multiplayer

[clear island]

push model saves you some cpu cycles

[solar stirrup]

im talking about anything replicated within the engine

[quasi tide]

Iris or Verse. The race is on.

[dark edge]

It's the difference between
"Hey this thing updated, replicated it soon"
and
"Better check if the thing changed so I know if I gotta replicate it"

For a small number of things you won't get much of a difference and just polling for changes is trivial.
For a giga number of things you dont want to poll all the time.

Polling happens all over the place. It's simple and is sometimes faster as it keeps execution nice and predictable.

[dusk fable]

quick question , in multiplayer turn based game , the player in turn , gets to control the camera freely , others will spectate waiting for their turn , my question is , do i make character spawn in player starts or use actors for characters to spawn in ? characters arent controlled , they move one box at a time

[dark edge]

Player start actor is just a dummy actor for the gamemode to know where to spawn a player's PAWN. You don't need to use them

Player's pawn should probably be just the camera in this setup.

[dusk fable]

few more details on this oen pls ?

so the approach wld be , make a separate camera bp , setup spawn actors (characters) , when game starts , the camera follows whoever has the turn ?

[dark edge]

What do you intend for players to see when it's not their turn

[dusk fable]

spectate whoever is playing

[dark edge]

I would make the player's pawn be the camera thing

everyone would have one

when it's your turn, you can control it as normal (use an onrep for this)

when it's NOT your turn (same OnRep), have your pawn go in a mode that just attaches it or otherwise follows the movements of the player who's turn it is

So it's not 1 camera pawn being shared, its N camera pawns, where all of them copy whatever PlayerWhosTurnItIs's pawn is doing.

There would be other, more elegant ways to do this, but I'd start it like that. Super simple.

[dusk fable]

oh sounds good

okay that aside , the characters

i make bp actor as a spawn point for characters , and put them in the scene ?

[dark edge]

The core of it would be
OnRep_PlayerWho'sTurnItIs -> if PlayerWhosTurnItIs = MyPlayerState or whatever -> true -> do one thing
-> false -> do something else

[dark edge]

Sure, either that, or add some spawning logic to GameMode or whatever, depends on how you want things to be done.

[dusk fable]

alright

yeah cuz basically , i wanted the character to be there to show progress in-game , and players can use some utilities on each other, there will be some animation and all , but not free controll over character , its more of a board game

[dark edge]

Yeah like Baldur's Gate or other CRPGs

If I was doing something like that I'd have the pawn be the thing that holds the camera and not much more.

[woven bramble]

Voice chat (Voip) works properly when I am in the lobby. Because I join the Lobby with Open Level (Create host or Join Server). But when I switch to the Main Map with Server Travel from Lobby, the voice does not work on the Main Map. Any idea?

[astral cypress]

With pixel streaming how much overhead is produced by people seeing the same thing but from their own view

Like if you wanted a bunch of people in the same instance of a game would that be expensive?

[urban crystal]

Having a wierd issue where when I kill a player and respawn them they get respawned fine on the server but on the client they float where the spawned and can't move

[dark edge]

Show your kill / respawn code

[hollow bridge]

Whenever a player places an item I set this player the owner because it's more convenient to be able to send RPC from the actor BP, is it a bad practice that should be avoided?

[fathom aspen]

Due to tips and tricks article found in this channel pins it is

I mean an actor can have only one owner at a time and that means other players won't be able to do anything with the actor

Not to mention that it's another hard reference for nothing

Not to mention that it will be replicting extra bytes for the netguid over the network for nothing as well

So don't get me wrong. Sometimes it's fine (say a weapon actor attached to the pawn)
But usually it's not, where we are talking about world map actors

[hollow bridge]

Toda 😉

[dark edge]

I wouldn't set ownership for items that can be interacted with by multiple players

Stuff on the map, no
Equipped items, sure

[dark parcel]

Run addvoip in main map maybe

When you enter new level, a lot of hard ref are destroyed

[silver totem]

Anyone has any good reads on projectile replication with client prediction? I've already read Valve's Counter Strike post about hit detection and lag compensation, but that's primarily for raycast based weapons

So far I'm just letting the server spawn the projectile and replicate it to all clients, including the shooter

Is it typically how it's done? Or is it still feasible to spawn a fake projectile on client in case of heavy lag?

[woven bramble]

I added it to the PlayerController integrated in the Main Menu, the problem is still the same.
It's really strange. I can't find any solution, it's ridiculous.

[woven bramble]

Is there a Voice Chat we can use other than Voip talker?

[woven basin]

The c++ shooter course by Druid Mechanics is very very good and includes a whole section about server/client prediction and replay/rollback stuff for bullets and replay etc.

It’s a paid course, but always coupons available on his discord, so it’s very cheap. But very high quality.

[sonic jasper]

anyone know why GetOwner() on Playerstate is null on a client? Meant to be replicated?

[solar stirrup]

Owners are generally player controllers

Check if it's null on your client's player state

[sonic jasper]

yeah its the playercontroller on the server but client is null on playerstate

[solar stirrup]

PlayerControllers are only replicated to their owning clients

So if you're a client you only know about your player controller, not anyone else's

Only the server has access to them all

[sonic jasper]

hmm was aware of that but would not have thought it an issue in this case but playerstates are odd haha, call is coming from a components onrep on the playerstate, shouldnt the client playerstate know its playercontroller?

[solar stirrup]

Yep, however there's no guarantee the player controller will have replicated yet ^^

I'd wait for BeginPlay() to be called on the player controller & player state, client side

[sonic jasper]

i put in a SetTimerForNextTick so unless its taking 5mins to replicate it aint replicating

[solar stirrup]

Again, no guarantee

Using timers for multiplayer is a very very bad idea

[sonic jasper]

was a debug tool

just to check if it was a timing issue

[solar stirrup]

There's no guarantee about how long it'll take to replicate, or in which order (could be PC first and then PS, or vice versa)

[sonic jasper]

which doesnt appear to be

[solar stirrup]

i'd wait for both PS and PC to begin play

[sonic jasper]

will try putting break points in them see if they occuring during the wait

[kindred widget]

virtual void ClientInitialize(class AController* C);```

[sonic jasper]

beginplays execute well before trying to RPC and that function executes before as well

so something busted with my playerstate i guess

[kindred widget]

What are you doing exactly?

[sonic jasper]

i have a component that loads data assets for the units to spawn for each player
when all data is loaded and replicated trying to rpc to server to spawn them

maybe comp on the playerstate is a bad place

just figured later when i do save data might be convenient

[kindred widget]

When you say units. I think like an RTS or squad game. Which makes me wonder why you care about the client's side?

[sonic jasper]

so have multiple factions, server side gets the factions in the current session and the replicates that list to clients to load the data, classes, meshes whatever

verify((AssetManager = UAssetManager::GetIfValid()) != nullptr);
    
    if(SessionGroupDataAssets.Num() > 0)
    {
        TArray<FName> LoadBundles;        
        LoadBundles.Add(RTS_DATA_ASSET_BUNDLE_GAMEPLAY);
        const FStreamableDelegate GroupDataLoadedDelegate = FStreamableDelegate::CreateUObject(this, &URTSPlayerDataComponent::LoadSessionEntitiesPlaceableAssets_Client);
        AssetManager->LoadPrimaryAssets(SessionGroupDataAssets, LoadBundles, GroupDataLoadedDelegate);
    }```

i think the data stuff is right just need to change how i am trying to spawn the actual actors

like do it from the gamestate foreach player

[kindred widget]

Why are you replicating the data though? I understand replicating it assign it to a player. But as far as spawning default units for the player, that should all be done on the server anyhow. The client shouldn't be involved in this at all besides picking a faction, or picking units maybe. Which would happen long after stuff is initialized. But at spawn time, the server should already have this data ready, have it vetted for errors, and just do it on server. Client will receive the replicated actors eventually.

[sonic jasper]

yeah, i guess that is the case for soft pointers as well, would only need to load on server

once its spawn its just all replicated hey

was under the impression from somewhere clients needed it loaded

[sonic jasper]

thanks Authaer

[kindred widget]

They might if they need that data for UI or something. I mean no harm in putting a data asset pointer in the playerstate for their faction so that UI can get it and do stuff with it. But for default units, definitely all server only. 😄

[meager spade]

@sonic jasper if the client does't have the data loaded

they will hitch loading it

ie if they recieve an actor which is not loaded on there side, they will sync load it during replication

[unborn nimbus]

When replicating a struct, I understand that the entire struct is replicated when any property of the struct changes but how are non-uproperty members of that struct handled? Obviously they don't get replicated but does the underlying system still allocate memory for those non-uproperty members or are they completely ignored?

[latent heart]

They are completely ignored.

[unborn nimbus]

awesome, thanks

[latent heart]

for replication

The receiving end will still allocate the entire struct, the non-uproperty vars will just have default values.

Or random trash memory

[unborn nimbus]

Sure, I just want to make sure it's not using unecessary bandwidth

[latent heart]

Nope!

[unborn nimbus]

wonderful

[latent heart]

Nothing in UE replicates with "let's just copy the memory from A, put it into the socket and put it in memory at B"

[unborn nimbus]

I didn't figure so but sometimes, you never know haha

[hollow mango]

Anyone know if its possible to get a cached array of friend requests? (EOS) I want to implement a custom Friend Widget

[unborn nimbus]

@latent heart how about replicating arbitrary data like a byte array?

I suppose it should just handle TArray<uint8> right?

[latent heart]

Yup

[magic furnace]

Hey what is my alternative for a for each in networking

because what I've noticed based on the nature of a for each

is that the for each is executing in one tick but the amount of packets to be sent is too much in my case

[quasi tide]

What?

[magic furnace]

yeah, well it's not technically correct, basically in other words

if I use a for each

[quasi tide]

A for each loop has nothing to do with networking

[magic furnace]

something might be too quickly replicated if I call an on client event from the server in a for each loop

at least that is the conclusion I draw

[quasi tide]

Then...don't do that?

[magic furnace]

yes, so I am asking for an alternative where I can achieve for each functionality but without the issue

or if there is a known way around it

[quasi tide]

For each has nothing to do with networking

You are making no sense.

If you want to loop through a collection, then for each or for loops are generally preferred

[magic furnace]

I call something like this, some random indexes will be skipped

[quasi tide]

Why not use a multi cast?

[magic furnace]

it's only meant for this one client to run some functionality

a client side functionality

[quasi tide]

Then why are you using a foreach?

[magic furnace]

I equip 10 armor items, 2 of which are on the head

if u are in first person u need to set a translucent material on them clientside

so u can see

[latent heart]

So you're sending 10 reliable rpcs in a single tick?

[magic furnace]

yes, it's too much

[latent heart]

Why not send a single rpc with a list of armour to equip?

And surely the armour knows whether it shoudl be equipped on the neck or not?

Unless you're wearing gloves around your neck as a fashion accessory?

[kindred widget]

Why is that a client RPC to begin with?

Equipping should happen on server, either by data setting or spawning an actor for it. The client should receive that as a replication one way or the other.

[latent heart]

Why not have a variable for each armour piece, set the variable and let the onrep do its thing?

[magic furnace]

it doesn't need to be replicated in any way, it needs a single call that an equip happened to be fair

I could just throw it into completed

[quasi tide]

And why would equipping something be on tick anyway?

[latent heart]

Wghy do you have a string of server RPCs followed by a Client RPC in the same execution flow?

[magic furnace]

it does nothing, the code runs on server, it's just a mental note that it should run on server

the client rpc is the only rpc that happens here

[latent heart]

Then use an authority check?

Or a comment block?

[magic furnace]

I mean fair, it just needs an authority switch in the function

[kindred widget]

But either way. Equipment like this should just be a list of data that gets replicated. The only thing you need for this is a ServerRPC for the client to request equipment, and a replicated array of equipment. Each client can locally deal with the replicated data for that character however they need to.

