Question Synced independent Timer

Hi there!

So I'm trying to sync audio across clients. To do this I need to have a timer that keeps track of the current audio progress on the server that clients can then sync to when joining or if they get out of sync during the game:



I've created a TimeKeeper script that is shared by all clients. This has a button that allows the server to start the time.

Each player then has a TimerKeeperClient script. This has a button that should get the current time from the server and sync it to the local TimeKeeper. I've tried doing this using the example from the docs for creating a synced event and after that by using a NetworkVariable. Unfortunately I can't seem to get the time to sync properly, there is always quite a bit of delay when i simulate latency.

Does anyone know of a better method for doing this? I can't use NetworkTime because that doesn't stay true to the audio playing on the server.

Hope to hear from you!

TimeKeeper

Code (CSharp):

1.  
2. using UnityEngine;
3. using Unity.Netcode;
4. using UnityEngine.UI;
5.  
6. public class TimeKeeper : NetworkBehaviour
7. {
8.  
9.    public static TimeKeeper Instance;
10.  
11.    private void Awake()
12.    {
13.        if (Instance == null)
14.            Instance = this;
15.    }
16.  
17.    public float time = -1f;
18.  
19.    // Update is called once per frame
20.    void FixedUpdate()
21.     {
22.        if (time == -1f)
23.            return;
24.  
25.        time += Time.fixedDeltaTime;
26.     }
27.  
28.    void OnGUI()
29.    {
30.        GUILayout.BeginArea(new Rect(10, 400, 300, 300));
31.  
32.        if (IsServer)
33.        {
34.            if (GUILayout.Button("Start Server Time"))
35.            {
36.                time = 0f;
37.            }
38.        }
39.  
40.        GUILayout.Label("Timer: " + time);
41.  
42.        GUILayout.EndArea();
43.    }
44. }
45.  

TimerKeeperClient

Code (CSharp):

1.  
2. using UnityEngine;
3. using Unity.Netcode;
4.  
5. public class TimeKeeperClient : NetworkBehaviour
6. {
7.    public float lag = -1f;
8.  
9.    public void StartClientTime()
10.    {
11.        var time = NetworkManager.LocalTime.Time;
12.        CreateSyncedEventServerRpc(time);
13.    }
14.  
15.    [ServerRpc]
16.    private void CreateSyncedEventServerRpc(double time)
17.    {
18.        CreateSyncedEventClientRpc(time, TimeKeeper.Instance.time); // Call a client RPC to also create the effect on each client.
19.    }
20.  
21.    [ClientRpc]
22.    private void CreateSyncedEventClientRpc(double time, float _timer)
23.    {
24.        if (!IsOwner)
25.            return;
26.  
27.        lag = (float)(time - NetworkManager.ServerTime.Time);
28.        TimeKeeper.Instance.time = _timer - lag;
29.  
30.    }
31.  
32.    private void OnGUI()
33.    {
34.        if (!IsOwner || IsServer)
35.            return;
36.  
37.        GUILayout.BeginArea(new Rect(400, 400, 300, 300));
38.  
39.        if (GUILayout.Button("Sync Time"))
40.        {
41.            StartClientTime();
42.        }
43.  
44.        GUILayout.Label("Lag: " + lag);
45.  
46.        GUILayout.EndArea();
47.    }
48. }
49.