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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!

You can find the dedicated project development chat at C&C Mod Haven Discord server.

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.

Development requirements

The client has 2 variants: .NET 4.8 and .NET 8.0.

  • Both variants have 3 builds: Windows DirectX11, Windows OpenGL and Windows XNA.
  • .NET 8.0 in addition has a cross-platform Universal OpenGL build.
  • The DirectX11 and OpenGL builds rely on MonoGame.
  • The XNA build relies on Microsoft's XNA Framework 4.0 Refresh.

Building the solution for any platform requires Visual Studio 2022 17.8 or newer and/or the .NET SDK 8.0.200. A modern version of Visual Studio Code, MonoDevelop or Visual Studio for Mac could also work, but are not officially supported. To debug WindowsXNA builds the .NET SDK 8.0 x86 is additionally required. When using the included build scripts PowerShell 7.2 or newer is required.1

Compiling and debugging

  • Compiling itself is simple: assuming you have the .NET 8.0 SDK installed, you can just open the solution with Visual Studio and compile it right away.
  • 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 executables expect to reside in the Resources sub-directory itself for .NET 4.8, named clientdx.exe, clientogl.exe and clientxna.exe. Each .exe file or .dll file expects a .pdb file for diagnostics purpose. It's advised not to delete these .pdb files. Keep all .pdb files even for end users.
  • The Scripts directory has automated build scripts that build the client for all 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.
.NET 8 builds
  • For .NET 8, When built in release mode, the client executables expect to reside in Resources/BinariesNET8/{Windows, OpenGL, UniversalGL, XNA} folders, named client{dx, ogl, ogl, xna}.dll, respectively. Note that client{dx, ogl, ogl, xna}.runtimeconfig.json files are required for the corresponding .NET 8 dlls.
  • When built on an OS other than Windows, only the Universal OpenGL build is available.
Development workarounds
  • If you switch among different solution configurations in Visual Studio (e.g. switch to TSUniversalGLRelease from AresWindowsDXDebug), especially switching between .NET 4.8 and .NET 8.0 variants, it is recommended to restart Visual Studio after switching configurations to prevent unexpected error messages. If restarting Visual Studio do not work as intended, try deleting all obj folders in each project. Due to the same reason, it is highly advised to close Visual Studio when building the client using the scripts in Scripts folder.
  • Some dependencies are stored in References folder instead of the official NuGet source. This folder is also useful if you are working on modifying a dependency and debugging in your local machine without publishing the modification to NuGet. However, if you have replaced the .(s)nupkg files of a package, without altering the package version, be sure to remove the corresponding package from %USERPROFILE%\.nuget\packages folder (Windows) to purge the old version.

End-user usage

  • Windows: Windows 7 SP1 or higher is required. The preferred build is DirectX11 (.NET 4.8), i.e., clientdx.exe. If your GPU does not support DX11, consider using the OpenGL or XNA build instead. Advanced users may experiment with the .NET 8 builds at their discretion.
  • Other OS: Use the Universal OpenGL build.

End-user requirements

Windows .NET 4.8 requirements:

(Optional) The XNA build requires:

Linux requirements:

macOS requirements:

Windows .NET 8.0 requirements:

Windows .NET 8.0 requirements

(Optional) The XNA build requires:

Windows 7 SP1 and Windows 8.x additionally require:

  • Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2019 Redistributable 64-bit / 32-bit.

Windows 7 SP1 additionally requires:

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. See dta-mg-client-launcher.

Branches

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

Screenshots

Screenshot Screenshot

Footnotes

  1. How To Install PowerShell Core ↩