Multiplayer Login and other stuff

Hi, a friend of mine and I have been coding for a while now with Unity, so we've decided as a bit of a project we want to create ourselves an MMORPG, but since neither of us has done with before, we've come across a few problems, for one thing, we can't get a sign up/login sort of thing working, completely inside the game or in HTML and have the game refer to the websites information, and we also can't get the character files to store when someone logs off of the game. And just one other thing, if anyone knows of a good, free character rigger (we can make them, just not rig them) please post a link to it as well, but not to Mixamo or Blender, because Mixamo, as it turns out, costs money to download rigged models, and Blender is just annoyingly difficult. Thanks.

 

STOP. Just stop. Go away, makes something small, but ANYTHING other than an MMORPG.

 

Here is a simple one, but as Fishman92 said, you need to start off smaller...

http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/120030-Login-and-Registration-System

 

Yeah, I get that people are going to hate us for even trying, but we've made about 50 other games, so now we really just want to tackle something huge, and really, we know its going to suck, we just want to have the fun of it

 

Oh and thanks for the login/register thing

 

Yeah your going to get a lot of hate for sure. It is a huge task and no matter what anyone says the only way to learn the process is to just jump into it, make mistakes and learn. You could always join one of the groups making a MMO, and you will learn a lot about the process. My login and registration system is done completely through the photon server back end with a MySQL database. So you'll need to learn sql syntax, one technique I've learned is to set up a run-time data access layer on your back end server that holds the info from you sql database so you don't create a bottle neck by making tons of calls to your sql database. You'll need to set up a simulation server. I mean there is a lot to learn which is what I love about it. It's not easy but the knowledge you gain is so rewarding. To me it sounds like your doing it for the right reason which is to learn the process, unlike most that come here thinking only about making millions of dollars. Keep working hard and asking questions.

 

Have you ever written a networked game before?

 

Had you ever written an entire back end before slim net? Now don't get me wrong I believe what your is awesome, but at some point you had to make low level networking projects, make mistakes, do research, ask some questions and learn.

I think they are doing this the right way by actually learning the process themselves, which is much better IMO then the many noobs that come to the collaboration section asking for everyone to do it for them. You have the right to succeed but you also have the right to fail, unless your a big bank lol. Joking aside at least if they fail they will have learned something.

 

Right, i.e.: not an MMO.

 

Yes I actually had.

Exactly. An MMO is not the right place to start.

 

Well it's just my opinion then, since there is nothing truly like an MMO, there is no where else to really start. Plus it's not like they're wasting your time other then maybe asking questions. I say let them do it and fail, at least they will learn something. If more of the MMO dreamers had to at least try to program one first they would at least understand why we hate when they ask for someone else to program a MMO for them.

I should have figured as much since you are doing a professional job with slim net. Well my point is you had to try before at some point in your career. Again where else does one start if they want to learn the intricacies of a MMO. Full immersion is a good technique, and yes they will almost certainly fail at creating one but it's all about learning.

 

The thing is that learning proper network programming by writing an MMO is like colonizing mars by first building the colony and then inventing the space craft to take you there.

If you've written a game with 2-8 players, then write a game with 32-64 players, then - once you've built two fully functional games like that, maybe you could consider writing an MMO. I can obviously not speak of the thread creators experience, but just such a simple thing (or well, it sounds simple) as writing a properly threaded simulation that scales somewhat linearly is incredibly hard, we're talking hard enough that most programmers will never be able to do it.

There are obviously several ways you can structure a game of MMO-scale, but each way comes with it's own problems. Let me take a very simple example of a problem most programmers I've met can't solve.

Imagine a game like world of warcraft.
Your world is split into several zones.
Each zone is run on one instance of your software.
You have two players (A and B) fighting on the boundary between two Zones.
Player A casts a fireball at player B
Before the fireball hits player B he crosses the zone boundary so he's in the same Zone as player A.

