Networking support?

Does unity currently support creating multiplayer networked games? I see a blog post from 2018 that Unet was deprecated, is there a replacement?
I'm trying to get some high school kids to create a network game, they are pushing for using unreal, I'm more comfortable with unity and have had them on unity, but they point out theres no way to network things together without using abandoned networking features....

Is there a replacement yet available for creating network games????
Thanks

 

Unity has always supported creating multiplayer networked games. It's just that most of the time you've had to use a third party framework to handle the networking rather than an official framework (of course you could make the argument that since UNET was never a good framework to begin with you should have always been using a third party framework).

Speaking of which Photon is the framework a beginner should be making use of for networking. It's legitimately one of the easiest networking frameworks out there, and the free tier supports more than enough connections for learning purposes.

https://www.photonengine.com/en-US/PUN

 

There is no fully supported networking solution directly from Unity right now. Unet was deprecated, and its replacement isn't ready other than a largely undocumented alpha release. Networking isn't something you need from Unity themselves though. See the below thread for some options. Also see the Connected Games forum for more information.

https://forum.unity.com/threads/wha...of-available-network-solutions-assets.609088/

 

The dramatic list of cons for each of those is precisely why Unity needs a high level networking API to build off of that isn't a hot mess, honestly.

 

The biggest issue I see is both of Unity's own prior solutions had their own dramatic list of cons. I'm certain the solution they are working on will as well.

 

Having a proper HLAPI is a pro in itself. The problem is that UT has never stuck with just that and chose instead to also tie all their changes into a monetization structure that doesn't make sense for most games.

 

Absolutely. What Unity needs to do is create a off the shelf basic networking solution that would work for many games. It would not need to even be the best or most scalable, just as long as it worked for the basic needs many game devs have. Trying to monetize it needlessly just gets in the way.