[magic furnace]

it's a troubleshooting remnant now that I think about it

[magic furnace]

it's not an issue, you don't see the entire setup, nothing from this is actually RPCd, the items themselves handle it

what interests me is why when I call a for each

that makes 2 client rpcs

the second one gets skipped entirely

@sinful tree damn u gonna make me look insane

but tbf, ur right, some of this should be owner only on rep

when u write a lot of code and debug it 10 times it becomes a mess pretty quickly, which is getting adressed

[spare cloak]

Hey all, I have a weird issue and would really appreciate some advice 🙏

I am trying to get Lyra running over a LAN network. I was able to get it running consistently, but now a joining player crashes each time they try to connect to a game. Any ideas?

Error message looks like something to do with world partioning settings, but afaik these have all been set up properly

Proof that it did work at one point 😭

[magic furnace]

you're missing editor debug symbols

epic games launcher-> engine -> options and enable editor debug symbols

that will at least give u a full error message

and not a bunch of nonsense

[spare cloak]

Ooh, didn’t know that was a thing. Downloading now 👀

[echo bough]

what are some method to handle a randomized sequences of levels that is also multiplayer friendly? seamless travel? level instances?

[spare cloak]

Here are the missing debug logs, any insight would be appreciated 🥺

[dark edge]

It's kinda funny. As you work on a system, you often end up going through this sequence.

1. Do it on tick, we need to just get the thing working for now
2. Do it on some event when needed
3. Whoops, calling that event randomly is not very performant, let's check on tick and batch the logic

I could see EquipItems being on tick if you were doing a Total War for example.

[magic furnace]

it's not on tick in my case

no clue where that came from

maybe from my comment that for each is designed to run in 1 tick which might be the problem

[spare cloak]

managed to find a workaround for this lyra lan networking. Still don't know what causes this crash, but thanks for the help anyway 🙇‍♂️

[magic furnace]

Yeah all I got from that is that it couldn't find the play in editor instance

[young spoke]

what classes from unreal gameframework persist data when i call ClientTravel()?
i.e. i'm a client and i ClientTravel to a different server map that has different PlayerController / PlayerState/ etc.
where can i persist information such as a username through map travels

[sinful tree]

GameInstance and Subsystems, otherwise you could use a save game. When connected to the new server, you'd then have to rely on the client to tell the new server the data.

https://wizardcell.com/unreal/persistent-data/ --- More info here.

[young spoke]

bookmarked thx

[brisk swift]

Hi, my client doesn't see server animations. Client sees their own due to server called functions and server can see client but can't see server

[winged badger]

That can fail on any number of things

Most animations shouldnt be server auth

Only anim montages reslly

[brisk swift]

yeah sorry I play animation montage with anim instance->play_montage

[winged badger]

From which class?

[brisk swift]

the function to play the montage is on the character class but it is called from a server function on an actor component

[winged badger]

And youre not passing an AnimInstance pointer through the RPC?

Is it a client RPC?

[brisk swift]

no i'm not passing an anim instance pointer thruogh

and it's not a client rpc

[dark parcel]

Always show code so ppl can spot your mistake

You will get more chance to get help

[brisk swift]

https://pastebin.com/yVGAJ32n

[timber anchor]

Hello! simple question i guess.
I'm trying to change color on a widget, Host is currently able to generate and change the color, but no matter what client won't be able to change it. What should go on the False branch in this case?

I'm probably too tired to connect right now, but since I'm a client, I should request the Server to run a custom event on all clients that will make the color of the widget change. Am I right?

Ok NVM, i was stoopid enough to forget about the fact that the client doesn't have access to an object place inside the level, so no matter what he has no idea on what that actor is.

[hollow bridge]

Hi, got an issue with stuttering AI on sloped ground while navmesh walking (client only, 0 lag)
I validated it in a clean project, anyone has an idea what might be the issue?

[chilly patio]

anyone got a handy set up for replicating effects like particles and decals

[harsh lake]

is there an unreal recommended way to stress test a dedicated server that run within a kubernetes cluster ?

i'm already have a multiplayer game ready. but having problem estimating how much resource the game dedicated would require.

[keen condor]

Hello, I currently have an RPC server function that spawns a projectile. If I want to use client prediction for the spawn, can I change the logic to spawn the projectile locally and then call a server function that just validates the projectile spawn, and if not, roll back? Is this good practice? What do you suggest and is it really important to apply client prediction to the spawning of projectiles? Thank you

[thin stratus]

On top it's questionable why you have an OnRep function that is limited to Auth and then calls a ServerRPC and a Multicast

It's like you threw everything in there without knowing what this actually means :P

[thin stratus]

There is usually no "one" setup

One-Time Effects are Multicasts, State driven Effects usually work off of OnRep States

Some stuff can be predicted too

[thin stratus]

Not really, you can test with Bots if you have a proper AI coded, but that might never actually mimic a set of players. And Bandwidth will also not be tested that way.

The usual way is a beta test session with players :P

[thin stratus]

So for Predicting any form of Actor Spawning you'd need to spawn locally first (as you said) and then ask the Server to also spawn. That will ultimately create a second copy of the Actor on the Client who predicts.

You'd need a way to figure out which local Actor matches the replicated one and then remove the Locally predicted one. At least I think that is what UT does.

For a Projectile you also have to take care of the actual Ping Delay in Movement.
If you spawn the Actor locally and it moves 100 units per second, and let's say it takes .5s (500ms, bit high but this is an example) to get from Client to Server via RPC, then the Projectile is actually 50 units on the way already.
If the Server would now spawn the Projectile at the normal origin and replicate the spawning back to the Client, the Positions wouldn't match. It will take another .5s to get back to the Client, which would mean the Client is already at 100 units for the Projectile, while the Server is probably at 50.

That means you'd need a proper synced net clock/ping (there is some stuff pinned to this channel) to figure out how far the Server needs to forward offset the Projectile.
And then the Server would ensure nothing between Spawn and forwarded Location is hit via a simple trace.

All in all, that's still not 100% correct, because you'd still only deal damage on the Server, so the Server's location of other actors is the one that determines if you hit.
If your projectile hit someone just about before they would "run out of the hit", it might already be further gone on the Server and miss.

So here you'd need to additionally handle the Hit locally and ask the Server to confirm.
The confirmation stuff is then yet again another system. You can try to just say "Okay that location of this Actor is roughly what I have, so that's fine.", or you might need to actually play back the location and check if the Actor was at that location at all.

Is this good practice? Probably. But it's also a sh*tload of work.

[keen condor]

Thank you verry much i will read that

[keen condor]

Jeez, that's indeed a lot of work. Thank you for your incredibly detailed response. Let's say I created my projectile locally (let's call it C), the server creates a projectile we'll call S, and a projectile S' which will be a replica of projectile S will be created on the client side. But at that point, before creating it on the client side, we'll need to delete the projectile C. However, I have absolutely no idea how to detect the event that tells the client to create a replica of the projectile S. Once I understand that, I can start tinkering for the next steps!

[pseudo wagon]

Hi guys, does one RPC with array more effective than multiple rpc with single item?

[thin stratus]

The Client is the one that ultimately presses a Key to fire the Weapon.

Event KeyPress -> SpawnPredictedProjectile

Event SpawnPredictedProjetile -> SpawnActor(Projectile, SpawnTransform) -> ServerRPC_SpawnProjectile

Event ServerRPC_SpawnProjectile -> CalculateOffset -> SpawnActor(Projectile, OffsetSpawnTransform) -> TraceBetween SpawnTransform and OffsetSpawnTransform

(Note: The TraceBetween part might work differently. Just posting it to get a better idea of what I mean)

Since the Projectile Class would be marked as Replicated, the Client would automatically spawn the actually networked Projectile due to how Replication works.

• having its own local copy

There are probably way to match them up. You could generate a unique ID (e.g. a GUID) when predicting the Projectile Spawning and sending that to the Server. The Server can then set that on the replicated version so you can check in BeginPlay of the Projectile if you can find your local copy that also has that ID.

I think UT does positional matching (which I don't really like)

[thin stratus]

Hm, I would say yes, cause you ultimately send the same data, but with only one RPC.
But it depends on how big that Array is I guess.

[keen condor]

Oh great , yes there should be a way for matching them , i didnt think about that , i think its a better way than just overreding the predicted copy. Well thank you again you made it perfectly clear , now there is a lot of work to do !

[thin stratus]

You can have a look at the UT Source Code on GitHub if your Epic Account is linked to it

This is C++ of course

[timber anchor]

Yeah I changed the whole logic this morning, I guess I was so sleepy that I couldn't even read. Thanks for the heads up!

[harsh lake]

with stress test requiring actual beta tester. is there any estimation trick or good benchmark regarding resource cost of unreal engine dedicated server ?

[thin stratus]

Don't think so, cause it's highly depending on your Game and the way it's coded.

[shrewd ginkgo]

When I transfer players from the lobby map to the game, the host's inputs are not activated and he cannot move, clients can move.
I connected enable inputs to an event tick in case the inputs are deactivated later and I get this error

Blueprint Runtime Error: "Accessed None trying to read property CallFunc_K2_GetPawn_ReturnValue". Node: Enable Input Graph: EventGraph Function: Execute Ubergraph in Game Player Controller Blueprint: InGamePlayerController

[vital bramble]

Hi, I've an issue I can't figure out
On my listen client, I'm getting the GetCharacterMovement()->MaxWalkSpeed, in the BeginPlay of the CPP, I get 0 while in the BeginPlay of the BP, I'm getting the correct value,
Am I missing something ?

[thin stratus]

That sounds more like an InputMode issue

[thin stratus]

Can you show what you mean? C++ and BP code?

[vital bramble]

This is the CPP and BP

[thin stratus]

Hm

BP BeginPlay gets called inside your Super::BeginPlay fwiw

But that shouldn't matter for the MaxWalkSpeed, unless you are setting it somewhere

You can try moving your C++ Code above the Super::BeginPlay call to see if it's 0 then too

[vital bramble]

OK I'll check

Hm indeed... When moved before I have the correct value, I was sure about the begin play not interfering with the value but it seems something is... I'll check that thanks 🙂

[shrewd ginkgo]

how can I fix it

[thin stratus]

By ensuring your Player has the right InputMode via SetInputModeGame

[shrewd ginkgo]

ty

[drifting heath]

Trying to get a game to work in standalone or listen & dedicated server mode, by using the same code and processes. Would if (!GIsServer) work in all cases where I only want the code to execute on the server, regardless of if it's standalone, listen or dedicated? If the player is playing in Standalone or Listen, I would imagine GIsServer would be true for the client hosting the game.

[quasi tide]

Check net mode

[drifting heath]

if (GetNetMode() != NM_Standalone)
  if (!GIsServer)

?

[quasi tide]

I haven't used GIsServer before, so can't comment on the reliability of it.

[drifting heath]

Ah, actually, on second thought...

[digital marten]

Wouldn't you just want to check the ROLE_Authority?

[drifting heath]

bool AMyCustomActor::IsExecutionServer()
  if (GetNetMode() == NM_Standalone)
    return true;
  return HasAuthority()

Might work

[drifting heath]

No, I was told checking authority can return true on clients if they own the actor.

I never want it to be true except on the server, or in standalone

Reliably

[digital marten]

Define what you mean by own?

[quasi tide]

Check < NM_Client

[drifting heath]

I suppose I could just run the game as a listen server, and avoid the whole standalone issue altogether.

A listen server without a connection is essentially a standalone

[digital marten]

They will get ROLE_AutonomousProxy if they own it.

[quasi tide]

Just check that the net mode is < NM_Client

[quasi tide]

Clients can return true for ROLE_Authority.

[digital marten]

It would only be ROLE_Authority if it is something you spawned locally on the client and doesn't exist on the server.

