multiplayer

[nova kelp]

I have something I can't figure out:

1. I created 2 Character one AI one Player
2. Associate different AnimInst in the BPdetails Panel: AI -> ABP_ACS_AiCommon and Player -> ABP_ACS_PlayerCommon
3. in the AnimInstance of the Player I print the TryGetPawnOwner and what I don't understand is that it showing well at init ABP_ACS_PlayerCommon_C_0 -> BP_ACS_Liva_C_0

Note: They both use the same skeleton

But suddenly it's returning the Spawned AI ABP_ACS_AiCommon_C_0 -> BP_ACS_SkeletonEnemy_C_0

Do I need somewhere to setup the AnimInstance Pawn Owner on Server or something ?

[sinful tree]

What is it you're trying to do / how would your gate be using that reference? Just asking as this sounds a bit strange of a requirement.

[elder lynx]

While doing network emulation in ue 5 editor if we set emulation target to everyone, then will it add the latency and packet loss twice on both server and clients end? Because when I am testing this there is a lot of jitter observed during the player movement and the ping that is observer is double the ping that was set while enabling network emulation.

[hollow eagle]

yes, it is adding the given settings on both ends.

[thin stratus]

@elder lynx @hollow eagle only if you are playing ListenServer though. DedicatedServer doesn't use that feature.

And twice as high can be if you use In and Out. Cause what you see on the PlayerState ping is RTT iirc.

+- they factor frames into this

So the value can be misleading if you have low frames

[hollow eagle]

an in-process dedicated server in PIE definitely does use that feature

I have no clue about out-of-process. But playing as a client in PIE with an in-process dedicated server definitely applies network simulation to the server side if you ask it to.

[thin stratus]

I checked the code. DedicatedServer falls back to Server

I looked this up a couple of days ago

I can check again later when I'm at my pc

But I'm relatively sure it checks for DedicatedServer and falls back to using server

Or client

Whatever, not both at least

[hollow eagle]

I mean... yes? The dedicated server will use server settings, which means that if you have emulation enabled for "everybody" you're effectively doubling everything since both the server and client will be running network emulation.

[thin stratus]

Na I probably mixed that up. I'll send you the parts where they basically ignore the everyone setting.

Just has to wait a bit cause I just stood up and gotta get to the office first haha

[hollow eagle]

Seems that the option goes through FLevelEditorPlayNetworkEmulationSettings::IsEmulationEnabledForTarget which returns true if the selected setting is "Any" (everybody).
The server passing in server would still have emulation settings enabled.

also wtf that's a UENUM without an E prefix

did they make an exception in UHT for that...?

[thin stratus]

I could swear there are multiple lines of code that pass the enum on as Client or so specifically if it's a dedicated server.

[hollow eagle]

it wouldn't matter

if the settings are set to "Any" it doesn't care what gets passed in

but now I want to know how tf they made a UENUM without a prefix

and why lol

[thin stratus]

I'm also pretty sure I have no difference in ping when using everyone vs client on an PIE dedicated server

[hollow eagle]

I definitely do, tested a few minutes ago.

so unless it was broken pre-5.2 idk

[thin stratus]

What I looked at was 5.0. cooould be broken. But I don't think they touched that

Will double check later. I was very sure what I wrote is correct since I even tested and checked the engine code for it.

Designer on clients team also said he never noticed a difference in those settings.

[hollow eagle]

the logic behind this checks does seem to be wrong - dedicated server doesn't seem to be handled, just listen server. But it would still get affected by "Any" being enabled - just not "Server".

which is probably a bug lol

[thin stratus]

Any is an option? Isn't that called Everyone?

[hollow eagle]

it's everyone in the display name

[thin stratus]

Ah right

[hollow eagle]

UENUM()
enum class NetworkEmulationTarget
{
    Server UMETA(DisplayName = "Server Only"),
    Client UMETA(DisplayName = "Clients Only"),
    Any UMETA(DisplayName = "Everyone"),
};

[thin stratus]

Ok sure

[hollow eagle]

wait not only is that a non-prefixed UENUM, it also isn't a uint8. wtf is happening in this code

[thin stratus]

I mean the prefix is optional or not? The missing uint8 is weird though

[hollow eagle]

The prefix shouldn't be optional... now I need to test this

Huh, it does indeed work even as a BlueprintType... wat. I've definitely seen errors complaining about a lack of uint8

[thin stratus]

Even exposed it doesn't want the uint8?

Eh...

[hollow eagle]

I wonder if this was a change in 5.2

[thin stratus]

What if you actually try to expose it as member or function param?

[hollow eagle]

I did, as a UPROPERTY(EditAnywhere, BlueprintReadWrite)

I'm very confused

[thin stratus]

Magic

Maybe the macro fixes it up

Does it work to do byte math on it in BPs?

[hollow eagle]

either UHT is very bad at catching this stuff or it became more lenient in 5.2. Maybe as part of the UHT rewrite they did...

good question

yeah it still has byte functions in BP.

Looking at the new UHT C# codebase it does seem like UHT now keeps track of what the underlying type of the enum is. So... they secretly expanded enum support I guess.

[elder lynx]

Got it @thin stratus and @hollow eagle . Thanks for replying to my query.

[grand kestrel]

I tested on 5.2 just now, and have same result. Wasn't aware before, so now at least I can compress it manually 🙂

[woeful ferry]

Do you know where this map is? 😄

[grand kestrel]

This is the rounding on rotation tho. -115.312502 -> -115.312500, only the location was 1 decimal place

[queen escarp]

how would i get info from each players PLayerState from the Gamestate ?

i wanna check for a value in each playerstate wich one is highest in the gamestate

[grand kestrel]

Your screenshot shows exactly that

Can you be more specific, what isn't it doing that you need

[queen escarp]

@grand kestrel i mean in this case its not working its not getting the right one

[grand kestrel]

I think you have a fundamental learning issue here. Execution order is 1-way, you're trying to cast something that doesn't even exist to the cast node yet. You need to cast during the for each loop

@queen escarp also you're using a delay from event tick, which means every single tick, it's going to be doing that 1 second after the tick starts. Instead you should remove the delay and if you want to make sure the world has been alive for at least 1 second, then you should do Get Game Time Seconds >= 1.0

[queen escarp]

@grand kestrelyeah just saw that so i reversed it and now it kinda works ;P

aye about the delay, i just dont want it to update each frame thats why, so the get game time >= 1.0 would make it run every 1 sec instead or ?=

[grand kestrel]

It will update every frame the way you have it, except 1 second after every frame. If you only want it to run once, 1 second after the world comes up, then call it from begin play

FYI, there is no guarantee that everything is setup simply because 1 second has passed

But for prototype development, sure, you can do that

[queen escarp]

@grand kestrel oh so call it from beging play and do a loop instead is better ?

[grand kestrel]

Without knowing what you're trying to do, I can't say, I can only say that using a delay on tick isn't right

[queen escarp]

oh okey ill have to investigate that after im done with this thing

[thin stratus]

@hollow eagle Yep, I misread the code. I saw the part where it checks for IsListenServer and assigns Server vs Client, but that was just to check and the check returns true for the Any setting either way.
My bad, thanks for pointing that out.

[thin stratus]

Eh, I would need to find it

I think it's the PackageMapClient

[woeful ferry]

Awesome, thanks! 😄

[thin stratus]

Iirc it uses the PackageMap in the ActorChannel

In stuff like ::ReplicatActor and ::ProcessBunch

        AActor* NewChannelActor = NULL;
        bSpawnedNewActor = Connection->PackageMap->SerializeNewActor(Bunch, this, NewChannelActor);```

It's rather complex, so I can't help much beyond this. Last time I dealt with this was on The Ascent where we had an Engine bug with Id mismatch where the Client was unable to find the Class to spawn the Actor and was also not refreshing the Map.

[queen escarp]

ok so im trying to loop from the "gameste" thru the "playerstates" to get the score value and compare wichone is highest ,2nd higest ,3rd highest and set the m in the text, im kinda clueless on how to get the logic for that

this is what i have now anyone have time to help me :_/ ?

[thin stratus]

Right, so SerliazeNewActor calls SerializeObject . And that calls InternalLoadObject which ultimately calls GetObjectFromNetGUID

And THAT calls the same on the FNetGUIDCache class

Which then tries to find the object matching the net id

Which is what failed on The Ascent in some cases iirc. But that's 4.26/4.27 stuff.

LogNetPackageMap might be a good thing to enable logging verbose on

@woeful ferry ^

[woeful ferry]

Thank you so much! I'll look into this, hopefully we'll not have to deal with it (not done with the system that would utilize it) 😄

[thin stratus]

No worries. It's such a rare thing getting to even talk about that stuff

Was sure a fun thing to figure out when QA comes at you with "Sometimes the AI in that level just doesn't spawn on Clients."

[chrome bay]

There is an async path, though if a client doesn't actually have the class I'm not sure how it's going to serialize it safely.

You'd have to force it to serialize as a string everytime presumably

And "wait" for it to exist before trying to spawn the actor.

[thin stratus]

I can't recall what the issue exactly was, but it boiled down to the GUIDCache being shit on the Client

[chrome bay]

The danger though is you might be waiting such a long time, the buffer may overflow

[woeful ferry]

We have a very unique scenario 😄 So yea, maybe we'll encounter that rare thing

Time will tell

[chrome bay]

We had this a few times in HLL also, actors would lose their net GUID now and again and not cleanup properly. Was very odd.

Never got to the bottom of it. Not my problem anymore 😄

[thin stratus]

But I think that's 2 differnet things or? When a Class isn't loaded in the Client yet, it will async load it when this stuff comes in (or even sync load, not sure).
That was not the problem though.

The problem was that the GUID was pointing to something wrong or so

[chrome bay]

Yeah I've never dealt with an issue where the class itself doesn't exist client-side. That's going to be messy to handle.

[thin stratus]

So the client thought it had everything but it didn't and it just ended somewhere in an early return with a warning

[woeful ferry]

That's what I need to handle 😄

[thin stratus]

There was a Console Command to force recreating the Map on Client Side every idk what time.
And that fixed it. Reported it on UDN back in the day. They probably fixed it in newer versions.

[chrome bay]

The issue you have is that serializing an object requires the class

[thin stratus]

I think the thread is privat though, so as usual, no one will ever know

[chrome bay]

Without that, it doesn't know how to serialize or deserialize

[woeful ferry]

I'll probably be done with the system later today, I'll report back on the results 😄

[thin stratus]

High chance that you can't inject it the way you want outside the traditional "load pak file runtime" stuff

But curious to learn about it working hehe

[woeful ferry]

Me too 😄

Otherwise I gotta deep dive

[queen escarp]

anyone got time to help me 🙂 been stuck for a while on this, and tutorials dosent seem to help me 😛

[chrome bay]

Put the Player States into an array and "sort" if by their score value, then read the top three entries

Not sure how you do Sorting in BP with arrays, never done it

Presumably there is some way

[queen escarp]

hmm aye i suppose thats what i need help with then since i dont know how either xsd

[chrome bay]

Incredibly, there is no sort method.

[queen escarp]

xD

[chrome bay]

Looks like there's a free plugin that adds a method for it. Don't expect it to be fast though
https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/how-can-i-sort-items-in-array-by-properties/281159/12

[dark parcel]

or make your own sort function?

would be a good learning practice

[chrome bay]

How does anybody make a game in Blueprint honestly.

