When will we see the new networking system?

I wonder if Unity is working on the new networking system?
You make UNET depreciated, but there is no other alternative from Unity.

I read info that it should be available even in Alpha in Q4 of 2019.
It's the 4th of December today and there is still no info.

Is there any other free alternative?
I mean I understand the costs of hosting servers etc.
By free I mean I am able to use some network plugin commercially without any limitations like CCU.

 

Never tried UNET my self, but on a game I needed networking on, I coded my own NodeJS server and communicated with it using the BestHTTP asset (it's like 20 bucks on the asset store). Was working perfectly fine even on stress tests

 

They've got a sample of the new DOTS networking stack up on github:

https://github.com/Unity-Technologies/multiplayer

 

Just write your own networking layer over TCP/UDP. Networking in games is such a complex thing by itself, if you need that for your game you're probably sophisticated enough to write your own network layer. I'm not really sure how "ready" networking solution could be implemented for the core Unity, that supposed to work for ALL types of games. Considering how wildly different games are and strict requirements of packet sizes etc. especially for mobile networks.

But considering how Untiy pushes to make itself more accessible to non-professional gamedevs, I won't be surprised if they end up implementing multiple pre-made networking layers for different game genres. I just hope this will be in a form of packages and not cluttering the core engine.

 

They are exactly doing that. The first drop they are making is mainly for real time action games (FPS, TPS, etc). Later they will work on other foundation-stuff as well, like solutions for RTS, 4X games, etc.