Wrapper for sw_api.dll in .NET - an attempt to reimplement networking for Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered and untie multiplayer from unreliable master server
Requirements:
- .NET 8 SDK
- Visual Studio 2022 or later (installs stuff to compile C/C++, idk)
- C++ development workload in VS installer
- Any IDE (Rider, VS, VS Code)
- GOG version of the game (didn't bother to check Steam yet, might work though)
Run bash publish.sh or build solution in any IDE. C# build will trigger C build under the hood, so no need to struggle with make/cmake/VS if all dependencies are satisfied.
All this is automated, run bash publish.sh. If RFG is not in default folder, edit this script accordingly.
- rename original
sw_api.dlltosw_api_original.dll - copy build results to RFG folder
sw_api.dll- proxy dllSwApiNet.dll- .NET managed code dllSwApiNet.runtimeconfig.json- required to run .net because it's not a standalone dll yet- other built files are optional
- doublecheck that you have
sw_api_original.dll - see STDOUT for method names being called
- Port types from Beef-lang implementation
- Actually figure out how to hack netcode to avoid encryption and/or master server talk
All the magic for unmanaged function exports is done with DNNE.
Main limitation of .NET exports is that parameter and return types must be blittable: have same binary representation, managed and unmanaged. This means, for example, we have to return int instead of bool.
DNNE passes method names to linker which changes them according to call convention rules. We need clean names so have to supply .def file.
Native code must be compiled for 32 bits, and DNNE breaks if managed code is compiled with anything else than Any CPU, but this combination works anyway.
Project includes sw_api_spartacus_demo - it's a C/CPP wrapper sample generated with Spartacus and hand-modified Ghidra output. It exists only to debug how proxying works without extra stuff and managed code. Project only builds in Release mode for some reason.