Third Party Photon Unity Networking

@tobiass Thanks very much. Just to make sure I understand correctly - Can I set up a Photon server as a headless Unity instance (a room instance) on a dedicated server using PUN? IE instead of starting a client which is also a server, I start just a server which happens to be on a dedicated machine.

 

@tinman: Photon Server is a dedicated, separate software. It's not in Unity and so it's not quite correct to say it's "headless".
Yes, instead of hosting a game in some Unity instance, Photon Server is a independent process.
Please do read the docs we got for Photon Server. It will make more sense, if we don't just talk about one or another fact, out of the whole topic
Please use our forum for support for Photon Server. This thread is for PUN.

 

@tobiass Ok thanks, will send off an email

 

@tobiass hi, can you change the room visibility when you already created the it? because im making a slender multiplayer game right now and i want the room to be invisible when the game starts

EDIT: can you change the max players too?

 

It seems you are not updating this product for Unity 4.x anymore? I wanted to make use of some of the new changes but I cannot upgrade higher than v1.61 which is really sad because this version even introduced a new bug (Clean Up Cache On Leave) that got fixed in newer versions only...

So are you publishing the latest updates for Unity 4.x as well or are you also forcing us to update all of our projects to Unity 5 which would require tons of weeks to do properly without any real benefit but a lot of disadvantages?

 

After updating Photon+ I got some errors. I opened my projects folder, went to assets, then plugins folder and found some files repeated, but these had a 1 after the name. I deleted the old files and kept the one's with the 1 at the end since they were newer. Now I'm getting the error: Assets/Plugins/PhotonNetwork/NetworkingPeer.cs(8,31): error CS0234: The type or namespace name `Lite' does not exist in the namespace `ExitGames.Client.Photon'. Are you missing an assembly reference? I went to the problem line and //commented it out so that it wouldn't getg read, but that produced like 6 other errors. All help is welcome since I can't move forward until this is fixed.

 

Any ETA with the Windows Universal support? I'm getting these errors when trying to make a build.

 

@hjupter: Please follow this workaround and let us know how it does for you:
http://forum.photonengine.com/discu...o-windows-8-1-and-windows-10-universal#latest

The files can't be renamed simply (which Unity 5's import sometimes does. it decides that it wants both files in the project - which is rarely correct).
You might want to revert your project. Then, import PUN into a new, empty project, then use Explorer/Finder to copy and paste files over the existing ones in your project.

@killer_bigpoint: Yes, you can adjust visibility and I think maxPlayers should also be possible. Keep in mind that we can't kick players from the game, if you reduce the number. This is rarely used. Close the game, if you want no one else to join. Hide it, if you want no random people to find it.

@PatrickKa: It's there for Unity 4.x in the Asset Store. Unity 4.3.4 is the lowest version we support and we do plan to increase the lowest version to 4.6 soon-ish. We're not forcing anyone to upgrade to Unity 5.
If you need 4.2 and lower, use this trick: Download in 4.3.4 into a new, empty project. Don't import the Demos folder. Copy and paste the new stuff and libs to your 4.2 (another empty project would be suitable). There shouldn't be a lot of errors and you should be able to skip the few features we use of 4.3.

 

@tobiass: The issue I was talking about was that I could not Update the asset to the most recent version although using Unity 4.6. The button to update was simply not displayed for Photon Networking. I just tried it again and magically it was there. Thank you.

 

@tobiass how do i hide it? do you have some docs i can use?

 

@killer_bigpoint: In CreateRoom, you can define RoomOptions. Those have a "isVisible" property.
Or when you are already in a room, use PhotonNetwork.room.visible.

 

Hi there, this seems very interesting but just a couple of questions:

1. I have no multiplayer coding experience or servers set up, if I buy this would this be all I need to start hosting multiplayer games? I currently have two Android games on the market but they are single player only, with this can I include multiplayer finally?

2. How are accounts created? Do I need to force people to sign in to their Google account for Google Play Services or do they make a photon account?

3. Is this peer to peer based or hosted via dedicated servers? And if it is dedicated servers can someone from America play with someone from Japan?

