Best and cheapest networking option for indie

Hey everyone! So I am currently trying to create an online multi-player game and trying to figure out what networking engine would be the best and cheapest since I am on a budget. The game is an average paced 3rd person shooter and at the most I want a 3v3. I have dabbled in python a bit and a little with unet and learning how to use a new one isn't a problem.

Any help or suggestion of options is greatly appreciated

Thanks in advance to everyone!

 

Well, I'd say it comes down to:
UNet: Price - Free, Support - Forums/Google, Examples - Decent, Fixes - Slow
Photon Bolt: Price - Low, Support - Slack/Forum, Examples - Decent, Fixes - Okay
Forge: Price - Low, Support - Iffy (maybe it's better now?), Examples - Don't know, Fixes - Don't know (rewrote whole engine at some point? Forum seems awfully quiet, no posts May-Oct ?)
uLink: hahahahaha they locked their forum so people stop asking about anything

I use Bolt and love it. UNet is free tho. Tradeoffs between support, examples, fix time, etc. UNet has host migration? Or it was supposed to at some point. You'd have to write your own for Bolt. More info needed or more precise questions. If you're looking for cheapest, UNet is free; however, there's no mention of matchmaking services or multiplayer services or master server or whatever you want to call it. You can write your own and host it = free, but if you're looking for a paid service, depends.

Anymore, more questions are welcome. As stated, if price is main factor, go with UNet.

 

Thank you for all the info!
So as it looks UNet is not free because when you release your game you have to pay per GB of data.
Bolt looks good for the price and looks like they keep improving it. Also, it says many things can be done be creating them yourself which isn't too bad.
Forge looks decent.

What is it that you love about bolt because right now I am more so leaning in that direction.

 

UNET costs are only for the services if you plan to use em. You can use your own servers for free, p2p, game c/s. If you need servers then be prepared to pay regardless of the chosen networking.

 

Code (csharp):

1. using UnityEngine.Networking;

 

Is there a sample implementation of the unet server available or you need to write it from scratch on your own?

EDIT
From this thread it seem the server library is still not available :
https://forum.unity3d.com/threads/state-of-unet.386521/

 

Photon - tried and tested over the years, actively developed, and supports lots of other platforms most of the other offerings don't.

 

@Meltdown by photon do you mean Bolt?

 

No, two different things. Bolt is Bolt, and Photon is Photon.

https://www.photonengine.com/en-US/Photon

 

Doesn't photon cost quite a bit though?

 

Bolt and PUN are both part of the Photon family

 

Haha, was getting confused with another networking engine.

In this case, yes, Photon Realtime, and Photon Bolt are your options, although Photon Bolt is aimed for more PC and Steam, whereas Photon Reatime, is aimed at other platforms.

Photon PUN is probably the easiest way to implement multiplayer and is cost effective since you don't need to do your own server hosting and admin, and it scales nicely.

As for pricing, I don't know what 'costs quite a bit' means. You get what you pay for. If you have lots of users you pay more, if you have less users you pay less.

 

Whatever happened to Unet Phase2? ... supposedly it was meant to be an authoritative simulation server? is it still in R&D?

 

Same networking engine (at least I think this is the engine you're referring to). Different company.

https://forum.unity3d.com/threads/r...tion-of-networking-solution-for-unity.248912/ (Bolt Engine original thread)
https://forum.unity3d.com/threads/r...olution-for-unity.248912/page-16#post-2285666 (buy out mentioned here)

 

That's the one

 

Photon Bolt, I should say, runs fine on mobile platforms as far as I know.

I still think we need more details on what you're trying to do, or let us know what you chose.

... and yes, UNet phase 2 was supposed to happen in Unity 5.6 I think, but it disappeared from the roadmap. No idea if it will happen, or when.

 

I use uNet for client and server, on a hosted box. Very cheap for development, and (with the company I chose) scales nicely as I need more resources for the server.

 

Which is why I'll hold off using UNet until Unity provide such a service worth paying for. At the moment, I don't believe it is. The cost of the server is one thing, and I accept that, just I feel UNet needs some work before I'll throw green at it.

HLAPI reinvented, host migration, voice, higher performance, delta compression automatically and so on all move me to place hand on wallet.

 

Bolt used to be owned by like 1 guy that made it, i guess he sold it to Photon .. so now its Photon Bolt
i dont like their scheme of PUN so meh i dont like it .. Bolt might be different but it makes me hestitant

Forge i guess just came out with a new version??? (29th, 30th october) they said they were quiet on forums for awhile cause they were working hard on the new version .. i guess?.. but its confusing
here it says v13
http://beardedmanstudios.com/forge-networking-remastered-release-candidate-rc/

but then here it says v20
http://developers.forgearcade.com/

i actually saw that news post that says v13 like .. THAT DAY and the other page said v20
i guess v13 of "remastered"
it looks cool but guess i dont really know all sooo much about it
i guess its free to use all during development, but you buy before you publish
i havent checked it out cause i came to it like THAT DAY he posted that news, so i was waiting to see if he updated the free version ... idk anything about what version the free one is .. or whats going on there, but it looks good

 

if it's just 3v3 indie-scale game, i guess you can use unet for connection and one of your player to host game as server. all you need to rent is a cheap (or free) web server for match making

 

There is a master server framework asset on the store released recently, could be quite good might be worth taking a look
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/71391

 

We've developed a game using UNet and we are pretty happy, except the fact that it doesn't support Host Migration in an Internet game!

We havn't used Bolt but Photon has a article clearly saying Bolt doesn't support Host Migration too!

I am really interested in how your do it!

Otherwise, PUN seems the best solution for Host Migration...

 

Email us asking for sample pack with your Bolt invoice attached @SweatyChair

 

I want to warn about forge, we where burnt by their networking. The old version was riddled with bugs. I wouldnt trust the new version

 

Has anyone tried Amazon Game Lift c# sdk with Unity? I'm curious if the service is worth the pricing thanks in advance.

 

Wow my first ever post.
I am a long time web developer of 10+ years and an avid gamer. I'm just now deciding during covid it's time to switch gears and dive into game dev. So my question to you is what is the 2021 updated version to the indie networking question here? Thanks!

 

I would advise against making a networked game first. Build smaller, simpler games and when you get some experience how game development works, you can dip your toe in this endless ocean of sulfuric acid called networking.

If you don't listen to me, check out Photon. They have a great and free starter set with relative easy to use library.
But you will need serious Unity knowledge to pull any kind of networking off.