ANet Professional and Version 1.1 released

Hi folks!

After a long time and hard work I proudly present the ANet Professional Version plus an Update (Version 1.1).

Version 1.1:
- less traffic thanks to internal optimization
- no poll functions any more
- better warning system
- better manual
- bug fixes

Professional Version:
- VoIP support (using Speex Codec)
- unlimited number of connections possible
- encryption
- udp/http functions for server lists, onnline hiqhscores, ...
- file functions for sending whole files (like levels)
- global player vars/strings (for statistics...)

The new demo can be found on my homepage in the download section. Or get it here.
Please also download the new manual and read the update/changes topic before using!

Everybody who already bought ANet Standard will get a free update to 1.1 per email soon.
If someone wants to upgrade from ANet Standard to ANet Professional you can get this in the shop.

From now on, it should be possible to create MMORPGS with gamestudio!

Have fun with messing around and report all bugs you find, please!

PS: Have I mentioned that you can create multizone servers even with the Standard version

I've uploaded the new tutorial/example script versions.

wow 99€
hmmm but i need it
i think i will buy it sooner or later =)
*musthavemusthavemusthave*

Way to much for a plugin in my opinion, almost $130 USD.

What I would really need in a multiplayer plugin, is a good dead reckoning function so that data must not be sent so often, and also entity updates should not be sent to clients that are outside the clip range. FTP and HTTP is also nice but I think not worth $130.

well... 99 Euro for a VoIP, unlimited connections and MultiZone Servers...

maybe you should make a version without 2 months of support for 20 euro less.
Just an idea, but next month, when i got my paycheck, i'm gonna go out and buy it.

Just need it, love the Voice over IP function wanna put that to the test.
and getting online highscores in a game is fun nevertheless.

Server Lists are great too, downside is you have to pay for a server as well to connect this all to :P oh well... hahahaa

thanks for the hard work man!

regards,
Dennis

In the "real" world, 99€ is way too less for the time I had to spend on this
You get everything you need to create every multiplayer game you like. From mmorpg to a cs type game or whatever you like. And this even with the A6 Standard!
Oh, you should also think about how much you pay for native gs multizone support
And 99€ are not much. 2 games for ps3 cost more and with them you can't make money ^^

The price is more than fair!

But PS3 games don't require more work after a purchase

Sorry to randomly post

If 99€ are too much for you, you won't need the features of ANet Professional!

@Spirit: Update ranges can be programmed so easy! Just use vec_dist() and only send the new position if the distance isn't to big.
The problem with implenting death reckoning is, that you need an other death reckoning algorithm for racing games than for mmorpgs or an shooter.
Also death reckoning shouldn't be a problem for more experienced programers. There are a lot of good tutorials in the internet.

@Helghast: www.bplaced.net offers free 1 GB webspace with SQL,PHP,FTP without any commercials. This is all you need

Good news, and great work!

I will also buy for sure, 99€ is a little more than I expected. But of course I am also getting a LOT more than I expected when this plugin started!
And I'm sure it is well worth my 99€ if im also getting 2 months support.

Now I only need to find a good sql plugin for lite-C and im ready to go. hahaha.

hmm, sql plugin, i was once converting sqlite3 headers to lite-c, but i dont remember what was my last state about it.

and 99€ is also a little more than i expected, too bad i dont have that money currently.

Glad to hear, but id really like to test the pro features before spending 100€. Especially the voip.

Maybe a reduced pricing for the release of Professional version would be beneficial? Without any _at all_ feedback with the new functionality and features of your plugin, it's not going to be as easy to grip a community into purchasing a $130 plugin for their projects. I, for one, will verify that the free version previously released was very well structured and we did/currently use it within our project - so fair to say we're a very interested team. However, to make major changes to it with additional functionality untested by any demo releases or tests available to interested customers, it's not going to be so simple for any of us to just for out $130 with an indie engine like 3DGS. The engine itself costs around that price.

To make the argument fair I whole-heartedly believe your work should go praised and made worthwhile of your hard work. We all had "rounded guesses" to the approximation of this plugin and as you can see in your previous thread you had a lot of interested community members. But in reality, being realistic, who is going to spend that amount of money for a plugin on an engine that is almost solely based around indie developers? Now hey, I'll take your side for a second here and use the same ideologies as you that this plugin took a bunch of time no doubt and is a very great breakthrough for this engine as a whole. Both I, and the entire community altogether acknowledge that and thank you very much for your dedicated work!