[quasi tide]

Just treat Authority as which machine spawned the actor

If you look at the comments for the NetMode enum, it tells you, you can just check < NM_Client for what you want Melanie

Nothing fancy needed

[drifting heath]

Gotya, I see it. Anything less than NM Client is a server.

[latent heart]

Or, at least, has authority.

[drifting heath]

So the net mode enum is related to the execution of the service, not the independent actor, correct?
Yeah - Nevermind. It's an engine enum.

Thanks all 🙂

[drifting heath]

Yeah, I just followed it to that. I wasn't thinking at first.

That's a solid enum to use for this. Thank you!

[quasi tide]

I use it all the time, lol

[drifting heath]

As long as it works as I'm understanding, it should be perfect.

void ACharacterBase::AddExperiencePoints(float AddValue)
  // Only execute on the server, or when playing standalone
  if (GetNetMode() >= NM_Client)
    return;
  ...

[quasi tide]

That'll be true for everything

>= logic bug

[drifting heath]

void ACharacterBase::AddExperiencePoints(float AddValue)
  // Only execute on the server, or when playing standalone
  if (GetNetMode() < NM_Client)
  {
    ...

[quasi tide]

Oh wait - I'm silly.

Carry on. Ignore me.

[drifting heath]

lol, no worries. I try to avoid nesting when it isn't necessary for readability

[digital marten]

If you're not sure, just put a UE_LOG inside and see what the result is.

You can can put the editor in client mode, listen, standalone, etc...

[cloud fulcrum]

Short Question... is "Multiplayer Shootout" Internet Multiplayer (Outside LAN) capeable?

[quasi tide]

What?

Is that some kind of game or something?

[cloud fulcrum]

Its an example from Unreal Engine

[quasi tide]

Capable of what though?

Playing in online? Yes. UE has pretty good networking support.

[cloud fulcrum]

Multiplayer

So that I can use it as the foundation

[quasi tide]

Do you know how to write multiplayer code?

[cloud fulcrum]

Nope, I watched some tutorials and tried to understand how to write it, but the tutorials are really wierd and the code does not work at all

[quasi tide]

You're going to have to learn eventually anyway.

I don't know the sample you're referring to, so I can't comment if it would be a good foundation or not

[cloud fulcrum]

Sry, I tried to make Multiplayer in my own Game, everthing was fine, but when I shipped it and tried it with my firends it didnt't worked at all

I couldn´t find his Server

[quasi tide]

You'd most likely have to do the same stuff with that sample project.

So doubt you'd gain much

[cloud fulcrum]

I can do the rest, the only thing I need is to be able to connect to a Client Server outside my wifi.

[quasi tide]

Again - I doubt that sample project will have that for you already

You need to use a 3rd party server or mess with ports or host your own STUN server

[cloud fulcrum]

hmmmm, do you have any tips for me? Or should I just try making a singelplayer game?

I tried it with EOS but it didn´t worked

[sinful tree]

In order to connect clients to an "online" server you need one of two things:

1. The server running and the person hosting the server has port forwarding set up on their router to facilitate communications to the required ports on the computer that the server is using. You would then share the public IP and port that the server is listening on and have the clients connect to it.
2. Using #online-subsystems to have the server host create a session which the players can then search for and join, without the additional headache of doing port forwarding or using IP addresses.

[cloud fulcrum]

Sounds good, but I tried it today with the EOS Epic Games and it didn´t worked. I tried fixing it but the Server still wasn´t visible in my epic games gameservice tab

[high lotus]

@cloud fulcrum you can use hamachi to create a virtual lan which you can use to connect via IP over the internet

@cloud fulcrum you would probably learn a lot from a course like this - which is often discounted to 8 or $12 https://www.udemy.com/course/unrealmultiplayer/

[thin stratus]

Everything on Udemy is almost always discounted

That's their whole marketing :D

Doesn't mean the courses are bad of course

[digital marten]

I did that course not long ago. It's decent. It's old though and some of the content needs updating or improving.
Problems:

1. I found a that games auto change to inprogress after someone joins a sessions preventing more users from joining, so you had to set the host to accept join in progress to true.
2. They were missing a Super call somewhere (I think it was in the game instance) and didn't mention about fixing that code error, which stopped UI from working it 5.1+.

The above two issues I did report to them, so they may have fixed them, or not.

The other problems are:

1. They used reliable RPC call every frame to send player movement to the server. This is a very bad choice to make and you don't want to do this. Sending multiple reliable RPC calls per second can be done, Hell Let Loose Sends ~20 Reliable RPC calls per second, but generally you want to reduce reliable RPC usage where possible.
2. Had some issues with cubic spline interpolation near the end of the course and wasn't able to do that part. Their old UE4 project doesn't work in UE5, I tried fixing all the compile errors, didn't work for me.

I definitely recommend the course for getting started and familiar with networking if you know C++ (and are comfortable with C++) and it has some decent content on UI, but it wont be enough to know what you're doing. You will need to do lots more reading and research if you want to do stuff like character movement replication from scratch in a server authoritative manor that's efficient (I'm having to learn this currently).

[high lotus]

Thanks for that review. I've recently started going through these courses - just to brush up, and am surprised about the move on reliable rpc!

[digital marten]

They also teach you how to use the the OnlineSubsystem. A personal observation of mine though is that the implementation varies between platforms. To be specific the Null subsystem has some quirks, and you will get strange problems if you don't know them and they're not documented either.

When using the OnlineSubsystem I recommend you read the implementation of the functions you are using, otherwise you WILL get stuck because requirements change. Some flags Steam uses and some NULL use are completely different.

[digital marten]

Ye, they should have used Unreliable RPC calls.

This is the issue I'm talking about the NULL online subsystem #online-subsystems message

[digital marten]

The Steam implementation doesn't have this quirk.

Also I have a question. Is Online Services (https://docs.unrealengine.com/5.3/en-US/online-services-in-unreal-engine/) replacing OnlineSubsystem in the future when it leaves beta? Looks like a replacement to me.

[quasi tide]

Yes. Epic has even said as much

They recommend not using online subsystem anymore, unless your game is already late in development pretty much (or releasing pretty soon)

[digital marten]

Despite being in Beta is it technically stable?

[quasi tide]

Beats me. I don't use it. I'm still on subsystem.

[heady copper]

Hello friends

[digital marten]

I'll probably look at trying to use it because I'm only just getting started on my game and I haven't implemented the OnlineSubsystem for my project yet.

I've already seen some of the OnlineSubsystem's age in NULL and its inconsistencies. So I'm fully willing to give Online Services a go.

[brazen anvil]

If a variable is not in the FSavedMove but is replicated, can it still be used for client side predicition or does it have to be inside the FSavedMove?

[torpid oracle]

Hello slackers,
I'm working on a multiplayer save load system to save the score of each player between different levels. We've tried the basic save load nodes, (replicated/not replicated), but it seems multiple players are reading off the same save load slot that each player has a unique index, even when packaged out and testing on separate machines. We've tried multiple ways to save the score including creating text files but the problem still persists.
Any clues on what may be the issue? I can provide screenshots if needed. (we're simple peasants working in nodes, little coding experience)
Any help would be really appreciated.

[high lotus]

how do you differentiate between the players?

and can you just store all the save data somewhere else like a sub system or game instance?

you might find this guide helpful
https://wizardcell.com/unreal/persistent-data/#the-better-more-reliable-way-to-stash-data-on-disconnection

[torpid oracle]

we have tried saving the score inside the game instance, it returns zero somehow.

We differetiate between players with an index number assigned to each player at the start of the game. The player index is just the integer of the player in the players array.

thank you my man

[high lotus]

if you save in the game instance, you'd need to do "run on owning client" on the client's player controller to pull from the instance which would be client side

I can't promise you that's the best way, it's something I need to learn, hopefully this helps

[torpid oracle]

Yeah thanks man, that's great. We'll get on that guide.

[high lotus]

Let me know what you find out!

[torpid oracle]

It seems getting the local player controler ID returns -1 for all players, would this not overwrite previous saves?

[torpid oracle]

Okay so we got the scores working with creating text files, not the best way to do it I guess but it works and we've been stumped on this for over a week.
Thanks for the help Puzzabug, legend!

[final tartan]

maybe better channel than general, but getting an issue on my 5.3 build that doesnt make any sense... getting this while trying to connect to my dedicated server within UE editor. Normally this happens if make changes after packaging and builds are different but this is a fresh package after upgrading project. Also the packaged client works fine connecting to packaged dedicated server, but connecting from within editor doesnt work at all.

LogNet: UPendingNetGame::SendInitialJoin: Sending hello. [UNetConnection] RemoteAddr: 127.0.0.1:7775, Name: IpConnection_3, Driver: PendingNetDriver IpNetDriver_3, IsServer: NO, PC: NULL, Owner: NULL, UniqueId: INVALID
LogNet: Error: Server is incompatible with the local version of the game: RemoteNetworkVersion=3367123562, RemoteNetworkFeatures=LegacyReplication vs LocalNetworkVersion=753457390, LocalNetworkFeatures=LegacyReplication
LogNet: Error: UEngine::BroadcastNetworkFailure: FailureType = OutdatedClient, ErrorString = The match you are trying to join is running an incompatible version of the game. Please try upgrading your game version., Driver = PendingNetDriver IpNetDriver_3
LogNet: Warning: Network Failure: PendingNetDriver[OutdatedClient]: The match you are trying to join is running an incompatible version of the game. Please try upgrading your game version.
LogNet: NetworkFailure: OutdatedClient, Error: 'The match you are trying to join is running an incompatible version of the game. Please try upgrading your game version.'
LogNet: Error: UEngine::BroadcastNetworkFailure: FailureType = PendingConnectionFailure, ErrorString = The match you are trying to join is running an incompatible version of the game. Please try upgrading your game version., Driver = PendingNetDriver IpNetDriver_3
LogNet: UNetConnection::Close: [UNetConnection] RemoteAddr: 127.0.0.1:7775, Name: IpConnection_3, Driver: PendingNetDriver IpNetDriver_3, IsServer: NO, PC: NULL, Owner: NULL, UniqueId: INVALID, Channels: 3, Time: 2023.09.09-02.44.12
LogNet: UChannel::Close: Sending CloseBunch. ChIndex == 0. Name: [UChannel] ChIndex: 0, Closing: 0 [UNetConnection] RemoteAddr: 127.0.0.1:7775, Name: IpConnection_3, Driver: PendingNetDriver IpNetDriver_3, IsServer: NO, PC: NULL, Owner: NULL, UniqueId: INVALID
LogNet: DestroyNamedNetDriver IpNetDriver_3 [PendingNetDriver]

[woven basin]

is there a write up of services vs subsystem? I googled it and didnt find anything useful?

[lean current]

So I want to make a online board game. Im reading this:
https://cedric-neukirchen.net/docs/category/multiplayer-network-compendium

Should I read it in it's entirety before even beginning? Or should I start, then read on what I need?

[fossil spoke]

Read it at least once.

[lean current]

fair enough. I thought of reading the full thing to have at least some of it in memory so that when Im actually making the game I can atleast recall what I need to use and read about it. But I just wanted to make sure im on the right path

thank you

[shrewd ginkgo]

When I transfer players from the lobby map to the game, the host's inputs are not activated and he cannot move, clients can move.
I connected enable inputs to an event tick in case the inputs are deactivated later. If I do this I get this error

Blueprint Runtime Error: "Accessed None trying to read property CallFunc_K2_GetPawn_ReturnValue". Node: Enable Input Graph: EventGraph Function: Execute Ubergraph in Game Player Controller Blueprint: InGamePlayerController

its not about input mode

[quasi tide]

5.2 (or 5.1) release notes talk about it and there are docs on it from Epic as well.

[dusk orchid]

hey all quick question that i cant seem to find online

i have a server function

UFUNCTION(Server, Reliable)
    void QueueInput(const FXYZInputMessage& InputMessage);
    void QueueInput_Implementation(const FXYZInputMessage& InputMessage);

inside the impl function how can i see which PlayerController sent it?
I've tried the following

AXYZPlayerController* CallingPlayerController = GetOwner()->GetInstigatorController<AXYZPlayerController>();

but GetInstigatorController() is returning nullptr
ty!

