Question

I am developing an online strategy game using .Net v2. Although the game is primarily strategic, it does have some tactical elements that require reasonable network performance. I plan to use TCP packets for strategic data and UDP packets for tactical data.

{EDIT} I forgot to mention that I am leaning away from WCF and .NET 3+ for a couple of reasons. First, because I want to keep my download small and most of my customers already have .NET 2.0. Second, because I would like to have the option of porting to Mac and Linux and am unsure of WCF availability in Mono. {/EDIT}

I am looking for network library recommendations. I have found a few options, such as GarageGames’ Torque Network Library (C++), RakNet (C++), and the lidgren network library (C#):

http://www.opentnl.org/ http://www.jenkinssoftware.com/ http://code.google.com/p/lidgren-network/

Does anyone have real-world experience with these or other libraries?

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I just stumbled on RakNetDotNet:

http://code.google.com/p/raknetdotnet/

This might be what I’m looking for…

Answer 1

Why limit yourself to .NET 2.0. .NET 3.0 (or 3.5) contains WCF and is a solid, performant communications subsystem with good security. .NET 3.0 is just .NET 2.0 with additional libraries (WCF, WF, WPF).