Server Size Limits

Short post, and newbie questions...but,

I'm just curious...when everyone refers to the amount of players a networked Unity game could handle (or when talking about any game for that matter) is this based upon certain nuances in the code that would make it difficult for a very large multi-player game?

OR

Is this based upon the ability of the server itself (not the 'game server')?

 

The choice in the maximum number of players is influenced by some of the following criteria:
- how many players the game client can render at once ont he screen (client resources usage)
- the resources necessary to simulate X amount of players on the server: How much stress does it put on the server? How much physical memory does each player take up?
- The network bandwidth necessary for each player to enjoy a smooth experience. Server bandwidth isn't an infinite resource, and it costs money.
- Gameplay considerations: do you really want 256 players shooting at each other in a small room?

The limits don't come from the code, they mostly come from resource usage limitations (I listed some of them above). If you want to have a fully reactive game with 256 players in the same room, you're going to need to make some sacrifices on a number of areas (features, rendering quality) and risk increasing the complexity of your software in order to implement the necessary optimizations to pull it off.

Does this answer your question?

 

Yep. Thanks much Spk