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Server side with PHP and Webservices

Discussion in 'Multiplayer' started by tomcat, Mar 30, 2009.

  1. tomcat

    tomcat

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    Nov 16, 2008
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    Hi,

    I like to create my serverside code with PHP and user web services to talk to it. Knowing very little about the way Unity does its client server operation, is this a practical thing to do?

    tomcat
     
  2. Dreamora

    Dreamora

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    Yupp practical and pretty simple :)

    The WWW and WWWForm classes are best friends of you in this case.
     
  3. tomcat

    tomcat

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    Great. Just had a look at the runtime classes and I think I get it. Can see a perl example but not a php one.

    1) Have you seen any php server side example, so I can figure out what to do at that end?

    2) BTW, does it mean that I can do my own server and not using the unity's client/server model?

    tomcat
     
  4. Dreamora

    Dreamora

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    1) do not fully understand, sorry. On PHP its $_POST["your variable name"] and whatever you send to the page and back

    2) No, WWW / WWWForm is HTTP communication
    For realtime games you either have to use unitys networking or integrate a 3rd party solution or work with .NET Sockets
     
  5. tomcat

    tomcat

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    Ok, so for low bandwidth and casual communication WWW is good, but if I have many users (I am going to have about 100), I have to use unity's networking which is raknet.

    Do I have to pay to use raknet? or is there a free version?

    tomcat
     
  6. Dreamora

    Dreamora

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    No not exactly.
    The WWW is only usable for web communication or very low frequency turn based games handled by a CGI / PHP end (basically a Unity version of a browser game)

    Anything thats more realtime requires unity networking or a 3rd party networking.

    The networking integrated into the unity clients can be used for free.
     
  7. tomcat

    tomcat

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    Ok, so I can create a game supporting about 100 users (running unity clients) which can talk to a single server running on a remote site. This wouldn't cost me anything.

    If I want to support more users, then I have to use something else like raknet which would then cost me. Is this right?

    tomcat
     
  8. Dreamora

    Dreamora

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    Yes and no
    There is no Unity Server
    Only the client which you would use as server if you want to run something like a dedicated server.
    That would be free yes.

    But you can not run that on a remote website. You need to have a (virtual) dedicated Windows / OSX Server
    You can not run realtime game servers on webhosts

    (already browser game type server loads are commonly not allowed on webhosts)
     
  9. tomcat

    tomcat

    Joined:
    Nov 16, 2008
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    Yes, I see. I got to get a co-located server where I can run my own server software or host it at home.

    I guess I have to run it on a webplayer and develop my own server using WWW to exchange data between client and the server.

    I guess there is no chance of creating a simple world shared between clients as the comms overhead makes it slow to update the world!!

    tomcat