[solar stirrup]

Where is that function

in what class

[dry pebble]

Do you know where Epic said that?

[dusk orchid]

ah nvm i figured out that function was not what i needed and instead im using PlayerState->GetUniqueId to verify Player RPC calls

[shrewd ginkgo]

When I transfer players from the lobby map to the game, the host's inputs are not activated and he cannot move, clients can move.
I connected enable inputs to an event tick in case the inputs are deactivated later and I get this error

Blueprint Runtime Error: "Accessed None trying to read property CallFunc_K2_GetPawn_ReturnValue". Node: Enable Input Graph: EventGraph Function: Execute Ubergraph in Game Player Controller Blueprint: InGamePlayerController

[shut bough]

unreal android app as overlay or in window format to launch one specific part of screen..any suggestions?

[quasi tide]

https://docs.unrealengine.com/5.1/en-US/overview-of-online-services-in-unreal-engine/

"We also recommend using Online Services for developers targeting their own backend, or those who will be incorporating a number of UE upgrades beyond 5.1 into their project before shipping."

[oak mesa]

What is the best way to see the content I’m building in Unreel on desktop, in my oculus headset??

[final tartan]

figured it out.... i completely forgot that the shortcuts you create for opening server have a hardcoded path so when project was copied for 5.3 it was actually opening my 5.2 version causing a version mismatch

[dry pebble]

oh wow thank you, that is important info

[brazen anvil]

I am looking at the comments above Crouch() in CharacterMovementComponent.h and I am trying to understand what the bool bClientSimulation means.

/**
* Checks if new capsule size fits (no encroachment), and call CharacterOwner->OnStartCrouch() if successful.
* In general you should set bWantsToCrouch instead to have the crouch persist during movement, or just use the crouch functions on the owning Character.
* @param bClientSimulation true when called when bIsCrouched is replicated to non owned clients, to update collision cylinder and offset.
*/
virtual void Crouch(bool bClientSimulation = false);

Can anyone explain? That wording is throwing me off.

[wispy iron]

look in function definition and try to figure out what is influenced, there are some branches and logic inside it

[brazen anvil]

From what it sounds like it basically means do you want it replicated.

[worn flame]

Hey, Cedric! I'm going through the pain of CMC-related GE removal prediction. Can you share a bit more? What entails 'giving the client some threshold'?

[worn flame]

Tried giving the client some more space and time to predict stuff on the CMC, but it didn't change anything for me.

[low helm]

Replicating effects for spells (no GAS), for standard RPG. I assume the generic approach is to use a Primary Data Asset for this, where the server is unreliable multicasting a reference to the Data Asset, which contains emitter/sound info. Wanted to check if this approach is good. Also, maychance this should be a soft refernce instead...

[fossil spoke]

Sure, if there is no other mechanism for triggering the effect locally.

Effects should generally speaking be triggered as a byproduct of a source event occuring.

If a Weapon fires a shot, thats a pretty important event to replicate.

However the Shot itself shouldnt replicate what effects need to be played.

[low helm]

And does this need to be a soft reference? I'm worried this will blocking load?

[fossil spoke]

Only the minimal required information to determine what needs to be played and where.

[tawdry cradle]

Hi. Help please. I'm taking the first steps in mastering multiplayer. I'm trying to add multiplayer to the single project. Faced a problem with Widget Interaction. It simply doesn't work in multiplayer. I tried to change the values of "Virtual user index" and "Pointer index" to "Player id" from player state. But it didn't work. The widget interacts, that is, the trace works and the button sounds are played, but as if the trace works duplicated. The sounds work, but when click on the button, the logic does not work.

The interaction widget component and the widget itself are bound to character

[green moat]

I'm running a dedicated server that will handle multiple game sessions. How would I go about sending a message from a player in one game session to a player in another game session?

ie chat, party invite, etc

If I have the IP Address is there a way to send a string/json to the game other server?

[fossil spoke]

@green moat If you dont want to use something like EOS or the Steam network to send messages (whatever data you like) between users.

You can look into setting up Beacons

[urban crystal]

I am trying to make a team system where I store a array of the team objects on the game state but they're not replicating properly and I don't know why

[fossil spoke]

Did you enable Replication on them?

[fossil spoke]

Did you spawn them on the Server?

[urban crystal]

yeah

server has them fine

but they're null on the client

[fossil spoke]

Did you add their DOREP?

[urban crystal]

maybe not

this?

[fossil spoke]

Yeah

Did you forget to call Super:: on another function? Like BeginPlay?

[urban crystal]

this is where I create them that may be where the problem is

[fossil spoke]

Ahhh no

Dont do that

Actors are not created that way.

[urban crystal]

okay thanks i can figure it out from there

[fossil spoke]

Do some research on how Actors are spawned

[urban crystal]

got it working thanks

[karmic briar]

dumb question, gamemode only execute on server right? and not on client at all?

[proven kayak]

correct

doesnt even exist on clients

[lean current]

for an online board game, is it better to have a dedicated server or a listen server

games might take several sessions

[thin stratus]

Online Board Game is nothing that can answer that question

One can make such a Game with either Server Type

[lean current]

ok but I think it makes a difference if the game is turn based or not, like not much resources are needed. Plus if the game is multiple sessions, will that change anything?

[thin stratus]

No

ListenServer: - A Player hosts the Game. That Player is required to keep the Game open. If that Player leaves the Game, all Clients will be disconnected.
The Hosting Client also has full authority over the game, so they can easily cheat and fake progress.

DedicatedServer (player-hosted): - Some Player hosts a Dedicated Server which remains open even if every Client leaves. The Server, being hosted by a Player, still allows for Cheating.

DedicatedServer (hosted by you): - Same as the above, but since you are hosting it, cheating will become a lot less likely, at least not through the same ways. This however comes with thousands of €$ costs.

[lean current]

I mostly know this already, other than the fact that listen servers allow you to cheat more easily. Fair enough then I will make a dedicated server since I already pay for one to host my website

[thin stratus]

That's not the same?

Whatever hosts your Website is not a DedicatedServer from UE

[lean current]

yeah.. obviously..

[thin stratus]

Don't mix stuff up :P

[lean current]

its digital ocean, I hosted so many different types of things

[thin stratus]

And the Server that hosts your website is by far not strong enough to keep a UE Server running

[lean current]

yeah I can cough up a couple bucks for my and my friends to play for now

[thin stratus]

• A Dedicated Server is locked to somewhat aroudn 30 to 100 users

So you usually need one per session

Hence the thousands of costs for this

Hosting a proper UE Server, maybe 10 of them depending on the game o ndifferent ports, is easily multiple hundreds per month

[lean current]

thats fine I can sell cOsMitEcs wiTH miCro tRanSaCtiOns

[thin stratus]

If you don't need to combat cheating, don't host these servers yourself

Well, this is a friendly suggestion. I've dealt with this stuff lots of times before.

If you think you are (like all the ones before you) the chosen one that makes enough from an unknown, unannounced, game, that you can pay all those server costs, then sure

[lean current]

:I

[thin stratus]

So friendly suggestion is: Player-hosted Dedi Server, or Listen Server

Unless you have a team and a publisher or sit on a gold mine

[lean current]

for now I don't really intend to fully publish the game its just for me and my friends

tho obv I will release it later

[thin stratus]

Then keep it self hosted Dedi Servers for now

Or if you want quicker iteration time, drop the Dedi Server

And just have a friend host

Idk how long your sessions are

[lean current]

idk like could be a couple days depending on the game

[thin stratus]

Keep in mind that a UE Dedi Server has to be restarted every 24h

[lean current]

I already have a game save and load system

so should be fine

[thin stratus]

Alright

If all your players are always there together, then Listen would be enough

If people need to be able to randomly join at 2 am to paly the game without their friends, then sure, Dedicated is needed

[lean current]

also since the game is turn based, all players will be playing at the same time for like 1-2 hours maybe, then log off. So can I use this fact to my advantage?

[thin stratus]

Yeah then it's enough for one person to just host as a ListenServer tbh

This sounds like D&D

Just have the DM host

[lean current]

like make it so that the server saves the game and only reloads when everyone logs on

D&D?

[thin stratus]

Dungeons and Dragons

Maybe not then I guess hehe

[lean current]

lol

[lean current]

whats DM again

[thin stratus]

Dungeon Master

[lean current]

oh

[thin stratus]

The one that talks the players through the story

And controls the environment etc.

[lean current]

so something like that will work

[thin stratus]

But either way, if cheating doesn't matter cause it's usually a game between friends, you could just have ListenServers

And then put a Lobby Level between the MainMenu and the Gameplay one where everyone joins before the game starts

[lean current]

well I would like to prevent some people from cheating

[thin stratus]

The problem is that as soon as you care about that, or some sort of progression system with items or battlepass shit is involved ,you are locked to hosting DedicatedServers yourself

And it's not just starting it somewhere. It needs a backend that spins those up on demand

Something like PlayFab or whatever all those shitty services are called

You basically are instantly locked to creating the same system that Overwatch, Fornite, Counter Strike, Fall Guys etc. uses

And that's €€€€

And a lot of work fwiw

[silent valley]

Sorry for derailing, but why do you say the server must be restarted every 24hr?

[thin stratus]

Cause the Timer that ticks upwards in the Engine will overflow

Or first get very unprecise

The engine itself even says so

[silent valley]

Oh.. ours seems OK after a week still.

The world time is now double, maybe its not so necessary any longer

[thin stratus]

Maybe

[digital marten]

Not dealt with dedicated servers yet. That's useful to know.

Does doing something like changing the map using seamless travel reset the timer, or do you have to hard restart the application?

[thin stratus]

Pretty sure it's a hard restart

#multiplayer message

Idk. Didn't know they changed it. Would need to check the part where the original comment was

[lean current]

If I start with a dedicated server hosted by players then I wanted to change to dedicated servers I host, can it be a smooth transition?

because intuitively it makes sense

that it would be easy

but I just want to make sure

[sinful tree]

Not necessarily. If you still want to allow players to host their own servers when you're finally doing hosting, then technically there wouldn't be any impact whatsoever if your dedicated servers would act the exact same way as any other player's server. You just need to spin it up somewhere and let it run as you need.

If you're planning on preventing players from hosting their own dedicated servers once you're running yours, then you'll probably be out of luck since the executable is already distributed so people will be able to run it whenever they want, and even if you build in checks to try and prevent it from running at that future point when you're doing the hosting, someone will eventually crack it and find ways to spoof it to make it work.

[lean current]

right so because letting players host and hosting myself is essentially the same then I can't really check, but I just want to host servers between me and my friends. Then whenever I decide to release the game, I would make it a dedicated server that I host, will that work the same? Given that I somehow make sure that the old files are deleted (or never used) from my friends' PCs

[sinful tree]

Yes. One computer running a dedicated server is no different from another whether its hosted on a person's home computer or one some virtual PC in the cloud. The issue comes down to distribution - if you want only you to be able to host the dedicated servers in the future, then you can't release the dedicated server package to those you don't trust. As soon as you release the package to the public, then you're effectively giving a means for players to potentially play without using your dedicated servers, and potentially missing out on profit depending on if and how you monetize it.

[lean current]

interesting

[thin stratus]

Fwiw the originally distributed server will sooner or later be out of date

[icy phoenix]

Hello! I'm starting to look into adding multiplayer to my game. I'm trying to replicate a pointer to an actor, which gets correctly calculated on the server (I can see it from the logs). The UPROPERTY for this variable has ReplicatedUsing = OnRep_ClosestActor, but it doesn't get called as its effects are not shown on the clients. I also added the DOREPLIFETIME in GetLifetimeReplicatedProps. Is there anything else I'm missing?

