| name | data-serialization |
| description | Efficient data serialization for game networking including Protobuf, FlatBuffers, and custom binary |
| sasmp_version | 1.3.0 |
| version | 2.0.0 |
| bonded_agent | 02-networking-specialist |
| bond_type | SECONDARY_BOND |
| parameters | [object Object] |
| retry_config | [object Object] |
| observability | [object Object] |
Data Serialization for Games
Implement efficient serialization for low-latency game networking.
Format Comparison
| Format |
Size |
Speed |
Schema |
Use Case |
| Protobuf |
Small |
Fast |
Required |
Most games |
| FlatBuffers |
Small |
Fastest |
Required |
Real-time |
| MsgPack |
Small |
Fast |
Optional |
Flexible |
| JSON |
Large |
Slow |
None |
Debug |
| Custom Binary |
Smallest |
Fastest |
Custom |
Ultra-low latency |
Protocol Buffers
syntax = "proto3";
message PlayerState {
uint32 player_id = 1;
float x = 2;
float y = 3;
float z = 4;
uint32 health = 5;
}
message GameUpdate {
uint64 tick = 1;
repeated PlayerState players = 2;
}
GameUpdate update;
update.set_tick(current_tick);
auto* player = update.add_players();
player->set_player_id(1);
player->set_x(pos.x);
std::string serialized;
update.SerializeToString(&serialized);
Custom Binary Format
struct PacketHeader {
uint16_t type;
uint16_t length;
uint32_t sequence;
};
struct PlayerUpdate {
uint32_t player_id;
float position[3];
uint16_t angle; // Compressed rotation
uint8_t flags;
};
void serialize(Buffer& buf, const PlayerUpdate& p) {
buf.write_u32(htonl(p.player_id));
for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++)
buf.write_float(p.position[i]);
buf.write_u16(htons(p.angle));
buf.write_u8(p.flags);
}
Compression Techniques
| Technique |
Savings |
Complexity |
| Delta |
50-80% |
Medium |
| Quantization |
30-50% |
Low |
| LZ4 |
50-70% |
Low |
Troubleshooting
Common Failure Modes
| Error |
Root Cause |
Solution |
| Parse error |
Version mismatch |
Schema versioning |
| Large packets |
No compression |
Enable delta/LZ4 |
| Slow parsing |
JSON in hot path |
Use binary format |
| Corruption |
Byte order |
Use htonl/ntohl |
Debug Checklist
// Check serialized size
std::string data;
message.SerializeToString(&data);
std::cout << "Size: " << data.size() << " bytes\n";
// Validate roundtrip
Message parsed;
parsed.ParseFromString(data);
assert(parsed.id() == message.id());
Unit Test Template
TEST(Serialization, RoundTrip) {
PlayerState original{1, 10.0f, 20.0f, 30.0f, 100};
std::string data;
original.SerializeToString(&data);
PlayerState parsed;
parsed.ParseFromString(data);
EXPECT_EQ(original.player_id(), parsed.player_id());
EXPECT_FLOAT_EQ(original.x(), parsed.x());
}
Resources
assets/ - Schema templatesreferences/ - Format benchmarks