4. If I wanted to use statistics should I use playerprefs or host the stats on the photon cloud database

5. Is there a monthly or yearly payment plan for hosting multiplayer? As in, is this just a framework for multiplayer and I need to purchase/work on more things outside of this?

6. Is it possible to use this to connect a million players, I am confused with the "100 concurrent users" statement.

If you can respond ASAP that would be much appreciated!!

 

hi,
how do i show the colors of the other gameobject? players can choose the color and it saves in playerprefs as Red1 Green1 Blue1 -- Red2 Green2 and so on.. the number represents the object. all my objects show the same color.
i read all the docs and searched google , still cant find a solution (i'm a new programmer self taught)
here is my code,

Code (CSharp):

1. using UnityEngine;
2. using UnityEngine.UI;
3. using System.Collections;
4. using System;
5. using Photon;
6.  
7. public class Photoncarcolor : Photon.MonoBehaviour {
8.  
9.     public float rValue;                //red
10.     public float gValue;                 //green
11.     public float bValue;                   //blue
12.     public float aValue;                     //alpha
13.     public GameObject car;        //the car main body
14.     public int VNfromPrefs = 0;                //vehicle number in the playerprefs
15.  
16.     //==========
17.    
18.     void OnJoinedRoom()
19.     {
20.         VNfromPrefs = PlayerPrefs.GetInt ("Vehicle Number");
21.         rValue = PlayerPrefs.GetFloat("Red"+(int)VNfromPrefs);
22.         gValue = PlayerPrefs.GetFloat("Green"+(int)VNfromPrefs);
23.         bValue = PlayerPrefs.GetFloat("Blue"+(int)VNfromPrefs);
24.         rpccolor ();
25.        
26.     }
27.  
28.     //==========
29.     void rpccolor()
30.     {
31.        
32.         if (photonView.isMine){
33.            
34.             photonView.RPC("Color", PhotonTargets.AllBuffered, null);
35.         }
36.         else
37.         {
38.             return;
39.         }
40.     }
41.    
42.     //=========
43.     [PunRPC]
44.     public void Color (){
45.        
46.         if (VNfromPrefs == 0) {
47.             car = GameObject.Find("carbody");
48.             car.GetComponent<Renderer>().material.color = new Color (rValue,gValue,bValue,aValue);
49.         }
50.         //=====================
51.         else if (VNfromPrefs == 1){
52.             car = GameObject.Find("carbody");
53.             car.GetComponent<Renderer>().material.color = new Color (rValue,gValue,bValue,aValue);
54.         }
55.         //=====================
56.         else if (VNfromPrefs == 2){
57.             car = GameObject.Find("carbody");
58.             car.GetComponent<Renderer>().material.color = new Color (rValue,gValue,bValue,aValue);
59.         }
60.         //======================
61.         else if (VNfromPrefs == 3){
62.             car = GameObject.Find("carbody");
63.             car.GetComponent<Renderer>().material.color = new Color (rValue,gValue,bValue,aValue);

 

Can someone help me , 2 days of searching and i still can't get the RGB colors to show across all players
i'm willing to pay for some help

 

Have a look at the Boxes Demo in v1.65 (and newer). That applies a color per player with the script ColorPerPlayer.

 

You can either host Photon Servers yourself or subscribe to the Photon Cloud service for as many concurrent users (CCU), as you need.
PUN works great for room based games with a lower number of players per match. It's not a MMO solution, nor does it do in-app purchases or accounts and inventory. PlayFab does, e.g..
More about Photon: https://doc.photonengine.com/en/pun/current/getting-started/pun-intro

Users don't get Photon accounts. You can use Google, FB, PlayFab or just about anything else, which fits your needs. Photon does the matchmaking, scaling and in-game communication.

Dedicated servers. You can play cross-world but it affects ping, of course.

Photon does not do statistics.

It's basically on demand: https://www.exitgames.com/en/Realtime/Pricing

It's for lots of matches but each with not too many interacting players (let's say 2 to 32, depending on the game).

 

Thanks for the reply, I am still a little bit confused on some topics:

1.Concurrent users means the number of players in a match correct? For my games my absolute max will be four players in one match.

2.How would this work for a game similar to Clash of Kings or Game of War, where you have thousands of people in a single world?