[digital marten]

Something to note with replicated variables is that if you change their value it must be from the server. If you set the value from a client, it wont replicate.

If you want a client to update the variable, you will need to do an RPC request from the client to the server, then have the server update the variable.

[icy phoenix]

In this case the function updating the pointer runs on the server only because it's a function that is bound to the overlap of a box component

If I run in standalone the logic works so I think it's something to do with the way this replicates (or doesn't). For context this is part of an actor component attached to the player which of course has bReplicates=true

[digital marten]

From what you just said, sounds like the variable is on a component that is attached to the pawn/actor. If that's the case you need more than bReplicates.

bReplicates belongs to the parent actor. This allows the actor to replicate properties. Components don't replicate by default.

Your component sounds like it's not replicating properties. You need to set replicating for your component also to true. Add SetIsReplicatedByDefault(true); inside the constructor of your component.

[icy phoenix]

Ah that might be it, I'll give it a try in 5 minutes!

yes that works, thanks a lot!

[digital marten]

👍

[crisp root]

Did you ever find a solution to this? It seems to cause a drop in framerate when that occurs as well 💀

Re:

UActorChannel::ProcessBunch: SerializeNewActor failed to find/spawn actor. Actor: WorldSettings /Memory/UEDPIE_1_ExampleMap_MainGrid_L2_X0_Y-2.Sandbox:PersistentLevel.WorldSettings

[rose pollen]

I did not :/

[crisp root]

I just upgraded to 5.3, and a ton of warnings are no longer showing up — including the aforementioned UActorChannel noise.

[cloud fulcrum]

When I send an invite to my friend and he accepts it, then this should work right?

[rose pollen]

thats great to hear, I am working on upgrading but I had been using the Nvidia DLSS plugin and they haven't added support :/

[shrewd ginkgo]

When I transfer players from the lobby map to the game, the host's inputs are not activated and he cannot move, clients can move.
When I change auto posses player 0 host can move but this time I got new errors. how can I solve it

[hardy sluice]

How are static class variables replicated? Let's say I have cats running around in my game that differ only in textures stored in a large static TArray ACat::Textures
Will all clients have a copy of this array by default or what?

[thin stratus]

Yeah, but modifying it runtime will not be replicated

Also usually you don't have UObjects as static vars

They will unload

[hardy sluice]

oh yeah have not thought about it

[thin stratus]

It's static

Like, what do you mean?

There is no involvement of instances with static vars

Or do you mean member variables?

[hardy sluice]

sry I asked without properly formulating

I meant that they are not const. This ACat::Textures can be changed in every moment. Theoretically

So if I read you answer right, clients will have their own copy, but changes will not be replicated
But client's copy initial state still depends on something, and I assume that will be the time when that copy is obtained from the server. Do you know when it happens?

[thin stratus]

Again, is that a Member Variable?

Or a Static one?

[hardy sluice]

static member variable

[thin stratus]

Pretty sure they exist from the moment the class is loaded

But this has nothing to do with Unreal

Also you should not use a Static Variable here anyway

[proud badger]

hello Everyone, I seem to have a major issue when packaging the game I created with a basic listen server type multiplayer setup. I have a 2 player setup (one listen server and one client). everything is okay and works like a charm when I run the game in the editor (one on each computer). Still, when packaged the game and running on the very same computers, the listen server crashes when the client joins the session (the client even enters the level briefly). am I missing something in the packaging process?

[fossil spoke]

If there is a crash you need to fix it.

The crash reporter will tell you what happened

Where the crash was.

It may also be in the Logs

[hollow bridge]

If I have a chest in the world and I want to replicate the item list in the chest only to the player that currently are interacting with, how can I do it?

[short arrow]

Client RPC to the server you want to open the chest -> Server RPC to the client that you have successfully opened the chest with outputs (presumably the inventory variable of the chest) connected to the event

https://i.gyazo.com/e6c0885fc05b80595bbe6e41588dd3ba.png

[hollow bridge]

I see, and every change I should update local + send the update to the server?

Or send the update to the server and wait for the updated list for a verification?

[short arrow]

not sure what you mean

there's not much to wait for other then the MS time between server and client

you don't need any delays if that's what you mean, it'd be pretty instant

once you receive the "Receive Chest Feedback" event, you can create or open the inventory widget with the details inserted

[hollow bridge]

ok got it.
What about using DOREPLIFETIME_ACTIVE_OVERRIDE to make the list replicate only to the current interacting player?

[short arrow]

it already does that

"owning client"

well you have to define that if you're using c++

but I handle inventory things in the controller anyway with an actor component

[hollow bridge]

Not inventroy, chest actors. I don't want to change thier owner

[short arrow]

so it's always server client only

anything inventory related

if multiple people are interacting with a chest

then just loop through all the actors interacting with it, and send them the details everytime something changes

no need for multicasts and stuff like that, atleast that's how I do things

that way it's impossible for any sort of manipulation between clients

[proud badger]

thanks for the reply. I am new to packaging. so far I could not find it through the logs. is the crash reporter already in UE? or is it a plugin? could you provide some details?

[fossil spoke]

When the game crashes the crash reporter will open

With a trace to the crash

You need to do some research on this topic.

[plush wave]

A controller can only get the game mode if it A) is on the server or B) is using a server function, correct?

[fossil spoke]

Well B) implies A) so yes.

[plush wave]

Well when I say sever function I'm meaning not a function on the server but a UFUNCTION(Server)

[fossil spoke]

That is a function on the server....

[plush wave]

Which is an RPC call from client to server that then runs on the server

From how I understand it

Ok, so following that logic, it also seems needless to have a HasAuthority() check within a server function?

[fossil spoke]

Correct

[plush wave]

Makes sense, didn't know if the client could try and manually run that function somehow. I assume it's compiled out or just void. I don't have a good understanding of how the function is represented on the client other than it triggers an RPC.

[fossil spoke]

The Client COULD run it. But the programmer would need to consciously cause it to do that.

The **_Implementation function is still a regular function and can be called like any other in normal code.

[plush wave]

I see

So if a client could manually call that function (through cheating or some other means) then a HasAuthority() would help stop that function from running locally?

[fossil spoke]

IF they could, yes.

But as long as the programmer isnt doing any silly shenanigans then it wont be an issue

And is redundant.

[plush wave]

Got it, thank you

[craggy jolt]

Hey so i got a multiplayer template that works with steam on a listen server i made the game for mobile and all that is left is setting up the servers is there a ton i have to change to make the server work on mobile?

[plush wave]

Don't think steam works with mobile? I could be wrong

[craggy jolt]

ya i know that but i dont know anything about servers and am wondering does the listen server need to be specifically set up for mobile?

[plush wave]

You can't use Steam servers on mobile to my knowledge

[tall tinsel]

Hey has anyone faced race conditions when multicasting anim montages?

I have an issue where abilities can interrupt montages in clients whereas bool flags should prevent them from playing.

I've been racking my brain around this one for a while now

[blissful kraken]

Does anyone know networking solutions for both unity and unreal other than photo/bolt/fusion ?

[untold wind]

Hey guys, sorry if this is a newby question, but I don't know much about best practices for networking.
I want to handle projectile spawning for a game with a dedicated server, but different guns have different behaviors so I would like to know how to approach:

1 - For a gun that I'm constantly spawning a simple projectile (maybe only a small starting offset), is it okay if the client use a Server-RPC and then the Server uses a MulticastRPC or should I just a replicated boolean/gameplaytag to toggle auto-fire?

2 - For a gun that I need some targeting (for homing), like for example I get the 3 closest players I can find in a cone, should I let the player find the Targets, send a Server-RPC passing the Targets and then Multicast-RPC with that data for other clients?
Or I should let the Player client just simulate the targeting but the server actually calculate and make an Mutlicast-RPC with the Targets?
Or each machine calculate the target so I don't need to send data to sync which might cause a player to see something that didn't happened?

[digital marten]

Unreal has networking built-in. People don't use 3rd party libraries in UE.

An alternative for Unity specifically is Mirror. Also if you do multiplayer in Unity use ParallelSync it will make your life so much easier when testing your multiplayer code.

[digital marten]

These questions depend on if you need your game to be server authoritative and how much work you are willing to do on lag compensation and network prediction.

Also if your projectiles are replicated actors, then you don't need a multicast RPC because the server will spawn them on the clients for you.

[blissful kraken]

Thanks,I am looking for a single networking platform which will work on both engines
EOS has its C# SDK for unity ,but theres not much of a documentation in depth or a video on youtube so kinda hard to implement it as i dont know C# much

people say Photon is dead but i dont understand why, as oculus has been using photon network till date

[digital marten]

EOS is a service. I thought you meant an API for doing networking.

For UE you use Online Subsystem or ideally the new Online Services API. These UE APIs are meant to give a consistent API regardless of if you are using Steam, EOS, Xbox, etc...

[blissful kraken]

So if EOS is providing all the services why the SDK then ? i researched and it does allow to login through various services

why 2 different things when they have the same features ?

[digital marten]

To interact with EOS you must use the SDK. Other platforms like Steam also have their own SDK for interacting with their services.

Online Subsystem is the original API made by Epic to make using different online service SDKs consistent. So in theory you could swap from EOS to Steam with minimum changes to your codebase in an instant.

The problem is the Online Subsystem API is really old and needs updating. So Epic has made the Online Services API which is currently in beta.

Online Service will eventually replace the Online Subsystem, but that will take time.

Why do you want the same online service API for both Unreal and Unity? Learning either engine takes time and you are better off focusing on one engine and it's ecosystem if you want to be productive.

@blissful kraken

[blissful kraken]

because developing multiplayer on both engines means seperate servers and to manage that its a different task and to minimize the effort i was trying to find a better networking solution but havent found anything except for photon

[blissful kraken]

So the EOS kit which is avalaible on the market place has a wrapper of the EOS SDK in the kit ?

[digital marten]

The Online Subsystem and Online Services are Unreal Engine C++ modules. Not marketplace plugins.

[digital marten]

Why do you need to make your game in 2 different engines at the same time?

[blissful kraken]

I am trying to develop a same network for VR

more like i want to maintain a same network so that its not hard to manage

or should i just do it on different networking solutions as it does sound right in the head

kinda in a dilemma

[thin stratus]

These are two different things though. EOS is a backend.
You will need something totally else to allow UE to connect to Unity

[digital marten]

^

[blissful kraken]

and also i just found out this

"You need the C# SDK -- This is not a Unity SDK, to clarify.

The example project is WPF -- it won't work in Unity. It's also production-ready, so not very good for quickstarts, anyway."

[thin stratus]

EOS is only a backend anyway

[blissful kraken]

Yes,i just figured that out

[thin stratus]

It's for managing presence and sessions cross platform

Connecting UE to Unity needs a fully custom network layer

This is a pretty big time waste tbh

Stick with one engine

Unity has its DOTs thing now I think.

At least they are working on a built in network solution

Otherwise use UE

[digital marten]

What do you mean same network?

Network simply means a connection between 1 or more computers.

[thin stratus]

But I would never mix them

[blissful kraken]

"Same Networking solutions"

[thin stratus]

UE can release Crossplatform. EOS supports Crossplatform.
I don't see why you need to use two engines for this

[digital marten]

Is this for your game, or do you intend on making this a marketplace plugin for Unity and Unreal?

If this is for your game. It's a waste of time.

[blissful kraken]

I have different SDKs for both unity and unreal , so the SDKs the user is gonna use should have access to a multiplayer feature

[thin stratus]

Why Unity and UE?

You are developing something for the Engines or for a Game?

It's not really clear why you need 2 Engines atm

[digital marten]

If it's a marketplace thing you want to sell, you will need to make everything from the ground up like @thin stratus said.

This probably includes integration with online services too.

[thin stratus]

Which also requires writing SDKs for both c++ and c# I guess

[digital marten]

Unity & Unreal engine can both target almost all the same platforms.