[dark parcel]

you just do it?

[queen escarp]

lawlz xD

[chrome bay]

As in, what a ballache it is

[queen escarp]

well

im doing it so

idnno if u can call it a "game" tho

[chrome bay]

I'm just baffled there's no Sort() function in the engine by default.

Even if it is horribly inefficient

[queen escarp]

oh wait this wont work at all

[dark parcel]

When I learn C++ at school, one of the first thing we had to do was to sort Arrays

[chrome bay]

Just create a copy of the array and sort that

[dark parcel]

efficient way/inefficient way etc

[chrome bay]

No point individually adding elements

[queen escarp]

since the playerstates gets enabled after joining right ?

[chrome bay]

Player States can be added at any time

[queen escarp]

oh ok

[chrome bay]

via players joining/leaving

[dark parcel]

I dont get that make array part

why are u pulling that node

[queen escarp]

yeah removed it

this is for preformance really

i mean if i cast on tic cost way more then creating the ref at begin play and using the reff right ?

[dark parcel]

What performance?

[queen escarp]

or have i understand it wrong

[dark parcel]

I won't recommend using cast on tick

set your references where it make sense

[queen escarp]

exactly so if i set the reff at beging play instead and use that in the tic instead

[dark parcel]

eg. when ur player stats is updated or at event begin play depending on your game

[queen escarp]

"costs" less ?

yeah so thats what im trying to do

[dark parcel]

Not sure what you want to do but set your references instead of casting

Make variable of the type, then set the reference. Then on your tick you can just get your variable

[queen escarp]

yeah but since im doing a for each loop to cast for each one, how would i make a reff to that specific player

[dark parcel]

What do you want to do?

[fathom aspen]

I do it when I want self-torture ^^

[dark parcel]

what's the whole node are suppose to do

[queen escarp]

like in this case

im casting to each players own player state right

[dark parcel]

No

You probably need whole array if you want to contain the player states but you have to take into account that player array might get updated (Eg player join or leaves)

[fathom aspen]

I noticed lately that there is a CVar so this is not the case (net.PingExcludeFrameTime=1), would it be a good idea to turn it on and call it a day?

[queen escarp]

@dark parcelexactly so this is the part where im having problems with i guess dont quite understand how to do taht

[dark parcel]

You probably want to have a cointainer (array of player states) that is updated whenever a player join/leaves

[queen escarp]

so this dosent do that automaticly ?

the player array comes from the game state by default

i suppose i should scratch this and go by a simple tutorial first tbh

since im not quite getting it

[dark parcel]

I just touched multiplayer last week, maybe other people know the answer

[queen escarp]

aye ty anyways 🙂

[dark parcel]

when you setting array however, you are just grabbing the copy of it.

[queen escarp]

yeah

[dark parcel]

So unless u update the array it will not update. If the game state already update the player array accordingly, then you can just access it?

[queen escarp]

yeah true'

[dark parcel]

I mean, if you don't get the answer here you can probably tested it

[queen escarp]

yeah i will

[dark parcel]

try to print string the value

have another comp join/leave

Guys, I have question, how often would you use Skip_Owner for replication condition? Seems like any value that requires instant change in the local system should implement this condition?

[chrome bay]

SkipOwner means it'll never replicate to the owner

So usually a value that is irrelevant for those objects

APawn::RemoteViewPitch is a good example. The local player computes the aim pitch and sends it to the server, so they don't need it to be replicated back to them.

[dark parcel]

Hmm what should I use for something like ammo then? I want the changes to happend instantly in the client system, but I also want the server to correct the value

[dark parcel]

Got this part, thx

[calm prawn]

Hi there. Can someone help me understand what I'm doing wrong here?

void ACPPCharacter::ProcessSpeed()
{

Fly = UKismetMathLibrary::FInterpTo(Fly, TargetSpeed, GetWorld()->GetDeltaSeconds(), InterpSpeed);
FVector FlyForward = FVector(Fly, 0.0f, 0.0f);
AddActorLocalOffset(FlyForward);

SR_ProcessSpeed(FlyForward);

}

void ACPPCharacter::SR_ProcessSpeed_Implementation(FVector FlyingOffset)
{
if(GetLocalRole() == ROLE_Authority)
{
AddActorLocalOffset(FlyingOffset, true);
}
}

ProcessSpeed() is inside the tick event. The problem is something like this.

1. In my client view the flying is jittery
2. In other client's view the flying is smooth.
3. If I play with the server and the client it's jittery only in the client's view.

[chrome bay]

Well usually no, because the client doesn't have authority over ammo

[thin stratus]

You could disable replication while shooting

And renable it when that ended

For that ammo property

[dark parcel]

🥹 ok, I will try that

[thin stratus]

Just an idea, not that I ever used that advice myself

.>

[short arrow]

https://tenor.com/view/power-hayden-christensen-star-wars-revenge-of-the-sith-annakin-skywalker-gif-5266504

[woeful ferry]

It worked on the first try 😄

So I don't have to dive deep down into source woho!

[fossil spoke]

@thin stratus @chrome bay Wanted to butt in on your previous conversation about Classes not being loaded for replication serialization etc just to add that we had this issue.

Our Weapons were async loaded only when needed.

Ages ago QA was complaining that sometimes Clients would not have their Weapons

It was really hard to track down what was going on cause the Server would always have the Weapons available.

And it was intermittent and only on some Clients

[queen escarp]

Why is this not working :/ i mean logically it would or am i dumb

[thin stratus]

Probably similar. We didn't have Enemy Classes AsyncLoaded. Relatively sure cause the project literally loaded itself through just looking at any given BP.

[woeful ferry]

Well aslong as the classes are created it seems to work. We compile and create the classes in runtime locally and then tell the server that I just created this class, now replicate the actor that has that class

[ruby parrot]

Hiho, how would I trigger a syncronization of a thing I interact with already?
e.g. a chest ->Player 1 opens the chest and there are 2 items in the chest
player 2 opens it now and puts a 3rd item in there.
how do i "tell" player 1 that he has to update that specific chestInventory?

[woeful ferry]

You don't. You modify the value on the server and it'll sync

Then just call an OnInventoryUpdated in your OnRep

Or if you're using FFastArraySerializer you use it's update functions, but that's another topic.

[ruby parrot]

ye, i understand the OnRep stuff, ill test that 🙂 thanks

[obtuse field]

Can I replicate struct member via class replication?

E.g. to use

DOREPLIFETIME(UMyClass, MyStruct.MyMember)

If so, is this safe?

[fossil spoke]

The struct itself must be replicated.

You can control which members are serialized

[obtuse field]

I know, but I need something a little different

[fossil spoke]

UPROPERTY(NotReplicated)

On struct members you dont want serialized

[obtuse field]

I know

What I want to. I have FastArray, and I have one several members that I would prefer to keep inside this struct

But as you know, they won't replicate, as they are inside FastArray struct, so only array is being replicated

[fossil spoke]

Huh?

The array elements will be replicated

If those elements are a struct

[obtuse field]

I know, but nothing else

[fossil spoke]

The struct will be replicated because they are part of the array

[obtuse field]

but I'm not talking about array member. I have something like this:

struct FItemList : public FFastArraySerializer
{
    GENERATED_BODY()

    FItemList() {};
    
    FItemList(AActor* NewOwner);

    const TArray<FEquipmentSlotWrapper>& GetItems();

    UPROPERTY()
    AActor* Owner; //Not replicated, but I want it replicated
    
private:

    UPROPERTY()
    TArray<FEquipmentSlotWrapper> Items;

    bool NetDeltaSerialize(FNetDeltaSerializeInfo & DeltaParms)
    {
        return FastArrayDeltaSerialize<FEquipmentSlotWrapper, FItemList>(Items, DeltaParms, *this);
    }
};

[fossil spoke]

Yeah thats not going to work

[obtuse field]

Even with this as in my actor class?

DOREPLIFETIME(AMyActor, MyStruct.Owner)

[fossil spoke]

How would you expect that to work. That member is not a member of AMyActor its a member of FItemList

Take a look at the GAS plugin and how they use FastArrays

They have good examples of achieving what you need if i remember correctly

[obtuse field]

This one?
https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/gas-companion/questions

[fossil spoke]

No

GAS itself is a plugin with the engine

Go and read its code

[obtuse field]

ok

In which category is it? 2D, AI, Animation etc.?

Can't find it

[bitter robin]

It stands for Gameplay Ability System

[kindred widget]

Why do you need this replicated? The serializer won't exist without the owner. The owner can just set itself in the Serializer in something like PostInitComponents.

[rocky kestrel]

Okay Thanks I do that

[toxic pawn]

I'm making a ready up system for my game, and the way I plan to do it is to have a replicated bIsReady field in my playerstate, which the client can tell the server to update with an RPC. But I realize that this may come with a potential problem of cheating. Since player states are replicated to all clients, what if a cheating client calls that RPC on other player states, outside of its own? I'm not even sure this is possible as I never tried to call server RPCs from anywhere but the owning client, and honestly I think it would make sense for the server to simply drop all RPCs that are not called from the owning client. Can someone confirm if this is the case? And if it's not, what measures should I take to prevent this from happening? I though of storing the ready state on the player controller, since that only exists on the owning client and the server, but unfortunately that's not suitable for me since I need the ready state of any player to be visible to everyone else.

[chrome bay]

A client can't call an RPC on an actor it doesn't own, and clients do not own other player states

They only own their own

If a client machine tries to call an RPC on an object it doesn't own, the server will ignore it

So even if you can spoof the RPC it's "secure" in that sense

[toxic pawn]

Thanks, that's what I was expecting to be the default behavior also.

And turns out, I'm really dumb, I read right past that in @thin stratus 's multiplayer compendium

[queen escarp]

how do i play something to all affected players ?

https://gyazo.com/8d17f1c2f5d1dcc20e56810b63188742

i mean in this case

i wanna play it on all players in game'

should i just use it in a multicast/ `?

[toxic pawn]

Not realy sure how you do that with blueprints, but I think you need to create a function that is called on the server, and then from the server another multicast function that just calls add loading screen

[toxic pawn]

Yes, but that multicast must be called from the server, otherwise it will get dropped

[queen escarp]

yeah

gotcha

[toxic pawn]

And judging by the image you have right now it's on the client, since on clicked is probably some UI event, no?

[queen escarp]

yeah

[thin stratus]

The website has a dark mode. I should enable that by default.

[toxic pawn]

Hehe, found the switch, thanks for telling me 😅

[ruby parrot]

Ive tried for quite a while now but this part is where i am stuck 😄
The OnRep function is in an ActorComponent (Inventory) on the chest.

the WidgetBlueprint is WB_LootContainer wich is part of the players UI.

How does the OnRep function know that Player1 is interacting with it?

[woeful ferry]

Have a delegate from your inventory that your widget has subscribed to

that is like OnInventoryUpdated

and it'll update for everyone that is in the chest

when they get the new inventory info

[ruby parrot]

brb googling what delegate is 😄

[woeful ferry]

event dispatcher in BP

https://docs.unrealengine.com/4.26/en-US/ProgrammingAndScripting/Blueprints/UserGuide/EventDispatcher/

Ignore the description for Event Dispatchers

Allows a Blueprint Class to report on its state to the Level Blueprint.

