Warp (previously GM-Online-Framework)

A feature-rich framework for multiplayer games, written in GameMaker and NodeJS

Maintained by @evolutionleo

If you have any questions, please join my Discord

Features

• Simple one-line calls to send/process packages on both server and client sides
• No need to deal with buffers whatsoever
• Advanced features: server-side physics, entities, lobbies, account/profile system, saving/loading data with MongoDB
• Well-commented code if you decide to dive into the sources
• NodeJS server can run on a Linux hosting/dedicated server, as opposed to servers in GML
• MIT license (you can use this framework in commercial projects and modify/contribute in any way)

Examples (use old versions)

• Platformer Example
• 1v1 Pong Example

Installing

[New!] Client + Server

• You need to have NodeJS and npm installed
• Install the packet with npm i -g @evoleo/create-warp-app
• Run npx create-warp-app
• Follow the instructions, select the templates for the Client and the Server
• Done! It will automatically pull everything from the latest release

Client-side

• Install .yymps from the latest release
• Import it to your project using Local Package system (you can also choose to include the Demo)

OR

• Clone EmptyClient/ or Releases/EmptyClient.zip

Server-side

• Install NodeJS

• I recommend using VS Code, as it's very cool (and in addition to that it provides a handy command line, embedded into the code editor)

• Download JSServer.zip from the latest release

• Open up the clonned folder in command line (or open the folder in VS Code)

• Run npm install

• (Optional) To use the accounts/saving system, install the database engine:

Database (Optional)

• Install MongoDB
• Choose the default settings, it should now run in background
• Done!

If you don't need MongoDB - please disable it in the config file (it's under common_config.db_enabled), otherwise you will get an error!

Usage/Workflow

Congratulations if you've completed the Installation step!

Anyways. You see, many other networking frameworks might seem a bit overwhelming (even to people who are somewhat experienced in the topic).

And even though versions from v3.0 and above of the framework did add some advanced features, I still tried my best to provide the simplest interface for the basic packet sending/receiving:

Sending a packet (JS and GML)

Sending a message to the server might be as easy as:

send({ cmd: "Hello", str: "Hello, Server!" })

or even:

sendHello()

if you write a wrapper

Adding a new command:

(Advanced) Using lobbies and maps:

• Add new maps in the maps/ folder
• Choose how many lobbies you need in initializers/04_lobbies.js
• Use "lobby list", "lobby join", "lobby leave" to work with lobbies
• Most of the generic logic is already coded, but you can add in features that you personally need
• You can extend the Lobby class in concepts/lobby.js, the Map class in concepts/map.js

(Advanced) Using accounts and saving:

• Make sure you installed MongoDB (instructions in the Installing section)
• Use the "register" and "login" commands on the client-side, the server will do all the authentification for you
• Info: "Account" is an object that holds a pair of login + password, and some data bound to them, while "Profile" holds the actual gameplay data. One Account can theoretically have many profiles bound to it
• You can access the gameplay data of each client in c.profile.%insert_variable%, it will save automatically
• If you want to add new properties, extend the schemas in the schemas/ folder

Runnning

• Client runs as a usual GMS2 project
• To start the server - navigate to the folder and execute node .

Configuration

• Edit the server configs inside config.js
• Edit the client configs inside __NetworkingConfig.gml
• Select the server config by adding --env=prod or --env=dev parameter to the classic node . command
• Select the client config by clicking the 'target' button in the top-right corner of IDE

Typescript Server

Installing

• Follow the original steps, but install TSServer.zip instead of JSServer.zip
• Install the Typescript compiler with npm i -g typescript

Networking

Running

• Compile the project by running npx tsc or run npx tsc -w to avoid recompiling after every change
• Run node . or node out/server.js

Contributing

I accept pull requests with bug fixes/new features that make sense for the framework. Here are some rules for submitting a PR:

• Please try to keep the coding style consistent with the rest of the project (e.x. use tabs instead of spaces, etc.)
• When modifying the server code - please only edit the TypeScript version, as it can be then automatically translated to JS, but not the other way around
• After you've made your changes to the TS server, go to /autorelease/ and run npm run release to compile everything to JS and create the .zip files in /Release/
• If you want to introduce a brand new feature, please lmk first (create a new issue) because it could be either something that I don't want to be a part of Warp, or it already has an alternative, or it's just something that I'd want to implement myself

Feature requests/typos/bug reports:

• Check if someone has already made an issue about your bug/feature on the issues tab
• If not, open a new issue detailing the bug that you found in Warp/the feature that you want to be implemented
• If it's a feature request, please write why it makes sense to include it/what problem it solves

Credits

• Messagepack serialization format
• @jujuadams's SNAP library, which enables Messagepack's encoding/decoding inside GameMaker
• NodeJS Messagepack encoder/decoder
• rm2kdev's ancient series that inspired all this
• Pull request for the first TypeScript version: @davawen
• Framework by: @evolutionleo (me)