DevLog #4 Truth in the Networking Layer
There’s a lie baked into most games.
It’s not malicious; it’s middleware. It’s layers of abstraction stacked so high that developers no longer see the packets, only the wrappers. Latency becomes “acceptable.” Lost packets get smoothed out with interpolation. Encryption is outsourced, compression is optional, and truth? That’s someone else’s concern.
Not here.
🎯 Introducing: RiftNet
RiftNet is our foundational networking library for RiftForged. But it's not a repackaged ENet. It's not a wrapper around Boost.Asio. It doesn't depend on QUIC, Lidgren, or RakNet. It's not built on someone else’s truth, it’s built on ours.
RiftNet was engineered from raw socket I/O with one goal:
No illusion. Only signal.
💥 What Makes RiftNet Different?
- True Reliable UDP: We implemented our own retransmission, sequencing, and acknowledgment system. RFC-guided. No TCP fallback.
- Built-in Encryption: ChaCha20-Poly1305 and AES-256-GCM powered via libsodium. Every packet can be encrypted at the source. No afterthought. No excuses.
- Built-in Compression: Supports LZ4 and Zstd. Compresses payloads before encryption, maximizing efficiency.
- Stress-Tested:
- ✅ 100 clients = zero issues
- ✅ 500 clients = sustained throughput
- ✅ 5,000 simulated clients = no packet loss, only expected decrypt misses under contention
- Thread-Safe and Modular: Designed with std::atomic, mutex-protected SecureChannel, and fully standalone from the rest of RiftForged.
- Log-Driven: spdlog-powered internal diagnostics—real data, not guesswork.
- Encryption and Compression Are Not Optional: They’re embedded directly in the reliability layer. This is next-generation netcode built from scratch.
🔬 Why This Matters
Most devs are taught to use abstractions—not build them.
We disagree.
RiftNet exists because modern netcode too often sacrifices truth for trickery. But in a physics-authoritative MMO like RiftForged, truth is non-negotiable. We don’t fake state. We don’t smooth jitter with smoke and mirrors. You get what the server simulates, byte-for-byte.
And now, thanks to RiftNet, that truth arrives encrypted, compressed, and on time.
🌐 For Developers
RiftNet will be available for license under the MIT License, which gives everyone access to the same foundation we're using to build RiftForged—along with binaries, headers, and optional source.
Because truth shouldn't be gatekept behind enterprise walls.
This is RiftForged’s netcode core: raw sockets, real state, and no lies between client and server.