@ruby parrot

[ruby parrot]

ye, im reading 😄

its so nice that unreal actually shows proper examples and how they work in their documentation /irony off

[toxic pawn]

Going back to my question earlier about the ready system, currently I store how many players are needed at a minimum to start the game in the game mode itself. But I realized now that it may be useful for that info to be displayed also on the player's screens. How would I go about that, since game modes don't exist on the clients?

[dark edge]

GameState

[woeful ferry]

Game state, subsystem with a replicated actor

[dark edge]

Game mode is kind of weird. I wonder why they did not just have game state with guarded functions

[toxic pawn]

What's a subsystem?

[woeful ferry]

https://docs.unrealengine.com/4.27/en-US/ProgrammingAndScripting/Subsystems/

[toxic pawn]

I mean, I know roughly what subsystems are but I don't see how it connects to what I asked

[woeful ferry]

Only available in c++, but there are plugins which enables BP to make them too

[toxic pawn]

I'm working in cpp mostly so that's not an issue

[woeful ferry]

With subsystems you don't have to clutter everything in game state

and easily work with modules to separate your code

It's basically unreals way to make singletons for your game

But they don't support replication, but instead you route it from the subsystem to a subsystem actor that replicates what you want 😄

[toxic pawn]

So you suggest that instead of just adding that field that describes how many players the game needs to start on the game state, I should add it on a subsystem actor?

[woeful ferry]

Depends what you need 😛

For just a simple check like that it's probably best for game state

[toxic pawn]

Thanks for the insight into subsystems, this really helped me understand better what they are meant to do

[woeful ferry]

But if you want a game manager that is not a game state,

subsystems are the way to go

Less cluttered game state 😄

[quasi tide]

Just put the amount that is ready'd up in your game state and move on with your life.

Going the subsystem/aactor route has its own drawbacks/costs.

[toxic pawn]

Makes sense, since I'm not planning on adding a lot of stuff, it's a very simple game after all

[kindred widget]

IMO people abstract to subsystems too much. They're nice. But I've seen a lot of implementations that would be a ton easier as a simple component on the game state.

You get abstraction, code clarity, replication, all in the same class.

[woeful ferry]

Aslong as its readable 😄

idc which route you go

[ivory bear]

Does this mean that it fires just like an event that you have marked Replicatin: Run on Server?

[quasi tide]

I think its kind of funny how behind the times with components Unreal is. For so long the community (and Epic) have put stuff in the actor directly, where as most every other engine encourages a more component design.

That said - I still put stuff in the actor itself because I want to darn it!

[kindred widget]

That has always kind of confused me. I have no experience in any other engine/environment, but it just seemed obvious to put reusable gameplay code in components. I'm honestly happy that Lyra has taken a lot of steps to fix that. Thanks to EnhancedInput we can even have inputs in components now. Love that. 😄 Maybe I'll finally get traction against those pesky interfaces.

[quasi tide]

Doesn't help that the component tools in Unreal are trash compared to other things. Admittingly, I'm mostly talking about how to reference a specific component. FComponentReference is silly. Typing in the name is so archaic.

[latent heart]

UseComponentPicker meta tag?

[quasi tide]

Doesn't work for BP editor though

[toxic pawn]

As a side note, idk why epic does this, but there's also that EditWidget meta tag, or whatever it's called, that's supposed to be useful when editing vectors. But again, it only shows up on actor instances in the level, not on blueprints, where I would say they are actually more useful.

[ruby parrot]

ye thatll take me some hours/days to learn, ill get back to you once i understand that "system" 😄

thanks for now though ❤️

[rotund onyx]

Does an event need to be a "Run on Server" event if I know it will only ever be called by the server itself? I'm trying to reduce the amount of RPCs I'm calling because I have a lot and they all need to be "reliable" so I need to look into ways to keep that reliability without massively bogging down the network. At the moment I have even reliable RPC events that will just fail to work, even server side, so I'm just trying to make things function at all.

[viscid heart]

Is it guaranteed that APlayerController::BeginPlay is called before APlayerController::AcknowledgePossession(APawn* P) when playing as client in multiplayer?

[quasi tide]

No.

[wanton bear]

i have an actor im moving around, it seems it's replicated but the movement isnt

ill try checking replicate movement

well that makes things jump around weirdly

ohhh i only need to replicate the start position

[viscid heart]

AHPlayerController::AcknowledgePossession(APawn* P) my GameState is sometimes null here on clients 😭 where is a place where Pawn is possessed, GameState is valid and BeginPlay has been called? Everything I try fails when simulating lag enough times

[rotund onyx]

Sort is same vein as my last question.
Right now I run pretty much any action a client takes through their PC, which then triggers a "Run on Server" RPC that does the rest. So far this has been necessary to get the UI to send events properly (Eg. Click Button>PC Event>Server Event). If I know a client owns an actor, can I simply call an event directly in that actor instead of running it through the PC, or is that bad?

[wanton bear]

trying to think through this

spawn actor on server and set position -> replicate -> make random variables on server -> replicate to client -> move actor using random variables -> loop 0.033 second until in new position -> back to make random variables on server, ensure actor is in new final position?

[ivory bear]

Hmmm. Interesting. My pic above in green, shows a non replicated function being called by IsServer, yet my client player has an empty anim instance so the things called seem to break for the client. This means that the blendpace is missing when the client sees others change held items...the upperbody blend fails.

[quasi tide]

I don't know what this has to do with the question of "Does an event need to be a "Run on Server" event if I know it will only ever be called by the server itself?"

[keen axle]

is it possible to have client spawned ai controller controll server spawned pawn? I need this for my open world racing game

[toxic pawn]

What a healthy individual!

[quasi tide]

That sounds backwards. Why do you need it that specific way?

[keen axle]

I need it because the physics are almost like beamng. It would absolutely break the immersion if everything was done on server 😦

[keen axle]

it needs to be done that way, there is no other way

[quasi tide]

You'd have to do something entirely custom

Networked physics is a PITA

You'd pretty much have to have your own possession system and not use UE's built-in one

[keen axle]

FUCK 😄

3 years of work in shit

[quasi tide]

Possession only happens on the server

I mean...you might be able to fandangle ownership though 🤔

Overall - it's going to be a headache

[ivory bear]

Because I am having an issue with a function called from server but not (Replicated:Run on Server)

[quasi tide]

And I wasn't responding to you originally. I didn't even pay attention to your problem.

Run On Server is only for client -> server communication. If you're running a function on the server already, and it was the server that called that function, you don't need it to be Run On Server

[ivory bear]

It seems my server call (or anim instance) is hosed. Here is my client viewing the server player chaning weapons.

[rotund onyx]

I actually had a follow up to this that I forgot to ask. If the server calls a reliable run on server rpc, does that still clog up the reliable queue or should it not impact network performance?

[quasi tide]

I don't recall honestly. It could very well be treated as just a regular function call, but it could also be a reliable RPC with 0 latency so it is near instant.

[rotund onyx]

Hmm

I have some reliable stuff that works fine in editor but in a compiled game becomes quite unreliable

So I'm basically debugging that

I'm just assuming I'm calling too much stuff at once

Because my game is turn based, so I am potentially looping through a lot of actors to update them at end of turn

[keen axle]

resolved it in c++ just now 😄

spawn the car on server, set ownership to client after that

[quasi tide]

Yup. #multiplayer message

[kindred widget]

Not sure whether to ask this here or in OSS room. But I wonder if anyone would happen to know a generic way I could disable voice chat temporarily? It's causing issues during seamless travels. PlayerController seems to have functions related to toggling it, but I am under the impression that these could be turned on again with a PTT key.

[dark parcel]

@kindred widget Never touched it or know what Im talking about but is the command ToggleSpeaking 1/0?

[kindred widget]

That is what is in the player controller. A few other calls and such led me to believe this was PTT functions. Which isn't good because I don't want them to be able to enable it from PTT if I disable it.

I dunno, this may work. I don't think we use any PTT stuff.

[dark parcel]

I think push to talk have to be enabled in the config?

for PTT to happend

not sure

[winged badger]

Whats driving your voice?

[kindred widget]

Platform specific OSS stuff

[winged badger]

IVoiceChatUser?

[kindred widget]

That sounds semi right, lemme look.

IOnlineVoice children

[winged badger]

It should have functions to join/leave from a channel

As the OSS typically support multiple voice channels

I only worked with EOS one though

[nocturne quail]

Why server is spawning the item in the center of the level and not at the location of the character actor?

FTransform SpawnLocation = FTransform(FRotator(0), FVector(MyCharacterRef->GetActorLocation()), FVector(1));
MyItem->FinishSpawning(SpawnLocation);

[kindred widget]

Hmm. I think the ToggleSpeaking might work. GenericPlayerInitialization uses it to set a client's voice on/off based on game session requiring PTT.

[winged badger]

That or not using PC for anything except forwarding PTT input

OSS is there and working during seamless

[zinc acorn]

so i have something set up where when the player aims down sight it snaps the weapon to the camera for specifically the player like its supposed to be client side but on the host player it seems to replicate it to others, i have is local player as a check but it seems to not work for the host

[kindred widget]

Hard to guess without seeing logic flow.

[zinc acorn]

alright

prolly a bit scuffed to send this way but i think it will be of use 😂

[kindred widget]

And this only breaks for the listenserver host player?

[winged badger]

As in dorsnt work for host or just replicates when it shouldnt?

Big difference

[zinc acorn]

it replicates when it shouldnt basically

causing the hosts weapon to be floating behind them 😂

[kindred widget]

Probably the attachment stuff. Attachment is replicated.

[zinc acorn]

here is what is happening

[kindred widget]

Also don't use SetVisibility for local visibility. Use SetHiddenInGame. Visibility is replicated, HiddenInGame is not.

[zinc acorn]

that part seems to work fine but i will take note of that

[kindred widget]

It's just because that component isn't replicated. If it were it would cause an issue, just a nice habit.

[winged badger]

Not visible and no collisions will also turn relevancy off

[zinc acorn]

is there any way i can not replicate the attachment?

but still have the weapon be replicated because i think i still need it to be replicated

[winged badger]

Replicated actor will replicate attachments

In c++ you could hack the onrep not to exec

Im on mobile so cant really check BP code you pasted

[zinc acorn]

im thining it is probably attachment so ill probably have to delve into C++ for it which will be put on my list of 2 things i will probably need to do so for (this and if possible toggling self shadows on weapon when ads so there isnt floaty shadow haha)

[wanton bear]

how would i wait for two variables to replicate, repnotify with both and logic to check if both are done?

i guess i could make a map but

[kindred widget]

You could put them both in a single struct and set them at the same time on the server. Or just run checks in their OnReps.

[wanton bear]

if i have a custom event running on the server to set one variable and then the next variable with a repnotify on the last one to be set would that work

or could the first finish replicating after the second

[quasi tide]

No guarantees

If you are building time dependencies in your networking code, you're just inviting trouble.

[wanton bear]

thats what i figured

[kindred widget]

"Generally" most required stuff on an actor will replicate at the same time. But there is no promises. Bundling them in a struct is the only general way to deal with that if you don't want multiple onreps waiting for specific state from multiple properties.