But on the contrary let's go ahead and run some numbers together if you don't mind. And at the same time please keep a level head and outlook of what we're about to discuss. I'm not only doing this in the best interest of you, but in the best-interest of the community (in whom I always take side with to see OUR community advancing as much as possible). We both know you had a large interest with your engine, so let's do some calculations (in USD if you don't mind me doing so).

$130 (engine license) x 5 (purchases) = $650 (total amount made)
$100 (engine license) x 10 (purchases) = $1,000 (total amount made)
$75 (engine license) x 25 (purchases) = $1,875 (total amount made)
$50 (engine license) x 30 (purchases) = $1,500 (total amount made)

Looking at the above chart, this is of course a rough outlined guess after looking through your previous thread and gathering some idea of members interested in your engine. But when your going to put out a plugin, or any product for that matter, you need to take marketing into consideration. You may think a higher price benefits you more, but this is where you may need to think again in economics (and I'm not calling you out here, like I said I'm trying to benefit both YOU and the COMMUNITY). With the lower price, the more interested candidates also react upon that price and not just ponder about the high-priced functionality of ANet.

Now I'm once again - to make it evident and clear - not bashing ANet at all as my very own project is currently supporting it. I'm only making mere suggestions that it could be a very beneficial idea to even make a starting out "Special" for your engine at a reduced price to gain popularity and sales of ANet and an actually jumping start for yourself.

Error E1512: Empty prototype ...
It works fine with the 1.0

@Carlos3DGS: No need for that. You can get access to sql with my plugin. Just use http post and php. php is totally simple (much simpler as c-script). This is a good tutorial: (in german) http://www.schattenbaum.net/php/

@ForianP: I totally agree with you. But somehow I can't make features of pro available in the demo version. This is to much risk for me.
If you have any ideas, how I can do this and be save against pirate copying (not that I think you would do that) let me know!

@ISG: I really respect your interest in my project and thank you very much for these kind of words!
But I thought about the price more than a week. I calculated every possible methode. This price is more than fair and as I told all of you: If you can't spend 100 € in a network engine, you won't be able to create a good MMO game. Just think about how much it will cost to rent all the servers, paying developers for creating the game (or spend a lot of time yourselve), buying resources and even if the game is finished you have to service all the servers, watch if everything is running all the time,....
This all together will cost thousands of euros. 100€ in contrast will be nothing.

And if you don't plan to create a big MMO, you won't need ANet Professional. You can do a lot with the Standard version! And if you're project grows and you think now you need the ANet Professional, than upgrade by paing the price difference. So you won't loose an euro.

And of course, their will be price reductions again (like the christmas offer) but this won't be that soon!

@Asgadir: I guess you're using functions that aren't available anymore or changed their name. Please look into the updates/changes section of the manual. All functions that were changed are mentioned there.
Oh, and also the tutorials and example scripts have to be updated! The new versions can be found on my download site.

Thanks all of you for your interest!

I change the syntax, comment the poll-loop out and i copy the new version over the old files on the same place.

I got:
anet_callback: function not found
anet_reset_queue: function not found
anet_set_compatibility: function not found
anet_set_encryption: function not found
anet_set_warning: function not found
enet_abort_fsending: function not found
enet_check_client: function not found
enet_clsend_event: function not found
enet_clsend_file: function not found

and so on...

Now, i copied the dll and the .h successive in my workdir. First i think he cant find anet.h but he does. Now i change the dll to the old and i have only the new parts in my log like

...
anet_reset_queue: function not found
anet_set_compatibility: function not found
anet_set_encryption: function not found
anet_set_warning: function not found
enet_abort_fsending: function not found
enet_clsend_file: function not found
enet_get_fprogress: function not found
enet_get_fsent: function not found
enet_get_fsize: function not found
...

I download the demo from your website... The same? I give up!

Cool! Good work!

are you sure that ANet.dll is loaded?

And if it is loaded, are you sure that you are using the correct dll?
Select the ANet.dll in the explorer and check if it's really version 1.1.1.1. It seems like it's not, because all new functions can't be found.

