connect token secures your server so that only clients authorized with your backend can connect.

netcode_client_connect( client, connect_token );

Once the client connects to the server, the client is assigned a client index and can exchange encrypted and signed packets with the server.

For more details please see client.c and server.c

Source Code

This repository holds the implementation of netcode in C.

Other netcode implementations include:

• netcode C# implementation
• netcode Golang implementation
• netcode Rust implementation (updated fork of vvanders/netcode.io)
• netcode Rust implementation (new from scratch Rust implementation)
• netcode for Unity
• netcode for UE4
• netcode for Typescript

If you'd like to create your own implementation of netcode, please read the netcode 1.02 standard, and see IMPLEMENTERS.md for findings other implementations should check themselves against (a replay-protection overflow and some corrected errata).

Contributors

These people are awesome:

• Val Vanders - Rust Implementation
• Walter Pearce - Rust Implementation
• Isaac Dawson - Golang Implementation
• Alan Stagner - Unity integration, C# implementation
• Jérôme Leclercq - Support for random connect token nonce
• Randy Gaul - Discovered vulnerability in replay protection
• Benny Chen - Typescript Implementation
• Benny Nazimov - Rust implementation

Thanks for your contributions to netcode!

Author

The author of this library is Glenn Fiedler.

Other open source libraries by the same author include: reliable, serialize, and yojimbo.

If you find this software useful, please consider becoming a supporter. Thanks!

License

BSD 3-Clause license.

Crediting

If you use this library in a product, please credit it in your product credits:

netcode - Glenn Fiedler and Rowan Claude

The license doesn't require this. It's an official request, and honoring it is appreciated. Fair credit keeps open source honest.