multiplayer

[still owl]

Nah, it's just a co-op game.

However, if I did this, would the server still be able to move the client under certain circumstances like a knockback ability from an enemy?

I think I tried these options before and the server was no longer able to move the client

[limber gyro]

well it wont move on the client, it will move on the server and then correct when u set them back

those options are usefull for stuff like dashing

for example

you could try for example, when u hit something in the client u set those flags for like a second or half a second, do ur bumping thing and then set them back

[still owl]

Cheers I'll give it a go 👍

[bitter oriole]

Some of PlayerState

For each connected player

There's a method you can override to add more

That's on the server, of course

[pliant moss]

is it possible to create an AIController that does not need to be owned by the server?

[bitter oriole]

A client-owned AI would need to send every single pawn command by RPC through he pawn itself

You probably don't want that

[pliant moss]

Even tho its a character pawn?

[bitter oriole]

Yes

AI should normally be a completely server side affair

[pliant moss]

Yeah. ok. well my main problem is that i have a free flying camera pawn that is possesd by the player controller. Then my PlayerCharacter is possesed by an AI Controller since my playerController cant possess both pawns at the same time. This creates a problem where all the actions on the player character needs to go trough the server since the server owns the AI Controller. It messes up the GameplayAbilitySystem a bit since all abilities needs to execute on the server. Does anyone have any ideas i could try?

[fluid summit]

i'm having a similar problem. Best solution i found so far is explained in here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ToVKyiVDAg

basically AI owns the Pawn and PlayerController goes through that when input is received, really messed up but it's the only solution i found

The other one would be to:
On input from playercontroller, do RPC and implement custom logic to navigate

[pliant moss]

PlayerController goes trough the AI Controller?

I will take a look at the video

[bitter oriole]

PC and AI Controller are unrelated, both controllers but siblings with no relation

[pliant moss]

i mean i tried to interpert the answer from, Acrisio "basically AI owns the Pawn and PlayerController goes through that when input is received"

[bitter oriole]

Either one AI controller or one PC owns a given Pawn

[pliant moss]

So the client have a local Controller and pawn, and the local controller relays the input to the server?

[bitter oriole]

Clients have a client-owned, replicated PC+Pawn

And yeah, various input goes through RPC to the server through both classes, depending on the game

[pliant moss]

Yeah ok. my gut feeling is that it could potentially be some hassle to get GAS to work with that.

[fluid summit]

Yeah, you probably will have to do some modification to gas.
The owner of the pawn will be AI, the PC will have a ref to the AI and when input is received, you do a RPC and pass that input to the AI.

[pliant moss]

ok thats basically what i have now. So there will be a delay from the local input until the server has replicated to the clients.

[fluid summit]

you always have that no matter what, your delay to the server is always there.

[pliant moss]

I mean to the local client pawn

[pliant moss]

Nvm i think we missunderstand each other. But the setup you sent in the video could be worth looking into. thanks!

[humble bane]

can a rep notify be called on a different actor?

[sinful tree]

RepNotify will trigger on the actor that has the variable. You can use the RepNotify function to call other actor functions/events.

[twin juniper]

if an actor is dormant but value has changed and client was not relevant, is there a way to force an update for a client when they become relevant?

[chrome bay]

Should do it automatically

So long as the actor isn't still dormant

[regal geyser]

How can I make "casting system" in replicated game? Current approach is that when player is interacting with an item event repeats itself with delay 0.01 and on each repeat 0.01 progress is added to the item. I tought that should be just fine and when setting total progress to 5.0 it should take 5 seconds for it to complete, but it's taking around 5.35 seconds on average. Why is that

[twin juniper]

I mean they are still dormant, and maybe say net frequency is 0, but I guess that wouldnt change much since it is dormant. So the only times it needs update is when it becomes relevant for that specific client, and on force net update for relevant clients

[dark edge]

Why do you need to possess the camera?

[pliant moss]

Its An AR game

[dark edge]

What do you mean by casting system? What is the actual problem you have?

Dou you mean like spells with a cast time?

[regal geyser]

Yes, the best example would be engine repairing from Dead By Daylight, because the more people are repairing it, the faster it goes. So for 1 player it takes lets say 30 seconds, for 2 15s, etc.

And I'm not sure why repeating this "repair" action with delay and then adding players progress to the engine with the amount the delay had to wait is not very precise and I really doubt that it takes some time for the nodes to compile (for 5s repair its off by like 0,35s)

[dark edge]

This is very much not a delay thing. You don't want delay anywhere near this.

Just tick and increase value by rate times Delta seconds.

More builders equals higher rate

You can use a timer or a timeline to accomplish a temporary tick but same idea.

[regal geyser]

So in tick when using times delta seconds it makes it frame independent?
I was also playing with timer by event but the results were pretty much the same, maybe was just doing it the wrong way.

[dark edge]

Rate = numbuilders
Value += Rate x DeltaSeconds

[dark edge]

Yes. Or use a f interp to constant if you don't wanna do the math yourself

The constant is the rate.

[regal geyser]

Sweet, thanks a lot!

[dark edge]

Start with just having it sit there ticking then later you can decide if a temporary tick is worth it or not.

[fluid summit]

Hi! does anyone know the dif between "Is local controller" and HasAuthority ->Remote ?

[dark edge]

Do you mean is locally controlled?

Controlled only has a meaning in the context of a pawn. What are you trying to do?

[fluid summit]

I was setting something on the pawn to get the AI working correctly for movement and saw that node. Nothing important

[dark edge]

Anyway, to get to the real concept of if you're locally controlled or authority, you can be both and/or neither.

Listen server pawn is both

[graceful flame]

How do you get the player character from within the playerstate? It seems to always get the first client but not the others. My scenario is that I’m trying to assign teams for each client at beginplay. Half team A and other half team B, but the result is only first client is assigned to team A and others don’t have any team.

[fathom aspen]

APlayerState.PawnPrivate

[rancid monolith]

Is there a way to add simulated network latency while playing in editor?
I know there's a file somewhere that I can edit, but is there a way to do it from inside the editor in ue5?

[fathom aspen]

Net PktLag = <ms>

In console command

[rancid monolith]

ty

[graceful flame]

Yeah go to three dots near play button, search for net, look for Multiplayer options

Advanced settings, network emulation

[fathom aspen]

Correct

[fathom aspen]

NetFrequency of 0 just breaks the networking rules and chaos starts taking over

FlushNetDormancy would do the job I guess

[fluid summit]

That's the singularity, never go full god.

[winged badger]

i would not even keep an actor with that replication requirement as replicated

but would instead replicate it via another actor that handles all the occasional replications

just need to make it net addressable

[fluid summit]

Okey i got the client side moving for this problem, i found an easier method (which i don't know for sure if works 100%)
Remove the default Pawn from GameMode, Spawn it on **PlayerState **and posses it by one **AIController **that you just spawned. Grab a ref for **PlayerController **and **Pawn **for each other.
When in need of move the pawn, tell the **PlayerController **and pass that message to the PawnRef. The pawnRef handles it with the AIController.

With the camera problem, on the **PlayerController **do "OnOwningClient" ->Set view from blend and use the pawn Ref to grab it's camera.

Hope it helps if someone has a similar problem, it's easier than the suggested solutions i found online

[winged badger]

that is just too complicated to be robust

[fluid summit]

there's no other way if you want "Move to location"

[winged badger]

override AGameMode::HandleStartingNewPlayer

[fluid summit]

no simplier way* that i found

[winged badger]

you have a PC reference there, and PS already exists

and has copied properties in case of seamless travel already, too

[twin juniper]

alright what if it was 0.01? How would I call flush net dormancy or force net update for a specific client? or at least when a new client becomes relevant

[fluid summit]

oh i forgot that you can override that, that's actually a good idea

[winged badger]

do not call Super, as that will call RestartPlayer() which will spawn the Pawn

and just implement its logic/spawning and construct your entire object graph there

[fluid summit]

I'm gonna change it for that later, i'm trying to solve this now.
For some reason the Pawn on client (it can move ok) its always floating and falling through the floor (on server i see it okey)

[fathom aspen]

Not that I tried it, but check if it's a new connection inside IsNetRelevantFor

[winged badger]

fair guess its using NavMeshWalking on server and Walking on client

that one doesn't replicate out of the box, the CMC MovementMode

[fathom aspen]

Is that the uncompleted part of vori's article? Cause it talks about actors placed in level.

[fluid summit]

it's not even walking, it's doing the "falling" animation. And if it stops moving, it falls through the floor (on the client).
I'm gonna check the AnimationBP variables

[winged badger]

there are several ways to make Actors NetAddressable and not Replicated

if it falls through the floor, then your collisions are fucked

[fathom aspen]

Correct, I guess those spawned at runtime are handled this way then

[winged badger]

with extra option that you spawned something with static/mobile mismatch inside another object, as that can completely break the physics engine

making a spawned actor net addressable and not replicated is a but complicated

you need to deterministically name it and spawn it separately on all machines

[fathom aspen]

But I'm wondering how they are replicating to clients so they show to them?

