Noble Connect - Relays and Punchthrough

Adds Relays and Punchthrough to UNet and Mirror

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Introducing Noble Connect, a brand new solution designed to add relays and punchthrough to UNet and Mirror.

The relays provide a guaranteed connection while punchthrough reduces latency and saves you money by connecting players directly whenever possible.

The free version comes with 8 CCU and 24GB / mo of bandwidth over the relays, which should be sufficient for some substantial testing.

We also have a paid Starter Pack that comes with 100 CCU/mo for 5 years, and includes our Match Up plugin for free.

Additional monthly plans are also available on our website.

Ease of Use
Just drop it in and go. Your code could change as little as a few lines. Let us worry about the back end while you make your game as great as it can be!

Competitive Pricing
By including punchthrough with our relays, we are able to reduce bandwidth costs. This allows us to be less expensive than our competitors and pass the savings on to you.

Direct Connect Whenever Possible
Why waste your hard earned money using bandwidth on the relay servers if you don't have to? A direct connection means less lag and a better player experience.

Guaranteed Connection
Thanks to the Noble Connect Relays, your players will always be able to host and connect. Even when behind a very strict router or on a mobile network.

Powered by Proven Technology
Noble Connect implements ICE, STUN, and TURN. These technologies are industry standards for real-time data transfer applications like gaming, voip, and video messaging.

Worldwide Automatic Region Selection
We have servers worldwide to maintain the lowest ping possible. By default the best geographic region is selected automatically based on proximity. You can also manually choose which region to use.

Load Balancing
We automatically balance the load between all relay servers in a region so your players always have the smoothest experience possible. If your game hits a huge spike in popularity, we’ve got you covered.

Cross-platform Support
Build for Windows, OSX, Linux, Android, or iOS and connect across any combination of platforms.

Example Scenes
Example scenes are included with detailed comments that demonstrate using Noble Connect with the NetworkManager, lobbies, and running your own custom solution.

Professional Support
We have a consistent 5 star record of prompt and effective support. Contact us via email, forums, or Discord any time and we will work with you to resolve any issue.

Right now only UNet and Mirror are supported out of the box but we will be looking to continue expanding. Let us know if there is a specific networking system you would like to see supported.

Note: Web builds are not supported.

 

The Starter Pack is now live and the website as well. If you have any questions don't hesitate to contact us via discord, email, or here.

 

Just submitted an update to the free version that fixes some broken scenes and other minor issues. Should be on the store in no time but if you want to get your hands on it immediately here it is: https://www.dropbox.com/s/n1blk9j83xvjmaq/NobleConnectFree 1.01 2017 3.0.unitypackage?dl=0

 

Noble Connect 1.01 Released

• Fixed broken scenes.
• Reworked NobleServer to be static like NetworkServer.
• Better explanations in Example scenes.
• Improved README and docs.

Nothing too exciting in this release. The NobleServer is a little easier to use now as it has been reworked to function more like the NetworkServer from UNet.

Keep an eye out for our next release which should include Mirror support. The LiteNetLib and Ignorance transports are working, just need some clean up and testing and it will be ready to go.

 

This looks brilliant!

Rough ETA for Mirror support? Closer to a week or closer to a month?

 

@elasto We literally just submitted a new release to the Asset store with Mirror support. So it should just be a few days to a week.

 

@elasto You can actually get it now right here if you'd like: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1u7dar4ppvh4rfe/AADHVUb_CcdC53BZKnywIAxJa?dl=0

 

Thanks!

I opted to go with Ignorance for transport since I've seen its name thrown about on Discord, and I have the sample Mirror Network Manager example working locally, so all systems go so far..!

 

Noble Connect 1.02 Released

• Mirror support is live! More networking systems coming soon as well.
• Added support for Unity Engine 5.6, 2017.1, 2017.2 and 2017.3

I'm really happy about the Mirror support, and it will only be improving in the future as I work with the transport devs to improve support. Thanks to the whole Mirror team and the LiteNetLib and Ignorance transport devs specifically who helped me out with a ton of questions.

 

We've got a video! I'll be making a more detailed overview / tutorial video next so let me know if anyone wants to see anything specifically.

 

Noble Connect 1.03 Released

• Updated to support Mirror 3.4.9

Sorry, kind of a boring release, but we are up date with latest Mirror now. More substantial updates are coming soon including support for additional network systems and a brand new landing page for the website.

 

Looks great so far! Just what my game needs. A couple questions I have:

If Noble Connect makes a direct or punchthrough connection, are the users still counted towards CCU?

When using noble network managers, is it possible to do a regular LAN connection still? When running two instances on my computer, typing in 127.0.0.1 on the client gives errors. If I type in the external address and port provided by the host it does make a direct connection between the two instances, but typing them in every time will be pretty annoying for testing my game.

 

@Martho42
Yes, CCU counts when directly connecting. Some clarification though is that our punchthrough and servers are what's going to be the main reason for being able to direct connect in the first place. Which means that we work hard to provide a direct connection when possible, which is always going to be a lower latency connection for your players.

