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Resolved Current Limitations of Relay

Discussion in 'Relay' started by Occuros, Nov 15, 2021.

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  1. Occuros

    Occuros

    Joined:
    Sep 4, 2018
    Posts:
    300
    I was experimenting with the new Relay option of unity (which is still in beta) which I refer to as uRelay.

    One thing I really liked (compared to the photon relay aka Photon Realtime), uRelay provides a unique join-code when creating a new relay server.


    The parts which need improvements:

    - uRelay doesn't work if parallel sync is used
    - uRelay can't run multiple builds on the same machine: 409 Conflict is returned when the second build starts (tested on MacOS)


    Photons-Relay currently doesn't suffer of any of those limitations and is easier to setup.

    These limitations should be indicated in the tutorial documentation and a link to the photon solution should be provided, as the tutorials explicitly mention Parallel Sync to be used for development.
     
    Unity_Brandon likes this.
  2. PutridEx

    PutridEx

    Joined:
    Feb 3, 2021
    Posts:
    1,136
    Also, 10 player limit
    doesn't photon give you room names, which acts like uRelay (I'm stealing the name :D) join code?
     
    Occuros likes this.
  3. Occuros

    Occuros

    Joined:
    Sep 4, 2018
    Posts:
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    The room name exists and is also a good feature, you just need to generate a highly likely unique room name (with a hash which can be easily done), just uRelay already provides it out of the box which is nice and with the Lobby integration its easy to share the room name (or join code) which is really nice.

    I created a minimalistic example repository here:
    https://github.com/Occuros/NetcodeRelayTest

    In case I missed something to make it work with ParallelSync or multiple builds.
     
  4. UnityKip

    UnityKip

    Unity Technologies

    Joined:
    Nov 15, 2021
    Posts:
    36
    Hi Occuros!

    Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback on your experiences with the Relay beta. I'd like to take a moment to address your concerns.

    409 Conflict errors occur when a player attempts to join a Lobby with the same credentials as another player. These typically manifest when testing multiple standalone clients on the same machine. To resolve this, you can update the Product Name in each standalone instance to be unique. This can be done with the following steps:
    1. Navigate to the Player menu under Edit -> Project Settings -> Player
    2. Update Product Name with a unique value
    Once complete, you can verify changes by confirming that running the sample in either Play Mode or in a standalone build assigns a different default player name.

    Based on the git repository that you have provided, it appears that parallel sync may be referring to the ParrelSync Unity editor extension? If not, please let us know and I'll adjust my recommendations if necessary. That said, ParrelSync is not managed by Unity and you will need to reach out to their community for an authoritative investigation to any issues you are seeing. However, based on their README, it does appear that each ParrelSync clone will create a symbolic copy of your project. This suggests that you can independently set the Project Name for each clone which may resolve any issues preventing ParrelSync from working correctly. Again, we may be limited in our ability to research the cause, but don't hesitate to provide any logs or error/warning messages from ParrelSync that you feel might be sourced from Relay and manifesting in ParrelSync.

    I'd like to continue troubleshooting the 409 Conflict errors that you are receiving before taking steps to update the documentation as we do have a few internal demos that do not appear to have this issue. If you continue to see 409 Conflict errors after making the changes above, please update the post and we'll look into other possible causes for the error.

    Unfortunately, Photon is also not a utility that is currently owned or managed by Unity and directly linking our documentation may not be possible. However, if you can provide a link to the tutorial you are referencing, I can investigate the possibility of updating any documentation we do manage, such as description text on a video, to include any fixes or suggestions we discover in our efforts here.

    Finally, thanks again for taking the time to report the issues you've found. Internally, we are working hard to provide comprehensive documentation around any errors developers can receive during implementation, and anything we uncover during troubleshooting is immensely valuable to the community.

    Let us know if you have any questions or concerns.

    Looking forward to seeing the results of your testing,
    -Kip
     
    Occuros likes this.
  5. Occuros

    Occuros

    Joined:
    Sep 4, 2018
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    First of all thank you Kip for taking the time to provide an elaborate answer.



    Even tough this is working, it's not really a feasible solution. For every test I would need to rebuild the application twice + changing the product name. This increases Iteration times heavily (unless I am missing something).

    Indeed I meant ParrelSync :)

    ParrelSync does not allow project settings (like product name, company name etc.) to be modified in the cloned editor. So even tough this could be a workaround if ParrelSync would be modified, It would again only work with two editors.

