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P2P Networking

<cat>code.networking</cat>
<title>P2P Networking</title>

Steam has a mechanism allowing you to send packets to another Steam user. 

It's totally feasible to create a game's netcode using this system.

<note>In the past we used this in Rust to send voice communications instead of bouncing it off the server. We ultimately stopped doing this because it revealed your IP.</note>

# Sending Messages

```
byte[] mydata = ...
SteamId TargetSteamId = ...

var sent = SteamNetworking.SendP2PPacket( TargetSteamId, mydata );

// if sent is true - the data was sent !

```


# Receiving Messages

You need to set up a callback so you can authorize who can send you messages

```
SteamNetworking.OnP2PSessionRequest = ( steamid ) =>
{
	// If we want to let this steamid talk to us
	SteamNetworking.AcceptP2PSessionWithUser( steamid );
}

```

Then just call something like this regularly

```
while ( SteamNetworking.IsP2PPacketAvailable() )
{
	var packet = SteamNetworking.ReadP2PPacket();
	if ( packet.HasValue )
	{
		HandleMessageFrom( packet.Value.SteamId, packet.Value.Data );
	}
}
```

Your HandleMessageFrom function should look like this

```
void HandleMessageFrom( SteamId steamid, Data data )
{
	.. do stuff
}
```

# Further Reading

There are less garbage creating versions of some of the functions here on the <page>SteamNetworking</page> class.

Although the p2p stuff is easy and will work out for a lot of situations, you should look at <page>SteamNetworkingSockets</page> if you're planning to make a game with client/server architecture with 10+ players sending updates multiple times a second.

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