For the local connection, setting up a matchmaking service is probably the best way to make it easy to connect. Any matchmaking solution will do, but we have Match Up which also comes free with the Noble Connect Starter Pack or any paid plan.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

@Fuestrine
Thanks for the reply! It's fair, can't complain considering the great prices. I'll likely purchase the starter pack soon.

In addition to the LAN testing convenience, I'm planning to make my game free for LAN use but with a small price for match making, so I do want my game to work over LAN still without adding to Noble Connect CCUs. Probably I will just make my code work polymorphically so I can use either a normal unet network manager for LAN or a Noble Connect manager for matchmaking. I expect it will be pretty easy to do.

Another question: Is Noble Connect more likely to be able to create a direct connection than the NAT traversal asset, or are they practically the same? I'll probably go for Noble Connect either way, but I like to asses all options properly before deciding.

 

@Martho42
Noble Connect has better punchthrough and will be able to make more direct connections than the NAT Traversal Asset. We rewrote the entire punchthrough from the ground up with all that we learned from writing NAT Traversal and supporting it over the years. NAT Traversal is also based on RakNet which has limitations, while Noble Connect is custom built.

 

Hey @Fuestrine I was wondering about your support for later versions of unity, what is the most current version of unity you support?

 

@Bonkahe
Any 2018 version is our latest. I think 2019 came out a couple days ago. We haven't gotten around to it yet but I think it should support it. We'll be putting out an official version for it soon.

You can check out the "Supported Unity Versions" on the Asset Store page to see the full list of current supported versions.

 

Hi I was wondering if using player's as a host would still incur costs such as the CCU and Data Limit like how the NAT Traversal Punch through would allow us smaller developers to avoid costs with using Unity's Servers

Also how do we go about using this or removing just this plugin and code for our game on Xbox One and other consoles?

 

@greenbraygames
Players are always hosts in any scenario unless you are using a dedicated server (with or without Noble Connect).

Punchthrough / direction connection adds to CCU with Noble Connect but it only uses a small amount of data when connecting because it uses our servers to facilitate the punchthrough / direct connection. We work very hard to make it so you always have the best connection possible. That means making our punchthrough as good as it can be so that you end up with a direct connection a vast majority of the time (85-95% according to the scientific papers of the standards we implemented).

For removing it for consoles, not too much of your code should be tied into Noble Connect as it's just used for connecting and disconnecting. So hopefully it's not too much of a pain to have pre-processor directives that you can set to switch between the two ways to connect / disconnect.

Let me know if you have anymore questions.

 

So since we're using your severs does that mean we won't have to worry about players dropping or being unable to connect to the host user? Also do we still need the NAT Traversal Plugin too?

 

Yep, that's the idea.

Nope. Noble Connect completely replaces NAT Traversal.

 

I've purchased the starter pack and almost finished integrating Matchup in my game. So far so good. Is there a way to change the log frequency? All of the "Received bytes" messages and other messages are making it a little difficult to debug my game. It's not as bad when they're collapsed, but sometimes I need to un-collapse to see the order that my debug messages are coming in.

 

@Martho42 You can set the LevelLevel on the NetworkManager.


You can also set the Log level in code:

Code (CSharp):

1. NobleConnect.Logger.logLevel = logLevel;

 

Hi,
I have a question regarding a specific use case and want to know if Noble connect can help.

I want to connect multiple Android devices on a same local network without having them to type in manually the local ip address of the player hosting the game and without having to open any port on the router.

- Is this possible with Noble Connect ? (using internet I guess)
- Is this possible without an internet connection ? like each client search in the background for the host inside the local network and connect to it automatically.

Thanks for your reply

 

@anthonyk It sounds like what you're looking for is NetworkDiscovery which was a feature of UNet, and also seems to be a feature of at least one Mirror transport according to this page: https://vis2k.github.io/Mirror/General/Deprecations.html

You should not need Noble Connect if you're only connecting over lan to an internal address.

Cheers

 

Hi, I was trying to implement Noble Connect with Match Up, but I am getting this exception on server, after client is trying to connect (also in Example Match Up scene):
Noble Connect: No channel for peer: 81.92.254.xyz:4570
UnityEngine.Debug:LogError(Object)
NobleConnect.Logger:Log(String, Level) (at C:/Users/Selena/Documents/NobleRelayDLL/Noble Connect/Logger.cs:37)
NobleConnect.Turn.TurnExtension:SendChannelMessage(PoolBuffer, Int32, IPEndPoint, Action) (at C:/Users/Selena/Documents/NobleRelayDLL/Noble Connect/Turn/TurnExtension.cs:642)
NobleConnect.Peer:SendOutgoing(Bridge, Int32, PoolBuffer) (at C:/Users/Selena/Documents/NobleRelayDLL/Noble Connect/Peer.cs:208)
NobleConnect.Peer:HandleOutgoingData(IAsyncResult) (at C:/Users/Selena/Documents/NobleRelayDLL/Noble Connect/Peer.cs:187)
System.Net.Sockets.Worker:ReceiveFrom()

I registered on your website and entered Game ID into settings.