[fathom aspen]

Ah ok

[winged badger]

and its IsFullNameSupportedForNetworking() would need to return true for that instance

that is basically how preplaced Actors are net addressable

their Names are serialized with the Level, so they are deterministic and same on every machine

and that function will return true if it has RF_WasLoaded UObject flag

which Actors loaded from level do

[fathom aspen]

Wow, so you literally recreate that behavior

Nice ^^

@pallid mesa take notes please 🗒️

[winged badger]

you can go one step further and make them replicate too, although that takes extra care

it its bNetStartupActor is true

engine will assign static NetGUID (you can tell static/dynamic by the last bit)

but

if you turn the replication on, the server will require clients to Ack the NetGUID immediately

and if they can't do it because they, say, didn't spawn that Actor yet, the Ack will fail and ActorChannel won't open

[fluid summit]

it was indeed this, the ClientSide static mesh components (the hexagones) where missing the default collision preset.
I was trusting that was okey because it was the default, don't know why it changed.

thanks!

[fathom aspen]

Oh good to know. Too many things to keep in mind and it's so easy to mess it up

[winged badger]

(NavMesh)Walking mismatch generally results in severe Jitter that includes falling

[fathom aspen]

This is a one time thing right?

[winged badger]

but it won't make it through the floor

yes, but if they can't Ack right then, you won't be able to open the ActorChannel later

[fathom aspen]

So you have to kinda do it on intervals until it opens?

[winged badger]

so in this scenario you can't let the Actor spawned on clients and server separately try to replicate until you are sure it already exists on clients

and it still has to meet all NetAddressable requirements

so far, i find it practical for procedural generation and little, if anything, else

[fathom aspen]

Always good to know the use cases, will keep it in mind if I go down that road 🛤️

Thanks Zlo!

[winged badger]

after the game starts

its too much of a pain in the arse handling cases where packets arrive out of order to be worth the hassle

[graceful flame]

Should a variable that you as a developer never plan on changing still be replicated for security if it impacts gameplay? Stamina regen rate for example.

[fathom aspen]

I don't find it worth the hassle, not till now at least ^^

[winged badger]

it can be defined in static data, or on the CDO

replicating it initially provides no security whatsoever

[graceful flame]

I don't follow

what do you mean CDO?

[winged badger]

class default object

[graceful flame]

ohh

okay so it if there's no custom events that change this stamina regen rate value, it shouldn't matter if its replciated or not?

[winged badger]

as server never changes its value, it will never replicate to correct the client, if they client hacks it to some other value

only the first time, just before BeginPlay

if i were you, i would pull the static... attributes of your characters into a data asset or a data table

makes it far easier to tweak the values later

all stuff neatly in one place and all

and the data asset/table is packaged and same on all machines

[graceful flame]

So if its on my character BP as a default private variable can a client still hack to something else and change their stamina regen?

[winged badger]

note: they will try to hack your data assets sooner or later, if you have enough players

[graceful flame]

Would it be best to keep that variable on GameMode?

Then all the characters that share the same value can read it from there?

[winged badger]

so you override PreSave on it, to create a Hash from all important values in the data asset

and save/package it along with the data asset, no blueprint exposed preferably

and then you can at any time you please verify if your DataAsset's Hash function returns the same value as the Hash you saved prior to packaging

if it doesn't you know someone hacked some values there, and then you can be mean 😄

[fathom aspen]

I saw this the other day and wanted to make sure I get it right.
Does that mean any actor can access GameState on client without being worried of it being null? Cause someone had the issue of it being null in another actor game framework class. I also remember seeing that issue on some thread from 2016. That's why I'm asking...

[winged badger]

it can from BeginPlay and after

[fathom aspen]

Can you point me in source code where I can see that in action

[winged badger]

GameState has to replicate that its time for World to BeginPlay in order for clients to start calling BeginPlay on their Actors

so it has to be there already

[fathom aspen]

Ah yeah right, I remember seeing that

[winged badger]

only exception to this rule is if you call BeginPlay on an Actor manually before that happens

[fathom aspen]

Oh can it be called manually? 😄

New to me

Ok thanks!

[fluid summit]

So this solved the issue that sometimes the client will not change the camera correctly because the rep was no there yet.
Ty x2

[fathom aspen]

Last question for the night, bare with me ^^

So with transient you mean non transient properties right?
Cause for example PlayerState itself is RF_Transient. So I'm wondering how it's saved upon reconnection then? The InactivePlayerArray its saved in belongs to the server I guess that's why? Or because the array is a UPROPERTY?

APlayerState* APlayerState::Duplicate()
{
    FActorSpawnParameters SpawnInfo;
    SpawnInfo.Instigator = GetInstigator();
    SpawnInfo.SpawnCollisionHandlingOverride = ESpawnActorCollisionHandlingMethod::AlwaysSpawn;
    SpawnInfo.ObjectFlags |= RF_Transient;    // We never want to save player states into a map
    APlayerState* NewPlayerState = GetWorld()->SpawnActor<APlayerState>(GetClass(), SpawnInfo );
    // Can fail in case of multiplayer PIE teardown
    if (NewPlayerState)
    {
        DispatchCopyProperties(NewPlayerState);
    }
    return NewPlayerState;
}

[winged badger]

its not saved per say

its duplicated and pointer is kept there

[fathom aspen]

Ah I see what you mean, yeah makes sense

A bit off topic, but what does the RF mean?

F would stand for flag. What's R?

[winged badger]

no idea

doesn't really matter

[red furnace]

Not sure how to ask this... I'll us pictures 😋 Is there a possibility a client could run a function before a server gets done running a function even if its called after?

I called an event for the server to update a value. After the loop I called the client hud to update. The HUD seems to update before the server update the value though. This only happens on the client

[fathom aspen]

If the RPCs are marked reliable then they could be queuing, so yes it's possible that HUD event is called before they all finished executing

I think what you're doing is dangerous as you can't guarantee they replicated in time you call that HUD event

That's why you use OnReps

Called RepNotifys in BP

[fluid summit]

You will save yourself a lot of headaches if you use OnRep to trigger UI updates.

[worn wagon]

What's the optimal flow for controlling player spawns? I have overridden HandleStartingNewPlayer_Implementation to prevent initial player spawning, but this only works on the client in a network settings, the listen server host spawns in regardless. I did some debugging and found that ClientRestart_Implementation is called when the level starts which dispatches a Restart, but I couldn't go any further up the chain and figure out what was calling ClientRestart to begin with.

[winged badger]

i don't let my GameMode call HandleStartingNewPlayer until i want them to spawn

[worn wagon]

Where does it get called from?

I mean i've overridden it and it's literally just an empty function, but somehow the listen server host still spawns in

[fluid summit]

I did that 1 hour ago and it removed the spawn of the pawns.
Are you sure your level is using that GameMode you are modifying?

[worn wagon]

Yes 😄

The only thing that works so far for me setting the default pawn class to none, but that's not ideal, it breaks the functionality for several functions

[red furnace]

gottcha! I experimented with them a bit but didn't fully wrap my head around it. Looks like its back to the "LearnMultiplayer" project for a bit😁

[fluid summit]

in my case i did set DefaultPawn to none, that may be the reason. I don't know why, the method should stop it from spawning in the first place.
Maybe check if the pawn is spawning before the GameMode even calls that.

[worn wagon]

Yeah it's odd. I looked into how Lyra did it and they did the same thing, but they also have a default pawn class 🤷

[fluid summit]

in my case i'm not calling super, as per indications of zlo

[vagrant grail]

If I do my crouch this way, if anyone joins the game later will he see me crouching or not ? Or do I need to go through a RepNotify too ?

Please ping me if any answer 🙂

[fluid summit]

you should set a variable that determinates if it's crouched and OnRep apply the functionality, if you do it that way, when others get a RepNot with the last state, they will update their remote actors to that state

[vagrant grail]

Thank you. That means alot of youtube tutorials do things in the wrong way when shsowing multiplayer tutorials 😦

[fluid summit]

This one gives a good visual explanation of how replication works
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsORRtBOJYc&list=WL&index=1

[vagrant grail]

Yeah already watched it multiple times and it's the best one I found. Other tutorials all show multicast for this kind of situation

[fluid summit]

I have no idea if this is the same problem, but it may help

https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/problem-with-sequence-playback-bounds-in-sequencer/365570

[dark edge]

Isn't crouching already a state on Character / CharacterMovementComponent?

[dark edge]

Replicate state. Multicast transient events

crouch is state

[vagrant grail]

Yes it is.

