Sending Messages to other clients

I'm trying to make a two player game where one player is the server. I want both players to send messages to each other but I'm really have trouble getting two-way communication going. just a few questions -

does the server player have to send his message to the other player via NetworkServer.SendToAll?

does the client player have to send his message to the server player via m_client.Send?

if i wanted to add more players, is it possible to do sort of a peer-to-peer setup, where any player can send a direct message to anyone at any time, or does it have to funnel through the server player?

 

You can send network message directly to one connection using NetworkServer.SendToClient.
Any message player-player has to go through server, currently. It's probably for security reasons. I am not even sure if players have reference to connection to another player. Server has it all.

Edit: Changed Send to SendToClient. Sorry, my bad, didn't have any docs or VS open, used just my memory.

 

NetworkServer.Send doesn't exist in the docs

My first attempt at this actually used NetworkServer.SendToAll...both server and the client player would call this function to send a message. What I was seeing in my logs though, was that only the server player's message would actually go through (meaning, the server player would call NetworkServer.SendToAll, and the client player would receive the message). the client player would call the same function, but the server player would NOT get the message. Maybe I didn't set it up right? i feel like i'm missing some mundane detail, or perhaps fundamentally misunderstanding something.

 

The server can use NetworkServer.SendToClient, while the client can use NetworkClient.Send. This way you can have two-way communication.

 

ok i got to fiddle with this some more tonight. something just isn't...right.

when the server fires up, NetworkClient.allClients has one NetworkClient in it, with a connection id of -1.
the server starts listening for Connect messages like so -
NetworkServer.RegisterHandler(MsgType.Connect, ClientConnected);

when a client connects, i DO see ClientConnected getting called, but NetworkClient.allClients still only has one NetworkClient in it - the one with a connection id of -1.

Basically I can't call NetworkServer.SendToClient to send my message because i don't have a connection id to send it to.

Do I need to manually create a NetworkClient when a new client connects to the server?

 

NetworkClient.allClients is not quite what you're looking for. To quote the docs

This is a list on the client's end of how many client instances it has connected. What you are looking for would be NetworkServer.connections.

Since I haven't seen your code and don't know specifically what's going wrong, here's a super simple class that connects a client to a listening server.

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. using UnityEngine;
3. using UnityEngine.Networking;
4. using System.Collections;
5.  
6. public class QuickNetTest : MonoBehaviour {
7.  
8.     NetworkClient client;
9.  
10.     void InitializeClient()
11.     {
12.         client = new NetworkClient();
13.         client.RegisterHandler(MsgType.Connect, OnClientConnect);
14.  
15.         client.Connect(inputHost, 7777);
16.     }
17.  
18.     void InitializeServer()
19.     {
20.         NetworkServer.Listen(7777);
21.  
22.         NetworkServer.RegisterHandler(MsgType.Connect, OnServerConnect);
23.     }
24.  
25.     void OnServerConnect(NetworkMessage netMsg)
26.     {
27.         Debug.Log(string.Format("Client has connected to server with connection id: {0}", netMsg.conn.connectionId));
28.  
29.         NetworkServer.SetClientReady(netMsg.conn);
30.     }
31.  
32.     void OnClientConnect(NetworkMessage netMsg)
33.     {
34.         Debug.Log(string.Format("Client has connected to server"));
35.     }
36.  
37.     string inputHost = "localhost";
38.  
39.     void OnGUI()
40.     {
41.         if (!NetworkServer.active)
42.         {
43.             if (GUI.Button(new Rect(400, 20, 200, 20), "Init Server"))
44.             {
45.                 InitializeServer();
46.             }
47.         }
48.  
49.         if (client == null || !client.isConnected)
50.         {
51.             if (GUI.Button(new Rect(100, 20, 200, 20), "Client Connect"))
52.             {
53.                 InitializeClient();
54.             }
55.  
56.             inputHost = GUI.TextField(new Rect(100, 60, 200, 20), inputHost);
57.         }
58.     }
59. }
60.  

Note that UNet using a naming schema of prefixing network message handlers with "OnClient" and "OnServer" depending on where they are run. I.e., OnServerConnect is ran on the server when a client connects.

 

oh i missed that part about NetworkClient.allClients. that disclaimer didn't show up in the tooltip in MonoDevelop I think :/

as for your example, i've got pretty much what you've got, and i do have the client connecting to the server fine. the problem comes later when i'm trying to send my own messages (right now i'm just trying to send mouse click coordinates back & forth to each other).

I'll have to try NetworkServer.connections tonight - that does sound like what I'm looking for. Thanks for your help so far

 

Yes! it works! Thank you so much!

 

Out of curiosity, is there any way to clearly monitor the network traffic? I'm just curious to know how big these messages actually are, down to the byte (including any extra stuff unity might be sending to ensure the message gets where it needs to go)

just wondering the weird bits, like is it more optimal to use short variable names in your custom MessageBase? or does it just always pack/unpack the variables in the same order, so the name doesn't matter?

 

I don't know if Unity has anything built in, but I'd be interested to know.

You can always just use Wireshark or whatever though as an external program.