3.You said I can host the Photon Servers myself, is this done through code or would I have to physically setup my own server and connect it to Photon?

4.What is the difference between the free Photon and the paid Photon you have on the asset store?

5.Judging from your response, it seems that there is more work involved than originally advertised. Maybe I am just being negligent, but I assumed that I would simply be able purchase Photon and code the multiplayer using the actual Photon package I bought. It seems this isn't the case because Photon seems more of a framework because I still have to use other services and servers to get the multiplayer working(the various links you sent me), and also spend more money than originally paying for the asset store price. I'm probably confused on this question, so if I am please clear this up! This question right here is huge and will probably determine whether or not I purchase Photon.

Thanks, Sempiternal

 

Judging from your questions and named titles (Clash of Kings or Game of War), I am sure that our AssetStore package doesn't fit for your ideas and requirements. Such titles require a ton of server features and lots of those are custom per title.

You might want to take another look at PlayFab, which is potentially a better fit.

 

I found problem on run in ios device you can help me ?

http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/photon-realtime-il2cpp-crash-on-start-up-app-ios.379280/

 

Hi @tobiass - looking at PUN running my own dedicated server, but would like to know how it handles collision detection, importing collider information and adding custom game logic all for an authoritative server setup.

 

@Motion_Tale: You already figured out it's a Unity 5.3.1 issue. Good to read it's fixed in 5.3.1p2.

@Whippets: The Photon Server does not run Unity scenes. It's very independent from that. If you want Unity being authoritative on hosted servers, the usual approach is to actually run Unity along with Photon - one instance per room. You can use Photon in such a case to get load balancing, matchmaking and the option to do some work on a separate connection to a server that's not "in-game".

 

The CCU concept is very blurry and as i've browsed this forum, I see its not only me that has problem of grasping it. Let's concider the free version for the sake of clarity.
Does the service let you have only 20 connections? If yes, that means, that a match (as planned for my game of 5 vs 5 player teams), having 10 players taks half of the allowed bandwitch. Basically you let to have running two matches at a time. Lets say the match takes ~1 hour. So you get total of 2 mph (matches per hour). This is almost nothing, not even good enough for launching the game - noone will have the nerve to wait for a group slot (5+5 = 10 player slot), if they have to wait for an hour.
So what free account is actually meant for is Testing, isn't it? Correct me if I'm wrong at any point mentioned here. I would really like some room quantity flexibility here, I just cannot see it...

There is also a limitation of messages/actions per second per room, which is stated to be 500. If 10 players are in a match, they can send a maximum of 5 actions per second: 500 / (10 * 10), am I right? Let's face it, for any action game that is negligible.

What I like about the proposition is scalability. If it is as good as it sounds, it may be that, no matter all other drawbacks (again, I might be wrong about them, so please correct me), it is still worth it to use your product.
The game we are planning has somewhat new concepts, thus it might have a boom of users at some point (later the amount would decline). That being said, I need to clarify everything, while we are still in the phase of planning the game out, building the core structure etc., so as to chose the best option availible.

My last question is concerning the integration. I am tempted to try out your server option. Is there a way to combine the server + cloud, to make them interchangably support each other on demand?

Being indie, every penny (euro-cent here) counts, but we need to ready up the potential too.

 

I'm looking at running Photon controlling a single game zone, with all connected clients in that zone, so no matchmaking required.

The idea of having a separate connection to a headless unity instance is very interesting - are there any examples of how such an architecture would work as an authoritative server? A separately connected unity instance would therefore be sending/receiving data to Photon for all clients, which will affect the messages-per-second limit, as each message will be 2 messages: Client > Photon > UnityInstance or UnityInstance > Photon > Client.

At 5 messages per second, with 99 client connections and 1 unity connection this will soon exceed the 500 mps limit by an order of magnitude.