If you are using 2 different engines to target 2 different platforms. Then you are better off finding another engine entirely that does support both.

[thin stratus]

But as long as you aren't explaining why you actually need to do this, it's hard to suggest anything

[digital marten]

^

[thin stratus]

2 different engines for 2 different Platforms also makes no sense fwiw

I am trying to develop a same network for VR

No clue what that means fyi

[blissful kraken]

we have 2 teams working on unreal and unity so we need one networking solution to reduce the complexity

[digital marten]

That still doesn't explain anything. Why Unreal and Unity? What're you trying to achieve?

[small grail]

You can use EOS for both backend but for the ingame network RPC or replication, UE has his own and Unity has use some 3rd party solution. It is difficult to do a common solution

[dark edge]

That sounds like absolute insanity

[tame kraken]

I need help: why can't I call RPC's on my owned actor?
I set it up with spawning -> set owner as my player controller -> set up enable input but still what's left is the RPC doesn't get called

what does this mean and how can I fix it?

the client can't get into the RPC

[solar stirrup]

Do you set the owner on the server

[tame kraken]

yes I thought so, but I ditched that approach because it kept messing up for me t_t

[shrewd ginkgo]

When I transfer players from the lobby map to the game, the host's inputs are not activated and he cannot move, clients can move.
When I change auto posses player 0 host can move but this time I got new errors. how can I solve it

[wanton cedar]

Learning about replication, and attempting to ragdoll character on death and replicate it from client to clients. The only way I've had success is to have a BP_char rpc-run on server to rpc-multicast the actor ragdoll, but it feels strange to have two rpc's.
is there a better way to proceed with this?

[digital marten]

Lets say you have a client press a key to ragdoll. Then that ^ is the correct method. You do an RPC call to the server, and then the server does a multicast back to everyone else.

Sounds like you want to ragdoll on death. In that case I assume death is handled on the server - because it should be. Now you can have a death event call the multicast and you don't need the RPC call on the client.

[dawn ledge]

This is normal, you are telling the server to then tell everyone else to do it

[wanton cedar]

the idea is to have character have health variable, on isdead (health <0 variable) activate this ragdoll effect, then 5s delay, cast to controller, RPC> run on server > server spawn function

controller be like :

its taken a LOT of learning to come up with casting that from the controller so it gets assigned correctly per client

i had done it all on the character at first -_-

in practice

[digital marten]

Doing netcode on components or the player character (pawn) is normal.

[wanton cedar]

a lot of learning, only about a month or so into UE

next is to tackle damage from client to client

[sinful tree]

You probably don't want to multicast this. Death is usually a state. Use an OnRep bool variable to represent the state of a target being dead and when set true, have that onrep perform the necssary logic to ragdoll/reset.

[wanton cedar]

my issue with from pawn was that the 2nd and 3rd clients controllers got reassigned to server on death, and i couldn't find the answer on how to dynamically use the player index to keep them to the pertaining controllers

so by executing on controller, the code kept it native

[sinful tree]

The answer is don't use the player indexes to keep track of players.

[elder spindle]

Anyone have an issue where a custom anim notify triggers on both server and client regardless if Trigger on Dedicated Server is turned on?

[wanton cedar]

LOL that was my answer and ditched that approach after a bit

[wanton cedar]

this was my original thinking, as this makes sense to me to have this triggered upon boolean, but til this morning replication was the issue

been up for a few hours just soaking YT examples of how others do things and explanations

im a new dev, first real game, so trying to absorb , although its a lot to take in at first

[digital marten]

You definitely chose a challenging topic for a beginner XD

Multiplayer is challenging because of network latency.

[wanton cedar]

idea was simple. use first person gun in third person template, make a 1v1 deathmatch. the rest is not simple 🙂

didn't wanna use linetrace, simply wanted the nerf balls to cause damage to enemy tag on hit

[digital marten]

You may want to use the ApplyDamage function and AnyDamage event for your damage code.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RuMckVAA4c

It's networked by default.

You can tell by the icon on the top right of the node.

[wanton cedar]

current next step for me, is to figure out replication for weapon component since its added to the pawn using add component to component so i think the projectile spawn event itself isn't being replicated right

not sure if the pawn needs to involve setowner or not on the weapon component.

i dont think so, because the animations switch according to the HasRifle boolean

sorry if this all sounds dum af, still new, learning a lot

[static prism]

guys i will do a system team on unreal and need to know if i should use the collisions response or the tags to verify the enemys wich i could use?

[wanton cedar]

could use an actor has tag set to enemy linked to boolean, and put an enemy tag on the enemies

[static prism]

its better than setup the collision responses and channels?

[thin stratus]

Well I would advice against using those tags

They aren't straight forward to update and easy to typo

If you want tags use GameplayTags

And for who is enemy and who not, a tag or an enum for the team number is probably best

[lucid viper]

Hello!

Im trying to build a third person shooter game, similar to fornite.
Ive been struggling past few months trying to get a locomotion / parkour system working ( Mantle system, Vault system, Wall run, Crouch, Prone, Slide, Ladder, Swim, Parachute system, etc ... )

-I had tried my hand at a CMC using Delgoodie's guide. I was running into some issues to get the mantle system working. Trying to debug the C++ code but this was way over my head for a beginner DEV here. Was not getting much help in their discord so I gave this up.

-I then bought this "plugin" https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/climbing-component/reviews got it working but ran into several issues with the locomotion and other issues. Been debugging for weeks and getting very little support so im thinking of abandoning this and maybe give it a few months until they fix some of the bugs.

-Was looking at the ALS community plugin but seeing thats its a very messy if your want to add new functions so not sure if I want to dive into this.

-I saw this new Smart locomotion system in the market place that looks interesting

• I see people talk about Lyra as well, not familiar with this.

Would anyone have any recomendations for me?

[thin stratus]

Pretty sure none of those are a good idea for you

A single beginner dev doesn't make Fortnite. And Multiplayer + Movement requires a lot of c++ to get right

All these locomotion systems will sooner than later break on you cause you probably don't know how to extend them

You can buy that if you want to spend the 150 bucks but be aware that if that doesn't 100% do what you want then the dev is not required to help you

[cloud fulcrum]

Using Steam OSS. Do you guys think that this will work?

[thin stratus]

I mean, little bit hard to directly close the game or?

[cloud fulcrum]

Yes XD

Just for Debugging

[cloud fulcrum]

But will the Player be able to join his friend?

[thin stratus]

The code at least reads like that to me

You'll need to test it :P

[cloud fulcrum]

Then I will test it

[queen escarp]

Hm ok guys need a litle bit of help again, tring to add a "Widget onscreen representing another players character"

this gives cast failed why :/ ?

in game mode

[cloud fulcrum]

I wasn´t able to either find or join my friends session any idea?

[queen escarp]

or acctualy it dosent give cast failed

but its give it after access none*

[sinful tree]

All Player Controllers array is not really necessary, nor is your number of players count in the GameMode. The GameState contains the "Players Array" which would give you access to the player controllers and the length of the array is the number of players.

The access none error is likely because you're attempting to access "As Player Character BP Parent" before it's actually had a chance to be initialized on the palyer controller itself. If you want that to happen on begin play of the player controller, then just have it happen on Begin Play of the player controller after the value has been set.

[queen escarp]

oh yeah post login is before begin gotcha

hmm yeah the all palyers controller / number of players is for another system that i acctually got working

but ok now i can create the widget on the player screen, how would i update the info based on wich unit ?

in the widget itselff with tic and forloop for number of players or ?

whats the normal way to do it

hm nevermind i solved it kinda

hm or well

[thin stratus]

Nope, you'll need to debug that

[queen escarp]

is it the game state that contains an array of players already ?

[sinful tree]

Yes

[thin stratus]

If you need a Widget per Player then just do this:

• In your Player Widget that should have Entries per Player, OnEventConstruct, get the GameState, get the PlayerArray, loop over the PlayerArray and add an Entry to whatever List you have per PlayerState. Ensure your Entry Widget has a Pointer to its PlayerState.
• In your PlayerState, on BeginPlay, get the Widget (e.g. from the HUD/PlayerController/Whereever you store it) and add an Entry to the List via "self". Additionally ensure that there is no entry with that PlayerState already to not end up with two entries.
• In your PlayerState, on EndPlay, remove the Widget Entry again.

[queen escarp]

hm

so this is how im trying to do it "player controller" is from player controller on event log in

it works for player 1 to get the other player but as you said eXi i need to get them on all players

shouldent something like this work ?

( this is not working ) but im missing something small i guess :/ ?

[thin stratus]

I told you what to do

[queen escarp]

yeah and i already saved that but for my sake am i out swimming ? for learning purposes whats wrong with what im doing ?

[sinful tree]

1. You're using an RPC to attempt to communicate something that the client can do itself without the server telling it to do it.
2. You're creating widgets for each playerstate, but not associating those widgets with a playerstate, so how's it supposed to know the data?
3. You're passing Player controller through this event and I'm guessing this is already running on a player controller or on a class that would have an association to the correct player controller anyway.
4. You're clearing the widget every time someone new joins. Completely unnecessary if you associate your widgets with a playerstate - you can just loop through them checking if you have one available already for the player or not, and do nothing if you do, otherwise create one and add it to the parent widget.

I had gone over something like this previously with another person and I see I even linked you this before. If you follow along with what Karkat was doing (I basically gave him a full on tutorial if you read back far enough and was correcting his issues along the way), you'll end up with the same result.
#multiplayer message

[queen escarp]

hm ok thanks for the info, now that u mention it i remeber something like that yeah, but its so messy to follow someone else task like that i appreciate the knowledge but i´ll try to do eXi-´s way then first i guess

so eXi if you could explain abit more in detail if you dont mind, what entry should i add to what list i have per player state ?

wdym with that ?

[cosmic goblet]

Hey everyone, I'm not sure if Multiplayer is the right channel for this, but I'm running into a memory overload situation whenever another player joins my level. This seems to be caused by the hair groom on the playable character (third person view)

I'm using a pretty light hair strand system, with the default simulation ON

any guidance will be appreciated

[dark edge]

That's a giant mess. You don't need an array of all player controllers. You don't need a number of players integer. You're already on the server, why are you calling a run on server event?

First step, get a print string to run on ALL MACHINES whenever someone joins or leaves

Bonus points, have it print the number of players.

[queen escarp]

@dark edge y i will tomorrow need to sleep now ty for help X)

[wanton cedar]

instead of having the weapon component fire from the weapon component, should i be firing the projectile from the client from RPC multicast so the load of the shots isnt' on the network? I'm thinking spawn projectile function on the characterBP and game mode BP(if necessary)

[brazen anvil]

Does a variable have to be marked "replicated" to be used in a RPC?

[echo garnet]

Hi, does anyone have an idea why does the Destroy session node does not work in my project? it does not return either a success or a failure and i cant understand why

[fathom aspen]

Not necessarily. An int for example can be passed just fine

You are probably asking about UObjects

And they have to be net addressable

[candid mulch]

Im trying to make a floating health bar that displays other players health

everything works except getting the correct player in the health bar widget

how do i get the owning player to display their health value on their health bar?

[brazen anvil]

thanks!

[fluid summit]

does anyone can think of a reason on why i'm only getting my default pawn on the server?
-Found it, I modified the game mode "starting new player" and forgot to call parent function

[candid mulch]

did anyone get a working floating health bar for enemy players in multiplayer in 5.2+? And if so, can I see your implementation because mine is really bad

[brazen anvil]

Lets say my character has his hand up like he is giving a high five. What I want to do is control which single finger is down and have it replicate to all players including newly joined. Lets say all the animation is done and the functionality for moving a finger up or down is taken care of.

Would this consist of a replicated variable to indicate which finger is down (assuming the others are up), a OnRep, and a server RPC? My thought process is I would replicate the finger and call a server RPC so that it updates to all other clients. And then I would also have a OnRep that would handle any late joining players. Since when they join the value will be different from the default and so the OnRep would fire.

