Search Unity

  1. Megacity Metro Demo now available. Download now.
    Dismiss Notice
  2. Unity support for visionOS is now available. Learn more in our blog post.
    Dismiss Notice

Best/Cheapest Solution for MMO netowroking

Discussion in 'Multiplayer' started by Ibzy, Dec 12, 2014.

  1. tiggus

    tiggus

    Joined:
    Sep 2, 2010
    Posts:
    1,240
    My .02 for what it's worth, the heart of a MMO is the server thus I would not tie it to any particular game engine. The timeline for developing a decent MMO can stretch into a span of years, and even longer once it is released, what happens if you want to switch out your game engine down the road? Not to mention in many cases it is not very efficient to run a huge game engine executable on your server side when really it's focus will be networking and game logic.
     
  2. jonkuze

    jonkuze

    Joined:
    Aug 19, 2012
    Posts:
    1,709
    I think with Unity Headless batch mode you can do without the overhead of a normal Unity executable launch, but i guess there will be no way to really know the performance difference unless you setup a Photon Server (which doesn't use Unity), then a uLink Server (Unity Headless with uLink Libraries) to compare.
     
  3. jonkuze

    jonkuze

    Joined:
    Aug 19, 2012
    Posts:
    1,709
    yea, I think I would have to agree... as much as we love Unity, who really knows what the future holds! I recall a 3D Modelling / Animation Software called "Softimage XSI" it was amazing! UbiSoft, Capcom, Valve and many other Developers used it for Making their Game sometime ago. Softimage XSI have a huge following, and eventually became a MOD Tool of choice for Half Life 2 and some other Games, but then eventually AutoDesk Acquired Softimage and Discontinued it!

    F#^*@( #^#&#* ~_~ I'm still sad about it lol...
     
  4. BFGames

    BFGames

    Joined:
    Oct 2, 2012
    Posts:
    1,543
    For most parts i agree with this! Thats also why i kinda like Photon Server so much.

    However a unity executable in headless mode can be rather efficient, that's why uLink are used by quite a few people. But i agree in the regard that i dont think you can obtain just as good a performance on your server as with other solutions. But i have not tested it so take my words with a grain of salt in this regard hehe :)
     
  5. tiggus

    tiggus

    Joined:
    Sep 2, 2010
    Posts:
    1,240
    Yeah Photon is pretty generic and extensible so if I was going to use a framework I would use something like that. I have a project I've worked on over the last year for a network game server, originally I did it in Python and just recently ported it over to Go(uses much less compute and memory resources and thus cheaper hosting costs). I can conceivably plug pretty much any front end into it, Unity/UE/HTML5/etc. so switching front ends is not a rewrite of the entire game, just the rendering portion.
     
    jonkuze likes this.
  6. BFGames

    BFGames

    Joined:
    Oct 2, 2012
    Posts:
    1,543
    Photon Server is very generic and scales really well with their load balancing. And can be used with anything more or less.
     
    jonkuze likes this.
  7. jonkuze

    jonkuze

    Joined:
    Aug 19, 2012
    Posts:
    1,709
  8. Ibzy

    Ibzy

    Joined:
    Sep 15, 2013
    Posts:
    112
    Ok, so this is the bit that undoes my illusion of "knowing what I'm doing"....

    I have just finished following the Photon Server "Hello World" tutorial and now I think I understand the idea behind server-side script. I need to code game logic into my console and have that running and connected to PhotonServer, then have Unity provide the visuals.

    Next up: finish the subsequent tutorials and see where it goes. So far so good.
     
  9. jonkuze

    jonkuze

    Joined:
    Aug 19, 2012
    Posts:
    1,709
    what do you mean by "code game logic into my console"? is that some separate executable that runs the C# Scripted Server-Side Game Logic? if so, how do you compile the C# Scripts, with Visual Studio or something?
     
  10. BFGames

    BFGames

    Joined:
    Oct 2, 2012
    Posts:
    1,543
  11. BFGames

    BFGames

    Joined:
    Oct 2, 2012
    Posts:
    1,543
    Yes, you dont work with the server side in Unity only the client side.
     
    jonkuze likes this.
  12. CarterG81

    CarterG81

    Joined:
    Jul 25, 2013
    Posts:
    1,773
    I wanted to throw in my two cents about this subject, which I did here in this thread called Is MMO? Why MMO?

    I wanted it here, because I believe this is important.

    When searching for the Best/Cheapest Solution for a MMO- I believe that encouragement to question "Why MMO?" and open minds to innovate on "Is MMO?" can directly result in a BETTER or CHEAPER solution for a MMO.
     
  13. Ibzy

    Ibzy

    Joined:
    Sep 15, 2013
    Posts:
    112
    That's a nice WoT you've posted there, Carter - truly inspired (no sarcasm intended).

    It touches on many aspects, most of all the "does it need to be an MMO?" question. However, if I could create my game without an authoritative server (even using standard Unity Networking) I would be over the moon. But to go through all that to then realise I DO need one? How much work do I then have on my plate?

    Unfortunately, from trying to do this with Unity Networking for testing purposes, I still have trouble with having players "join" the game created by player 1.
     
  14. jonkuze

    jonkuze

    Joined:
    Aug 19, 2012
    Posts:
    1,709
    I've seen a developer buddy of mine have tons of connection issues with Unity Networking, so it's not surprising... Unity Networking has many issues, which i can't really provide the details on, as i'm just stating that based on feedback and experiences from other devs I have seen post on here regarding it. This is why so many have turned to Photon Unity Networking or others... otherwise if Unity spent sometime on making their Networking much better chances are Photon would not have been such a popular choice.
     
  15. Meltdown

    Meltdown

    Joined:
    Oct 13, 2010
    Posts:
    5,816
  16. BFGames

    BFGames

    Joined:
    Oct 2, 2012
    Posts:
    1,543
    jonkuze likes this.
  17. StarGamess

    StarGamess

    Joined:
    Jul 21, 2014
    Posts:
    179
    guys stop fighting and chill for a moment if you ever tried to create a mutliplayer game you know that it is hard and time consuming(atleast for me but im in a 2man team and im the only programmer) so i doubt any of the people asking about an MMO will actually finnish one BUT by saying no imediatly on every single post isn't helping anyone just point him to some threads or website with so solid information and wish him good luck. And please stop fighting... :) happy holidays.
     
  18. jonkuze

    jonkuze

    Joined:
    Aug 19, 2012
    Posts:
    1,709
    hmmm no one is fighting.... at least not now or anymore... we're all good friends now lol! :p
     
  19. CarterG81

    CarterG81

    Joined:
    Jul 25, 2013
    Posts:
    1,773
    I'm wondering after seeing a lot of posts that don't make all that much sense given the context, if there are just a ton of drunk posts during the new year, lol.
     
    jonkuze likes this.