Does anyone know if its possible through Script Extender or via Vanilla Skyrim - to access Networking capabilities.


Im not even talking about Multiplayer specifically.


I just thought it would be cool if we could create our own leaderboards, or create Mods that track progress and stuff on a website.


I once made a Fairy Network addon for GarrysMod, where lots of servers could run it, and they all operated through my master server, which allowed cross server communication via fairys.

eg- Your fairy could actually deliver the message to another server.


An ingame mail system would be pretty nifty, being able to mail your Steam friends etc in Skyrim, in a Roleplay sort of way.
Even being able to send items to eachother would be even better.

Technically, Items are just objects in the game memory, and could theoretically be turned into byte arrays, and sent over a network.
(I do something similar in Neverwinter Nights)

Wow....
An idea that started as online leader boards is starting to look like a desire for an Auction House/Mail System.

We could have a virtual economy within Skyrim?

I don't think script extenters can but a `vanilla` Skyrim could.

Why do you not think Script 'Extenders' can not, but Vanila Skyrim could?
Can you provide some reference or examples?

I believe it could be done sure, getting Skyrim on a network. I did it for Oblivion with OBSE, others did too, and there's some kind of Skyrim Online project somewhere.

I believe they overwrite a bunch of dlls and they are writing Skyrim Online in c++. I can't find anything in Papyrus for network support. Even a simple callback function into a python script or something would be more than enough. Does anyone know if this is possible? I would think reverse engineering the DLLs would be against their terms of use...

As far as I understand SKSE (I still have to find some kind of documentation for it) theoretically you can write a plugin for SKSE and make it's functions availabe to papyrus. Meaning you write the networking stuff yourself in C++ and use the SKSE to make it available to the game. But do not ask me how to even start this.

@Jason - You are exactly right. I just spent a couple hours getting SKSE installed and compiling the example plugin which is in C++. All the tools are available to add network support. I'm a C++ low level programmer so I don't know much about hooking it into Papyrus let alone graphics programming but any kind of network calls via an interpreted script would be far too slow.

I like SKSE, it doesn't overwrite any DLLs. It provides a wrapper around the main exe

Well my problem is that I have next to no knowledge let alone experience about manipulating memory or hooking into running processes. Writing any networking functionality in C++ or even additional game mechanics or input methods would be well doable for me. But getting that stuff into Skyrim even using SKSE I fear I'd fail epicly.

I played around with SKES some more and it's pretty complicated. The example is pretty limited and only shows you how to get your plugin loaded - doesn't even show how it's accessed via the game. It does seem to have integration support with Papyrus but I'm not sure how to get that working.

I then tried Script Dragon (google it) and that seems much easier plus it has several examples. Some that show you how to monitor key presses, increase your skills, etc. It's basically a main loop that seems to run about every 15ms or so (it calls a Wait(0) which lets Skyrim process other threads). However, I'm not sure how to interface with Papyrus.

I want to make a PVP only mod not another MMO like Skyrim Online...getting tired of MMOs. Just a skill based pvp game that doesn't involve guns and mortars would be nice lol

Oh lord the implications of this! If you go for it, I say good luck, and you should totally keep us updated.

Well I've looked at Script Dragon myself already. It seems to be a more of a one-way road giving you acces to skyrim function in external code but actually not making any additional functions available to the game and mods.

I'm currently thinking about using script dragon for a mod that eases up organizing spells. Because the hot keys are quickly filled with all of the elemental ranged destruction spells and that's about it then. Change to anything beyond that and the endless favorite list scrolling starts pausing the action.

In Order to create a PvP Mod you'd need to have acces to Actors representing the other players and be able to set their movement and position based upon the updates your external code receives via network. Not sure if that's possible using script dragon.

Also don't underestimate the complexity of lag/delay mitigation. The Wiki about Source SDK (Valves Engine) has some very good articles about networking in multiplayer games.

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