multiplayer

[dark parcel]

Textures are not replicated with stock UE, but there is plugin in the market place that replicate textures

[dark edge]

Think about what you want to tell the server

Do you want to tell it "I want to open this safe"

Or do you want to tell it "I want to interact with whatever's in front of me"

Or do you want to tell it "I pressed E"

[static owl]

“I want to open this safe”

Thank you for the replies btw.

[sinful tree]

Are you going to have other objects you may need to interact with in a similar way? Other objects that when you approach them and press E you'd like them to do something?

Is it always going to be the same player interacting with the safe, or can other players potentially interact with that safe at any time?

[static owl]

Yes more objects will need to be interacted with, with E.

And yes up to 5 people!

[sinful tree]

Ok, so that means you wouldn't be able to use inputs events on the object itself, nor be able to run RPCs on it, and you probably want to have something more generic to handle interactions rather than implementing the "E Key" input event in each actor.

Since inputs are normally only routed to pawns that you have control of, you would have to locally call "Enable Input" on the actor you want to send inputs to, which is kind of finicky to do in a multiplayer game. RPCs can only be sent to the server from a client through actors that are owned by that client, and an actor can only have 1 owner, so it wouldn't work well if you need to be able to have those 5 players being able to send that RPC.

What you need to do is create a generic function on your character or player controller as you mentioned, and send the RPC through it instead. You can pass along a reference to the actor you're wanting to interact with through the RPC. On the server's end, you can then use the actor reference to either retrieve an interactable component you can place on all interactable objects that may share similar code, or, use an interface and implement your own interaction logic per actor as you desire. As you're running on the server, you would likely also want to verify that the player can actually interact with the object, like they are within an acceptable interaction range and the object can indeed be interacted with by this player.

[lament flax]

so the issue was that i was nulling the Item At Slot A
then adding a new item (that was added at Slot A since it was freed)

since this is happening the same frame (tried next tick but same results) the NetSerialized is called only once to save and load the new item
so for Slot A i dont have (as expected):

• Slot A: save on server & load on client Item to nullptr;
• Slot A: save on server & load on client Item to NewItem;
  but its only doing:
• Slot A: save on server & load on client Item to NewItem;

i would atleast the server to try saving twice

[crude kelp]

Hello can anyone tell me the advantages and disadvantages of dedicated servers? because cannot even make dedicated server because you have to compile the source on windows and it is a nightmare on windows.... Is it very hard to on windows, and I am thinking of making some " not even rendering or all of that listen server, any idea?

[keen adder]

Can I use RPCS anywhere, or must the actor/component be set to replicated first?

[thin stratus]

You can only use RPCs in replicated Actors/Components and then they still follow the normal Ownership rules.

Aka ServerRPCs can only be called by the Owning Client.

Multicasts only by the Server.
And ClientRPCs only by the Server and only if the Actor (Component) is owned by a Client.

[keen adder]

Ah, I was using a UObject and my Server RPC was being ran by the clients lol

I swapped it to an ActorComponent, but I don't see how to set it to replicated?

This is the only option on ActorComponent 🤔

OR does the entire actor need to be set to replicate?

[thin stratus]

Yes, both

[keen adder]

Hmm strange, I change my UObject into a component, and now the ServerRpc is obsorbed but doesn't do anything, not even print msg to screen

Like this should work fine, I have the same thing in another component. But for some reason the server RPC does not print "Dropped" from the client side

[keen adder]

Oh wait lol. This code is on an Actor in the scene posing as "global" code. Does it not work because it's not owned by the player?

[lament flax]

does TMap has any known replication issue ?

[keen adder]

Is there a way to take ownership of another actor?

for the purposes of replication

[lament flax]

is it already in the level or spawn while gameplay ?

[keen adder]

It's already in the level, an actor that manages all item drops

[lament flax]

then its owned by the server iirc

[keen adder]

Oh, so the client can't use it at all?