How do you handle this? In every amateur implementation I've seen of "MMO" software (not that many, but still, a few) this case will never work and the fireball will just end up going into empty space/not hitting anything.

Just such a simple task as player A casting a fireball at player B which is in another zone/on another machine/etc. is something most people can't solve.

Now, the case above is simplified a lot and the solution is not that complex (and I'm sure someone is going to find a flaw in my example and point it out to me with a nice smirk on their lips). But to be able to build a piece of software that can deal with cases like this, and to not hard-code specific code for each case, is an incredibly complex task.

And even if you could work out a scheme that actually works logically for the case above, what happens when you have 100 players fighting on a zone boundary? Most naive solutions will not work.

Anyway, I've been rambling too much. The point I'm trying to make is this: You have to solve a lot of complex problems, and you have to do it very efficiently as you want to support several hundred players in the same area/areas at the same time.

This is something very few people I have met can do.

 

Actually, we have the entire multiplayer part down already, now we're just working on the login/signup and graphics, the actual functional part of the game is almost done. So really, anyone good at graphics?

 

Your original post was about having problems linking the login from the web site to the game itself, am I correct? And now you tell me you got the whole "multiplayer part" down? Seems unlikely.

Anyway, good luck with everything

 

You've got the entire multiplayer framework of a MMO game all figured out... and you then have to ask us

The complexity of a simple user registration system is nothing compared to that of the backend required to run an MMO. Not knowing how to store your player's persistent data demonstrates that you haven't thought everything through. The fact that you don't know how to receive data from "HTML or website information" shows a lack of understanding of several necessary networking concepts that would be required to build even the simplest 2 player multiplayer game.

If you want to try to write an MMO... more power to you. I wish you luck. But to ask how to accomplish a task that will end up being 1/1,000,000th of the complexity of other tasks needed to complete your project, it doesn't inspire confidence.

 

This really doesn't inspire confidence. Typically the first thing you would do is write a login and registration system. I do agree with everyone here if you've done everything else then this should be easy since you've already figured out persistent data storage which should be done with a SQL database for a MMO. Are you using uLink, smartfox, photon or one of the other back-end servers, or did you write your own?

I'm not here to disagree with you on the fact that there are a million problems that will occur when programming a MMO, and that it is super difficult. Well the name of the game is to send as little data for the most players as possible.

 

Pardon me, i am just passing by wanted to share my 'finding',for the last couple of weeks i have been doing some small research on data storage specifically 'designed' for realtime application, and my conclusion would be no-sql approach, for example riak, which is already inside ulink and write an authoritative server in-front of it, some more brief talks on these and here.

I am not an expert on network programming but some quote from ACE Programmer's Guide

My own conclusion would be, keep it simple, use efficient,robust fast middleware, my pick goes to ulink but not really affordable for me. all of these younger would be get better response if asking direction for coding a multiplayer games instead of MMO, they seems to fail to understand the multitude of internal technicality which reside inside it.

 

We figured it out, login/signup works now, but we are still impossibly bad at graphics

 

Let's learn to swim!

Strategy 1: Go to a local pool, get a lesson, and learn to float.

Strategy 2: Put on leg irons, Cuff your hands behind your back. Nail yourself inside a crate. Rope that crate shut. Attach 200 pounds of lead. Lower crate in middle of river. Escape.

 

i really dislike when people are trying to post a thread for help and all they can do is to turn down the newer users because they don't know the answer or they just want to say it's hard because they probably failed at it.

now for a character rigger you might have to get help someone doing it or learn it maybe by using maya or any 3d app since there is not really a good one ou there besides the paid ones.

if you are trying to create a mmorpg you might need to think about some form of a third party product as for the server such as maybe photon or smartfox2x. you will probably have luck using smartfox now i wouldn't know much about your guys level of coding so if you are starting to try to make a mmorpg you might want to go on youtube and check out the burgzerg arcade tutorials