[vagrant grail]

I don't understand what you mean by this

[vagrant grail]

Also I want to make my character have his head rotate towards where he's looking (and it needs to be compatible with multiplayer, so it needs to be seen by others too), how would I go about that please ? 🙂

[dark edge]

Get one thing working instead of 2 things not working

[vagrant grail]

But I didn't undestand your sentence above

[ripe basin]

Can get bIsCrouched in the AnimBP from the character already, it's inherited.

Tutorials aren't necessarily bad, there's just a lot of different ways to do things and you might not really understand the why. Well, and they might not understand the why. But still 😄

[thin stratus]

Do you have enough player starts?

You can try opening your character BP and searching for spawn collision handling or so and set it to always spawn

Where and when are you possessing them?

[winged badger]

why would you override ChoosePlayerStart to return nothing?

and if you're spawning them by hand (not calling Super/Parent) of HandleStartingNewPlayer

you also need to manually possess them there

[torpid girder]

Hi, I am wondering about hardware requirements for dedicated servers, I understand everything is cpu based so the faster the cpu the better but what can I expect for memory profiles? I assume textures etc aren't required? And is it possible to make a smaller bundle to make server deployment easier?

Oh I should have just asked one question

[pseudo merlin]

hey all, what would be the best way to lerp a characters position between 2 points in a replicated way? should I disable char movement, run the interp on client and server, then reenable when interpolation is over?

I'm assuming charmovement replication isnt designed for SetActorLocation() like this

but maybe im wrong?

[silent valley]

The package will usually be smaller as sounds and most textures will not be packaged for example. Memory is usually much lower too, but you have to remember that the entire world must be loaded on the server, along with navmesh, all actors etc, so it can add up.

[coral wing]

My client gets kicked from server with error: "ActorChannelFailure"
This only happens when my client is on a shipping build but they're not kicked with other builds like debug.

[quasi tide]

I actually prefer to use event dispatchers for this. Instead of the AnimBP's graph.

[steep wolf]

is it possible to launch another instance of a server locally through c++ without having to package the game

i need it for debugging

[ripe basin]

@quasi tide Any particular reason? 🤔

[quasi tide]

Don't have to check every tick of Update Animation. Only updates the state when I tell it to.

So when I crouch for example, my player code broadcasts the event dispatcher. My AnimBP is set up to listen for it. So once it happens, it'll execute the code to update the AnimBP's bool to track crouching.

[prime island]

Hi guys, where should I store my joined player controllers? In the GameMode? Or maybe in the GameState? Can someone help me? ( LAN, only up to 2 player)

[dark edge]

They are already there

[prime island]

Sry, but then how can i access them?

[dark edge]

From PlayerState you can get the PlayerController

What are you trying to do tho

[prime island]

I just wanted to keep track of all the playerControllers for later use...

[latent heart]

There's a list of player controllers somewhere. Maybe on the world?!

But just use the playerstate array and GetOuter()

[lime echo]

Is it standard to send client to server RPC, and then from the server, send a NetMulticast? Or is there a better way to share new data with all clients from the owner? I need this after input callbacks for example, which the server doesn't get.

[fathom aspen]

Yes you send a server RPC though you don't NetMulticast in server, but you set the replicated property

https://vorixo.github.io/devtricks/stateful-events-multiplayer/

[lime echo]

Thank you very much! Yeah I know properties usually better fit the task, but my case requires an event.

[crystal oar]

any useful resources for implementing mobile patching utility?

[fathom aspen]

Ask yourself, do you care that late joiners know what happened?

Non relevant players too?

If the answer is yes you need to replicate a boolean property for example bDoThisEvent

That executes ThisEvent

[lime echo]

Oh right that's important! Though I don't think I'm going to allow late joiners.

[fathom aspen]

When replicated back to clients

[lime echo]

Yeah that's an alternative that lets late joiners be updated.

Thank you for your help! I'll consider the options and pick the one that best fits my game architecture.

[fathom aspen]

#mobile

Idk try asking here

[dark edge]

What exactly are you trying to do?

[lime echo]

Just update data according to input events. For example, when crouching.

[dark edge]

I'd repnotify that but it's already a predicted state on Character

[lime echo]

Right! Forgot about it! It's a code I wrote a while a go and now I return to it to replicate it. Forgot I used the Character's bIsCrouched

[fluid summit]

Does anyone know how i can check "array size" in bytes?

[vagrant grail]

I want to make my character have his head rotate towards where he's looking (and it needs to be compatible with multiplayer, so it needs to be seen by others too), how would I go about that please ?

Could you link me to a ressource or a tutorial showing how to do that please ?

It's too vague to me I need to see / follow a tutorial to learn from it

[ripe basin]

Why not just bash your head against a wall for a few hours, that's always a good learning experience. lol

[vagrant grail]

Thank you

[vagrant grail]

Ahaha not funny 👀

[ripe basin]

Kinda not joking, understanding your failures is good experience. The above video is good, it's basically the same thing but you'd need to use the full Rotation depending on how you want the head to look around, and change the bone to Head

[vagrant grail]

That's not how I learn, I need to see someone doing it in front of me and from that understand what each steps are before doing it myself that's how I learn, that's how I learned everything I know today and that's the way I'm confortable with

[ripe basin]

Would also suggest a cutoff for head rotation to turn the body, or you're gonna be an owl

Also, also need to force body Rot on forward movement or you'll be walking sideways. But idk what you're trying to do. Maybe you wanna be an owl walking sideways 🤣

[vagrant grail]

I just have this character and I want others to see where the other players are looking at like in Minecraft 🙂

It's already the case but when the player is looking down or up the character doesn't move his head which is problematic

that's why I need the head to follow where the player is looking at

https://i.gyazo.com/9d1b6f21f35a0c406e0252ce42eff8f9.mp4

Like I don't like how to player rotates on himself when looking around

In which BP, and where in that BP

[lime echo]

Is AActor::GetOwner() returns a valid owner, only when AActor::IsLocallyControlled is true?

[fathom aspen]

Nope. Example: Listen server pawn player is locally controlled server side, but when calling GetOwner client side you get a valid owner

[lime echo]

But with dedicated server?

[fathom aspen]

Same idea. Pawn sever side calls is locally controlled, it returns false. Calling GetOwner returns a valid owner

[empty axle]

It should also work unless you have an actor that is either not replicated - then on client side it will be null or you spawn an actor client-side - then on server it will be null.

[fathom aspen]

Literally many examples to why it's not correct

[woeful anvil]

anyone else having issues with UE5 play in editor multiplayer?

[fathom aspen]

Be more specific

[lime echo]

Thanks, but I think I didn't phrase myself correctly. I have a replicated character (I'll call it the player). Now each player spawns (passing FActorSpawnParametrs::Owner = this) a gun which is also replicated. My question is whether each gun's GetOwner() return their "REAL" owner (the one who ACTUALLY spawned them)? Will it be the replicated player on their machine? Or will it be just nullptr (separate from the one who is spawned on the same machine the "REAL" player is in).

[fathom aspen]

Yeah it should be valid. As long as you spawn the weapon on the server and replicate it, then yes

[lime echo]

Great! Thank you very much for your support today! I really appreciate it, it helps me a lot!

[fathom aspen]

sizeof(one_element) * number_of_elements

[pliant moss]

How can i debug if a c++ function really is running on the server?

[fathom aspen]

Check NetMode

[pliant moss]

AActor::GetNetMode?

[fathom aspen]

Nope

GetWorld()->GetNetMode

[pliant moss]

thanks il try that

[fathom aspen]

Literally just debug and find what's going on. By the sounds of it, it seems that the player pawns are being spawned close to one another, resulting in such issue. One of the things ChoosePlayerStart does is that it check for encroaching stuff on spawn, and there are then it doesn't let the player pawn spawn, unless there is no other PlayerStart but that. It also probably tries spawning it so it doesn't encroach too much

Debugging would tell you what's going on, though overriding ChoosePlayerStart so it returns null sounds weird

[pliant moss]

UE_LOG(LogType, Warning, TEXT("NetMode %s"), *UEnum::GetValueAsString(GetWorld()->GetNetMode())); i cant do this like with normal enums?

unresolved external symbol "class UEnum * __cdecl StaticEnum<enum ENetMode>(void)" (??$StaticEnum@W4ENetMode@@@@YAPEAVUEnum@@XZ) referenced in function "public: virtual void __cdecl ULocalTargetingSystem::ServerTargetActorSelectionSuccess_Implementation(struct FHitResult)" (?ServerTargetActorSelectionSuccess_Implementation@ULocalTargetingSystem@@UEAAXUFHitResult@@@Z)

[fathom aspen]

FinishRestartPlayer is what possesses your pawns. It doesn't possess them until they are not valid. Breakpoint that, see what's going on. I would even breakpoint the whole procedure from the beginning

I have no idea how your code looks like so I can't say what you're doing wrong

[fathom aspen]

#cpp message

[pliant moss]

So if i have a function with UPROPERTY(Server, Reliable) and when it runs the GetWorld()->GetNetMode() == NM_Client is true. That should not be the case right?

or have i missunderstood NetMode?

