Defining a packet

what even is a packet in ByteNet anyway?

Packets are the structured dictionaries you use to define the "format" your data is going to be sent in. These are named packets as you 'send' packets through network, and packets have their contents usually formatted in a specific way because, well they have to be.

ByteNet's purpose as a library is to provide a way to structure your data, and send that structure in a hyper-optimized way.

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Okay, where do I start?

Enough of how it works, let's start off with making a basic packet. We will also need to create a namespace:

packets.luau

local ByteNet = require(path.to.bytenet)

return ByteNet.defineNamespace("messaging", function()
    return {
        printSomething = ByteNet.definePacket({
        -- This value field is very important!
            value = ByteNet.struct({
                message = ByteNet.string,
            })
        })
    }
end)

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Sending

On the server, there are 3 methods of sending packets to players. It's important to note that when a player should be specified, it's the second parameter given, not the first. This is an intentional design choice.

• sendToAll
• sendToAllExcept
• sendTo

On the client, there is only one, because you can only send data to the server:

• send

Any data passed through these functions must obey your structure created in definePacket, and if you have strict typing on, an error will be raised if the types do not match.

code examples

client.luau

-- Sending to server
packets.myPacket.send({
    message = "Hello, world!"
})

server.luau

-- Sending to all players
packets.myPacket.sendToAll({
    message = "Hello, players!"
})

-- Sending to an individual player
local someArbitraryPlayer = Players.You

packets.myPacket.sendTo({
    message = "Hello, random player!"
}, someArbitraryPlayer)

-- Sending to all except a certain player
local someArbitraryPlayer = Players.You

packets.myPacket.sendToAllExcept({
    message = "Hello, everyone except one person!"
}, someArbitraryPlayer)

Receiving

You can use the listen method to listen for when a packet is received.

code examples

server.luau

packets.myPacket.listen(function(data, player)
    print(`{player.UserId} says { data.message }`)
end)

client.luau

packets.myPacket.listen(function(data)
    print(`server says { data.message }`)
end)

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Configuration (Reliability types)

Currently, the only config accessible right now is reliability types. This will change as time goes on, however right now, you can switch reliability types by defining reliabilityType to be "reliable" or "unreliable".