NetworkReader

Description

General purpose serializer for UNET (for reading byte arrays).

This class works with NetworkWriter and is used for serializing data for UNet commands, RPC calls, events and low level messages.

using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.Networking;

public class ExampleScript : MonoBehaviour
{
    // Writing data to a NetworkWriter and then
    // Converting this to a NetworkReader.
    void Start()
    {
        // The data you add to your writer must be prefixed with a message type.
        // This is in the form of a short.
        short myMsgType = 143;

        NetworkWriter writer = new NetworkWriter();

        // You start the message in your writer by passing in the message type.
        // This is a short meaning that it will take up 2 bytes at the start of
        // your message.
        writer.StartMessage(myMsgType);


        // You can now begin your message. In this case we will just use strings.
        writer.Write("Test data 1");
        writer.Write("Test data 2");
        writer.Write("Test data 3");


        // Make sure to end your message with FinishMessage()
        writer.FinishMessage();


        // You can now access the data in your writer. ToArray() returns a copy
        // of the bytes that the writer is using and AsArray() returns the
        // internal array of bytes, not a copy.
        byte[] writerData = writer.ToArray();

        CreateNetworkReader(writerData);
    }

    void CreateNetworkReader(byte[] data)
    {
        // We will create the NetworkReader using the data from our previous
        // NetworkWriter.
        NetworkReader networkReader = new NetworkReader(data);


        // The first two bytes in the buffer represent the size
        // of the message. This is equal to the NetworkReader.Length
        // minus the size of the prefix.
        byte[] readerMsgSizeData = networkReader.ReadBytes(2);
        short readerMsgSize = (short)((readerMsgSizeData[1] << 8) + readerMsgSizeData[0]);
        Debug.Log(readerMsgSize);


        // The message type added in NetworkWriter.StartMessage
        // is to be read now. It is a short and so consists of
        // two bytes. It is the second two bytes on the buffer.
        byte[] readerMsgTypeData = networkReader.ReadBytes(2);
        short readerMsgType = (short)((readerMsgTypeData[1] << 8) + readerMsgTypeData[0]);
        Debug.Log(readerMsgType);


        // If all of your data is of the same type (in this case the
        // data on our buffer is comprised of only strings) you can
        // read all the data from the buffer using a loop like so.
        while (networkReader.Position < networkReader.Length)
        {
            Debug.Log(networkReader.ReadString());
        }
    }
}