 

@kexar66 are you by any chance getting this error on Android or IOS or connecting to / from a cellular network?

 

No, it is from unity windows to unity windows. Unity 2018.3.10.

 

I am in contact with kexar66 on discord and working through the issue. Didn't want it to look like I just left him hanging here

 

Can you provide a service call "Direct connect only", you only provide "match making" service, all connection require direct connect/NAT connect. So, no CCU limit count.

 

@Oscar-Tsang It sounds like you want our Match Up asset, not Noble Connect.

 

Actually what I want is your "Match up" and "NAT Traversal", but your "NAT Traversal" not support iOS and Android. Also, it no information about support "Mirror" or not. Seen "UNet" is no future, switch to "Mirror" is only choose. And support mobile is a must, do not support mobile is not use.

 

@Oscar-Tsang Noble Connect is the closest you're going to get, and if you're aiming for mobile you're almost certainly going to need the relays anyway. Punchthrough is not very effective on mobile networks.

 

Yeah sorry, I've got nothing for that. Not sure what you would use for Bluetooth.

 

Wait seriously? In that case you've basically removed the most appealing aspect of your product. People use your NAT Traversal asset because they are indies with no capital who want to provide multiplayer in their games without paying exorbitant monthly fees. I assume this might be one of the reasons why this asset is seeing less interest on the store than NAT Traversal. Right now Noble Connect is basically an unproven version of PUN with slightly better pricing compared to Photon's.

In NAT Traversal you went out of your way to advertise how direct connections would save users from having to spend money on relay servers. Nobel Connect abandons that position and represents a significantly worse change in the value proposition. Not only that but Unity's relay pricing calculator which you linked to yourself in the NAT Traversal product page, is an example of a much more fair pricing scheme for how cost should be calculated for relay services.

Unity charges based on bandwidth while Nobel Connect charges based on the completely arbitrary CCU value. If I have a turn-based, low-bandwidth game and used Unity's relay services I could have ~5000 concurrent users and only pay ~$30/mo, while in the same situation with Nobel Connect I'd be paying an eye watering $800/mo.

I won't even get into the downsides of being reliant on Nobel Connect's services staying alive when Unity itself is discontinuing it's own services out from under many developer's feet.

This is all pretty disappointing considering I'm a big fan of your other products. What people need right now is something like NAT Traversal for Mirror (and the new Unity networking system when it arrives). I would gladly pay $60+ for such an asset like I did for NAT Traversal. I would also happily pay for your relay services if I only needed to use them when a direct connection wasn't possible.

Nobel Connect could be this asset if you simply charged an upfront cost for it and provided the option for users to pay for your relay services if they wanted to improve their connection success rates. I'd be a great upsell instead of feeling like a forced requirement. You'd also probably make a profit right away instead of hoping for developers who use Noble Connect to become successful enough to need to pay for CCU, but I digress.

 

@PartyBoat
Thanks for the message. I'm always happy to talk and think about how we try to make a living selling game assets. I agree with a lot of what you said, but hopefully I can provide clarification to some of your hesitations and some insights into how we ended up with this pricing structure.

I'd argue that it's not really exorbitant and that you are overestimating how sales translate into CCU. The super successful Undertale had a peak of 1,594 CCU last month. They hit a monthly peak of ~10,000 CCU in their lifetime (for only two months then it dropped off significantly) with sales totaling over 3.5 million (as of July 2018). If you have 3.5 million copies sold, the cost of Noble Connect is going to be a very very small proportion of your profits.

There are only 106 games on Steam with over 4,000 CCU right now. This isn't peak time (middle of the day Sunday), but not many games are going to see the numbers you are talking about, and if they do they will have an insane amount of sales.

If you are worried about the upfront cost before you know if your game is a hit, it only costs $80 for 500CCU and it will give you unlimited CCU for two days in case your game is a sleeper hit and you weren't expecting it.

Noble Connect has punchthrough and the ability to direct connect while PUN does not. It provides a far superior connection a majority of the time. I do agree that we aren't as proven in the relay part of it though.

The money just isn't there unfortunately. Even NAT Traversal, which used the much more popular networking system, didn't really net us that much money.

We wouldn’t have much incentive to make our punchthrough better (punchthrough causes direct connections) if we went with their pricing structure though. Which I assume is why Unity completely got rid of their punchthrough with UNet. By not having punchthrough at all, or by releasing an inferior product, we'd be forcing customers into a worse connection (relay connection), but we’d make more money assuming our user's games get any traction at all. It's bad for our customers and their players.

Hopefully I clarified all the points that I thought needed clarifying. Let me know if you have any questions and thanks again for reaching out.

 

Thinking through it again I believe you're correct in calling me out on the CCU cost being a non-issue at that level of success. It's still frustrating knowing that there is essentially a free solution out there if I did the work for punch through myself. Alas, that's true for pretty much any tech solution and it's the cost of doing business.

Anyway, I appreciate the response on this. Thanks for your time!