[lament flax]

wait let me check something in my code

for a chest (level actor) i remember having to go through the player pawn to call server RPC
but i dont remeber if it was because i was firing in UI

[keen adder]

Thanks! I'm trying to get a client to run a server RPC on it but it is ignored

Oh

[lament flax]

if your actor is set to replicate then it means he has no owner

[keen adder]

So the player calls the ServerRPC > which interacts with the chest

[lament flax]

but let me check

so what i did was:

[tardy fossil]

could just pipe a generic "Interact" rpc through your PC and use an interface inherited by the actor you want to be interacted with to do specific stuff when interacted with

[lament flax]

yeah i had to do some redirects to use player owning conenction

to add items to chest inventory, i called a server RPC on my player, that then calls the event on the chest

[keen adder]

Eh, I hate interfaces, find them to be messy lol

[keen adder]

Ah right on thanks man

[latent heart]

Interfaces aren't messy at all and help clean up code immensely.

Depending on your implementation of them.

[lament flax]

Chest:

• PlayerRef->Reroute_ServerRPC(this, ...)

Player:

• Reroute
  • ChestRef->AddItem(...)

[keen adder]

https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/tmap-replication-exposing-to-unreal-reflection/6653/38
I found this btw. Looks like it may not be fully supported, but check the last post

[thin stratus]

TMap doesn't support replication by default.

Same as TSet.

[keen adder]

Ah, I used em a while ago and just didn't like the idea of "merging" classes. More of a mental messy than a code messy lol. I'm using a scripting language based off Blueprints, so can't use interfaces anyway 😛

[latent heart]

Interfaces don't "merge" classes.

Blueprints have interfaces. AngelScript should support them. Should.

[lament flax]

thanks, interesting stuff

igot what i want in
FMinimalReplicationTagCountMap::NetSerialize

[keen adder]

You know what I mean lol, mixing code from multiple classes/files/implementations

[latent heart]

Uh huh.

I think you did them wrong.

[thin stratus]

Interfaces have usecases, very important ones. If you have the mindset of avoiding them, then you need to learn how to properly use them, cause you are most certainly creating shitty code in cases where you should have used them.

[keen adder]

I used em in my last C++ game heavily, and now I don't even have the option to use them and don't really miss em. 🤷‍♂️

[latent heart]

If you ever do a if (X->IsA<...>() { do thing } else if (X->IsA<...>() { do thing } else if (X->IsA<...>() { do thing } you've got a clear case for an interface that'll make your code a lot cleaner.

[lament flax]

looks like they save it using

    const int32 CountBits = UAbilitySystemGlobals::Get().MinimalReplicationTagCountBits;
        int32 Count = TagMap.Num();

        Ar.SerializeBits(&Count, CountBits);
        for(auto& It : TagMap)
        {
            FGameplayTag& Tag = It.Key;
            Tag.NetSerialize(Ar, Map, bOutSuccess);
            if (--Count <= 0)
            {
                break;
            }
        }

and load with

// Update MapID even when loading so that when the property is compared for replication,
        // it will be different, ensuring the data will be recorded in client replays.
        MapID++;

        int32 Count = TagMap.Num();
        Ar.SerializeBits(&Count, CountBits);

        // Reset our local map
        for(auto& It : TagMap)
        {
            It.Value = 0;
        }

        // See what we have
        while(Count-- > 0)
        {
            FGameplayTag Tag;
            Tag.NetSerialize(Ar, Map, bOutSuccess);
            TagMap.FindOrAdd(Tag) = 1;
        }

        UPackageMapClient* PackageMap = CastChecked<UPackageMapClient>(Map);
        LastConnection = PackageMap ? PackageMap->GetConnection() : nullptr;

        if (Owner)
        {
            UpdateOwnerTagMap();
        }

to reset the map, why dont they clear it directly ?

[latent heart]

while(Count-- > 0) this is cursed

[lament flax]

true

same as having a public var Owner and func SetOwner thats has logic and only use Owner

[latent heart]

Also

Why do you have a Map and then just set the value to 1?

Does it ever go above 1?