[dark edge]

To start with, start by thinking about your 2 rotations. What drives the head/look rotation, and what drives the body yaw?

I like to have control rotation drive head/look, and movement direction drive body/yaw

Control rotation is NOT synced to other clients

You'll want to use GetBaseAimRotation for everywhere

Or one of those other stupidly named functions

[fathom aspen]

Shouldn't be the case. Unless you forgot to make your actor replicate?

Or it was falsely spawned client side?

[vagrant grail]

https://tenor.com/view/patrick-star-confused-huh-wtf-gif-20911403

[pliant moss]

ohhh. wait. im creating a c++ component to handle some work for my playerController. Do i need to set that component to be replicated?

[fathom aspen]

Yes

[dark edge]

OK so back up, do you see how you have TWO rotations in play, not just one?

unless you want the head to not be able to rotate in yaw relative to the body

[pliant moss]

damn if this works il buy you a coffey!

[vagrant grail]

So I need one for the head and one for the body I think

[dark edge]

Do you want 1 rotation or 2?

is strafing a thing

See how there's 2 directions?

[fathom aspen]

You manually spawning them right?

[dark edge]

if you're standing still and look right then down, does just the head move, or the entire body rotate?

[shell forum]

Yes, I think I have it working now

But I haven't tested in production

[fathom aspen]

You should call SetPawn after they spawn

Was that your missing piece?

Ah I see

[shell forum]

Where is SetPawn()? It's not on the PC or in GM.

[fathom aspen]

// Try to create a pawn to use of the default class for this player
        APawn* NewPawn = SpawnDefaultPawnFor(NewPlayer, StartSpot);
        if (IsValid(NewPawn))
        {
            NewPlayer->SetPawn(NewPawn);
        }

Inside AGameModeBase::RestartPlayerAtPlayerStart

[shell forum]

Is the PlayerController fully ready to start on EventHandleStartingNewPlayer? I believe I had the delay because I was using PostLogin before switching to seamless travel.

[vagrant grail]

I want it like this https://youtu.be/R5P3dMVHYXw?t=49

[fathom aspen]

Yes

[shell forum]

I'm not using the built in playerstarts. + default pawn. For some reason it's only spawning the server using it.

[fathom aspen]

Forget the name

It's part of the procedure

/** Setter for Pawn. Normally should only be used internally when possessing/unpossessing a Pawn. */
    virtual void SetPawn(APawn* InPawn);

[shell forum]

Just rotate the neck bone as I showed above using the player's Pitch.

[dark edge]

That's 2 rotations

[shell forum]

Relatively simple.

• some slight rotation when turning to the side if I see that correctly. Just multiply the yaw by a smaller factor and set the neck bone yaw.

[vagrant grail]

But where exactly in the Character BP, I need precise instruction otherwise I don't understand

[shell forum]

Not in the character BP

in an animation blueprint

assigned to your player's skeletal mesh

[dark edge]

Assuming you want ControlRotation to be your aim/view direction:

HeadRot = GetBaseAimRotation()
BodyYaw = SomeFunction(BodyYaw, Velocity, etc). You can probably do it with Orient Rotation to Movement but that won't just hand you the turn-in-place.

[dark edge]

By his example he wants yaw too but yeah start with pitch only

[vagrant grail]

I have this in my AnimBP; what should I do next ?

[shell forum]

For some reason the default player spawning/possessing procedure doesn't work. Works perfectly for the host, then nothing else happens for the others.

[dark edge]

Have you confirmed that HeadRotation is correct?

[vagrant grail]

Heu nope how to "confirm" the HeadRotation is correct ?

[shell forum]

Well it would help to have an understanding of rotators and such.

[dark edge]

However you want. Have it move a static mesh around, draw a debug arrow, print it, whatever.

[fathom aspen]

Note if it wasn't created at runtime, i.e attached to the actor at compile time then it doesn't need to be replicating as long as the actor is replicating

[shell forum]

then you can get the baseaimrotation in the eventupdateblueprintanimation.

and assign that to the pitch

or head rotation or whatever

and modify the bone

but multiply by -1 to inverse the pitch

[vagrant grail]

I have this in my BP_Character, is this what you're talking about ?

[shell forum]

No, it needs to be done in the animbp eventgraph

[pliant moss]

Yeah it is static. but i do pass in some variables at runtime

[vagrant grail]

Then I still don't understand what to do, could you give me instructions in steps like this please ?
step 1 - Do something
step 2 - Do something else
step 3 - Do ...

[dark edge]

Read up on AnimBP

AnimBP event graph copies data from Pawn to its own variables.

Then the AnimBP animation graph uses its own variables.

Show your animbp event graph

[shell forum]

Do the same but for the pawn's base aim rotation pitch, multiply by -1, and set it to a variable

create a pitch variable in the animbp

[vagrant grail]

Done, next step ?

[pliant moss]

But i should be able to call a server function from inside an client function right? and it should still run on the server

[shell forum]

I just said the steps.

You don't need aim rotation as a variable.

Watch the tutorial I linked above earlier.

It will guide you through exactly what you want.

[vagrant grail]

I think the tutorial above uses the Tick() function, is it good ? Because I learned to avoid Tick() function as much as possible and go through events instead (except if it's really not possible otherwise)

[dark edge]

This is all on the anim bp

and something like updating something based on aim IS a thing that would be on tick.

Event Blueprint Update Animation is sorta like the AnimBP's Tick

[graceful flame]

You could make a black box at 0,0,0 and add some loading sprite inside there, then just make sure the rest of your level is positioned above 0,0,0.

Or hide 0,0,0 inside some rock or something

[pliant moss]

omfg.. found the issue. i was calling ServerTargetActorSelectionSuccess_Implementation instead of ServerTargetActorSelectionSuccess. Apperently it runs on the client then

jeeeesssseee. atleast i will be able to go to sleep now

[fathom aspen]

I had doubts. Well no you never call _implementation unless you override it

[pliant moss]

Yeah it was just a stupid copy and paste misstake

Anyways, thanks for helping me along the way. going to bed, cya!

[fathom aspen]

Looks like so

They are both called on server

Possessing and OnRestartPlayer

[fluid summit]

Hi! i think i'm running into some troubles by using soft objects references

i'm using this Structure to hold the info about some tiles (the floor)

i have one array of those Structure , that OnRep i use to update the static mesh of all the tiles on the client

i was thinking on use "Soft object ref" because if i use the direct ref, the array gets really big in size extremelly quickly and fails to replicate

the problem with the "Soft object ref" is that even if the resolve is okey, it fails.

This gets fired "OnRep" works okey if i use the "Object ref" but fails to update the static mesh if i use "soft object ref"

not sure why is this happening (the soft ref resolves fine) or how to workaround it, any suggestion?

[elder sage]

what would be the basic method to store teams of players, and also to change gameplay attributes based on the team something originates from? An example would be how in Overwatch, some vfx are reduced in intensity if they originate from the same team as the local player

I'm thinking something like using the player state array's onrep to map each player state to an int, representing the team number. Then you can just call that from your game mode when needed for things like material functions

[dark edge]

Yes an int on playerstate would be pretty good

Pawn can get from playerstate, and most things have Instigator attached so you can trace up to originating pawn

[elder sage]

I was initially thinking I'd create a map on the game mode but I remember now that it's not replicated

I'd like to avoid casting the player state every time I need to get the team number. Maybe I'm just overthinking it though

[fluid summit]

I found a workaround by not passing the ref and using "get child at index(x)". But i'm getting some replication race problem for those childs

[dark edge]

You can have pawn carry team too

Or even have a teamcomponent

Can particles read from Parameter Collection?

I'm fairly certain they can, in that case, put TeamInt on a material parameter collection too

[elder sage]

I'm liking the idea of a team component. That's something I don't think to use enough

[vagrant grail]

I succeed making the head of the character rotate with the camera but of course only the client can see that, I tried to set the "HeadRotation" variable to be replicated to see if others will see the head rotate and they don't. I'm stuck now https://i.gyazo.com/3238da878b67517b59b7d01dfc0f560e.mp4

[fluid summit]

Just in case anyone has a similar problem, i solved this by adding one ActorComponent for each tile that holds the references and its set to replicate.
The static mesh references is set to replicate OnRep and you trigger that one OnBeginPlay.
that way each component handles the update to the Clients when they spawn and you don't need to store the StaticMesh reference in one array

[elder sage]

what is the control rotation at this point? There probably isn't one set if it's not the local player, as there isn't a replicated controller

[vagrant grail]

I don't understand your question

[elder sage]

breakpoint and see what this value is if not locally controlled

[humble bane]

i know am late but thank you

[prisma pelican]

is there a method to set player controller properly? the server can read everything except for is Input Key Down from player controller

[elder sage]

player controller doesn't replicate, so that would be your issue if you're acting as if it would

[vagrant grail]

Hold on, do I have to set up something for the "if not locally controlled" part ? And I can't put a breakpoint on that node as it's a pure function I think

[elder sage]

you would breakpoint the thing that calls it if it's a pure node

[vagrant grail]

So here then ?