[viscid heart]

void AElfCharacter::OnRep_PlayerState()
{
    Super::OnRep_PlayerState();
    auto* ElfWidget = CastChecked<UElfWidget>(WidgetComponent->GetWidget());
}

That works on clients, but the following cast always fails on singleplayer or listen server for the local player

void AElfCharacter::PossessedBy(AController* NewController)
{
    Super::PossessedBy(NewController);
    auto* ElfWidget = CastChecked<UElfWidget>(WidgetComponent->GetWidget());
}

WidgetComponent->GetWidget() always returns null 😭 why

[broken shale]

Curious what y’all’s thoughts are on changing teams in multiplayer games… should it only be permitted between matches or at any time?

[sudden plinth]

Between matches

[thin stratus]

I mean, that really depends on your game.

Enough games allow switching at any time if the balance is kept.

[broken shale]

It’s a goal based game. I can see the advantage of letting people switch in game if a new player joins or players leave. But I can also see the frustration of someone abusing the option to grief

[quasi tide]

Still entirely your decision. No one else can make the choice for you.

[latent heart]

Changing from the losing to the winning side should always really be blocked

[kindred widget]

IMO these are balance changes you would discuss with testers or existing playerbase.

[quasi tide]

But how else am I supposed to win 😭

[nocturne quail]

the character drop item logic should be handled in AMyController or AMyCharacter?

currently I am doing this in AMyController, and when the first client drop an item, it is working fine, but if second client drop an item, the item goes to location of first client

[graceful flame]

How can you show steam avatar without using Advanced Steam Sessions plugin? I can't seem to compile with that plugin in 5.2 anymore.

[twilit plume]

does unreal eos support mobile now ?

[queen escarp]

hey guys how would i cast to player character to get each player ?

[sinful tree]

PlayerState has a variable called "Pawn Private"

[queen escarp]

ah nice

[sinful tree]

It sort of doesn't matter, but whichever you use, you have to make sure you're using the appropriate reference to the actor you want to use for the location to drop, so you can't reliably use Get Player Character 0 in multiplayer, if that is what you're doing.

[wanton bear]

how can i simulate ping times?

i'd like to be able to test how someone with 200-500 ping would see the game

[cursive steeple]

in the PIE menu where you set the netmode, there are some advanced settings where you can simulate network latency

[wanton bear]

oh awesome they built it in

thanks

[nocturne quail]

yes I am doing the exact mistake.

AMyController.cpp calling by server reliable

AMyCharacterBase* MyCharacterRef = Cast<AMyCharacterBase>(UGameplayStatics::GetPlayerCharacter(this, 0));

if (!MyCharacterRef)
{
    printerror("MyCharacterRef is not valid", 30.0f, FColor::Green);
    return;
}
FActorSpawnParameters SpawnParams;
SpawnParams.bDeferConstruction = true;
SpawnParams.SpawnCollisionHandlingOverride = ESpawnActorCollisionHandlingMethod::AlwaysSpawn;
FTransform SpawnLocation = FTransform(FRotator(0), FVector(MyCharacterRef->GetActorLocation()), FVector(1));
APickupWeapon* NewWeaponPickup = GetWorld()->SpawnActor<APickupWeapon>(WeaponPickupStaticClass, SpawnLocation, SpawnParams);
if (IsValid(NewWeaponPickup))
{
    NewWeaponPickup->Mesh = WeaponMeshPath;
    NewWeaponPickup->Quantity = 1;
    NewWeaponPickup->FinishSpawning(SpawnLocation);
    NewCreatedItem = NewWeaponPickup;
}

[nocturne quail]

will this fix it?
if (AMyCharacterBase* MyCharacterRef = Cast<AMyCharacterBase>(GetPawn()))

[sinful tree]

Looks better.

[nocturne quail]

but the same result

the same issue

maybe there is function to GetCurrentlyPocessed and get its location

[sinful tree]

That's what GetPawn() is supposed to be.

[nocturne quail]

for me GetPawn is getting the location of the first client

[sinful tree]

There is nothing specifically in your function that looks wrong that I can see. You're getting a reference to the pawn that this controller would be possessing and attempting to spawn something at that pawn's location. There is no reason why GetPawn() would return anything other than the pawn that the current instance of the player controller is controlling. I think the issue is starting prior to your calling of this particular bit of code, like the event is being called on the wrong Player Controller if you're using the GameplayStatics anywhere else before this.

[nocturne quail]

I have to see in code, I think I used GameplayStatics in other classes

[nimble snow]

Hey anyone knows the proper way to make replicated attach actor to actor?

[sinful tree]

If you attach the actor to the other actor while running on the server, then it'll follow along on clients without issue.

[nocturne quail]

I am doing this in GameMode to call a function from character class

AMyCharacterBase* MyCharacterRef = Cast<AMyCharacterBase>(UGameplayStatics::GetPlayerCharacter(this, 0));
if(MyCharacterRef)
{
MyCharacterRef->SomeFunction();
}

I think this has nothing to do what I am doing in PC

[sinful tree]

Probably not, but GameMode only ever exists on the server, so if you're doing a GetPlayerCharacter on the server, then you'd only get a valid reference if you're running a listen server, and it'd always be the Host's character. Nevermind about the valid reference part... It'd get the first valid character but that's still likely not what you want.

[nocturne quail]

all right, and I am not doing a listen server

running as two clients in new window

[nimble snow]

I tried it with run on server event, but it's not working. What can be wrong?

[sinful tree]

Need more details than that as it could be lots of things. Like calling the run on server event on an actor that isn't owned by the client, or using an actor that isn't replicated.

[nocturne quail]

I found the main issue
the logic to spawn the weapon is implemented in controller, and called in the character class by server
if I call the logic using controller , everything works fine

any idea, calling the logic using character class is not working?

[nimble snow]

So basically, I have a shield effect which is an actor, I want to spawn and attach it to my character when input is pressed. So the shield actor would be following the character to where they go. How would I do this?

[sinful tree]

Input > Run on Server > Spawn Actor > Attach Actor to Actor (parent would be the character)

[twilit plume]

................

[nimble snow]

it looks like this but it doesn't work, what's the issue?

the actor gets spawned but not attached

[sinful tree]

It all has to do with how you're getting your references and how you may be calling into the different classes based on those references.

Something to note:
Controller has a reference to Pawn (GetPawn()) and PlayerState (Variable)
PlayerState has reference to Pawn (Through variable Pawn Private) and Controller (through GetOwner() function which you can cast to your custom controller)
Pawn has reference to controller (GetController()) and PlayerState (Variable).

This means regardless of which of these classes you're using, you can get access to the main actors that relate to a specific player that you would be able to RPC through and would primarily be used for replicating data about a player. If you use any of the GameplayStatics functions for trying to retrieve the pawn, the controller or their playerstate, you can't reliably get a specific reference you may be looking for, especially so when running on the server, so it's best to avoid using them in multiplayer entirely.

[hushed rain]

If my listen-server-developed game works while in "Play as Client" network mode does that mean it will work on a dedicated server?

[sinful tree]

Is your BP Shield actor marked as replicated?

[nimble snow]

yes

[sinful tree]

This is what I've got and it works just fine (this is executing in my Character class)

The +200 just moves the actor so it's above my actor's head 😛

[nimble snow]

okay, will try again now, thank you for reply

sorry for pinging if that disturbs you

[sinful tree]

S'all good

[boreal bison]

In my game, players have an inventory widget that lists words in their inventory (which is a variable in their playerstate). Players will also be able to mouse over each others names to pull up a list widget that has their inventory. In the game, Players can steal individual letters from words in other players inventories. Basically, I need to give players the ability to see everyone's inventory in real time, and have the UI update any time letters are successfully stolen (the stealing logic is already written).

My main question is how to structure the replication. Do I have the gamestate call a multicast to update everyone's UI to reflect the state of players' inventories when changes are made? I have logic set up for players claiming words and right now it only updates for the player doing the claiming, so they also cant see when their letters get stolen until the next time they claim words

[sinful tree]

Stateful things should be done in replicated variables. The OnRep of those variables can then be used to trigger things you want to happen when the new value is received by a client.
So if you're "stealing" from one person's inventory, you'd remove what you're stealing from that inventory and put it in to the inventory that is receiving it. Both of these inventories would have their own onreps which can be used to trigger any UI to update. If you have it on the playerstate already, that's a fine place - and that means whatever UI you're using to display the values needs to be looking at the playerstate that is associated to the inventory you're trying to view and it needs to know when it was updated - which you can do similar to the event dispatcher and bindings we were doing with the turn changes, except this time you're binding to an event dispatcher on the playerstate and it's being called on the OnRep of the inventory variable.

[boreal bison]

All right, I will keep this in mind, thank you so much again!

[fossil spoke]

TMaps are not replicated

It is likely better to just store an ID on the Item to indicate its position in the inventory

TMaps and TSets are not replicated

[thin stratus]

@twin juniper If you are using CPP, you might want to use FastArraySerializer for your Inventory anyway

[ruby rock]

Quick question.

In MP, 2 clients running in the editor.
I have a light that I have attached to my actors mesh. The actor is marked as replicates, as is the light (component replicates). For ease of understanding call the actor BP_MyActor.

If I set the light to green on the server (BP_MyActor) that should replicate to each client (and even late joining clients) shouldn't it?

[winged badger]

is that c++ or BP @ruby rock ?

[ruby rock]

Either 😉 But happy to talk C++

[winged badger]

so it will replicate to late joiners if the engine replicates the light color in c++ by default

which is not something i would just assume without checking

[ruby rock]

because the component (the point light) is replicating right? as a new client arrives it'll get a copy of what the server's truth is

[winged badger]

the component replicates yes, so clients will receive its replicated properties

but the question is - is the Color here a replicated property

generally if there are both pros and cons to replicating a property in the engine by default, engine will not replicate it by default

because its much easier to add replication when you need it then undo default one in engine

in your case - if all you are replicating is light color or just a few light params, its more performant to replicate the property through the Actor then adjust the component from OnRep

[ruby rock]

Color here a replicated property
Sorry - no it's not. There is value "Faction" that is driving the color. So if Faction = Good, Color of the light -> Green, etc

[winged badger]

as then component doesn't need to be replicated or evaluated for replication

so, replicate faction, and from OnRep_Faction wire logic that will adjust the LightComponents visuals

and turn off replication on LightCOmponent completely

btw, you can enable dropping late joiners in PIE and test it too

there is an experimental feature in editor preferences, just search for "join", then you'll get a button to join extra client during PIE sessions next to play

[ruby rock]

ah - actually now you say that, I think what I've been doing is this. And then intercepting OnFactionChanged_Client in BP to set the light. That might be the issue

[winged badger]

that should work fine

only c++ OnRep will not trigger for listen server host

so you need to call FactionChanged from SetFaction as well

[ruby rock]

Like so ?