Is this the correct way to do it?

[sinful tree]

If the finger was client driven...
Client does whatever to indicate whatever finger to change to > Sends Server RPC with selected finger > Server sets "Selected Finger" replicated w/notify variable > OnRep triggers on clients, clients update the visual based on the replicated "Selected Finger" value.

[fossil spoke]

This depends on what your concept of a "projectile" is.

[wanton cedar]

spawnactor sphere 🙂

i keep reading and reading

[fossil spoke]

Are you using C++?

[wanton cedar]

no, im no coder

everything so far is watching others tutorials, trying to absorb the concepts then attempt to make

im at the point of clients not seeing other clients projectiles, so dmg reports 0

[fossil spoke]

If its an Actor then you should only be spawning it on the Server.

It should then be set to replicate

This will cause it to appear on Clients.

[wanton cedar]

y not multicast it onto the clients, so its not networkly trafficed?

[fossil spoke]

Because you will cause it to desync like crazy.

[wanton cedar]

i shouldnt' consider the mulitcast itself the sync mechanism?

it would be cast from server time

[fossil spoke]

An RPC is not a sync mechanism

Its an event.

Which, depending on RTT, will arrive at different times for different Clients

[brazen anvil]

Yeah so thats correcy way?

[wanton cedar]

my thinking was character > calls RPC multi > insert graph 4 Character function(spawnactor projectile event)

thsi worked for line trace, client > client

so was basing what i was trying to do , on this thinking

which is have clients perform calculation off network, while having server perform the cast

(ikik casting is a weird term in UE) wrong use of it

the clients might desync, but was thinking it allows the network to stay uncongested, because any other way i've tried, then extreme lag develops from lobbing many shots( in terms of having the server perform the projectile function)

[dark parcel]

So if I have 2 seconds delay, I will have to wait 2 seconds to see the projectile everytime I fire?

[wanton cedar]

nono, its not that bad

i can take a video to show, its that... (idk if cpu bound or something) the input 4 movement begins to lag heavy

and i assumed it was network congestion

[dark parcel]

Im talking about latency

why not emulate network with latency when you test

[wanton cedar]

i was doing as listening, but figured just run 2 person client until i sort out networking mechanics of how to replicate the characters function

idk enough to progress farther into diagnosing the net latency

im like... maybe 6w into UE

[dark parcel]

All im saying is if you do fire on server and I have 2 second delay, I will see the projectile after 2 seconds

That's not really playable

[wanton cedar]

but nothing has that delay, until i call the server's shootnerfballfunction, then it lags heavy if i shoot 10x

[dark parcel]

nothing have delay because you didn't emulate lag

u always want to emulate lag when doing multiplayer

there is no 0ms perfect world

[wanton cedar]

i just stopped, and figured watch everything possible on UE networking

[sinful tree]

Those authority checks aren't necessary. Input is always going to be on the client sending the action. Running on Server will always be running on authority.

As for your lagging problem, is your trigger firing repeatedly, or only once when you press the input? If it's firing every frame that could potentially be lagging things up on account that you could be spawning an actor every frame.

[wanton cedar]

single fire

nothing fancy, i took the first person weapon component, and applied it to a function on the character that works, then before i finished making one for the server i went n got a beer

my thinking is client either tells server > run ur nerfball and cast it, or run my nerfball and multicast it

the only few things i've gotten to work were input key > srv ROS event > client only event > local code

and having input key > srv event > code
srv > code

i come from blender so i just learn by trial and error so its been a long month. now im on replication and netowrking order of op's

tmw ill try to approach it again

if yall have anything you think i should watch or read that would help, lmk, ill read or watch 🙂

[queen escarp]

@dark edge
ok mr.teacher done

[winged sky]

Hello everyone, I found that the name of the Session seems to be the result of using the computer name plus a number, there is no simple way to rename the name of this Session?

[thin stratus]

The Name of the Session is the PlayerName by default

Which is your Computer Name on Subsystem Null

Or your Steam Name on Subsystem Steam

If you want a custom one you will need to use Session Settings via either Advanced Session Plugin or C++

[winged sky]

Thank you, I see logs show is "DESKTOP-O0KA0J0-5 c59457a49ef9b1a280de0af94a9cac3", feel what is a computer name, then check that the code seems to change here, But I don't know how to extend the code here better

[thin stratus]

The usual way is to write your own node based on the same parent class as the one you look at. Basically mimic it and add more params. Or just handle it in C++. If you can't code, use the Advanced Session Plugin

[cosmic goblet]

Beep Boop

[thin stratus]

Any error/warning/logs?

Also not sure this is really Multiplayer related if you aren't doing anything specific in terms of replication for this

[cosmic goblet]

Nothing really, I'm monitoring the performance from afterburner and it's always either a D3D Error crash or a the Ram usage goes full and crashes

The game seems to run perfectly fine with multiple groom assets attached in the single player mode (Playable character, NPC, Creature Fur) but in MP it seems to not work

If it helps, the playable characters are using the Lyra System

[thin stratus]

Hm, not really a lot of info to work with. So if you remove the Groom Asset it works fine in Multiplayer?

Are you doing anything with that Asset despite having it spawned?

Is this a Component that is just attached or do you do anything to create it runtime?

[cosmic goblet]

Yep, it works even when I turn off the simulation on them, but it still takes a performance hit

[cosmic goblet]

I'm attaching all groom assets in the Blueprints of each character with a binding asset

[thin stratus]

Is that Lyra specific?

"In the Blueprints" meaning pre-runtime? Or is that actively attached after pressing play?

[cosmic goblet]

Not really, this is something I've done in non-lyra blueprints as well before but this seems to be first time im running into this.

[cosmic goblet]

Pre-runtime

This is how it looks for reference

I'll get on the level in a while and share a recording of what happens, in case that helps

[thin stratus]

Not sure I can help much. Just asking some general questions so others might be able to help

This still doesn't mean it's a network issue

[dark edge]

That's the "what", now you need the "when". When do you want to update your player list UI?

[obtuse temple]

I'm using a struct to replicate some custom properties for the items in my inventory manager. Is there a better way to implement this struct without having to send empty or null variables depening on the enum type?

[solar stirrup]

Custom struct serialization

https://www.aclockworkberry.com/custom-struct-serialization-for-networking-in-unreal-engine/

Good doc

[obtuse temple]

I already read that article but it was a bit daunting as I'm a bit of a c++ novice. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

[solar stirrup]

Rule of thumb with custom struct serialization is that you can do w/e you want as long as you read from the archive as much as you write to it

[obtuse temple]

Thanks I'll keep that in mind. Not a lot of items actually use this struct so it won't be as intensive as some of my other FastArray properties.

[brazen anvil]

I am looking at the Crouch() implementation in CharacterMovementComponent.cpp and had a question about this bit of code in it..

if (bClientSimulation && CharacterOwner->GetLocalRole() == ROLE_SimulatedProxy)
{
    // restore collision size before crouching
    ACharacter* DefaultCharacter = CharacterOwner->GetClass()->GetDefaultObject<ACharacter>();
    CharacterOwner->GetCapsuleComponent()->SetCapsuleSize(DefaultCharacter->GetCapsuleComponent()->GetUnscaledCapsuleRadius(), DefaultCharacter->GetCapsuleComponent()->GetUnscaledCapsuleHalfHeight());
    bShrinkProxyCapsule = true;
}

Now it says it is restoring collision size, but why would it be doing that on simulated proxies?

[thin stratus]

Probably to ensure that the Simulated Client isn't in some strange state

[brazen anvil]

Ah ok. Is it common for logic to be ran on only simulated proxies like the above?

Like I guess my question is what type of stuff would you want to do where you are checking for a simulated proxy.

[solar stirrup]

Code to run on other players

As a client, your pawn is an Autonomous Proxy when controlled

Other players will be Simulated Proxies

[thin stratus]

Well you still need to adjust the Capsule on sim proxies. Imagine the local player wants to jump onto a crouching player.

[brazen anvil]

Yeah I am following that part but I guess what would be an example of something I want to run on the sim proxies. Like if I do something on my own character, I would assume I send some sort of rpc that will then update to the simulated proxies right?

[thin stratus]

no

The Client moves locally and already sends an RPC as ServerMove to the Server

The SimulatedProxy only receives data from the Server afterwards

That's also why you see other players at a location they were a longer time ago

[brazen anvil]

Hm, if the data was a variable with rep notify then wouldnt it be able to just execute code based on that change? Why would I need to check if it is a simulated proxy

[thin stratus]

It is a Variable with RepNotify

The Crouch one at least

Not sure what exactly you want to know at this point :P

[brazen anvil]

what type of stuff would you want to do where you are checking for a simulated proxy.

[thin stratus]

I can't give you examples if that's what you want

[brazen anvil]

oh yeah i was hoping

[thin stratus]

Everything where the Simulated Proxy has to also be considered

Jumping for example doesn't really matter

You'll notice that Sim Proxies have no clue that you double jumped

They only know they left Walking Mode

[brazen anvil]

Ok. thanks

[thin stratus]

My suggestion from previous encounters with custom CMC Movement: Code it to work for Server and owning Client.
Once that works fine, check what part of your Movement has to be known to simulated proxies.

So don't solve it all at once, just make it work for the local player on high ping with corrections etc.

[brazen anvil]

Yeah I actually unknowingly have been doing that. I was only testing with a server and client and then just added another client and noticed a few things so was working towards fixing that.

[quartz iris]

Hi guys. I have a system where when the player presses a button inside a widget, they're put into a lobby map as the host, then can have another player join them. However, whenever the player leaves the current map that they joined with the button and exits to the main menu, they can't create another server/map with the button inside the menu. How can I fix this?

Above is the leave game button

This is the code for the server creation/joining

[meager spade]

Anyone here used iris?

@quartz iris put ?listen at the end of the level name

[quartz iris]

with the question mark ?

[meager spade]

yes

[quartz iris]

Ok

[meager spade]

sorry

it goes in options

?listen

[quartz iris]

This didnt work cus its not dedicated?

[meager spade]

?

[quartz iris]

The map

Hm yeah this doesnt fix the issue

[meager spade]

did you leave the session

after returning from main menu?

to*

[quartz iris]

yeah

by leave do you mean join a new map (main menu)

[meager spade]

when you go to main menu

did you call Leave Session?

or End Session (or w/e Advanced sessions calls it)

[frank hearth]

Noob question: is it absolutely required to use a source build of Unreal in order to build dedicated servers? 😧 (the last time I tried building Unreal from source I ran into lots of issues with disk space)

edit: Yup, it is necessary. 😦 Okay, I will look into getting more disk space haha

[quartz iris]

like this

Hm still doesnt work

[spring lagoon]

in playfab i want to use get server details but that function gives me an error like : only entities of the following types may call this api : title.

[tardy fossil]

if i change a replicated variable, and send a reliable RPC at the same time, theres a chance they could show up at different times on a client if theres packetloss right?

[meager spade]

there is no guarentee

[tardy fossil]

yea kinda figured

[latent heart]

If there's no packetloss, the rpc would probably show up first.

Variables aren't replicated instantly.

But packetloss is always a thing.

[spring lagoon]

i also pass the Authentication from after login > but donno why it's not working 🙂

[tardy fossil]

oh thats right, it replicates based off of a timer that checks if the variable has changed right?

[brazen anvil]

They get batched up at the end of the frame

[latent heart]

...if it's that variable's turn to be replicated.

[brazen anvil]

oh dang it has to wait its turn

[dark edge]

If it is replicated

If the game is running

[tardy fossil]

are you sure the game needs to be running?

[dark edge]

Basically it'll get there eventually

Probably won't beat the RPC

[latent heart]

Probably.