Does anybody else have this problem?

@cerberi_croman - I'm definitely sure by the old one but by the new? I don't know.
Edit: I change now back to the new for test and check the log. No, the new dont load.

@Dark_samurai - Yes, 1.1.1.1 from 02.05.2006. Is a mystery. I copy the old over the new and all works fine... ?? It conveys no sense to me.


No, in the first log, 4.4 kb, he found nothing, with the old, second log, 2.3 kb, with the new anet.h, he found only the new functions not.
(Wollte nur das forum nicht mit logfiles zumüllen)

this is how i did it. i copied anet.dll and anet.h in my project folder where my main.c script is. then i took the anet.dll and copied it to acknex_plugins in 3dgs folder cause that's the way i get plugin loaded.

you should try copying anet.dll to acknex_plugins folder too. and while compiling your project see if it says anet.dll loaded or something like that

I think 100€ are absolutely worth it if it works good.
EDIT: I've always been looking for something like this =) /EDIT
Is there already a tutorial for the new features?

I don't think that was a fair comment, people can create a good MMO without this plug-in just requiring more work.

Btw i am not against you or the plug-in i just thought i would pop in and say some stuff.

Thanks for your help but take a look to my logfiles.

1. with version 1.0
...game/levels/terrain\
PATH game/levels/panels\
ANet.dll opened........... .... ................. .. 2.380 sec
Running MAIN.C.
19 objects
Main started

2. with version 1.1.1.1
....game/levels/terrain\
PATH game/levels/panels\
ANet.dll - can't load DLL - any key to abort
Program aborted........... ...
enet_check_client: function not found
enet_client_poll: function not found
enet_clsend_event: function not found

just as i thought. your anet.dll is not loaded. so, download anet.dll and anet.h again, copy them to your project folder, then copy anet.dll to acknex_plugins folder and then try running your project again.

All yesterday tried and failed.
I use GS 7.66.
As I said before, it conveys no sense to me.

Can you run the pong example? (the compiled version)?

Are you totally sure, that the correct anet.dll (version 1.1.1.1) and only this one is in your plugindir and none is in your acknex_plugins folder?
I can imagine that there will be problems if there are 2 different version that can be loaded.

@Puppeteer: No there are no. But I'm planning some small How-To workshops that will be included to the manual. But I think all new features are well explained in the manual and an expert like you won't even need a tutorial They are very easy to use.

Hi folks!

There was a bug in ANet version 1.1.1.1 which prevented loading the dll on some systems. Thanks to Asgadir for reporting!

Because of this serious bug, I released a new version. All costumers should follow the instructions of the mail I sent to them.
The new demo version can be found here.

I'm really sorry for the troubles!

@Demo-version - well an open source techdemo (of course only copiled executable) would be enough.
I want to see whats possible and what amount of code i need for it.

Ok!
Which features do you want to see in this techdemo? Only VoIP or all the others also (will need more time of course)?

Well some Encryption/non encription comparisions in traffic, CPU-Usage/FPS and some file-load/http examples - in general im not really interested in if it works or not but in how fast and lets call it... 'hack'-resistant they are. So i wanna try to manipulate e.g. the traffic and look if its possible or if it throws an errormessage out (or even better dont be affected)

even if you crypt packets sent from client to server or server to client and even if it has a good hack-proof, it wont mean much for being hack-resistant. MMO cheaters generaly modify data before they sent, using some memory tools, or they dont do anything with data, they use BOT programs which plays for player.

In this type of case, encryption of packets wont stop them, you need to use something like x-trap or hackshield.

@FlorianP: Ok I will do something! I'm really corious if you can cause a crash. I designed everything so that it should seperate trash from usable data.


Asgadirs problem was that he hadn't istalled the VC 2008 Redistributable Package. This can be downloaded here. I added this info to the manual (new version can be downloaded on the website).

You should also use version 1.1.2.1 now (available on the downloadside), it contains one fix that can cause an error when loading the plugin.

Youre right thats true in most cases, but if the traffic can be manipulated easiliy - there are much worse things possible e.g. buffer overruns

News:
I'm currently working on a Dead-Reckoning template. My target is an easy to implent Dead-Reckoning algorithm for games with characters (not for vehicles!). The DR should produce less traffic and should be used with only 1-2 function calls.