{
    Faction = faction;
    OnFactionChanged_Client();
}```

[winged badger]

whats the declaration look like?

as the _Implementation part seems a little odd

[ruby rock]

    void SetFaction(EFaction faction);
    UPROPERTY(EditAnywhere, BlueprintReadWrite)
    EFaction Faction;
    UFUNCTION()
    void OnRep_Faction();
    UFUNCTION(BlueprintImplementableEvent)
    void OnFactionChanged_Client();```

[winged badger]

ah, server RPC, do they get to choose faction while in play?

but yes, that should work, you just need to rename OnFactionChanged_Client() as its no longer client exclusive callback

[ruby rock]

Yeah lobby - they choose their faction

Needing to also deal with non-player's having faction (like friendly units, etc)

[winged badger]

there is an ITeamAgentInterface in the engine

[ruby rock]

ITeamAgentInterface
Well - the more you know!

Oh - just looked, I wrote my own version of all of that

Thanks for your help - I'll play around a little and see what I find.

[twin juniper]

After the last client (tho only server and 1 client in this case) joins the session, I client travel and then call Server Travel on server RPC. But server doesn't seem to travel?
I had already previosuly called ServerTravel once for Lobby. I can call it again, right?

Also server is working weirdly in standalone. When I run the game in UE Editor in Level editor, the server instance works correctly by creating server, going to lobby and coming back to Main Menu, hitting all the correct breakpoints. But in standalone using batch file, the server goes to lobby and then at the end shows the gameplay message engine with Tie?

[blissful atlas]

I have tried all of that but it didn’t work. Is there any other solution or do I need to get a dedicated server from Steam?

[woven bramble]

Guys, What is the best spawn system for multiplayer? EventBeginPlay RunOnServer > Multicast > SpawnActor in GameMode or RepNotify method?

[thin stratus]

Sorry, what?

RunOnServer -> Multicast on BeginPlay of the GameMode?

Any more random, totally wrong and redundant things to chain? xD

Posting that all I can suggest you is to go back to the basics

[twin juniper]

There is error of ServerTravelFailure in PIE. How can I debug then?

[thin stratus]

Are you Seamless Traveling?

[twin juniper]

Yes

[thin stratus]

Did you enable the experimental support for it in PIE?

Otherwise you can't do that in PIE

Seamless ServerTravel is by default unsupported in PIE

[twin juniper]

Okay. Gonna do it.

[twin juniper]

also can you pls help with this?

[woven bramble]

xD you're right. I can't figure out how to start the input. My goal is to spawn the enemy, not myself. I know I should use RepNotify but what should start this RepNotify, which event

[thin stratus]

What do you mean with "After last client joins the session I client travel"?

[thin stratus]

RepNotify is also wrong

[woven bramble]

Oh

[thin stratus]

Hence the "Go back and read the basics."

Like, you posted not a single option that is correct :D

[twin juniper]

I check for last client,
int RemainingSpots = SessionSettings->NumPublicConnections - NamedSession->NumOpenPublicConnections;

if (RemainingSpots == 0)
{
    ServerStartGame();    
}

ServerStartGame is server RPC for servertravel

[thin stratus]

Are you connected to the Server or just in the Session?

And why would it need a ServerRPC, shouldn't the Server know all of this?

[twin juniper]

Server is also connected and just called client travel on last client.

[twin juniper]

Yes, it didn't make a difference

I'll share code

[thin stratus]

But if you are already connected, what is the ClientTravel for?

You only travel as Client once after the Session is joined. After that you only perform ServerTravels. And where even do you call that code?

[twin juniper]

I am servertravelling for server to lobby, the all the clients that join use client travel and then when the last client joins session it client travels, then I use server travel to transition to gameplay

[woven bramble]

I always read the documentation from the beginning, there is no consistent information required. Everything is piecemeal.
Can you summarize how to spawn Enemy please, let me do a deep research according to what you summarized.
I wan to start with the parts you said to at least learn the basics of Multiplayer. Because I always research and read Multiplayer, but some things are always missing.

[thin stratus]

Eh

[woven bramble]

the spawn system is one of them

[thin stratus]

Server to Lobby?

[thin stratus]

You are writing a lot of random stuff. Can you please fully explain the flow of your connection and session stuff?

Because by default, Clients search for a Session, Join the Session. Travel to the Server (connect) and after that the Server Travels with all Clients. Any further Client Travel would cause a disconnect.

[twin juniper]

Yes give me a sec

[thin stratus]

The Compendium that I wrote, that is pinned to this channel, has all information you need.

The question you asked is answered by reading and understanding that document.

It's written so me and others don't have to repeat the basics

[twin juniper]

But for lobby when the server hosts(creates) the server, it has to call server travel first, no?

[thin stratus]

Please go and read it (again if you have already)

[thin stratus]

Is the Server a ListenServer or Dedicated?

[twin juniper]

Listen Server

[thin stratus]

A player that opens a LISTEN game simply Client Travels to the map it wants, with ?listen as option.

If you host as a player, you just OpenLevel(Lobby, "Listen")

And then when everyone is connected, you do ServerTravel, on the Server

No need for an RPC here either

Also

You screenshot of teh code

Shows ServerRPC in the GameInstance

You can basically join the queue from punkfloyed and read the basics..

[twin juniper]

I just tried that as sort of solution thinking it maybe the case

[thin stratus]

GameInstance is not replicated

You can't access the GI of other players in any way

And ServerRPCs are totally redundant and not working

[twin juniper]

Oh okay, Makes sense. TY

[thin stratus]

Your Server should check if everyone is connected n the GameMode

There are events to react to players joining (e.g. PostLogin)

Count them there, check how many you expect.

Start the game from there

No need for RPCs

[twin juniper]

Understood.

[twin juniper]

Is this option available in UE4.27?

[thin stratus]

Don't think so

[glass orchid]

Is there a direct setting in the editor/project settings for this? right now ive resorted to just using a execute console command node to enable seamless travel.

[twin juniper]

Isn't seamless travel enabled by a boolean in GameMode?

[glass orchid]

technically yes

but seamless travel doesnt work in PIE

not until i believe 5.1

[twin juniper]

Yes.

[glass orchid]

unless you use the console command to enable it, and even then it might still crash

[twin juniper]

Oh, Okay.

[thin stratus]

The support for PIE is just a console variable

[glass orchid]

ah then i havent got to change anything. thanks!

[nocturne quail]

running the game as two clients, both clients are clients_0 how to fix it?

[drifting stirrup]

what is state sync
is it sending inputs and correcting every now and then with state
or is it sending both at the same time

[twin juniper]

I think the code is being executed on the same client twice, or you have BPPlayer_C_0 hardcoded into the var. Or maybe the function you are using to get name is not doing what you think it'll do

[nimble snow]

what happens if I cast my character and set it in a variable on multicast event? will that cause any issues?

[nocturne quail]

function print current posessed pawn name is called on the server, I run the game with 2 clients and call the function on both clients with auth check , both clients is printing the same name

[charred patrol]

Where do you set it and what object do you use for casting? For example, using GetPlayerPawn0 as an object for casting could cause problems if the characters are different on the server and client's side. This could make the casting fail.

[fringe dove]

I don't think there are any issues, as long as you use Cast (or blueprint cast) and not cpp static_cast, you should get a null pointer if you do it to the wrong type

[nimble snow]

it looks like this

[nimble snow]

I'm using blueprint cast

[fringe dove]

oh that's in the area where people receive the event, I thought you meant cast before sending a pointer through multicast rpc

that delay loop might go forever if you have an error where your pawn is something else

[charred patrol]

Like I said if you use multiple Character_Base in your game cast could fail. But if all the Characters is using this Character_Base this should be fine I believe.

[nimble snow]

all characters are using this character_base

[fringe dove]

should be fine, but I'm not sure you need networking for this, could do it in the player controller on begin play with a similar delay loop

[nimble snow]

this event runs on event on possess

[charred patrol]

I don't know if this is the best solution to keep characters' refernce but this would work then.

[fringe dove]

a nasty surprise is that reliable multicast isn't reliable in unreal engine

[charred patrol]

Why is that?

[fringe dove]

there is a timeout that abandon's retries that is shorter than the disconnection timeout

[nimble snow]

yeah it works but I don't know either if it's the best way 😄

[charred patrol]

Oh I did not know that, thanks!

[fringe dove]

yeah, it makes no sense, I've only run into it when paused for debugging but it could happen and get you into some invalid states if networking went out for a few seconds

so now I only use reliable unicast and just manually send to all

[charred patrol]

Is it like that for both bp and cpp?

[fringe dove]

I think so, maybe it has been fixed though it has been a few years

if a reliable multicast rpc times out for a client, it should really just disconnect them at that point

[keen hound]

How would I make a simple team system?
I just want the player to spawn on one side of the map or the other as a different pawn on each side

[twin juniper]

lol missty, if you are calling server RPC from both clients, it will called on the same server twice.
Rather what you need to do is, not make it server RPC and check log on each client separately

[keen hound]

I know how to do a random system already, I just haven't been able to figure out possesion

[nocturne quail]

I am already doing it separately, clicking in client 1 new window ->calling the function it prints client 1, and clicking in the second window and calling the function it prints client 1 again

[twin juniper]

Don't make it a server RPC

[nocturne quail]

why?

[twin juniper]

Post the code here, then I'll explain

Probably what looks like is you are getting the controller and then it's pawn and then it's name, or something along those lines, right?

[thin stratus]

Just post the code, no need for guess work

[nocturne quail]

I will post the code in few minutes

[thin stratus]

Keep in mind those DisplayNames are debug only

They aren't meant to be used for anything else, in case you want this to be different to identify them

[nocturne quail]

void AMyPlayerControllerBase::FindCurrentlyPocessedPawn()
{
    AMyCharacterBase* MyCharacterRef = Cast<AMyCharacterBase>(GetPawn());
    PrintLogScreen("Pawn Name: %s", 30.0f, FColor::Green, *GetNameSafe(GetPawn()));
}

void AMyCharacterBase::PressedOneKeyEvent()
{
    AMyPlayerControllerBase* MyPlayerControllerRef = Cast<AMyPlayerControllerBase>(UGameplayStatics::GetPlayerController(GetWorld(), 0));
    MyPlayerControllerRef->FindCurrentlyPocessedPawn();
}

[twin juniper]

Does this GetPawn() function really gives the pawn controller by the controller?

And also you'd need to make sure player controllers are replicated, I am not sure if it is by default or not

[nocturne quail]

yes, If I Implement PressedOneKeyEvent under controller class and call it under controller class.... this prints the correct pawn

[green latch]

Hi! I'm currently making a multiplayer game using the OnlineSubsystemSteam, and I'm having trouble making a Character Selection. I've stored the character type in a custom Game Instance, and spawned an actor in the lobby according to the custom Game Instance. The trouble is, that whatever character the client selects is overwritten by the character selected by the server. Any help?

[twin juniper]

Then probably the problem is with replication.

[nocturne quail]

this print the correct pawn

void AMyPlayerControllerBase::PressedOneKeyEvent()
{
   FindCurrentlyPocessedPawn();
}

[nocturne quail]

First time listening that PC needs custom rep

[twin juniper]

FindCurrentlyPocessedPawn is still server RPC right?

[twin juniper]

Never said custom

[nocturne quail]

yes

[twin juniper]

Lemme think

Then the only problem that can be is you are calling it on wrong player controller

Given whatever you said uptil now is correct

Because if replication had problem then it wouldn't work from Playercontroller also

But because you are saying it is working correctly, then it means that it is being called on wrong player controller

Else the result should be identical

[nocturne quail]

you mean this line is the problem?