[dark edge]

You probably want OnRep

If I'm smelling what you're stepping in

[quartz iris]

Is this a server issue I cant even tell

It appears it's trying to create it

[tardy fossil]

try calling Destroy session before you change the level to Main Menu on the client

[quartz iris]

ah bingo

thank you

not sure what is happening with that lmao

[tardy fossil]

aha yeah i had the same issue awhile ago

[meager spade]

@chrome bay sorry for the ping, i heard your the goto guy for Iris, for some reason my GameState wont replicate, only the player controller ends up going to the player, nothing else seems to have replicated either

[fathom aspen]

At least Iris fulfilled it promise to optimize server performance

It doesn't replicate anything

[meager spade]

:/

i don't know what i did wrong

[fathom aspen]

Please tell me you are not on a version beneath 5.1

[meager spade]

im on 5.3

[unborn nimbus]

What's the correct way to determine HasAuthority on a listen server?

[tardy fossil]

has anyone ever made their own client side projectile prediction system? if the server detects a hit, but the client doesn't report it, it should ignore the hit right? else that would technically give players with a higher ping an advantage

[dark edge]

Just call HasAuthority

[dark edge]

Why would that give them an advantage?

Just prefer the shooter and latency is always bad.

The corner peek scenario is a tie but all else being equal, the lower latency player will have an advantage in a 2 way firefight

[latent heart]

The lower latency player just sees people first.

Not much you can do about that

Unless they're moving at constant speed and simulated as such, I suppose.

[dark edge]

I'm talking a little bit more psychological, the lower latency player will react faster to what happens in the game than the higher latency player will. Basically they are less in the past.

[latent heart]

I mean, maybe? In certain circumstances, sure.

I am just assuming lag compensation on the part of the server.

[dark edge]

Yeah prediction gets so weird, you need to keep so many timelines in mind. 2 clients + 1 server means 3 different opinions as to the timing of events. I'm so glad I don't need prediction, it's so much easier.

[dense forum]

Where can i find more info/videos about UE 5.3 nDisplay Multiplayer Actor Replication.
https://portal.productboard.com/epicgames/1-unreal-engine-public-roadmap/c/1189-ndisplay-multiplayer-actor-replication

Essentially, a CAVE system of say 4 nodes can join a multiplayer server as 4 clients, and in the future n-Nodes represented as 1 client in a multiplayer session?

If you want the cave system to represent 1 multiplayer pawn but it joins as 4 players how does that work?

[frank hearth]

I see https://cedric-neukirchen.net/docs/multiplayer-compendium/introduction recommended a lot as a way to learn UE multiplayer. Would y'all recommend studying Cedric's guide over the official docs as a multiplayer newbie? Want to make sure I'm learning from the right resources 👀

From a quick skim it does seem to cover the same exact ground

[solar stirrup]

Yup

Do check the docs as well but that guide is a good start

[dark edge]

And don't start by trying to make a whole game. Start by trying to make a prototype where you choose a character, spawn in, and open a door. Have it work as well as possible for all combinations of late joining or bad network connections etc

[brazen anvil]

If my owning client calls a server rpc, will it execute the code inside of it locally as well?

[dark edge]

uh

[quasi tide]

No

[dark edge]

No unless it's a listen server

or probably standalone as well

[brazen anvil]

ok

void UMyComponent::ChangeStance(EStance NewStance)
{
    if (CharacterOwner->HasAuthority())
    {
        CurrentStance = NewStance;
        OnRep_Stance();  // call the RepNotify function manually on the server for immediate response
    }
    else
    {
        CharacterOwner->GetCapsuleComponent()->SetCapsuleHalfHeight(80, true);
        ServerChangeStance(NewStance); // Call the server function if we are a client
    }
}

void UMyComponent::ServerChangeStance_Implementation(EStance NewStance)
{
    ChangeStance(NewStance);
}

This is what I had, if I pushed a button it would execute ChangeStance()

[dark edge]

Basically the rules hold.
Only owner can call.
Only server will execute.
You are owner and server when you're the listen server or standalone

[brazen anvil]

yeah makes sense

[dark edge]

I'm half an idiot but I wouldn't bother with the authority check

assuming it works the same as BP just call the serverchangestance and call it a day

[brazen anvil]

Yeah I was just examining some code and maybe it was meant for like a listen server or something.

[dark edge]

void UMyComponent::ChangeStance(EStance NewStance)
{
    CharacterOwner->GetCapsuleComponent()->SetCapsuleHalfHeight(80, true);
    ServerChangeStance(NewStance);
}

void UMyComponent::ServerChangeStance_Implementation(EStance NewStance)
{
    CurrentStance = NewStance;
    OnRep_Stance();
}

Why not something like this?

Are you trying to predict capsule height for some reason?

The capsule thing seems weird, I just put it wherever

[brazen anvil]

Wouldn't that be a loop?

lol

[dark edge]

fixed

[brazen anvil]

Yeah that would work

[dark edge]

in BP that should be robust to any setup

idk about C++ i know it's different in some ways

[brazen anvil]

yeah I don't know much about anything myself

[worthy wasp]

for whatever reason - this function is executing 3x.... i would expect it to run once.

Actor is set to bReplicates = true...

void AVI_WaveSpawner::BeginPlay()
{
    Super::BeginPlay();
    if(GetLocalRole() == ROLE_Authority)
    {
        SetSpawnerInfo();
    }

Why would it run 3x?

[dark edge]

2 clients and a server?

[worthy wasp]

debugGame single player.... OSS is ListenServer. I'm going to bool lock it - because its a configuration script basically

[dark edge]

Are you sure they are actual clients or that the actor is actually replicated?

[fathom aspen]

BeginPlay shouldn't get called multiple times in standalone as there is literally a check against that (HasBegunPlay something)

[bleak moon]

Anyone know if there's a command to emulate a dirty disconnect that would be akin to a process crash?

@echo epoch

[fathom aspen]

There is DISCONNECT

akin to a process crash? That's game specific. It's up to your game to crash when it feels best to do so

[slate basin]

Hey, on a listen server what remote role does the host pawn have? shouldn't the remote role be simulated proxy? but I think mine is returning autonomous proxy, I've found something here but not a definite answer https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/net-roles-are-different-between-pie-listen-server-and-pie-openlevel-listen-server/568662

[brazen anvil]

I push a key and I call this function:

void UFPSCharacterMovementComponent::ChangeStance(ECrouchStance NewStance)
{
    CurrentStance = NewStance;
    ServerChangeStance(CurrentStance);
}

CurrentStance is a OnRep property. So with the above function it is going to call my OnRep function and call the server RPC which is:

void UFPSCharacterMovementComponent::ServerChangeStance_Implementation(ECrouchStance NewStance)
{
    CurrentStance = NewStance;
    OnRep_CrouchStance();
}

So that is going to now update the server property and call the on rep. Is that correct so far?

[latent heart]

The OnRep won't be called on the client when the client changes the value.

It will only be called when the server sets teh value and then sends the value back to the client.

[brazen anvil]

Ok so I need to call it myself and not wait on the server to replicate it back to me then right?

[latent heart]

Something like that.

[meager spade]

@slate basin remote role would be Autonomous Proxy

ListenServer pawn will have local role Authority, Remote Role Autonomous

[brazen anvil]

Ok that must be the issue I am dancing around then. I had it working but as I move things around I mess stuff up

[meager spade]

well

your best to have an intermediate function

like Internal_ChangeStance, that both server and the local client call

and your OnRep is just for the other simulated proxies

this way client can switch it locally and not have any delay

[brazen anvil]

Can you show me an example? If not thats fine

My OnRep function has a switch statement in it that based on stance ends up calling another function that does all the work to change the stance.

So I should put the code that is in the OnRep function into the Internal_ChangeStance and have the onRep call the Internal_ChangeStance? That way I and the server can call it, then the on rep can call it as well

So then it would look like:

void UFPSCharacterMovementComponent::ChangeStance(ECrouchStance NewStance)
{
    CurrentStance = NewStance;
    SwitchCrouchStance();
    ServerChangeStance(CurrentStance);
}

void UFPSCharacterMovementComponent::ServerChangeStance_Implementation(ECrouchStance NewStance)
{
    CurrentStance = NewStance;
    SwitchCrouchStance();
}

So when I press a key to ChangeStance() I update my property, actually run the code to change the stance, and then run the server RPC. Then the server RPC updates the property and changes its stance. Now the property replicates to simulated proxies and then they all run the OnRep function which just calls SwitchCrouchStance()

[dark edge]

Are you trying to do a poor man's prediction or what?

[slate basin]

I had no idea, thanks. At least I've only used this check in a couple of places, I usually check if locally controlled.

[faint cloud]

do you guys know why when i start my game as a client i get 14 fps vs standalone at 45 fps?

[fossil spoke]

Use the profiling tools and find out why?

[thin stratus]

There is little to no need to have an RPC here. If you need to move data to the server you need to utilize a custom Container and tie that into the CMC.

The CMC needs to be extended by doing exactly what it wants

Not too much and not too little

Everything else is sadly wrong in that regard

[dark edge]

Profile it

[dire dragon]

my physical animation lags when multiplayer but doesn't when singleplayer

my blueprint (event beginplay)

[tardy fossil]

if you're getting 45 fps, the game isn't running at full speed in the first place, so when you run as client, you are technically running 2 versions of the game (dedicated and client) so it makes sense it would slow it down even more

oops meant to reply to the guy youre replying to

[blazing spruce]

Hi, anyone know why this isn't setting the text? I'm calling the On Death dispatcher inside the IsDead OnRep function, you can see the 'Update Status Called' print does get printed in the second pic but its not actually updating the text?

[sinful tree]

Possibly because by the time the widget pre construct is fired, your player controller doesn't yet have reference to its pawn so your cast is failing. Try putting a print on the cast failed to check and see if that's the case.

As you're also doing multiplayer, there could be more involved, like you could be calling OnDeath only on the server so your local widget doesn't know about it.

[blazing spruce]

Yeah i tried that, cast isn't failing and the UpdateStatus event is being called

Ahhh maybe its that i think IsDead is set on server

Although, wouldn't the servers version of the widget be correctly updated?

because it isn't lol

[sinful tree]

Are you using invalidator or retainer boxes in your widgets at all?

If I remember right, they can cache the display of a widget and manipulating something like text being displayed doesn't necessarily mean it'll end up refreshing.

[blazing spruce]

No, but the widget is being created by a different widget and added as a child to a vertical box, could that have anything to do with it?

This widget is just displayed/removed when the player presses/releases the tab key

[dire dragon]

do i need to do 3 custom events for (for example) use? (run on server, run on client and multicast)

[tardy fossil]

is that Status variable a widget? I think you're using the wrong node to change the text on the widget

[sinful tree]

So if it's getting created when pressing tab, how is it to know the value that changed?

Eg. Player is killed. Press Tab. How does it show that the player is dead?

[blazing spruce]

Ahhhh okay i know why its doing it now, where im using ClearChildren and creating the widget again its showing 'ALIVE' because thats what i have in there by default, i just need to figure how to get it to update properly after creating it again

[blazing spruce]

Yeah its just a text widget, i always use the SetText function to set text?

Got it, just added an if check before creating the widget to find out if the player is dead or not then passing the status into the widget directly and binding it to the status variable

[ivory bear]

It is amazing the number of multiplayer tutorials using blueprints that never talk about lag compensation. What is more amazing is the number of people who *claim *to have finished a game using tutorial X and published to Steam.
Has kind of taken the wind out of my dev sails as a blueprint only dude. Just venting. 🙂

[dark edge]

Because you can't really do much lag compensation with just blueprints.

[ivory bear]

I know

[dark edge]

I mean you could do like a really simple system, just let the client say it hit something and do some sort of sanity check on the server

[ivory bear]

..and I dont have the time or brain-space to step back and learn C++

[dark edge]

I would just trust a client and then implement some sort of check. Something as simple as the distance between where the client said they hit the target and where the target is.

[ivory bear]

and you can do that in blueprints?