    I can understand. But for me at the current time Photon provides a faster more reliable solution which works with builds and with ParrelSync


    My main concern is that other will face the exact same issue and lose hours figuring out what might be wrong (as happened to me). Those limitations of uRelay should be mentioned at least with warning box in the documentation at least here:

    https://docs-multiplayer.unity3d.com/docs/relay/relay

    As on the same documentation ParrelSync is suggested to use for testing.

    Any possibility that the Anonymous Login could accept a parameter to generate different credentials (mainly for testing and during development)? That would most likely solve the issue.

    I know you guys are working hard, and its great to see what is being built and the open roadmaps, keep it up!
     
    PutridEx likes this.
  6. UnityKip

    UnityKip

    Unity Technologies

    Joined:
    Nov 15, 2021
    Posts:
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    Hi Occuros,

    Thank you for your patience and helpful reply. I wanted to reach out to let you know that we were able to successfully reproduce an issue that has a similar footprint to what you've described in your post. Here is the workaround that we've developed:

    Workaround
    Code (CSharp):
    1. if (ClonesManager.IsClone())
    2.            {
    3.                Debug.Log("This is a clone project.");
    4.                string customArgument = ClonesManager.GetArgument();
    5.                UnityEditor.PlayerSettings.productName = customArgument;
    6.            }
    7.  
    8. // Added: UnityEditor.PlayerSettings.productName = customArgument;
    • In the ParrelSync ClonesManager menu, assign a distinct productName for each clone.
    CloneConfig.png


    Please let us know if, after making these changes you, continue to receive the 409 Conflict errors, new errors occur, or if this successfully resolves the problem.


    Replies

    The original workaround may still be relevant in the case you see this issue again. We've determined that the most likely source of the 409 Conflict errors that you saw were from the Lobby service. That said, you should not need to rebuild your project to make these changes in the future. Instead, you can use a text editor to update PlayerSettings.projectName in ProjectSettings/ProjectSettings.asset.

    Let us know if the above workaround does not resolve the issue for you and we can continue investigating if you have time.

    We're going to do some additional testing on our side before we publish changes to our documentation, however, I think it's safe to say that your post is going to save a LOT of time for future creators.

    After testing, it's not clear that the issue lies with the Anonymous Login function, however, this does seem like a reasonable way to potentially address the issues we've seen and to streamline multi-client testing on the same box.

    Finally, I do want to continue to acknowledge that your help has been greatly appreciated. If you prefer, you can leave this post as-is and keep an eye out for documentation updates as we make progress.

    Let me know if you have any further questions or concerns.

    Thanks again for your feedback!
    -Kip
     
  7. Nest_g

    Nest_g

    Joined:
    Jun 18, 2019
    Posts:
    151
    Hi, when Unity Relay ends beta state and will be can used for all users?, thanks.
     
  8. UnityKip

    UnityKip

    Unity Technologies

    Joined:
    Nov 15, 2021
    Posts:
    36
    Hi Nest_g,

    Thank you for your question. Whenever possible, please create new posts for questions unrelated to the original topic as this will assist other users with similar questions to find appropriate replies. In addition, it will prevent unrelated conversations from notifying subscribed users.

    To answer your question: Both Relay and Lobby will continue to be available to all end-users when the beta period ends and will have a free usage tier for hobbyist and development use-cases.

    If you have a follow-up question, please create a new post and I will reply there.

    -Kip
     
    Nest_g likes this.
  9. Occuros

    Occuros

    Joined:
    Sep 4, 2018
    Posts:
    300

    Hey Kip, apologies for the late reply, we have been very busy in the past few weeks.

    I just started testing, and the suggested workaround for Parrelsync works perfectly, thank you!
     
    Recon03 likes this.
  10. UnityKip

    UnityKip

    Unity Technologies

    Joined:
    Nov 15, 2021
    Posts:
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    Hey Occuros!

    Thanks for following up. I'm glad to hear it's working for you!
    Let us know if you run into anything else.

    -Kip
     
  11. emilyryan

    emilyryan

    Unity Technologies

    Joined:
    Nov 22, 2019
    Posts:
    129
    Hello! We are going to close out this forum post. If you have any additional follow up questions, please feel free to create a new forum post and we'd be happy to assist you!
     
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