[elder sage]

also, you can't use control rotation iirc because that is set directly by the controller

make the local player set a replicated value, and its onrep can also send that to the anim BP

[vagrant grail]

I don't know how to do that, tell me steps to do that please

[elder sage]

those are the steps

[prisma pelican]

@elder sage what would i use instead of player controller?

do i have to assign each player to a controller before run time?

[vagrant grail]

It's not clear for me

[elder sage]

that happens automatically when the game mode starts the players. You cannot replicate player controllers. You need to get that value locally and then store it in the player state or something

[elder sage]

just run this on local only and rpc the server to set that value. Most of your setup is correct

another part of your issue is probably that a client can't set something and expect it to replicate. The server is authoritative and will have to do that if you don't want it to be corrected

[vagrant grail]

So running "on local" you mean run 1 player ?

[elder sage]

"is locally controlled"

because the local player has a player controller

then you rpc the server to set that rotation

[vagrant grail]

The tutorial I followed he used Tick() and I'm not confortable the way he did it as I think there's a better way to do it

[elder sage]

somebody else already said it, but this is the kind of thing you do on tick

what do you want to do, not update this value in real time?

[vagrant grail]

like update it when the mouse moves, isn't it a better idea ?

[elder sage]

you can also do that

it kinda doesn't matter because the mouse would be moving so much

however, those axis events fire constantly, even if there isn't an update to the value

[vagrant grail]

oh then it's the same as the tick()

[prisma pelican]

@elder sage does get player state, then get player controller work?

[elder sage]

basically, yes

[prisma pelican]

because player state can be replicated

but it still does not read

[elder sage]

the player controller is not replicated. It does not exist for those who it isn't replicated to. Any attempts to get its value will return "None", because there is nothing to reference

do what you want with that information

[prisma pelican]

aight ty

[elder sage]

you should read the Cedric network compendium if you haven't already

read it all the way through, skip c++ stuff if you want, and then reference it often

[prisma pelican]

alright time to start reading

[tranquil yoke]

I have a component, in which i have a replicated Variable

    bool bHasParent;```
for some reason, whenever i update this parameter on server, it is not replicating to Simulated Proxies.
I have no idea why this is happening.

