GNet?

I've been on these forums for a bit now, and one thing I never understood is what GNet is. It looks like a place to put information for online games in, but there are none listed and it doesn't look like you are able to post any.

So... what is it?

GNet is a library for your program to communicate over a network with.

There are two GNet's, the one Xlsior describes is a network library for BlitzMax. I think the one you refer to is an old online matchmaking library/service written in PHP which was available for BlitzPlus and B3D. Essentially anyone who created a game registered that game on a server which had GNet installed and anyone who tried to join a game would ( providing they were using the same matchmaking server) find that game, and be able to join it.

EDIT: And the reason it's got a page on the website is because the webserver used to be setup so that people could use it for matchmaking without needing their own server.

Oh I see, so I'm assuming it's now defunct?

I think so, yes. Hardly anyone used it in the first place.

Hmm that's a shame sounds like a good idea. So it was solely for matchmaking, just GNet servers communicating? I guess I don't quite understand...

Well let's say that you and I want to play of Call of Duty online, but we don't know one another. Normally, big games like Call of Duty have a matchmaking service. Either PSN if it's a PS3 game, XBox Live if it's a Microsoft game or some third party solution on PC.

Whatever they're doing, they're using a matchmaking server of some kind. That server holds a list of all active games and if I come along and host a new game, the game contacts the server and registers that game on the global list. Now you start your game up and try to join a game. Now the game contacts the server, and asks for a list of games in play. You get that list and pick my game to join. Your game asks the server for the details it needs, it get the IP address and anything else it needs, and now you can join my game.

That's all GNet was really. A little bit of PHP code you could use to register games and see who else was playing your game. Because it was open source, you and I could have used it in our games in order that people who play the games we write could have a similar user-friendly service for finding games to join as they do in AAA games. It was a good idea, and the code worked well. I know because I used it in one of my games. But not many others used it, I don't think.

Well that's interesting, I'm glad I asked!

The Gnet service always seemed pretty useless to me. Looking at the Gnet page, there are a variety of questions the viewer is going to be asking themselves; such as how they get the game software for a listed game; what is the URL for the game's website; etc - which the Gnet page provides none of the answers to.

Basically it was a good idea, but implemented in such a half baked fashion that it ended up being useless.

Um, I think you missed the point. It was never intended for people to start from the GNet page, and then go and download/buy the game that was appearing on it. The point was for it to already be integrated seamlessly into your game and "just work". The webpage was only there for convenience so that you could check your games were listing correctly.