AMyPlayerControllerBase* MyPlayerControllerRef = Cast<AMyPlayerControllerBase>(UGameplayStatics::GetPlayerController(GetWorld(), 0));

[twin juniper]

Yes, seems so

[nocturne quail]

I can see the pc index is 0

[twin juniper]

If you wanna do it, then keep it in PC only

Why do you even need it in Character?

I mean why one more level of indirection?

[nocturne quail]

I will use it to drop the weapon using pc

[twin juniper]

If you wanna be sure you can actually debug and compare the PC's that's being used in each case🤷

Character is on the client right?

[nocturne quail]

yeah I can try now to change that index to 1 , lets see what I will get

[nocturne quail]

yeah

[twin juniper]

I mean it is good if you run in VS studio, in debug game editor mode and then see for PC's value in watch

During runtime

[nocturne quail]

I like this technique too, I will do it for sure

[twin juniper]

Okay. Keep it up 😊

[nocturne quail]

this is the actual problem

AMyPlayerControllerBase* MyPlayerControllerRef = Cast<AMyPlayerControllerBase>(UGameplayStatics::GetPlayerController(GetWorld(), 0));

changing the index to 1 now the client two is the pawn owner

[twin juniper]

Then why not do it in PC?

Why need Character and even if you need it can't character get it from PC?

[nocturne quail]

I need to avoid using UGameplayStatics but don't know how to get the ref to PC

[nocturne quail]

this is what I want, to get it from pc I need a ref to pc

[twin juniper]

Take a breath.

In the case it's working fine, how do you decide which PC calls this func?

You know how to check CallStack in VS?

I meam you wrote the code but still

[nocturne quail]

maybe I need to store all the pc indexes in an array and process it

switch may help

[twin juniper]

Lol

You know about architecture and design?

This is not the right way of thinking

[nocturne quail]

OFC

[twin juniper]

Ok. Then let's see how the thing is being done correctly.

[nocturne quail]

first I need it to work , later will find a better solution

[twin juniper]

Can you tell me how do you decide which PCs call this function?

[twin juniper]

That is more like optimization and maybe design optimization

But you are missing the point

You don't need to do something you don't need to

[twin juniper]

Every client PC calls this?

[nocturne quail]

it is stored in the ref and depend on the index to which I cast in character class

[nocturne quail]

nope

[twin juniper]

When you call it directly from PC?

The case in which it is working correctly?

[nocturne quail]

yes

pc got direct ref to current pawn

but If I want to get that current pawn from pc using character class, this is not working

[twin juniper]

See server spawns PC and then gives it to client

And it is replicated by default

What you can do is get all actors of class PC on server

And do whatever you are trying to do there?

Does that work for you?

If it gets called on every client's PC then you don't need to select any PC in particular

[nocturne quail]

the problem is this line
AMyPlayerControllerBase* MyPlayerControllerRef = Cast<AMyPlayerControllerBase>(UGameplayStatics::GetPlayerController(GetWorld(), 0));

if the index is 0, any client will drop item for the pawn related to this index

ex: if I print location of the current pawn from Client two, it will print the location of the first client

[twin juniper]

?

Take a minute to think

[nocturne quail]

so if I drop anything in the level using second client, it will go to the location of first client stored at index 0

[nocturne quail]

Ok

I will try to work on it

[twin juniper]

Just to be clear you are trying for all the players to do something, right?

Like getting their names

Server and all the clients

[nocturne quail]

nope

I just spawned an item from the client two to the location of client two.
but the item spawned on the location of client one.

[twin juniper]

Okay.

You need to pass the PC reference to server

[nocturne quail]

if I set this index to 1
AMyPlayerControllerBase* MyPlayerControllerRef = Cast<AMyPlayerControllerBase>(UGameplayStatics::GetPlayerController(GetWorld(), 1));

the client two spawn item to its own location and client one will spawn to the location of client 2

[twin juniper]

Atleast that's how I solved this problem

I just pass the PC reference as parameter in RPC call

I thought you were trying to print name of all the PCs in the game

[nocturne quail]

I tried casting on beginplay, still the same result

the issue is the index

[twin juniper]

For dropping items tho I will just call the spawn item function with spawn location

[twin juniper]

Beginplay?

[nocturne quail]

yes because it is called everywhere

but it was just for testing

[twin juniper]

See rather than PCRef->MyFunc(), you can also do MyFunc(PCRef)

[nocturne quail]

i found the issue, I need to use this to solve this

[twin juniper]

Okay, try your best🤘

[nocturne quail]

thank You for help

[latent heart]

This all sounds terrible.

[nocturne quail]

this is why we are trying to make it un-terrible

[twin juniper]

Pls correct me if I said anything wrong by mistake 🙏😊

[nocturne quail]

lets see if it was that easy to solve:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/64902940/what-should-i-use-instead-of-get-player-controller-to-make-a-multiplayer-game

now to trying to implement it

[twin juniper]

This doesn't say anything

[nocturne quail]

it says I can get Pawn controller, using GetController and cast to my player controller without using index

but I am not sure it will work

I can give it a try

[twin juniper]

I thought that using index 0 with Getworld to get PC gave the PC of current character

Never ran into problem with this though

You can try and let me know

[nocturne quail]

Ok

[latent heart]

Were you talking about passing a PC to an RPC function?

[twin juniper]

I used it once a time when I needed it. I just suggested it, if it's needed. Only she can know if it's really needed

[latent heart]

Client to server?

[twin juniper]

Yes

[latent heart]

Every client to server RPC must already happen on a client-owned actor.

So why do you need to also send the client's PC?

Since no other PC will be available on a client.

It must be that their own one.

I just don't see why it's necessary...

[twin juniper]

My laptop is closed. I think I ran into a problem and used it. I'll let you know.

Once the RPC is executed how do you get a reference to calling client?

[latent heart]

It will be the object it is execute on on the server.

E.g. you have basically 3 options - A client's PC, PS or Pawn.

[twin juniper]

Yes, i agree

[latent heart]

All 3 of them uniquely identify the client.

And can be used to get the other.

[twin juniper]

Okay so you get the character's PC directly?

[latent heart]

In what situation?

If client 3 run's a server RPC on his character, it will be triggered on that character on the server. That character then just needs to do GetController() and they have the correct player controller.

[twin juniper]

Like if you call a client to server RPC on a character and once you are in server RPC you can get the character's controller

[latent heart]

It's stored on the character...

Character <-> player controller <-> player state

[twin juniper]

Oh, Okay. I'll check once again. Maybe I didn't consider that at that time.

TY for correcting me.😊

[boreal bison]

So if i'm understanding this correctly, I set the Inventory variable to RepNotify, and call an event dispatched OnRep that updates the UI any time a user interacts with the inventories?

[latent heart]

OnReps don't work client to server.

If a user interacts with their inventory, it should send a server rpc to the server to tell the server what it's doing. And possibly for it to say "no".

Or to even ask the server if it is allowed before doing it.

[sinful tree]

Yes, so long as you're doing what Daekesh says as well for when you're performing the "stealing" bit - that needs to be an RPC to the server to see if it can be done and if so move the item from one inventory to the other which will trigger the onrep of the variables which triggers the dispatcher which your UI would be bound to.

[boreal bison]

Yeah, I have a ton of validation that happens all server-side before any claiming or stealing is done, although right now the stealing and moving items around the inventories is a bit buggy - only works some times and I'm not sure why

so I'm taking a break to try to represent it visually in the hopes that it'll help me track down the issue if I can see things more clearly

that said, I think I do have the adding of words to the inventory as a server to client rpc after all the validation

should I just keep it all on the server?

[woven bramble]

Guys why no one using "HandleStartingNewPlayer" to spawning character?? less tutorial, less information

[nocturne quail]

so PlayerState is the replicated extension of PlayerController and PlayerController is not replicated to other clients other then local machine?

[nocturne quail]

this fixed the issue

AMyPlayerControllerBase * MyPlayerControllerRef = Cast<AMyPlayerControllerBase>(GetController());

this ref is casted in character class, so now I get the correct possessed pawn

[sinful tree]

It should all be handled on the server. There is no need to send a client RPC if you're using OnRep variables as when you change the values on the server, the OnRep will be called on clients which can perform any necessary visual updates based on the newly received value.

[boreal bison]

Holy, I think correcting my code by handling it on the server just fixed a really annoying bug I was having where elements of an array were not all being passed to the client

by not passing it to the client anymore, I stopped dropping array elements

yippeeeeeeee

[sinful tree]

noice

[boreal bison]

okay so the main thing now is the inventory widget only shows up for the listen server and then I still need to implement this onrep stuff

so the inventory variable is on the playerstate, and when I call the UpdateInventoryUI event dispatcher onrep, nothing happens

but when I call it just in the logic it works

i.e.

this is on the gamestate and correctly calls the player who owns the inventory's UI to update

but doing this on the playerstate doesn't seem to do anything

and the I have the added issue of the widget itself not updating at all on remote clients

the inventory ui widget is created like this

[nocturne quail]

Working solution is:

void AMyPlayerControllerBase::FindCurrentlyPocessedPawn()
{
    AMyCharacterBase* MyCharacterRef = Cast<AMyCharacterBase>(GetPawn());
    PrintLogScreen("Name: %s", 30.0f, FColor::Green, *GetNameSafe(GetPawn()));
    PrintLogScreen("Location: %s", 30.0f, FColor::Green, *GetPawn()->GetActorLocation().ToString());
}

void AMyCharacterBase::PressedOneKeyEvent()
{
    AMyPlayerControllerBase * MyPlayerControllerRef = Cast<AMyPlayerControllerBase>(GetController());
    MyPlayerControllerRef->FindCurrentlyPocessedPawn();
}

Now it prints the correct name and location of the currently pocessed pawn 🥳

[sinful tree]

What type of object is "Inventory Word"?

[boreal bison]

Array of BP_Tile, BP_Tile is the game piece and it's just an object with some sprites and a string variable to represent the letter on the tile

[sinful tree]

And the BP_Tile are replicated actors, yea?

[boreal bison]

correct

[sinful tree]

Ok, so then the problem is likely your UI is not bound to the correct playerstate.

[boreal bison]

How would I check/fix that?

[sinful tree]

How are you finding the playerstate to begin with? Are you just going through the Player Array? Are you getting a reference to the specific player when displaying their UI?

[boreal bison]

So I'm actually getting the playerstate initially from the UI, they submit an answer through an OnTextCommit

it calls OnSubmitAnswer on the playercontroller

which goes to the gamestate

the playerstate reference has worked for other UI related things like visually updating the score of the player

[sinful tree]

Ok, we're two players in a game.
You submit your answer, how does my UI know your playerstate?

[boreal bison]

It doesn't?

[sinful tree]

So if my UI doesn't know your playerstate, how can I see what your inventory looks like?

[boreal bison]

Do you mean for the stealing? Or for mousing over and pulling up inventories

[sinful tree]

Either.

If at any point, I need to know your playerstate to look up your inventory.

