ByteNet Max | Upgraded networking library w/ buffer serialisation, strict Luau, and rbxts support | v0.1.1

ByteNet Max

An upgraded buffer-based networking system

ByteNet Max is an upgraded version of @ffrostfall’s ByteNet which relies on strict type-checking to serialise your data into buffers before deserialising it on the other end, feeding it back to your Luau code. But what makes ByteNet Max different from ByteNet? ByteNet Max supports queries (RemoteFunctions) which are client to server requests for data. This brings you an extremely optimised experience for RemoteFunctions, using minimal data to increase send & receive speeds. ByteNet Max lives up to ByteNet’s idea of making networking simple, easy and quick. The API is simple an minimalistic, helping you grasp the concepts of ByteNet Max pretty quickly!

Installation

Get ByteNet Max on the Roblox Creator Store!

Performance

ByteNet Max lives up to the standards of ByteNet, performing incredibly well compared to other networking libraries such as BridgeNet2. The conversion to a buffer reduces memory usage significantly, helping optimise and speed up data transfer.

Documentation

ByteNet Max follows the same architecture as ByteNet, hence the documentation for RemoteEvents (packets) is the exact same and can be found here: Documentation.

However, it adds a new system named queries. This is the ByteNet equivalent of a RemoteFunction. To begin, you can create a ModuleScript to define a namespace under which your packets and queries will be held:

local ByteNetMax = require(path.to.ByteNetMax)

return ByteNetMax.defineNamespace("PlayerData", function()
    return {
       packets = {}, -- not necessary to include this table if there's no values in it.
       queries = {
			GetCoins = ByteNet.defineQuery({
				request = ByteNet.struct({
					message = ByteNet.string
				}),
				response = ByteNet.struct({
					coins = ByteNet.uint8
				})
			})
		},		
    }
end)

Then, in a local script, you can invoke the query like so:

local QueryModule = require(path.to.QueryModule)

local Coins = QueryModule.queries.GetCoins.invoke({
	message = "Can I please get the coins value?"
})

print(Coins)

In a server script, you can receive the query and return the appropriate information, like so:

local QueryModule = require(path.to.QueryModule)

QueryModule.queries.GetCoins.listen(function(data, player)	
    print(data.message) -- prints "Can I please get the coins value?"
	return player.leaderstats.Coins.Value
end)

It’s that simple!

Packets & Queries can co-exist under the same namespace, just make sure you define the packets and queries table in defineNamespace. If you don’t require packets, you can leave it out and just define the queries table, and vice versa.

Contact

Contact me on Twitter or Discord (username: elitriare), or just in this thread to report bugs or request features. I haven’t fully tested this across different types of experiences, so your feedback is extremely useful!

This project is open-source.

6 Likes

Version 0.1.1

Fixes

  • Added a separate queries and packets table to defineNamespace to segregate them, and prevent errors.

why are you using return here
Extra chars

It’s a module script, so it returns the namespace table so other scripts can use the packets & queries.

I shall try it ! Remote Functions here I come !

1 Like

but you didn’t define it to a variable to use it
why return ByteNetMax.defineNamespace("PlayerData", function()
instead of
local namespace = return ByteNetMax.defineNamespace("PlayerData", function()

Have u confused “ByteNet” and “ByteNetMax”