Network message classes should be derived from this class. These message classes can then be sent using the various Send functions of NetworkConnection, NetworkClient and NetworkServer.
Public data fields of classes derived from MessageBase will be automatically serialized with the class. The virtual methods Serialize and Deserialize may be implemented by developers for precise control, but if they are not implemented, then implementations will be generated for them.
Note : Unity uses its own network serialization system. It doesn't support the [NonSerialized] attribute. Instead, use private variables.
In the example below, the methods have implementations, but if those methods were not implemented, the message would still be usable.
using UnityEngine; using UnityEngine.Networking;
class SpawnMessage : MessageBase { public uint netId; public NetworkHash128 assetId; public Vector3 position; public byte[] payload;
// This method would be generated public override void Deserialize(NetworkReader reader) { netId = reader.ReadPackedUInt32(); assetId = reader.ReadNetworkHash128(); position = reader.ReadVector3(); payload = reader.ReadBytesAndSize(); }
// This method would be generated public override void Serialize(NetworkWriter writer) { writer.WritePackedUInt32(netId); writer.Write(assetId); writer.Write(position); writer.WriteBytesFull(payload); } }
Deserialize | This method is used to populate a message object from a NetworkReader stream. |
Serialize | The method is used to populate a NetworkWriter stream from a message object. |