on the other hand this seems to work 
```    UPROPERTY(EditDefaultsOnly, ReplicatedUsing = OnRep_ReplicatedTransform, Category = "RepComponent|Networking")
    FCustomTransform ReplicatedTransform;

Server Functions :-
Sending bool

{
    if (Comp)
    {
        Comp->bHasParent = hasParent;
        Comp->GetOwner()->ForceNetUpdate();
    }
}

Sending CustomTransform

void APlayerController::Server_SendTransform_Implementation(URepComponent* Comp, FCustomTransform NewTransform)
{
    if (Comp) 
    {
        Comp->ReplicatedTransform = NewTransform;
        Comp->GetOwner()->ForceNetUpdate();
        if (Comp->bUpdateOnServer)
            Comp->OnRep_ReplicatedTransform();
    }
    
}

[prisma pelican]

tyty

[vagrant grail]

@elder sage I did this for now, is it good ? What do I have to do next ?

[dark edge]

Input is local only

[prisma pelican]

@dark edge i see ty ill figure some other way

[dark edge]

What are you trying to do?

[prisma pelican]

check hold down duration

[dark edge]

Input can only get to the server through run on server events

So you'll have to either send button down and up as events or send held duration with the up or however you wanna do it.

Some stuff is automagically synced through components or Character but that's all run on server events behind the scenes.

[prisma pelican]

yeah it works now!

i called the event to server too early before

thanks mate @dark edge still got alot of reading to do lol

[pure mango]

I'm experiencing such a weird issue
I have a replicated LinearColor, just the usual
It works like 90% of the time and the color is correct but sometimes it's black for some reason
I added print statements and noticed the color values are correctly replicated but for some reason sometimes the alpha value is NOT replicated?

For why reason is it that the RGB is correctly replicated, but not the alpha? And why only sometimes it doesn't work?

[thin stratus]

@pure mango are you 100% sure you don't have a 0 alpha somewhere in your setup?

[pure mango]

Hm, I do have a tick that by default sets it to 0,0,0,0 if nothing interesting is happening
So actually if I change the default to 0,0,0,1
Then it now works
However interestingly, if I set the default to 1,1,1,1 (white)
Then occasionally the color will be like 1,1,0.617366,1... when it should've been 0,0,0.617366,1
So what this means is.. it's like.. partially replicated which is really strange. I'd figure you replicate it all or none of the LinearColor variable

[fathom aspen]

PlayerController is replicated to owning client only. It's null on simulated

[chrome bay]

FLinearColor doesn't replicate atomically so with packet loss, there's a good chance that changes to it's internal properties will arrive out of order

[tranquil yoke]

but if the variable inside a Component, which is available on Autonomous, Server and Simulated. we send the state via RPC on Server, it should automatically replicate to Autonoumous and simulated, right ?

and RPC is happening, via PlayerController.

[twin juniper]

hi
I am making online game that have mini board games
I want to create session on server that has 2 players on it

anyone have any idea how i should do that??

[eternal pumice]

Hello people! I am new to ue4 networking and am just curious about something. I need my game to have a 100 players in a match, but I doubt unreal editor or even after building my projects client, my pc will be able to handle that many game instances. Any way I could do this stuff so that my pc does not die?

[bitter oriole]

You will pretty much need to test this in real-world conditions. Test with two machines connected to one server, and if everything works well, you can move on to real-world testing with your user base.

Remember, 100 players is insane

Very difficult to optimize, and almost impossible to get the players

[eternal pumice]

I think you are right

But it'll be a task explaining it to the client

[prime island]

Hi guys, if I want to test multiplayer through Advanced steam session with 2 Pc's , I always need to package my project, and than pass it to the other desktop? Isn't it enough to just copy the project files to my other desktop and launch it as Standalone? Thanks in advance!

[pure mango]

Huh, interesting
Strange there's packet loss though since this was done locally in UE Editor during development

[twin juniper]

anyone?

[supple vessel]

Hello i developed my dedicated server and if i use IPV4 adress for Open level node. It works for the same LAN
But i want to make connectable for different LAN's so i changed the IPV4 adress with my computers IP but it's not working now. How can i do my ggoal

[gilded merlin]

You have to forward ports in your router

@supple vessel if you want I can show you how to do that, we can go voice

[supple vessel]

i am not available not now can you send a video or something ?

[gilded merlin]

Guys, any idea why server doesn't get client movement replication anymore when client is attached to other actor? (Attached on server and all clients) (I use acharacter for movement)

[gilded merlin]

Not really, what router do you have?

[supple vessel]

Im from turkey and im using turktelekom as router

[gilded merlin]

you have to open your default router address (something like 192.168.1.1 probably) and look there to forward your ports

[supple vessel]

in router adress i created a port (7777) then i changed open level as
myipadress:7777

did i do something wrong ?

[gilded merlin]

Seems alright, but I need to see that to tell you 100%

[supple vessel]

Im at the school rn if you want i can send the photos tonight

[gilded merlin]

sure

[spark fractal]

how do I check if ClientTravel has failed?

[spark fractal]

looking to make sure the ip the user enters is valid before putting it into the clienttravel or if it fails let the user know

[pliant moss]

Im a bit confused by the documentation. If i have a playerController that should have a Replicated character reference. What do i put in the DOREPLIFETIME and why?

[bitter oriole]

The Character

Looks fine to me

[pliant moss]

But i want to understand whats going on. What is the first argument. could it be something else then the current class in some special cases?

[bitter oriole]

It's a macro that generates code and needs the class name + variable name

Here's what it does.

#define DOREPLIFETIME_WITH_PARAMS_FAST(c,v,params) \
{ \
    static const bool bIsValid_##c_##v = ValidateReplicatedClassInheritance(StaticClass(), c::StaticClass(), TEXT(#v)); \
    const TCHAR* DoRepPropertyName_##c_##v(TEXT(#v)); \
    const NetworkingPrivate::FRepPropertyDescriptor PropertyDescriptor_##c_##v(DoRepPropertyName_##c_##v, (int32)c::ENetFields_Private::v, 1); \
    RegisterReplicatedLifetimeProperty(PropertyDescriptor_##c_##v, OutLifetimeProps, params); \
}

Replace c, ##c, v and ##v in that code and you have valid C++

[pliant moss]

okay so basically. Everytime i want a replicated variable i allways use the current class name and the varible?

[bitter oriole]

Pretty much

[pliant moss]

Alright. thanks man

and playerControllers are replicated by default so i dont have to set the bReplicates = true

[echo geode]

My custom GameState class Tick function is not working. I created a timer on the server side, i want to show remaining time in the UI. Can anyone help?

[lime echo]

Can I strive to make a game that supports both Listen Server and Dedicated Server? Or do I need to make two projects and adjust each one's code for its server-mode?

[bitter oriole]

It's very doable, yes

Though arguably if your game works with listen why bother

[lime echo]

I have an issue with execution order, where I need to know what calls first: APawn::SetupPlayerInputComonent() or APawn::BeginPlay.

And in the order is different between these modes.

[bitter oriole]

You probably don't need to know

SetupPlayerInputComponent should only bind a bunch of functions

[lime echo]

I do, because I need to bind my anim instance to some actions, and it is initialized only in begin play according to the gun the client chooses.

Do you think it's bad practice and instead I should bind it to the pawn, and then from pawn callback, call a function on the anim instance?

[bitter oriole]

SetupPlayerInputComponent should just be a list of bindings actions to pawn functions

Your anim instance should normally be entirely read-only, with its Blueprint graph pulling the pawn's state

[lime echo]

Alright! That does solve the coupling between the two. And any other actor that needs input (like a gun), should just be a pawn, instead of relaying on the main pawn's input?

[bitter oriole]

A gun should probably be a component and read input from pawn

[lime echo]

Yeah, but my gun system is very big and modular, so components are not enough. I need an actual actor.

[bitter oriole]

Still want to read from the pawn

[lime echo]

But then the problem returns. They will subscribe in in their AActor::BeginPlay after spawned from the APawn::BeginPlay, and will subscribe to the pawn's input, meanwhile the input component might not have been initialized, since APawn::SetupPlayerInputComponent was not called yet.

[bitter oriole]

They will subscribe in in their AActor::BeginPlay after spawned from the APawn::BeginPlay, and will subscribe to the pawn's input
No, they will not have any input code

They will check for an owner, cats it to your pawn class, and then read the input state with some getter

[lime echo]

So the pawn will have it's own delegates (or variables) which will share input data with the guns?

[bitter oriole]

getters

[lime echo]

Cool! Thank you man very much for your advices! That cleared my mind!

[obtuse field]

Why my seamless travel doesn't work?
I made such function:

void UMiscFunctions::ClientTravelTest(APlayerController* PlayerController, const FString& IP)
{
    PlayerController->ClientTravel(IP, ETravelType::TRAVEL_Relative, true);
}

And I'm calling it in blueprints, but it doesn't teleport me to another server. It just shows black screen. Everything works fine if I use OpenWOrld instead of ClientTravel, so this isn't a problem with my connection

[bitter oriole]

Not sure what you're doing here but you can never seamless travel between servers

[obtuse field]

Can I?
UE4's site: https://docs.unrealengine.com/4.27/en-US/InteractiveExperiences/Networking/Travelling/ says:
"If called from a client, will travel to a new server"

[bitter oriole]

Seamless travel is only for a client, connected to one server, when the server switches levels

From that page:

There are three ways in which a non-seamless travel must occur:
When loading a map for the first time
When connecting to a server for the first time as a client
When you want to end a multiplayer game, and start a new one

[obtuse field]

Hmm... ok

Then, I guess I can travel non-seamlessly to a new server, right?

If so, what's the difference between non-seamless travel and open level node?

[bitter oriole]

The documentation page you link explains that

With the added data that the open level node should be UEngine::Browse

[latent heart]

I think the open level node will disconnect everyone?

[obtuse field]

nope, if called from the client, it connects to a server

[latent heart]

When called from a server then.

It doesn't take the clients with it.

And since a client has no clients, what I said still stands :/

[silver loom]

What's a good way to solve latency issues? I host a session & my friends movement goes crazy.

[dark edge]

Design around them.

[echo geode]

bump

[dark edge]

Are you sure?

You in BP or C++?

[silver loom]

I have. I’ve used RTCs to server & multicast via switch authority. But every time I package the game it lags. However on the editor no lag

[dark edge]

Do you test in editor with lag simulation?

[silver loom]

I have. And it lagged again

[dark edge]

P R E D I C T I O N

[echo geode]

I'm in C++

It's too weird i can't figure it out.

[odd parrot]

Hello everyone, oddly enough I have a security related question for ya!

I am currently working on a game that uses listener servers for cooperative play. My team and I would like to add some retention systems (no purchases mind you, just cool stuff people can unlock during multiple play sessions). Right now, we use the OSS's user cloud storage in order to make this happen. When a play session ends, the host sends the session score results to each client, and then they modify their user cloud storage with those results. My concern is that because we are using listener servers, the host code that authoritatively handles things like scoring and retention rewards isn't trustable considering it occurs on one of the clients. We know this is largely unavoidable considering the nature of listener servers in general, but I was wondering if there were any techniques we could take advantage of to make the process of modifying these results at least harder? My initial thought was to independently verify the session score results on each client, since we send that data to each client anyways.