The template will be also used in the techdemo (ideas for the techdemo are welcome ).

Something about the security of ANet:
FlorianP already tried to manipulate the traffic of ANet. It wasn't possible for him to "hack" ANet in any kind of way.
If you want to know what and how he tried talk with him, please!

DR? awesome. i hope it will be useful

I opened a new thread in the multiplayer section where you can download and test the first version of the template.
Please don't post in this thread about troubles with the template to keep things readable and clear!

Here is the thread.

Have fun while testing and don't forget to tell me what you think!

EDIT:

Forgot to tell you that I'm already planning new templates:
+ A template that allows easy (just a few code lines) creating a LAN server list
+ A template for creating a Internet server list
+ Adding client update ranges for the DR template

I'm also working on a basic HowTo (the german one is already finished): How to set up a Connection
More howto's are planned and will follow soon!

client uppdate ranges sounds great to see after i finish taking a look at dr

I wanted to show you what I did so far for the new update (1.2.1.1):
+ DR-Template (with Update Ranges)
+ Lanlist-Template
+ Internetlist-Template
+ 5 HowTo's
+ Improved Eventsystem
+ Using different scripts for server and client in Lite-C
+ several bugfixes
+ updated the source codes of the examples for the new plugin version
+ added several defines into anet.h for easier usage of anet functions

To-Do:
+ 3D VoIP
+ HTTP Upload
+ HTTP Download

3D VoIP is very tricky... I hope to get this working soon!


If you find bugs in the current version, just let me know.
Now is the best time to remove them

What would you prefer:

File Up/Download with FTP or with HTTP?

File Upload with HTTP Put has the disadvantage that it's mostly disabled on webservers. But using FTP has the disadvantage of another port that has to be configured in the firewall.

down with http up with ftp.

or both with both.

edit:

btw, nice new features... to bad i dont have anet pro

I suspect for small files, http will work really well, but if we wanted to push out large files, like map areas, ftp would kick a**. Maybe both? :P

Don
have a great day

I decided to implement FTP.

Done:
+ FTP Up-/Downloads implemented
+ removed another Bug
+ did a lot of code cleaning

To-Do:
+ 3D VoIP
+ removing a VoIP Bug

Now the release of the new version only dependes on the 3D VoIP feature. I hope that I get this working soon...

After that, I will start with a Tech-Demo that will show all the abilities of ANet.

sounds great. looking forward to it!

edit: As I'm working on movement prediction right now, I just had the idea: would it be possible to feature some movement/rotation prediction in the demo? (for smoothly moving fast objects) I'd be sure to learn a lot from it.

@Germanunkol: The DR Template offers this features and also client update ranges.
But this template will only be available in the Standard and Professional Version.

You will see this template working in the techdemo that I will create soon.

It's time to give you the possiblity to try out the new version. Please tell me if it's working in your project!

For updating, just copy and replace the old ANet header files and the old anet.dll. You will also need a new default.c.

Attention: This is only a demo version. The users who bought ANet, will get their update when the Betaphase is over.

Please read the Updates/Changes section in the manual to see what's new.

Links:
ANet Demo 1.2.2.2
Manual German
Manual English
default.c


Sadly I didn't managed to finish the 3D VoIP thing... It's a real hard nut and I need some more time to finish this. I will release a new update when it's done.

Enjoy!
Tell me what you like/dislike.

Nice!
But why does it clip the .rar ending?
I had to manually add it by renaming the file to 'Demo_1.2.1.1.rar', then I could open it...

edit:
I tried it out. It seems that the network plugin works flawlessly so far. The two features I was missing most (mutliple entities created in the same frame/different events for client/server) work and make my life much easier!

The templates look like they will rock. I want all of them .

Now some critique:
-The manual's "enet_svset_event/enet_clset_event" could use a little more examples I think. For a new user it may get hard to understand all these events on the client/server...
-enet_set_pollperiod() -can't find it in the manual, I only read about it in the HowTos. I would expect it in the management functions ?
-an event that is called when the server is full and the client tries to connect to it would be nice. Or is this already in there and I'm missing it?
-"EVENT_ENT_REMOVED - msg holds the global pointer of the entity (only available for 1 frame!)." So I use str_to_num to get the pointer?