[boreal bison]

The stealing is handled on the server, I store each tile with its corresponding owner with a BP_Tile : Playerstate map whenever a tile is claimed or stolen

so one of the validation checks is if the tile is on the board, if it's not, then the logic checks the map to see who owns it, then steals it from the player by reassigning the owner

i.e. readds the BP_Tile key with the new playerstate as the value

for mousing over and pulling up inventories visually, I have no idea how to do that 😅

that's something I want to add

I was hoping that a UI element could hold a reference to a specific player that you could access when you mouse over it

[sinful tree]

Just a moment ago, you said:
"and the I have the added issue of the widget itself not updating at all on remote clients"

The widget is local to a client. How are your remote clients seeing the data at all if they do not have a reference to the playerstate where the data is stored?

[boreal bison]

As of now they can only see their own inventory

well, the listen server can see their own inventory

when I successfully claim a word, it gets added to the ListView

as Player 0

but as the other players that doesn't happen

players cant currently see into other players inventories yet

so stealing is based on just remembering who claimed which tiles

basically the next feature is to visually represent all the things that are functioning correctly on the backend

[woven bramble]

Guys what do you think about that? This system works, but I wonder if I will have problems in the future? (The Respawn is SpawnActor > Posses etc)

[sinful tree]

Playerstate is instanced per player, so each player has their own PlayerState actor running. That means each player has their own Inventory variable, each their own OnRep for the Inventory variable, and each their own Event Dispatcher.

Your UI, which again each player would have their own local instance of, would need to bind to the event dispatcher of the specific player you're wanting to view in order to properly display data for other players. So when you say "Your UI is not updating at all on remote clients" how do you know you are binding to the appropriate playerstate where the data is being changed? You still haven't clarified this as your UI is showing you have a reference to a playerstate, but you haven't shown which playerstate your UI is using.

Perhaps it is also me misunderstanding. What I am interpreting what you meant by your issue is you're having your clients attempting to all look at one particular playerstate to see the change, but if they aren't looking at that particular playerstate, then they won't see it. Either way, if you put a print string on the OnRep Inventory immediately after your Call On Inventory Update, then you should see it print after you've changed the inventory of any player and it should print multiple times based on the number of players in the game. That'll indicate that the OnRep is indeed working, but it has to do with how your UI is binding to the dispatcher on the correct PlayerState. @boreal bison

[sinful tree]

You probably don't want a delay there as the event isn't instanced and a later call to it will overwrite an earlier call, so if two players join within 300ms of eachother, the earlier one won't have anything done for them.

[woven bramble]

I need the PlayerInfo which I got from the PlayerController by saving it earlier. That's why I wanted to add a very small delay, to be more secure.

[boreal bison]

Thank you for this, I'll see what the print statement yields. I think it's also partly me crossing streams with what I'm trying to explain. In the game, my intention is to visually show the player's inventory to themselves in the top left at all times. It should update whenever they claim a word, and whenever someone steals letters from them. In addition, I want players to be able optionally scout out other inventories for letters they might want to steal.

Right now, the issue is just that the logic for submitting an answer and seeing the word pop up in the player's inventory only works for the Player 0, the listen server. The listen server submits a word, and if its valid you immediately see it populate the inventory. When a remote client submits a word, the same does not happen. All my playerstate references in the UI I'm getting from Get Owning Player:

that's the whole Main UI blueprint

and the part of the controller related to the UI:

[sinful tree]

And the "Handle Answer Submission" event on the GameState eventually calls the "Claim Tiles" function?

[boreal bison]

correct, after many validations to make sure the word is a playable word

So when stealing happens, the onrep is correctly being called on the two players

when hooked up to the event dispatcher it's just seemingly not running the logic it would when it's being called from the gamestate

[sinful tree]

You don't want the gamestate to call the event dispatcher as it's only running on the server. You want the event dispatcher being called when the OnRep happens.

[boreal bison]

yeah, I hooked it up to the onrep

and then threw a print statement here

which is not getting called

[woven bramble]

Guys, why is there a need to make RunOnServer in GameMode? GameMode not already running on Server? So the client cannot access it.

that's right?

[quasi tide]

There isn't a need.

[sinful tree]

Which can go back to what I was just saying - the widget is binding to a specific playerstate's event dispatcher. If you're seeing the OnRep fire twice (via the Print String you put on the OnRep) then you'll probably only ever see one "Updating Inventory" in the bound widget. If it's not firing in the widget, that means it's not the PlayerState you're expecting.

[woven bramble]

Thanks!!

Meanwhile, what is the order of priority when starting the server? So does GameMode start first or PlayerController? etc.

[boreal bison]

I'm seeing the onrep fire the expected amount of times, but never seeing Updating Inventory no matter who calls it

Maybe I'm confused about this widget binding to specific playerstate's event dispatcher stuff

[sinful tree]

It could also be because you're creating your widget too soon. The client creates a local playercontroller and playerstate before the replicated versions come in and the PlayerState that you bound to may no longer be valid. To test this, put like a 2 second delay in the OnConstruct in the widget before doing anything.

[boreal bison]

Oh shit! it worked on the remote client for the first time!

but it didn't work on the listen server this time lol

[woven bramble]

Thank you so much!

[woven bramble]

I need some things in the PlayerController (which I saved earlier) to start some things in GameMode. So on every startup I access the PlayerController.
Wouldn't this be a problem if Game Mode starts before PlayerController?

[sinful tree]

GameMode must exist before PlayerController as the Game Mode defines which PlayerController to use. When a client is joining, they have a local playercontroller and playerstate that are overwritten by replicated copies.
GameMode also has it's own sequence of things it does when a player joins the game.

The main ones in relating to players are (in no particular order):
PreLogin (Called when a player first attempts to join)
GetDefaultPawnClassForController (Reads the default GameMode pawn class, otherwise you can override this function to provide a different pawn class programmatically)
ChoosePlayerStart (Attempts to find a playerstart based on some saved StartActor, otherwise uses FindPlayerStart)
FindPlayerStart (Attempts to find the first appropriate playerstart, otherwise you can override this function to find an appropriate one yourself)
HandleStartingNewPlayer (This is usually where the player controller's pawn is spawned, but it is not necessarily available for RPCs)
OnPostLogin (This is supposed to be the first point at which an RPC can occur)

So, if you don't want the GameMode to handle spawning, you probably want to override HandleStartingNewPlayer, and you can use OnPostLogin, but in doing so, you're having to also handle the spawning location yourself too.

Regardless of the method, using a delay in any of these processes is a bad idea as these events are not instanced, so each subsequent call will override the previous call as I mentioned before. You have to let it flow. You can prevent things from happening by overriding events and then call your own events when you need to so long as you're handling what these functions would be doing, but a delay will break how it all works in this case.

[woven bramble]

What a beautiful explanation!
Thank you very much.

[boreal bison]

So the delay has the update inventory working for the remote clients, but not the listen server. Also, I imagine having a delay in there was just the way to test it, not the final implementation right?

[fluid summit]

Hi everybody! one question about level streaming, it seems like I have a misconception about how it works.

Is it possible with level streaming (or possible at all) to have a multiplayer session where players switch between levels, but still keep the same session?

Use case: Table top game with a world map, but players can "enter" each tile and that creates a level like maps of path of exile.

Currently i'm just using the same level for everything and creating/destroying things when needed and placing the maps on different and distant places of the world, but having separated levels for each map would be great

[thin stratus]

Kinda but also not. LevelStreaming is mainly for loading and unloading parts of your level on demand while having a persistent level that never changes.
UE multiplayer, by default, does not support clients on different maps. You could load and unload the dungeons though to save resources and you can also spawn a level instance multiple times, but that would need to be in a different locations cause they would otherwise visually overlap.

You can control who sees what for replicated actors via IsNetRelevantFor, but you would ultimately run into situations where the server still handles collision between players that are supposedly in two different instances of the same dungeon.
UE networking doesn't reallllly support the idea of Diablo/PoE I think.

At least I haven't seen it being done yet I think. And I think there would be a lot of problems to fight

[fluid summit]

Thanks for the answer, I was almost sure that it's not possible. But better ask to be sure. The current approach works great, so no problem

[dark edge]

That's why we're doing that with a spaceship and teleporting

Town/Base is in the sky, level is on the ground

There only can ever be one level/dungeon loaded up at a time, so players in the party can be back at base or on the ground, but never in 2 level/dungeons at once.

[sinful tree]

The appropriate implmentation would be to override OnRep_PlayerState in something like your controller in C++ and have it execute a function or have it call a dispatcher of its own so that you know that your PlayerState has been appropriately replicated before attempting to bind to it.

As far as the event dispatcher not working on the listen server, I'm not sure what to say. If you are binding to the appropriate player state's event dispatcher, then it should work, delay or not.

[boreal bison]

All right, I've found something interesting that you might know something about. I moved the update UI logic to the playerstate just to see if anything changed:

What I found is that player 2 this works

player 1 (playerstate 0) the cast fails

any idea why?

btw this event is being called onrep

[dark edge]

Why are you calling an RPC in an onrep?

What are you trying to do here, is the owning client special or do you want all machines to update something when the data changes?

[boreal bison]

I forgot to set it to not replicated. Basically I’m trying to update a UI element that references a replicated variable on each player state (their inventory). It works correctly for the remote client but for some reason not the hosting player

[dark edge]

Show your code as it is now with the RPC removed

[boreal bison]

Will do when I get home in 10 minutes

[twin juniper]

What? PlayerState holds data about specific player. It is replicated by default. They are not related as such, other than that PC holds a reference to PS. Client is called local machine so Idk what you mean? Also server spawns PC and replicates it to client.

[nocturne quail]

ShadowRiver Says
PlayerState is extension of PlayerController, main diffrence is that PlayerState is replicated, PlayerController is not. PlayerController is not replicated for security reasons, if PlayerControllers information would be contained in client memory there risk it could be manipulated, it a open window for cheat software, best example is GTA:SA multiplayer mod which fully synchronizes clients without any safety measures (since GTA:SA is not really made for multiplayer), typical single player hacks are normally replicated to other clients there. Thats why PlayerControllers are only on server side and they control pawns on server which later are replicated to clients. PlayerState is where you place information from PlayerController that you want to be replicated to all clients, but server should not relay on that information, so you just copy information that clients need to know.

Same thing with GameMode and GameState

[twin juniper]

He means extension as a concept

If I understand it correctly, he means that without security concerns you would rather have them in a single structure and have them replicated to client.

[latent heart]

Well this is wrong. Did you get that from ChatGPT?

[nocturne quail]

he is saying we should use Player state not pc to store client rep data

[twin juniper]

They are complementary

[twin juniper]

PC is replicated

Tho

If it is spawned on server

[nocturne quail]

https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/player-state-vs-player-character/319281

[latent heart]

The fact that the PC is repliacted only to the owning client is true. And that PS is replicated to everyone.

But just about everything else is wrong :/

[twin juniper]

Does PC replication pose a security threat?

[latent heart]

State vs controller is about function, not security

If you want stuff to not replicate to other clients, you can still put it ont eh PS.

You just tag it as teh owning client only.

[twin juniper]

PC and PS are by default replicated to owning client only, right?

[sinful tree]

No. PC is. PS replicates to all.

[twin juniper]

Oh, okay.

[twin juniper]

It was for passing PC of another character, not the character itself

[latent heart]

But you can't do taht.

Because you don't have a reference to the PC of any other charaters.

You could pass another player's PS or Pawn.

[twin juniper]

On server?

[latent heart]

On server, sure, they all exist, but you wouldn't be calling an RPC on a server.

