New Gnet (master server) - no slowdown

A couple of years ago, Mark Sibly wrote gnet, a very nice tool to publish a game on a web server (see here). For a network game, this allows to the clients to directly list the available servers, and select a server without having to type the IP address.

The problem with gnet was that the game was freezing for ~1 sec when gnet was refreshing the server. This discouraged many people to use it for actual games.

Progi and me just wrote a new library which allows to access any network database using threads. This library will be soon available for all versions of Blitz (including Blitz3D and BlitzMax).

The first application of this library was to rewrite gnet: now the new gnet do not freeze any more during the game. Everything is done in the background! This makes gnet usable for any net game, and for any version of Blitz!

Please download the executable here: the new gnet. When testing, check out the gnet section on the site.

Please test this. I would like to know your feedback.

Complete library will be release soon!

It works! Can this be setup on your own server like gnet can? Does it have the same server requirements?

Very interesting. Keep it up.

This tool uses our library which is again in developpment. When it will be finished, you can use this library to create you new GNet.

Requirements : Apache Server (uses PHP)
Windows Client (our library is a DLL)

Yes, Beaker, I rewrote gnet in a couple of minutes using this new library. This was just an example to show what this library can do! Right now it's using the php files on this site, but you can use this on any site.
And this new gnet is just an example of a use of this library, but you will be able to do thousands more thing with it!

For those who are curious, here is how is the code of the executable (see first post). Of course, I just put the part related to gnet. This is just an example of this new library coming up soon.

Include "BKDB_inc.bmx" 
Include "gnet_inc.bmx"

' (..)

BKDB_Initialise()
BKDB_SetServer("http://www.blitzmax.com/gnet")

GNET_PingSite()
GNET_AddServer(myGame)
GNET_ListServers()

Repeat
  BKDB_Update()

	If KeyHit(KEY_SPACE) Then
		GNET_RefreshServer(myGame, "New server name!")
		GNET_ListServers()
	EndIf

	If KeyHit(KEY_ENTER) Then
		GNET_ListServers()
	EndIf

  If KeyHit(KEY_ESCAPE) Then 
		GNET_RemoveServer(myGame)
		quitting = True
	EndIf


	If BKDB_Receive(GNET_PING) Then
		If BKDB_state <> BKDB_FINISHED_OK Then NotifyAndEnd("Failed To ping")
		myIp$ = BKDB_result
	EndIf
	
	If BKDB_Receive(GNET_ADD_SERVER) Then
		If BKDB_state <> BKDB_FINISHED_OK Or BKDB_Result <> "OK" Then NotifyAndEnd("Failed to add server")
	EndIf

	If BKDB_Receive(GNET_LIST_SERVER) Then
		If BKDB_state <> BKDB_FINISHED_OK Then NotifyAndEnd("Failed to list servers")
		GNET_ReceiveList(myGame)
	EndIf
	
	If BKDB_Receive(GNET_REFRESH_SERVER) Then
		If BKDB_state <> BKDB_FINISHED_OK Or BKDB_Result <> "OK" Then NotifyAndEnd("Failed to refresh server")
	EndIf
	
	If BKDB_Receive(GNET_REMOVE_SERVER) Then
		If BKDB_state <> BKDB_FINISHED_OK Or BKDB_Result <> "OK" Then NotifyAndEnd("Failed to remove server")
		End
	EndIf

  ' (..)

	DrawText(LSet$("Game", 16) + LSet$("Server", 32) + LSet$("IP", 16), 0, 120)
	DrawText("-----------------------------------------------------------------------------", 0, 135)
	Local i% = 0
	For Local t:GNET_Server = EachIn GNET_ServerList
		DrawText(LSet$(t.game$, 16) + LSet$(t.server$, 32) + LSet$(t.ip$, 16), 0, 150 + i)
		i :+ 15
	Next
  
  ' (..)
Forever