How are you networking your game?

Hello there,

As it states in the title, I was wondering what API if any, are you using to network your game?

Currently I am using a mix between Steam Matchmaking API (Using P2P and Steams lobby system)
and LLAPI. I use LLAPI for testing in the editor (Two clients) so that I don't have to have another computer on Steam ready to test, and I use Steam matchmaking API for the release version.

I also send messages using Packets which I serialize/deserialize when writing/reading, I don't use RPCs or anything like that, as im unaware how to implement that with the current system I'm using.

Thanks!

 

I haven't started on the Networking yet since I wanted to wait on the new solution coming with 2018.3 but I stumbled upon something called Mirror which looks really promising. If you happen to prefer UDP over TCP LiteNetLib might be worth a look as well.

In the next weeks I will be experimenting with Mirror first and hopefully the new official solution will be released for testing by then.

 

Am I correct in saying, you need both UDP and TCP for games.
for example Player movement done using UDP
and changing scene would use TCP?

Will look at both of them, cheers!

 

IIRC certain big MMOs, especially World of Warcraft, dropped UDP entirely in favor of TCP. Unfortunately I am not an expert on networking so I don't know which combination of protocols is used for what in particular.

 

Ah, its just im trying to make a 2d game where you can push blocks and that seems to be a harder task then what meets the eye.

Heres my reference about TCP and why its bad to use
https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1022195/Physics-for-Game-Programmers-Networking
Click on [TCP @ 100ms Round Trip and 1% Packet Loss] or go to 7:29

 

Nowadays the internet and connections are more reliable in general. The RTT to the other side of the world usually is about 150ms.

Of course, it definitely depends on your use case. Something that relies heavily on physics or something that has to be accurate in real-time such as a FPS will still benefit from UDP. Coming back to my MMO example, the game won't break since a delayed message is not as bad as no message at all.

 

Ah yeah that makes sense. Have you ever tried networking physics, there doesn't seem to be much on the topic. Just wondered how games like Human fall flat and Gang beasts managed to pull it off. Been trying to figure it out for a good few months now

 

Unfortunately I am not doing Physics myself, but you can still refer to Glenn Fiedlers blog (the guy in the GDC talk you just linked moments ago).

 

Yeah been looking through that for some time, I always get stuck at one point and thats depending if the server has authority over every players position or the client sends position to server both have different issues

[Server having authority issue]
Latency -> To fix this issue you use client side prediction which is basically hard in the Unity engine for physics, as we are stuck with the same issue as Client having authority over the position

[Client having authority over the position]
When colliding with other networked ridgidbodies it doesn't feel right and has a lot of jitter as you are hitting them in the past so when you get an update from the server it will ping them back to a previous place in the past

Maybe im doing it wrong?

 

There's a reason that UDP is the most common protocol for realtimer sensitive gamrs. TCP works for some games but UDP is by far the most common

 

Nothing this second, but in the market for one. Just need the right offering.

 

Developed my game for Unet, but ran into reliability issues and now I'm nearing completion of my own in house UDP networking API.

 

Sounds like you used a lot of coding and algorithms.