CouchNET – Multiplayer Framework for Local & Online Co-op

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Local + online co-op. One network model.

"Say you’re making a two-player split-screen game. With CouchNET, those two players can stay on the same PC, or other players can join the same game online. You don’t need to rewrite your gameplay or build a separate online multiplayer system."

CouchNET is a networking framework for Unity built for games where multiple players can share the same machine and play online in the same session.

Two players on one PC. Two more joining from another. Each player still has their own identity, input, ownership, and network state.

BUILT FOR LOCAL + ONLINE CO-OP

• Run multiple local players on the same PC while connecting them to players on other machines.
  
• Local and remote players use the same gameplay architecture, reducing split-screen-specific networking code and connection-to-player glue.
  
• Each player keeps their own identity, seat, and ownership even when several players share one network connection.
  
• Declare RPC methods with attributes while CouchNET generates the networking wrappers and serialization code at compile time using Mono.Cecil.
  
• Synchronize networked state with tick-based updates, batching, snapshot buffering, and interpolation support.
  
• Spawn, despawn, identify, and transfer ownership of networked objects across the session.
  
• Keep connected players coordinated through scene transitions and world synchronization.
  
• Recover disconnected players while preserving their logical player identity and session state.
  
• Efficient transform synchronization with delta updates, quaternion compression, interpolation, and teleport handling.
• Transport Independent Core CouchNET's gameplay layer stays separate from the transport implementation.
• Includes LiteNetLib networking and an in-process Loopback transport for local host communication and testing.
• Custom inspectors, validation, runtime network information, and debugging tools built directly into the Unity workflow.