/xna-cncnet-client

XNA / MonoGame based client for playing classic Command & Conquer games both online and offline with a CnCNet game spawner.

Primary LanguageC#OtherNOASSERTION

CnCNet Client

The MonoGame / XNA CnCNet client, a platform for playing classic Command & Conquer games and their mods both online and offline. Supports setting up and launching both singleplayer and multiplayer games with a CnCNet game spawner. Includes an IRC-based chat client with advanced features like private messaging, a friend list, a configurable game lobby, flexible and moddable UI graphics, and extras like game setting configuration and keeping track of match statistics. And much more!

Targets

The primary targets of the client project are

However, there is no limitation in the client that would prevent incorporating it into other projects. Any game or mod project that utilizes the CnCNet spawner for Tiberian Sun and Red Alert 2 can be supported. Several other projects also use the client or an unofficial fork of it, including Tiberian Sun Client, Project Phantom, YR Red-Resurrection, The Second Tiberium War and CnC: Final War.

Requirements

The client has 3 builds: Windows (DirectX11), OpenGL and XNA.

Building the solution for any platform requires Visual Studio 2017 or newer. A modern version of Visual Studio Code, MonoDevelop or Visual Studio for Mac could also work (as well as separate MSBuild without any sort of IDE), but are not officially supported.

Compiling, debugging and usage

  • Compiling itself is simple: assuming you have the prerequisites installed, you can just open the solution with Visual Studio and compile it right away; the repository includes MonoGame and other necessary DLLs for quick compiling.
  • When built as a debug build, the client executable expects to reside in the same directory with the target project's main game executable. Resources should exist in a "Resources" sub-directory in the same directory. The repository contains sample resources and post-build commands for copying them so that you can immediately run the client in debug mode by just hitting the Debug button in Visual Studio.
  • When built in release mode, the client executable expects to reside in the "Resources" sub-directory itself. In target projects, the client executables are named clientdx.exe, clientogl.exe and clientxna.exe respectively for each platform.
  • The BuildScripts directory has automated build scripts that build the client for all 3 platforms and copy the output files to a folder named Compiled in the project root. You can then copy the contents of this Compiled directory into the Resources sub-directory of any target project. Note that by default the build scripts also build the XNA version of the client, which requires XNA Framework 4.0 Refresh to be installed. If you don't want to install XNA, then you need to modify BuildGame.bat to leave the XNAFramework build out.

End-user usage

For end-users running Vista or newer Windows, the MonoGame (DirectX11) build is preferred. The MonoGame build cannot be run on Windows XP, so the XNA build is intended for XP users and for those users whose GPUs do not properly support DX11.

The MonoGame WindowsGL / DesktopGL build is primarily meant for experimental Linux and Mac support.

Client launcher

This repository does not contain the client launcher (for example, DTA.exe in Dawn of the Tiberium Age) that selects which platform's client executable is most suitable for each user's system. For that, see dta-mg-client-launcher.

Branches

Currently there are only two major active branches. master is where development happens, and while things should be fairly stable, occasionally there can also be bugs. If you want stability and reliability, the stable branch is recommended.

Screenshots

Screenshot Screenshot