 

@Carrotpie: The Free Plan of Photon Cloud is intended for checking it out, testing and development. We develop, run and maintain the machines for this offer, so we limit it to 20 concurrent players.
You can download the Photon Server SDK and run it on one of your machines. As we don't have costs for that, you can get a free 100 CCU license for more extensive testing. It's not very difficult.
Simply put, neither is not meant for you to launch your game. We also have to count pennies and euro-cents (we're in the same business: software for someone).
You can buy a 100 CCU plan of the Photon Cloud for around $100. With that, you can release your game and upgrade the subscription when you notice that your game takes off. Keep in mind that downloads are far higher than online players, so 100 CCU is not as bad as it sounds. And still cheap, we think.

The 500 msg/second limit for each room is often annoying, yes. We never use it as a hard cap, though. It's more a motivation for you to keep it as low as possible. If you do your best to keep this in check, we are usually fine with that. In doubt, mail to: developer@exitgames.com, send some info about your game along and we find a solution.

The scalability of Photon is proven in several bigger cases. Distributing players to games on different machines is at the core of Photon.

It shouldn't be too much effort to run some servers and when they are full, distribute players to the Photon Cloud. You probably can do that with little extra effort. We don't have direct support for that, though.
Also note: Players on the Photon Cloud will be separated from the others. Matchmaking doesn't support finding friends on different servers (or regions).

If you have a cool concept and need more CCU for a showcase or whatever, get in touch via mail. If we can support a cool game, we will

 

Something I really miss is being able from the Exitgames control panel set a required version of the game for photon connection to masterserver be cleared.

This way, when you call connectusing ("version 1.0"); if strings do not match connection would be refused.

This would allow devs to only the people that have the latest updated game to join the server by forcing the users to update and let behind all those who are using a pirated copy of the game and taking bandwith and CCU count.

With the connection error callback if the cause of error is something like "required version mismatch" would allow to launch update process withing the game.

 

@TooManySugar: Good point. We allow something like that with Custom Authentication, but it's not as simple as you describe it. You would have to setup your own authentication service and check a version value there.
Thanks for the input. I can't promise anything but it's good to have the request in mind.

 

In this release, we improved memory usage and performance. There is a new callback for values returned by Custom Authentication and we cleaned up the Demo Synchronization, which should now give you a better impression on what the various lag-hiding techniques are doing.

v1.66 (21. January 2016)
Important: This might affect your import! The folder "ChatApi" is now renamed to "PhotonChatApi". This way, the folder uses the same name as in our other packages. Remove the "ChatApi" folder, if the import didn't do that for you!
Added: Callback OnCustomAuthenticationResponse to make the data available, that could be sent by a custom authentication server. See description in PunBehaviour.
Fixed: Usage of "networkView" (old Unity Networking) to using photonView (PUN naming) in a script of the Boxes Demo.
Changed: The photonView in Photon.MonoBehaviour is now cached. If you intend to remove a PhotonView from a GameObject without destroying that object, you should modify this accordingly.
Changed: Internally, the PhotonStream now has a object[] for read values. This avoids wrapping them in a List<object>, which saves memory and time.
Added: Support for Enum types in RPC methods. Enums that are based of byte, short or int can now be used as parameters in RPCs. The underlying type has to be serializable by PUN for that.
Internal: CheckTypeMatch() to match "assignable" types to enum values. This is what enables the support for using Enum types in RPCs as parameter.
Fixed: Several scripts in the Demo Synchronization. They now work more like you'd expect. The whole demo is refreshed to a more useful state.
Internal: Refactored RPCs and "Synchronization" updates to waste far less memory and perform better. For that, Hashtables were replaced with simpler object[]. This means, that this client version is completely incompatible with older ones.
Internal: The PhotonStream now has 3 values pre-set. Those are needed in the stream to be sent along with your custom values. This doesn't change anything usage-wise. It also has a object[] which is used for readin values and a List<object> which is used when you write. This is leaner.
Internal: PhotonView.ExecuteComponentOnSerialize() now makes better use of its cache Dictionary. It fetches cached methods with TryFetchValue(), instead of checking for content, then accessing it.
Fixed: PhotonTransformView interpolation for "estimated speed". It was way too slow, because it didn't factor in that there are 10 updates per second. So speed as a value per second is 10 times higher. 10 being the default send rate here. Note that the object can overshoot (the actual position due to this and extrapolation).
Fixed: PhotonTransformView interpolation for "estimated speed" now avoids jitter when joining a game. The initial received position simply defines where the object is (after being instantiated at the position of it's Instantiate message). With the next update, it can begin to move.