Thanks for the great updates
I'm too tired now, but if I find the time tomorrow I'll do some more coding

I've uploaded a new Version. You can get it by using the old links above.

Updates:
+ Manual fixes
+ EVENT_SERVERFULL added
+ enet_set_pollperiod() removed. It got unnecessary because of internal optimization that additionally reduced latency.
+ Bug fix (password was never accepted)

@Germanunkol: Yes you can get the value of a var passed in msg through str_to_num. I've mentioned that in the manual now.
I will think about new examples for enet_sv/clset_event().

Thanks for your hints!

Hm. The new update (1.2.2.1) seems not to work for me:

I wrote a function that shows the "jump" from the position that was send and the position I "predicted". The red line shows the jump. Using 1.2.2.1 it looks like this:
http://www1.picfront.org/picture/5mcukvpD0l/img/20_4_2009-11_30_52.png
but with anet version 1.2.1.1 it looked like this:
http://www1.picfront.org/picture/wzY4Ri5W/img/20_4_2009-11_36_17.png
as you can see, it seems to update only once a second now with the new version, which is not enough for what I need. Also, the bullets that I create using enet_ent_create only get fired about once a second, even though I set the "reloading time" to half a second...

Ok, try the seconds Release Candidate (1.2.2.2) by using the old link agian.

Yes, thes one works great once again. No bugs found...

Hi Dark_samurai,

I get the message "object not available for DLL" while loading the DLL.
After closing the engine I get a windows error.

I use:
- the latest DLL version 1.2.2.2
- Windows XP Pro SP3
- 3D GameStudio A7.73 Com

This is what I need to know/what you can do:
1) Are you using Lite-C or C-Script?
2) Did you also copied the correct header files into your workfolder?
3) Try to install the VC++ 2008 Redistributal Package.
4) Is the dll correct included using #PRAGMA_PLUGIN or dll_load()?
5) If you are using the default.c for ANet, did you updated it?

Hope 3D voip will be released soon, I think this will be a fantastic feature for many user.
When releaed will be fantastic a sample showing the system.

I'm working on it
I also think this will be useful for many users.

After I finished this feature, a techdemo will be released that shows all the cool features of ANet in one demo.
I'm currently also creating some GS Network vs. ANet demos to show you how efficient ANet is.

hi Dark_samurai

in addition to my problem: after closing the error messages the game works perfectly.

the answers to your questions:
1) Lite-C
2) yes
3) already installed
4) #PRAGMA_PLUGIN
5) yes

Interesting... Did this message also appeard using an old ANet Version?
Which version didn't caused this problem?

Are you using your own on_exit event? (This could cause the crash when closing the engine)

- OK Thanks the exit error problem is solved... I have used an own on_exit event

- version 1.1.2.1 has the same problem


müsste da nicht eigentlich angezeigt werden, wo der fehler auftritt?

Bei dlls ist wird leider nie angezeigt, wo der fehler ist...

Hmmm... I have no clue what this msg means. Maybe it's caused by your code, do you also have this problem with the example scripts from my site? Try out the pong example and replace the old dll with the current beta.

I have found out the line which caused the error.

sv_player = enet_ent_create(_str("guard.mdl"), nullvector, _str(""));

the problem is the empty string

thanks a lot for any help Dark_samurai - ANet is a great plugin

if you don't want to attach a function to an entity, wouldn't it possibly be easier to create the enttity using ent_create(); locally on each machine?

The entity wouldn't have a global pointer then.
=> the entity isn't created on a client that connects after the entity was created. Additionally you can't use the functions enet_send_skills/_flags/_pos/_ang and enet_ent_remove.

@zStream: Ok then this is a bug because this shouldn't cause a crash.
[EDIT] If I'm passing NULL instead of the funcname I get no error. Can you post me your privious code that caused the crash , please?

Ok, a bit late, yes I agree (promised it some months ago :P)...

BUT, i finally got round to buying the Anet Pro.
Simple reason, i'm gonna use this in a project to finish my school, hehehee.

Waiting to get a mail or something with the plugin, but then youre in for a 2 months of endless annoying mail (aka support mails!) har har har!

anyhoo, I hope to get it soon, so i can start asap ^__^

regards,

@Helghast: Thanks for your purchase!

