[NetCode] Ghost Observables (Proposition, Implementation question)

Hello everyone!

After deep digging inside netcode package, i've found that server will send all existing ghosts to all clients connected, with spawn-despawn behavior synced. That's totally fine for a 'small space' games, where all action is taking place inside clamped piece of world. For example - arenas or levels in the FPS-like games.

But what about large worlds? Yeah, you've got it right: current system will handle all ghosts in sync between all players without any kind of clusterisation. Imagine a PLAYER_1 with translation 0,0,0 - so, why server should care about distant ghosts around (outside of possible interaction bounds)? Or why PLAYER_1 with translation 0,0,0 should receive data about ghosts located around PLAYER_2 with translation 2500, 0, 2500?

Let's take a look at picture:


Green dot - Player (Could be ghost) (Connection)
Red box - Visibility zone. (Rect to fit screen)
Small boxes - Other ghost objects, like trees for example.
Black small box - Ghost object serializable only for connection observable by.
Purple small box - Ghost object serializable only for several connections observable by.
Blue small box - Ghost object not serializable for any connection.
All ghosts still exist on server. (Just for simplicity, off course it could be segmented and clusterized for better server performance, etc)

Looks like PVS (potential visibility set) yeah? - Yeah.

So, my proposition is: Do not really "spawn" invisible ghosts for client on server side and mark those as "despawned". So, serialization will not happen. And when ghost will switch to "visible" state for connection - current GhostSendSystem<T> will automatically sync it's internal snapshot data to the latest one, because of implementation. Those actions is "marked" with quotes, because i'am talking about fake spawn-despawn behavior for target connection. And because of internal implementation of systems that mechanism could be implemented only once.

I'll try to do that, while waiting for another fresh release of netcode package.
Any thoughts, implementation propositions?

Thank you!

 

It's not exactly what you are looking for, but with

GhostDistanceImportance

there's a mechanism in place which prioritizes close ghosts. See https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.netcode@0.1/manual/ghost-snapshots.html#importance for Distance based importance. Also: https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/c...pi/Unity.NetCode.GhostDistanceImportance.html

This will not despawn etc. but it's sort of a clusterization (deprioritization of far away data).

 

I know.
Yeah, it's usable, but do not solve the main problem.

 

Also, GhostDistanceImportance doesn't work for me, as my area tiles connect via portals in a non-euclidean manner

 

This is the serious problem for me. I'm also developing open-world sandbox game.