Thank you for your time!

[lime echo]

Hi! I would really appreciate your help with this. Let's say I have a class AOwner which, server side, spawns a class AChild so that every client gets a AChild spawned. Now, I need each AOwner to get access (pointer) to the AChild that was spawned on his connection (essentially the AChild that he owns). However, only the server can access the child he spawned. So how can I get this to happen? Thanks! 🙂

[latent heart]

Some more context might help

see http://thexyproblem.info

[lime echo]

But I explained my desired behavior, not my attempted solutions.

[fluid summit]

A) If you are spawning one AChild for every Client on server side, you can get an array or some list.
B) If you are spawning one AChild for every Client on Client Side Only, you have no way to access it with a pointer from the server.
What you can do on B is execute whatever you need with a RPC(OnOwningClient) and run your logic, you can access the reference to the client from there

[latent heart]

Your desired behaviour is an attempted solution to a problem.

[dark edge]

Store ref to child in owner when spawned

Owner and child are replicated actors right?

[lime echo]

I already do

[lime echo]

yeah

[dark edge]

ok so what's the problem?

is the ref replicated?

[latent heart]

You're replicating every actor to every client, regardless of who "owns" it?

[lime echo]

The problem is that I have ref from child to owner, not from owner to child.

[dark edge]

In Owner, spawn child, then set a ref on self.

[latent heart]

Have a tmap on the owner and then cry when it doesn't work with replication 😄

[dark edge]

Owner
SpawnActor(child) -> Set MyChildRef

[latent heart]

The issue is that it's 1 owner and many children, I think, adriel.

So you'd need a TArray of children.

[dark edge]

he says many Owners and 1 Child per owner

[lime echo]

I would've just spawned every child from every actor locally, but I need child to be properly replicated, not just spawned on every client.

[latent heart]

Let's say I have a class AOwner which, server side, spawns a class AChild so that every client gets a AChild spawned
Nowhere does he mention multiple owners

[dark edge]

next sentence

[fluid summit]

What is your relationship for owner->child?
1-1
1-n?

[latent heart]

Good point, Adriel. I shall try reading next time! 😄

[lime echo]

Lol

[dark edge]

This is very much an XY problem question though, Owner having ref to Child is trivial.

[thorny saddle]

hey folks

    if (bPrivateInventoryReplicate)
    {
        DOREPLIFETIME_CONDITION(UPCSInventoryActorComponent, Inventory, COND_OwnerOnly);
    }
    else
    {
        DOREPLIFETIME(UPCSInventoryActorComponent, Inventory);
    }

[lime echo]

So what can I do to make it trivial in my case?

[latent heart]

And so is child having a ref to owner

[thorny saddle]

why this not working?

[fluid summit]

OnBeginPlay (Owner) -> SpawnChild ->Set ref

profit

[latent heart]

Where do you set that bool?

[thorny saddle]

it is edit default

[latent heart]

And how do you create the component?

[lime echo]

But then the child is not actually replicated, but just spawned on every connection. I need child data to sync.

[thorny saddle]

    UPROPERTY(EditDefaultsOnly)
    bool bPrivateInventoryReplicate = true;

[thorny saddle]

oh i get it

in constructor

[fluid summit]

Child -> Replicates (true).
I don't understand what is the problem

[latent heart]

BeginPlay triggers on both the server and client, so spawn the child and set the ref when the server beginplay is called

[thorny saddle]

and how can i fix this btw any idea?

[latent heart]

Honestly no idea. Should work?!

[thorny saddle]

edit default only ,change in constructor btw ?

[lime echo]

So you say that if I spawn locally the child on every connection, and child is set to bReplicates = true, then it will actually replicate? Isn't there a need to spawn it on the server?

[latent heart]

Nothing spawned on the client will ever replicate.

[latent heart]

What?

A UObject/AActor constructor is only for defaults.

[fluid summit]

Why would you spawn it on the client? Spawn it on the server side. If it's set to replicate, it's going to spawn a proxy actor for the client.
I think you are misunderstanding how replication works

[thorny saddle]

so can i change replicate condition in runtime?

i mean in beign play

[latent heart]

No.

[lime echo]

That's what I'm doing, but that's also where the problem raises, since each proxy actor doesn't have access to the child spawned on his connection.

[thorny saddle]

and how about set it in begin play ?

not change

no?

[fluid summit]

Show code/blueprint please

[latent heart]

Set/Change = same thing. You don't want to change the value in BeginPlay at all. It will (probably) call lifetime replicated properties before beginplay

And it only calls it once.

So if you cahnge it after that function is run, it will make no difference.

[unkempt tiger]

Does anyone else find that the FPS is awful when playing with 2+ players in PIE as client? I can't really comfortably test anything due to the bad performance, I don't remember this was the case back in 4.26 (right now on 5.0.2)

[lime echo]

Owner.h

AChild* Child;

Owner.cpp

func BeginPlay():
  if (HasAuthority()) SpawnChild(); // Spawn child via server.

func SpawnChild():
  Child = SpawnActor<AChild>(...); // AChild's bReplicates = true

Now the problem is that meanwhile the child is spawned for every connection and is properly replicated, only the the AOwner actors on the server, have a reference to their child (on the server) that was set when they spawned it in AOwner::SpawnChild.

[latent heart]

AChild* Child;

[fluid summit]

are you replicating the variable "Child"? Not the Child itself, but the variable that points to the child.

[lime echo]

nope

[fluid summit]

the pointer is never going to be replicated to the clients if it's not set to replicate

[lime echo]

Yeah, but I didn't try to replicate it. As I understand, replicating it will just sync the value of the server with all the proxys, which is not what I need. I need that each AOwner (regardless if proxy or not) will have to the child spawned on his connection.

Sorry for being long with this one, I'm just new to multiplayer and trying to get down the fundamentals well.

[fluid summit]

Replicate the Owner, replicate the Child, Replicate the reference to the Child.
When you want to access the Child that everyone has on the ClientSide ->

Get the child ref from server side and execute whatever you want on RPC -> OnOwningClient

https://cedric-neukirchen.net/Downloads/Compendium/UE4_Network_Compendium_by_Cedric_eXi_Neukirchen.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsORRtBOJYc&list=WL&index=2&t=618s

[lime echo]

Thanks, I'll look into this. Anyways it seems like something is wrong with my setup (in which the owner needs a ref to it's child).

And in general, thank you all for your help!

[dark edge]

It should be this simple
In Owner
Spawn Child -> Set Ref

with ref being replicated

[lime echo]

For each proxy owner, will "ref" refer to the proxy child that is on the same connection (that proxy owner is in), then?

[fluid summit]

Nothing on server side points to anything on ClientSide, but if you spawn one actor with replication on, you will have.
Server Actor
|
Client ProxyActor - Client ProxyActor2 - Client ProxyActorN

if you want to access the Client version of any replicated actor, from the server. You need to do a RPC-OnOwningClient

Which kinda loses sense if you are replicating the actor, because it's going to be the same version for everyone.
I can only think of this being usefull for using non-replicated properties of The ChildActor

[lime echo]

That's what I wanted to avoid - getting a full copy from the server, instead of communicating with the local proxy that is already replicated with only important data.

[dark edge]

Yes. It'll be one and the same, but NON replicated variables will be able to differ

What exactly are you trying to do? It feels like you're missing how replication works.

[lime echo]

Yeah I'm starting to feel this too...😄😄😄 If you want I can explain the whole picture (it really is fine if you're done with me and my long discussion 😄). So far I tried to simplify it but it just seam to create confusion.

[dark edge]

Just spell out the InGame mechanic

[lime echo]

I have a class "Player" that has two fields of type "Weapon" (extends actor). Now Weapon is made to be very modular to create whatever weapon I want without extra code (uses composition). Now, Player sometimes asks weapon for abstract questions like CanSprint() to prevent sprinting when reloading, for exapmle. On the other side, weapon needs to ask it's Player questions like IsSprinting() to prevent reloading while sprinting. My Idea, was replicating the Player class and the Weapon class and let each pair on each machine communicate with each other, while both classes are updated from the server. That's why I need references between both.

[pliant moss]

This sounds like something GameplayAbilitySystem would be used for.

[fluid summit]

What about using ActorComponent for the weapons and go with interfaces?

[lime echo]

It's fully created on single player and I really like it, I just need to network it.

[fluid summit]

If you take the client's side of the history to handle behavior on the server side, you are looking for trouble early on

[lime echo]

What do you mean of the history? That I relay on data that might have not been synced yet?

[fluid summit]

Any information that you take from the client that it's not replicated can be used to exploit your game

[lime echo]

I don't mean to do that, only trust server.

And the problem with components weapons is that you cannot have them as a nice blueprint, which means that in order to edit them in the editor I'll need to use something like a data asset.

idk, maybe I'm just protecting my weapon system. But I do feel, that changing it all just for one issue is a bit overkill.

[dark edge]

Just spawn them as replicated actors and set the replicated references.

You're not describing anything fancy

You can do NON replicated stuff with replicated actors

[lime echo]

That really is a great solution! The only issue I see with it, is that I essentially replicate the each weapon twice (correct me of I'm wrong). Once as an actor in the world, and once as a property. I'll use that in the meanwhile, until I'll find a way to nicely access the local weapon which is already replicated, on each connection from each Player class in that connection.

[rancid marten]

would this be a good place to a question about headless server stuff?

[dark edge]

You already need a property, as you need to be able to talk to the weapon. You aren't replicating the actor twice, you're replicating it AND a reference to it in the Character. That's like saying it's redundant to have an address because my house already exists.

[lime echo]

Lol actually blew my mind!😅 Thank you! That's a very clean solution! And thank you all for you're endless help and for not giving up with your explanations and solutions! You both solve my problems and teach me a lot!

[rustic charm]

Would a replicated UPROPERTY with COND_OnlyOwner replicate itself if the owner is later set?

[dark edge]

Try it. I'd guess so since "Considered for replication" is a thing

[rustic charm]

I tried, seems so

[short arrow]

just ask the question fam

[rancid marten]

thanks got some good leads in the source channel figured it was a better suited question for them

[real ridge]

guys I have sql database with php script with logged players in game when I logg in game I can find a match then I will open lobby and there I Have table in this table I am downloading names from my table to know who is finding match too to make a battle but how to know if someone new start finding match or someone will left ? i need update that table but how to know when update ? i cant update every second because then I ma printing all names in table in row again and again

any tips ?

[fluid summit]

maybe try Steam advanced sessions? i don't think a sql database is the best solution for that sort of things

[real ridge]

i am coding in c ++ i dont use blueprints a much but why to dont have own database of players ?