Ok, here is a the last Beta Version (1.2.3.1) befor I will release the new update (If there are no bugs):
- Demo 1.2.3.1
- Manual Ger
- Manual Eng
- default.c

What's new:
+ enet_get_datatransfer() changed to enet_get_bps()
+ fixed a Bug in Client+Server mode

I changed something on the sending behaviour of ANet when using Server+Client mode. So if you do testing, please keep an eye on that. Affected can be all sending and entity functions.

Seems like the newest manual (english) still has enet_get_datatransfer()

Thanks for reporting. I've uploaded a new version.

is there a way to get two seperate compilations to connect to eachother, i wonder because I honestly dont want to distribute my server to everyone?

I believe he put that into v 1.2.1.1 - someone said they were very happy with it.

+ Using different scripts for server and client in Lite-C

Don
have a great day

thanks, ill look to see if i can figure it out because i cant seem to get it to work.

Look into the manual under anet_use_handles().

But be aware that using different applications causes more traffic. The reason is, that ANet can't use the handle of variables anymore so it has to use the variable names.

that sucks. is there any ways around that that could be fixed in future versions?

Hmmm... of course but these are almost very unhandy/difficult.

You can work around this problem by not using enet_send_var(), enet_send_string() or enet_send_array(). Use other methodes to transfer your data like enet_send_var() or using skills/flags.

I think also GS has this limitation (that you have to use the same application) or not? If not it would be interesting how they solved that problem.

Maybe someone has an idea of how I could identify a variable without using the handle?

well right now i just plan on using a lot of defines. my question is, doesnt the transfer of information happen outside of a7 and in the dll, so shouldnt that not matter?

my other question is that you said not to use enet_send_var() and then about a sentence later you said to use other methods such as enet_send_var(), just wondering what you were explaining. Im not really getting it.

Yes the sending happens outside but the problem is the following:

If I send a value of a variable, I also have to add something to identifie the variable. The easiest methode is to use the handle of the variable. The handle is always the same on every PCs but only if they are started with the same script. Now if you use different scripts, I have to identifie them in an other way. The variable name is easy to use but produces a lot of more traffic...

This is the problem, if I would know a better methode than using the name I could improve that.

Btw. if you are using Lite-C, you code is protected. So it should be no problem if you also have the server code inside the client application.

well it is protected to the typical scripter, but to someone past that its not and all they'd have to do to start a server is to find out through a hex program what needs to be pressed and when to start the server.

Why dont you write the server code so that only you can start it? There are a million ways to do that, like asking for a password thats generated in real time, or checking for a special file on your PC, or loading a DLL thats only on your PC, and so on.

because either way someone with skill will be able to access that code unless they dont have the server side code stuff.

The lite-C code is compiled into the .exe. So only the ASM code exists and that is useless because it's too difficult to understand.

granted Im not enough of a narcissist to think my game will gain this much attention but it is very much possible to extract code out of a compiled exe through the use of hex editor, hell its possible to dynamically pull information direction out of the ram so just compiling it to an exe doesnt really settle this for me. I'll figure something out though.

the idea of taking the server-specific code and pushing it into a dll before release could work lostclimate - this way the client can receive a dummy version of the dll with no actual server code in it, but never need to call the functions, but the server can run off the same compiled exe, with a full dll and have all the extra functionality. I believe this would be easy enough for a C++ programmer to do toward the end of your project.

Don
have a great day

that could work, not sure how i'd do it with anet, but i might look into it a little.

Do you have any prevision for the 3d voip release date ?

No, sorry.

But it's one of the next things on my list... I hope to get this working soon.

First of all the release of the Version that currently is in Beta test is more important.

I fixed a bug of the current Beta version.

Here is the new version and the new manual:
ANet Demo
Manual German
Manual English

Changes:
+ sender and receiver of an event can be the same host (-> server to server, client to same client,...)
+ events that were sent to an client running in client server mode weren't called. [fixed]

Edit: Links fixed!

The links (Demo, German, English) are dead....

It should work now.

thnx for the new version!

btw, i have to say this. anet gets better and better and more stable and faster with each version. i give you all of my thumbs up for that!

Thank you for the bug fix, Dark Samurai, it works just like expected now, the event is now called on the client+server as well, and my chat works once again Thanks!!