 

to update to v1.66 looks like the hashtable is the only thing that requires reworking code.

could you please place a sample for roomproperties as should be do now, set room properties, expose them to lobby and read properties when loading room.

 

You don't have to replace anything yourself to update.
The full info is:

This relates only to how PUN itself sends the updates of objects and how RPCs are internally formatted. Nothing else.
Hashtables are still there

 

Hello tobiass,

I'm having some troubles with Photon on unity 5.3.1f1..
The problem is that, for some reason, my webplayer builds keep crashing, even with only 1 photonview attached to a clean gameobject. If i remove the photonview but for example call photonnetwork.connect if crashes too.
I really need this to be fixed, since I can't update anymore my game.


Looking forward to hearing from you.
Best regards,
Tiago

 

This could be a problem in Unity 5.3.1f1. Did it work in this version before? Can you check a newer version, by chance?
I guess it would help if you could copy and paste the Error Details in a mail. Send to: developer@exitgames.com

 

Hello,
I guess the last time that this worked was on version 5.1, the newest version is 5.3.1 so i can't test in a newer one. The error details does not say anything, just a javascript window with the text "The content was stopped because a fatal content error has been detected.".
Even the PUN Demos don't seems to work on this unity version, on webplayer of course.
This is so strange that noone else faced the same problem, or at least I can't find it.

 

I have the same error, I can not because of this bug to update my game.

 

After entering the room players do have an ui to select the faction.

All runs ok and syncs when players selects a faction.
I want when a player select the factions to other players get that event reflected on their lists.
I've the method that refreshes the list, it works when called locally but I'm trying to rpc call it so that when a remote user joins or changes its faction all others do see the change.

[punRPC]
the method that refreshes the factions list() {}

The transform that has this method has the a photon view.

And, now comes the thing. This all is part of aUI menu prefab that I do instantiate locally on the client with regular Instantiate() method. As its an UI and makes no sense to instantiate with photonNetwork`s instantiate.

The error is on the photonViews ID witch is "0". I guess it needs to be in the scene and when regularly instantiatin gets no id. Adding it during execution also gives "0" id.

Code (CSharp):

1. Illegal view ID:0 method: ListPlayers GO:UI_Faction
2. UnityEngine.Debug:LogError(Object)

Any ideas?¿?¿?¿?

 

Now, this is funny because I made a build and the thing does work, obviously there is the error behind.

I guess it works because id 0 is still an id and is the only id0.

Could you add the hability to assing view ids on the fly?

edit: when running one client trought .exe and other within editor. when I click on the client it updates on editor and shows no error but when I do change faction within editor it raises an error.
Witch is interesting since the rpc is called like this:

transform.GetComponent<PhotonView>().RPC("ListPlayers",PhotonTargets.Others);

 

updated to 1.66 just in case it did allow on the fly photonview addition. did not

I fond some new sutff coming from 1.5x 1.55 I htink it was.

it does no longer autojoin lobby so anyone with same issue place this on Start().
PhotonNetwork.autoJoinLobby = true;

Not totally sure on this but I think this was not possible directly:
PhotonNetwork.ConnectToRegion (CloudRegionCode.us,gameVersion);

No I can call connect to region directly without needeing to
PhotonNetwork.ConnectUsingSettings(gameVersion);
First.

 

'lo there, using Unity 5.3.2f1 and Photon won't work on import.

Assets/Photon Unity Networking/Editor/PhotonNetwork/Views/PhotonAnimatorViewEditor.cs(60,55): error CS1061: Type `PhotonAnimatorViewEditor' does not contain a definition for `m_Controller' and no extension method `m_Controller' of type `PhotonAnimatorViewEditor' could be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)

is the error message. I noticed it was mentioned a few pages ago but shrugged off on account that the user had deleted some of the scripts... but I'm getting this issue on import in a fresh, empty project and it's the kind of error that prevents me from compiling.

