Networking App is a small C++ learning project that demonstrates client-server communication through GameNetworkingSockets. It contains a reusable client library, a reusable server library, and a console application that can be launched either as a server or as a client from command-line arguments.

• Client-server networking through GameNetworkingSockets.
• One executable with command-line mode selection.
• Server mode with configurable listen port.
• Client mode with configurable server address.
• Callback-based connection, disconnection, and packet receive handling.
• Periodic packet sending every 3 seconds from client to server.
• Periodic packet broadcasting every 3 seconds from server to all connected clients.
• Simple Buffer abstraction for sending raw packet data.
• fmt is used for formatted runtime error messages.
• Required runtime DLL files are copied next to the executable during the CMake build.

This project is currently set up for Windows.

Install the following tools before building:

1. Visual Studio 2022 or Visual Studio Build Tools 2022

   • Install the Desktop development with C++ workload.
   • Make sure the MSVC compiler and Windows SDK components are selected.

2. CMake 3.20 or newer

   • Download it from https://cmake.org/download/ or install it with WinGet:

   winget install Kitware.CMake

3. Git

   • Required if you want to clone the repository from the command line.

   winget install Git.Git

assets/                    Demo media used by this README
project/
  CMakeLists.txt           Main CMake project
  app/                     Console application entry point and runtime DLL resources
  client/                  Client library source and public headers
  server/                  Server library source and public headers
  third_party/             Vendored fmt, GameNetworkingSockets headers/lib, and buffer helper

Run the following commands from the repository root.

Create the build directory and generate the build system. This step only needs to be done once:

cmake -S project -B build

Build the Release configuration:

cmake --build build --config Release

After a successful Visual Studio generator build, the executable is typically located at:

build/app/Release/networking-app.exe

The build also copies the required runtime DLL files next to the executable.

Open two terminals from the repository root.

Start the server in the first terminal:

build\app\Release\networking-app.exe server

You can also provide a custom port:

build\app\Release\networking-app.exe server 27020

Start the client in the second terminal and pass the server address:

build\app\Release\networking-app.exe client 127.0.0.1:27020

While both processes are running:

• the client sends a packet to the server every 3 seconds;
• the server sends a packet to all connected clients every 3 seconds;
• received packets and connection events are printed to the console.

Press Enter in either terminal to stop that process.

• The application target is defined in project/app/CMakeLists.txt.
• The application entry point is implemented in project/app/src/main.cpp.
• The client API is declared in project/client/include/client.h and implemented in project/client/src/client.cpp.
• The server API is declared in project/server/include/server.h and implemented in project/server/src/server.cpp.
• Vendored dependencies are included through project/third_party, including GameNetworkingSockets.
• Runtime DLL resources are stored in project/app/resources and copied next to networking-app.exe during the CMake build.