And if you were, it would fail because not all teh clients would have the PC you were sending.

[twin juniper]

I need to check again. I am all burnt out.

[boreal bison]

This event updates the client's UI element that contains their inventory of words

it's called onrep in the playerstate

the inventory variable gets altered in the gamestate where words are added here:

[sinful tree]

It's going to fail because when it's being called, it's on a specific playerstate, and player controllers do not replicate, so you can't get the controller of the playerstate.

[boreal bison]

or subtracted here:

[boreal bison]

is this in response to Sourabh? or me

[sinful tree]

You

[boreal bison]

but it works for the other player

the cast I mean

and it updates the UI element

[sinful tree]

Because one of them is that player state and they would have a reference to their own controller.

That means it'll only ever change for that particular player, and no one else when you're changing the value on that particular playerstate.

[nocturne quail]

how to get rid of UGameplayStatics I mean how to cast to character without using UGameplayStatics in the usual actor class?
I don't want to get player by index.

void APickupBase::OnOverlapBegin(class UPrimitiveComponent* OverlappedComponent, AActor* OtherActor, UPrimitiveComponent* OtherComp, int32 OtherBodyIndex, bool bFromSweep, const FHitResult& SweepResult)
{
    ACharacter* PlayerCharacter = UGameplayStatics::GetPlayerCharacter(this, 0);
    if (AMyCharacterBase* MyCharacterRef = Cast<AMyCharacterBase>(PlayerCharacter))
    {
        if (OtherActor == MyCharacterRef)
        {
            On_BeginOverlap.Broadcast(this);
            EnableOutline(true);
        }
    }
}

[boreal bison]

right now I’m just trying to get players to update their own UI inventories, so when player 0 gets a word added, shouldn’t they also have a reference to their own player state?

[twin juniper]

Okay, so I had client calling server RPC and then server doing some stuff back on the client by calling client RPC. At the time I didn't realise that client is uniquely identified Correcting my code. TY.

[latent heart]

Honestly if it works, it works.

If it's just client->server->client communication, passing the client's PC isn't going to fail. It's just not needed.

[twin juniper]

But poor design is headache, right?

[sinful tree]

All I know is that if you are calling Get Controller from PlayerState after an OnRep, the cast will end up failing on all other players - you won't get a cast failed on the host as they have reference to all controllers, but they will get an error when attempting to access UI of another client like you appear to be doing.

[latent heart]

True enough!

[twin juniper]

Yes, but this is a job test task. Need to do my best😊

[boreal bison]

Weird, because the host is the one getting the error here. In this case, I’m not trying to have players accessing anyone’s UI but their own. The onrep is supposed to trigger for any player who has a change to their inventory and then run an event that updates the UI for their inventory

[sinful tree]

What is the error you're getting?

[latent heart]

Ah. I would definitely not hire you if you did that 😛

[boreal bison]

The cast to my playerstate blueprint is failing on the host

It’s succeeding on the remote client

[twin juniper]

It is entry level tho😭but I understand

[boreal bison]

so the code after the cast runs and updates the client’s UI but it doesn’t run for the host so the host’s UI doesn’t update

[latent heart]

Are you somehow changing your player state manually?

[quasi tide]

Honestly if it works, it works.
Daekesh

Ah. I would definitely not hire you if you did that 😛
Also Daekesh

🤣

[boreal bison]

no clue, I don’t think so

[latent heart]

For learning UE!

Lesson learned, learn other things!

[twin juniper]

I am new to UE. Most of my knowledge is about raw implementation

[sinful tree]

What I am talking about is here. This cast will succeed on the host, but then it should end up erroring as you're attempting to access UI on clients.

Technically, it should work just fine on clients so long as it is their playerstate.

[latent heart]

UI will only exist on the client.

[boreal bison]

Yeah, this cast is failing on the host and succeeding on the client

[whole pine]

i have an issue where playfab is sending to a get field node, the account info the user thats logged in and setting a variable so i can bind it to text in my player inventory but it dissappears randomly and periodically, do you think thats playfab being inconsistant or my code being trash. if i cant figure it out im gonna try to get the entered text from when they type in the username box on login and convert that to a variable maybe? then replicate it so other people can see it?

[sinful tree]

The cast should always succeed on the host.
What I see on my end when testing something like this with two players, one being the host, is that whenever the value changes on the client's playerstate, there's no cast error message. Whenever the value changes for the host's playerstate, the client always indicates the cast failed.

[boreal bison]

yeah I have no clue what is different about my setup. there are situations where only one inventory should be updating rather than two players’, so in those cases I don’t know why the cast would fail

because changes to the inventory don’t always involve stealing from another player’s inventory

[dark edge]

Where are these jobs and how much do they pay?

I haven't considered doing Unreal as a job as it'd probably be a pay cut from what I've heard about entry level gamedev stuff but I'd entertain offers.

[boreal bison]

Added a print statement just to see what was happening:

on the remoteclient it's printing Player Controller 0 which you would expect as its run locally

on the host it prints out nothing

so get player controller on the host is returning nothing

Player 2:

Player 1:

[sinful tree]

You're misinterpreting what is happening.
When you see Client1: that means it's the client running the code. The cast can fail on a client as they don't have access to all player controllers.

It may be the host's player state, but it's the client's copy of the host's playerstate, and you're trying to get the player controller of that playerstate which you cannot as the client wouldn't have access to the host's playercontroller (hence why it fails).

A bit more for additional clarification:

You as host, have a PlayerState. I as a client have a PlayerState. These are both replicated. Therefore we would both have 2 playerstates on either of our machines. One is mine, one is yours, but in total there are 4 that exist - your 2 copies and my 2 copies, but one for each player in the game.

You as host, have a PlayerController. I as a client have a PlayerController. PlayerControllers are only replicated to the owning client. As host, you must see mine as you're the one in control of the game, so you have 2 PlayerControllers, one for me, one for you. I as a client however, only receive my PlayerController, and if I try to reference yours, I don't have a reference to it as it's not replicated to me. In total there will be 3 copies of the PlayerController, 2 that exist on your computer, one for me and one for you, and I have only 1 on my computer which is my PlayerController.

So if I receive instructions to run "Update Inventory" on your PlayerState, which would happen if your OnRep triggers because the inventory value on your PlayerState changed and you call the "UpdateInventory" event in your OnRep, when I attempt to get your PlayerController from your PlayerState, I have nothing available about your PlayerController, so casting nothing to BP_PlayerController = failed cast.

You as host however, also receive instructions to run "Update Inventory" the same way, but in your case, since you are in control of the game and you have a copy of my PlayerController, when you do GetPlayerController on my playerstate, you can still get a reference to my PlayerController as it exists on your end.

[drifting stirrup]

a pay cut compared to what

[drifting stirrup]

does anyone have the answer to this

[obtuse field]

Is there something like PostReplicatedRemove for FastArraySerializerItem? I need an event that would be called after the item is removed

[dark edge]

Civil Engineering

That's my day job

@boreal bison

as a client, you only have your own playercontrller

[fossil spoke]

How would PostRemove work? If its after its already removed how would you know what was removed?

[drifting stirrup]

oh yea, i also heard lots of game devs get fired after the game is finished

sounds like a shitty career in general but you'll have the skills to make what you really want if theres something in mind

[obtuse field]

I don't need to know what, as Im iterating trough array. Just need an array without this item. But I would prefer not to search for it, then constructing new array without it for performance sake

[pure elm]

Quick question, if I made a multiplayer game in blueprints using create advanced session/join advanced session (advanced session plugin) would it work when I package it? Like if one person creates a session and another person from another city launches it, would he be able to join the session?

If not, how would I go around creating something that will do that?

[wheat niche]

hello how can i check if steam is running?

[woven bramble]

Guys, how can I add a delay inside the RepNotify func?

[kindred widget]

Call a function in the Event Graph that has your delay.

[kindred widget]

Generally you don't need to specifically check for Steam, what are you trying to do?

[kindred widget]

If by advanced session, you mean that plugin thing for Steam sessions, then yes it should work fine. You have to use the tester ID which has some issues sometimes unless you drop $100 for your own game ID.

[kindred widget]

I doubt that is common in normal studios. If you get ditched after a game release, chances are you didn't have a decent enough skillset and were on a trial run to begin with. Or you lucked out and got fired from a terribly managed company. Release isn't even a good time to be firing people regardless of game. You have bugs to manage, DLCs to be preparing for, etc.

[drifting stirrup]

well i commonly hear about it

arent there no unions for game devs

[woven bramble]

It's not working. I want to destroy the actor after the delay (in RepNotify) but when I run the delay thanks to Function, actor is destroying suddenly. Like there is no delay.

[pure elm]

Where would I set the ID?

I mean, what node do I use?

[kindred widget]

Why are you destroying the actor on the client? If it's replicated, Server should manage it's lifetime.

[kindred widget]

I can't remember offhand. It's an ini file setting.

If memory serves, the plugin has a readme or something that should go over basic testing setup.

[pure elm]

Ok thanks 👍

[woven bramble]

Oh, thanks. I didn't know that!

[wheat niche]

i want to make sure that the player is connected to steam before he is creating a new lobby and want to check if there is a internet connection

[runic plover]

--Weapon.h--
UPROPERTY(EditAnywhere, ReplicatedUsing = OnRep_Ammo)
int32 Ammo;

UFUNCTION()
void OnRep_Ammo();

void AWeapon::AddAmmo(int32 Amount)
{
    Ammo = FMath::Clamp(Ammo + Amount, 0 , MagCapacity);
}



--CombatComponent.cpp--

void UCombatComponent::Reload()
{
    if (CombatState != ECombatState::ECS_Reloading)
    {
        ServerReload();
    }
}

void UCombatComponent::ServerReload_Implementation()
{
    Weapon->AddAmmo(1);
    
}

bool UCombatComponent::CanFire()
{
if(Weapon->Ammo <= 0) return false;
return true;
}
``` i have these functionalities, where when i press the R Key i call the Reload() Function and try to increase the Ammo Value, on the server it works, if im the client it says that it got replicated but if i call CanFire() it returns false, i tried printing the Ammo Value, if i print it on server after Reload() it says "1", if im the Client it prints "0"

[latent heart]

Does OnRep_Ammo ever fire?

Also your CanFire method could just be return Weapon->Ammo > 0;

Though I would do return Weapon && Weapon->Ammo > 0;

[keen axle]

Hey there, just managed to spawn ai cars that are simulated on client. Now I would like to destroy them when the client disconnects. Is there any way to do this?

Normally the ai cars turn their ownership back to the server, which btw does not call the SetOwner event....

[runic plover]

i put a UE_LOG inside OnRep_Ammo to test, it does print the Log and the correct value of "1", so i guess it does fire OnRep_Ammo, but afterwards the Value returns to 0

[latent heart]

Find in your code where Ammo is being set. Add a breakpoint and/or log to that place and have it trigger only on the client (GetWorld()->GetNetMode() == NM_Client) and see if anything else is setting it.

[pure elm]

K, done that, now for some reason Find Sessions Advanced node does not work

[kindred widget]

Doesn't work how? There should be some logs about anything failing.

[pure elm]

It does not seem to fail, however, no sessions are found which is strange

This is my code for hosting the server

And this is for joining