i have own dedicated server

with eos and sesssions

and own database where I am coding backend

for matchmaking

[latent heart]

The trouble will be maintaining it after you release or if it gets popular. Chances are you re not writing a scalable system.

And it's probably not going to work 100%.

Does eos or steam not already have the ability to list players looking for games?

[real ridge]

steam maybe EOS I think not eos dont have matchmaking they just saying it

but not really

[real ridge]

it wont be popular hahahahhahaha

:DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

[rustic charm]

it's gonna be EXTREMLY popular, good luck

[real ridge]

but what is then more scalable ?

[latent heart]

I'm not sayi matchmake through steam or eos necessarily, just let them handle the player lists and who is looking for a match.

You can still matchmake yourself and spin up dedi servers.

[real ridge]

but atleast I need own database of registered/ players , their loggins

emails

and so on

for this i am just using my own database

via varest

[latent heart]

Why? Use steam and eos accounts?

[real ridge]

i am using login via eos but I wanna also to use own login so they can register in webbrowser

and i will store their data

in database

why stick with only one login possibility

[latent heart]

That's going to make people not play your game.

[real ridge]

why ? i know many games where u have to register like warthunder or world of warplanes you make an account and can play

or play just via steam

[latent heart]

There's a difference between games with a big enough pull to require users to register.

You said yourself, your game won't be popular.

If I have to register on some website to play a game, I'm probably not going to.

You can't just say, "well Blizzard makes people register with them to play Wow, so it's fine for me."

[twilit radish]

Also regardless of the whole discussion. You probably don’t want a persistent database for matchmaking. Your clients should interact with your website / backend to request a game or cancel the request. Your servers should then based on those requests matchmake people in the queue together. This can all be done in memory and by communicating with other servers.

You could use Redis or similar if you want an in memory database if you’re afraid of crashes but sql seems like a bad choice honestly.

[real ridge]

so varest php and SQL Ngmi?

not gonna make it

😂

better to take tips from someone like u ..

[real ridge]

yea but I am giving them a choice login via Eos they don't have to register or create account and login with own data

[fluid summit]

i did the same setup as my first project to learn multiplayer.

I would not recommend the database to handle the logged/players looking for games stuff.
The database can be handled ok with mysql for player information, statistics, config, etc.
The login may be easier with Firebase (good free plan and easy to setup) and the matchmarking with steam.
That's all the experience i have on that area

[real ridge]

i have already experience with firebase

sounds good

i was using it for storing loging data in my app

[real ridge]

why matchmaking with steam it's free there?

can I more talk about it with u in DM Tommorow?

[clever verge]

the OnPossess() function on the APlayerController, it only run on the server?

[prisma pelican]

is there a point in using switch has authority if it's a listen server?

[dark edge]

yes

That's your test for if you're on the server

[prisma pelican]

I see, I thought that a listen server is from one client hosting so therefore it would always return remote

thanks @dark edge

[dark edge]

You basically have 4 choices.

Host's pawn on Host= Authority and locally controlled
Client's pawn on Host = Authority and NOT locally controlled
Host's pawn on Client = NOT authority and NOT locally controlled
Client's pawn on Client = NOT authority and locally controlled

[short arrow]

yes

[clever verge]

thanks

[red furnace]

Does anyone have a few minutes to take a look at my project and help me with some multiplayer concepts?

I was hoping to stream my screen in one of the vacant channels, maybe the Programmer Parlor or just a personal call 😁.

[graceful flame]

Have you read the PDF?

[red furnace]

eXi's yeah 😁

[graceful flame]

yup that one

[red furnace]

It's been a awhile but I guess i can read it again.

[graceful flame]

Asking here with great detail and screenshots is also a good strategy, lots of eyeballs here.

[red furnace]

haha for sure. I just feel there are so many parts to this problem i didn't want to bog up the chat.😋

I'll see if I can really refine the question. I think my lack of knowledge is in ownership.

[fossil spoke]

1. Engine code, Pushmodel is relatively simple and is used everywhere.

2. Yes, significance manager helps you manage reducing performance costs for Actors, it is not specifically tied to Network performance.

3. Custom Net Serialization is simply the act of manually managing how data is packed when being sent across the network (for performance and other magic). It is useful for custom types you define.

[ripe basin]

@fluid summit Watched that Multicast & RepNotify vid, super engaging and fun. I'm sad there's no Part 5 even just to watch him explain shit I might already know but in a fun way. lol 😭

[fossil spoke]

4. Fast Arrays are what they are in the name, a faster way (performance wise) to replicate a regular array.

@sonic dock It is best to read the documentation and especially the Engine Code as these things are well commented and explained in extreme detail.

[red furnace]

Tried to make a quick info graphic of the problem I'm having. In short, I know its a replication concept I'm missing but I can't figure out what. I even made a different project with a simplified process and it works there but not in my main project😋 .

project that doesn't work^

the sample project that works^

[red furnace]

As a caveat, all the tiles are spawn on the server. Any ideas why the server isn't replicating to the client?

[sonic dock]

Thanks a lot @fossil spoke, will really look into it 😄

[sonic dock]

Just to clear, for net serialization. If I am not replicating any of my custom structs then i don't need it right? Also we don't consider it for enums right?

[fossil spoke]

Any custom type that is a USTRUCT, UENUM, UCLASS or POD type will be serialized for you.

You dont need to handle serialization yourself if you dont want to.

[bitter oriole]

(assuming UPROPERTY tag on those members)

[fossil spoke]

That to of course.

[warped sentinel]

Hi guys I got a problem I've been try to get my head around for a couple of weeks, basically I got a listen server with 2 player ( player 1 is the server player 2 is the client) I been trying to get rpc run on server on player 2 charcter blueprint or player 2 player controller but neither rpc seems to work it just skip the node at start I thought it might be because of ownership but the problem also appeared on player 2 controller and the log didn't show anything about ownership I could send pic of my code if needed

[sonic dock]

Thanks, just last one. Suppose I have a custom struct, when should I consider implementing my own serialization instead of default one.

[bitter oriole]

If you have types that cannot be automatically serialized

Like a complex non-Unreal class

[fossil spoke]

Or you want it packed in a specific way.

[sonic dock]

Oh okkay

[fossil spoke]

You may only care about partial pieces of information being sent across the network, you maybe able to extrapolate whats missing on the other end.

Therefore saving on bandwidth.

[marble gazelle]

But if you do that, be aware that these won't work with the BP VM, so they can't be function local variables or custom pins, as the VM just serializes Reflected properties <.<

[bitter oriole]

Arguably a lot oft hat is possible by slapping NotReplicated on a member

[fossil spoke]

And also by using smaller types.

[sonic dock]

Hmm so basically if I have my own replicated struct and I don't want some members to be replicated then I can use it right?

But then NotReplicated will do the work

[fossil spoke]

You can specify which UPROPERTY members are not replicated.

[sonic dock]

Just last doubt. Can you give an example use case where we want serialization which can't be simply done with NotReplicated tag

[bitter oriole]

You only need custom serialization for non-Unreal classes that you cannot bring into the Unreal model / Unreal classes that don't replicate yet still want replication support for. That's it, plainly. You can use custom serialization for optimizing stuff, too, but imho it's rarely useful.

[fossil spoke]

Its not necessarily about something not being able to be done and more about managing bandwidth.

Take a look at FHitResult

Its a good reference for NetSerialization

Look at how the Struct is laid out and exposed to Blueprint, then look at how and specifically why their NetSerialization function is setup the way it is.

[sonic dock]

Thankyou so much both @fossil spoke @bitter oriole Really appreciate your help

I will look into hitresult, thanks

[fossil spoke]

Always refer to the Engine code for references on how something is done.

Its your best form of documentation.

[sonic dock]

Yes, just wanted to have a basic idea before that. thanks.

[marble gazelle]

For example if you are so crazy and want a custom generic data type, that uses a UniquePtr with some base class and you want to replicate it \o/

[sonic dock]

I see, thanks.

[warped sentinel]

?

[fossil spoke]

It is a good idea to show Screenshots.

Be thorough in your explanation

[warped sentinel]

Sure give me a couple of min

[warped sentinel]

ok the first image is the character blueprint and the second is the player controller I'm trying to do the same thing basically in both the character and in the player controller to see which one work but they both won't execute the rpc

[thin stratus]

One problem is that you CAN'T set owner on client

So the server RPC in the actor itself won't work

You need to already be on the server to set owner

The rpc on the PlayerController however should theoretically work?

Eh

1 sec

Phone autocorrected to can instead of can't

[warped sentinel]

that's what I thought the player controller RPC is my preferred way of doing it but it doesn't work

[thin stratus]

You also can't just use variables from a different exec line in your rpc

The first image bottom right

You have to pass the data along

You can't use the wires from the top event

The whole setup look super wonky tbh

No idea what hot bar ref is

But if you already have that on the server why do you need the rpc

[warped sentinel]

basically iv got a hot bar with values in the client and I need set those values on the server

[thin stratus]

What is a HotBar

What is the parent class of that

[warped sentinel]

its a widget

[thin stratus]

You can't replicate widgets

You can't send them via rpcs either

They aren't meant to be networked

They should also not hold any data to begin with

Put the data into an actor

And let the UI just display it

[warped sentinel]

hm i will try it

[sonic dock]

Hi, has anyone worked with PartialDormancy for some connections which says it calls GetNetDormancy, but the engine implementation of says that per peer dormancy is not supported.
So does it work if we want to make an actor dormant for some connections? If not then why does Partial dormancy even exist for now?

Just for reference I am talking about ENetDormancy::DORM_DormantPartial

[twin juniper]

Hey guys I need to replicate this movement for my character, what is the best way to do this when I have an axis value? I know it is wrong to pass the input directly in the replicated event right?

[chrome bay]

It's a legacy setting and does nothing. Been there since UE3 days IIRC

[sonic dock]

Once we set an actor to fully dormant then we cant bring it back to awake right?

[chrome bay]

You can, dormant just means it's not changing currently. When you change a replicated property you just need to flush dormancy

But note it will stay "awake" until you set it back to dormant again

[sonic dock]

Just doing SetNetDormancy(Awake) isn't enough?

So basically flush net dormancy is one time replicated data push ?

It will stay dormant after push ?

[twin juniper]

AFAIK it also sets it to Awake

[chrome bay]

They never stay dormant after you force an update, if you want them to go dormant you have to set them as dormant again

[sonic dock]

I just confirmed that FlushNetDormancy only brings the actor to awake for just an instant, pushes the changes & set the actor back to dormant again.