For reference, here's the problematic code snippet:

#if UNITY_5_0 || UNITY_5
return (this.m_Controller == null) ? 0 : this.m_Controller.layers.Length; //This line's the buggy one
#else
return this.m_Animator.layerCount;
#endif

 

As Unity 5.3.2 is out now, I will re-test the package in that version. We will update PUN asap to make it compatible again. Hopefully within a week.

@TooManySugar: You can set PhotonNetwork.gameVersion, no?
@TiagoCarvalho: Do you build webplayer (plugin) or WebGL?

 

Hello tobias,
This problem seems to be fixed in this new Unity (5.3.2f1), so it does not crash anymore in the unity webplayer (plugin).
Thanks anyways.

 

Thanks for the quick response and keep up the good job! Glad to see PUN is still active and kicking ass.

 

Did something change on the backend in the last few weeks?
I made no changes to the game (it used Pun 1.6)

It has a ton of dead rooms that won't go away.
You can join a "dead" room, and see the players that were in it...but long disconnected weeks ago.

Now I see why the playerbase has dropped so much...they can't play.

what is going on?

 

We have to take a look at the details. For that, we need your AppId via mail, please. Don't post it here.
Mail to: developer@exitgames.com and refer to this post or copy paste your description.

Thanks in advance and sorry for the inconvenience.

 

I updated the game to use a new version string ( "SC210" ), and seems to be fixing the problem.
I did send the email with my app id so hope you can figure it out so it doesn't happen again.

 

Hi guys,
First of all I must say "Fantastic work Tobiass!!!" Now, my question is , is there any way of getting sender's time stamp in photon chat system. For example , I have scenario where some 4 or x number of players will be in room and start bidding , during bidding there are chances like 2 or more people bid same amount .So i want to take the person who bidded first based on time stamp.Is there any chance of judging users who actually first sent value?
Sorry if my question is noob .I am new to photon !!
I did checked PhotonMessageInfo.timestamp , will it gives sender's time stamp or received time of the message??
Please point me in right direction if I am incorrect!!

Thank you.

Nsks

 

The PhotonMessageInfo.timestamp is the synchronized timestamp when the message was sent.
The synchronized timestamp is based on the server's time. Due to lag the time on the clients might be slightly incorrect. Usually, it's just +/- 20ms.
Hope that helps.

 

Thank you tobiass ..Thanks for immediate reply. PhotonMessageInfo.timestamp is working in the way I expected.
Great Work!!!!

 

@bocs: Thanks for sending that mail and updating us. We're currently very active on a bug hunt and things should return to normal soon.

@sandeepsmartest: Good to know! You're welcome

 

Hi @tobiass,

I've just updated my project from Unity 4.6.7 to Unity 5.3.2f1 and looking at producing a WebGL build of my game. I use the chat feature mainly, but I'm getting a compile error when I set WebGL as the target, namely:

Code (csharp):

1. Assets/Plugins/PhotonChatApi/ChatClient.cs(129,61): error CS0246: The type or namespace name `SocketWebTcp' could not be found. Are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?

I saw someone else had this problem previously, and you mentioned to ensure the websocket-sharp.dll was in the app and that its targeting the Editor, which it is, but I'm still seeing the error. I'm running v1.66 of Photon.

Thanks

Alan

 

@kujo: This is a known bug at the moment and we will fix it for the next release.
Vadim described a simple workaround for the time being: "As workaround, move PhotonChatApi folder from Plugins to upper Assets folder after import or completely remove PhotonChatApi if you do not use chat api."

 

Greetings. We have PUN+ for our game. Our setup for the project uses a create a room scene, then moves into a loading scene to spawn player and grab UI, then move into the play scene. Works great and this is how it is working in our live game on Steam. Anywho, been working on a new experimental build. We took the current build and updated to Unity 5.3.2 (form 5.1). After updating to Unity 5.3.2 we now have an issue where the player that starts a room is kicked when the next player joins. This is how it works in builds. In the editor, when testing, the person who is connecting freezes up but the original person who starts just runs fine, and there is no message in the console. The person trying to connect in the editor doesn't get any errors, but Unity freezes up and it has to be closed through task manager. Is there something that changed in Photon PUN for Unity 5.3.2 in an update that we must have? I ask before updating because we actually have a modified package that is part of another kit we use. Thanks!