[lament flax]

?

oh

its just the default value

keys with 0 as value are removed

with such setup, am i forced to us Replicated or can i try ReplicateUsing ?

what does Rep notifies need extra ?

[meager spade]

Don't have the option to use them ?

Eww who's using angelscript

[keen adder]

Me! The speed improvements are insane when you get programming with their blueprint system. (No headers/crashes/compiling/etc). Just write some code, hit save, and poof it's in unreal

[meager spade]

You whole conception of interfaces merging classes is very wrong. Interfaces are for things that can respond to something but you as an implementer don't care what it is. For example interaction interface can be on a chair, a player, a door. Etc. You don't care what it is when you call interact just that it responds to yours calls.

We have never needed to use anything like Angel script on a team. Nor have we have ever considered it. Verse will becoming soon

[keen adder]

Yeah I know, I've used em many times. I guess I'm just salty to the stupid long iteration progress with compiling in C++ lol

[meager spade]

We don't have long iteration times with c++

We have what we want in our head. Design the base layout and class layout before writing any logic.

Then we start implementing the details

[keen adder]

Yeah every setup is different. Sometimes you're a team with design phases, powerful computers with build farms, etc.

Sometimes you're a dude in his basement with a shit laptop and a second job where every second count lol

[meager spade]

Closing and booting the editor takes me 1 or 2mins max and compiling is also super fast. We also live code our implementations once the class layout is made so we don't need to keep rebooting editor when implementing the logic

[keen adder]

Everyone's got different options that are right for them 😄

[meager spade]

I mean sure. But if you want to make anything viable in unreal your work station is very important

If your workstation is slow then you have to compensate somehow

I know that feeling all too well..

But Angel script? Urgh

There was a game released that used it

Can't remember what it was

[keen adder]

It Takes Two

[meager spade]

Ah that's it

But the majority of the people on that team were not progrsmmers at c++ level

That's why the ones they did have integrated Angel script iirc

[lament flax]

isnt there a popular crash on The Finals with Angel script

[meager spade]

The finals use it ?

[lament flax]

yeah i remember

[keen adder]

It's still programming the same as C++, and you still need to use C++ fairly often

[lament flax]

had it almost every 2 games

crashs the game

[meager spade]

:/

I'm waiting for verse epic made it its going to be reliable and easy to use...

[keen adder]

But it's let me recreate my Minecraft-like voxel game in unreal in just a month, complete with turn based combat and almost-online multiplayer

[meager spade]

Sarcasm btw

[lament flax]

now im currious what angle script is, i thought it was just some private the finals plugin name

[keen adder]

Which is crazy -- but just because of the literal 0 downtime when working

[meager spade]

It's a scripting language

[keen adder]

Yup!

[meager spade]

Bit like lua

[lament flax]

or py

[keen adder]

Basically yeah lol

[meager spade]

Py?

[keen adder]

If you don't need ultra performance, why not triple the dev speed 😄

imo *

[meager spade]

Python is a programming language

Scripting languages work on as layer on top of another language

[keen adder]

Either way it's nice that it sits on top of C++, it's not a replacement. So full C++ is still an option but it saves us from ever having to look at a blueprint node hehe

[meager spade]

Like blueprint is technically a scripting language

Just visual

[keen adder]

yeah

I'm gonna dip for lunch, GL guys! 🙂

[lament flax]

so angel script i just a language that overwrite a lot of UE native functions so you dev with it instead of doing c++ ?

[meager spade]

Not quite

https://github.com/Hazelight/UnrealEngine-Angelscript/releases

[lament flax]

from i read on the home page, it sounds "cool"
but what are the down sides ?

[meager spade]

More limited

Ofc

But I dunno never used it

[lament flax]

souns like a in-between c++ dev and BP designer

[keen adder]

It's an additional scripting language that sits on top of C++. You can use it as much or as little as you want, and literally removes every single annoyance of C++. Give it a go if you're not "HardcoreC++" and want an easier/faster time.

Can read about it here
https://angelscript.hazelight.se/

[lament flax]

thanks

but i prefer finishing learning c++ and UE without any extra scripting tool

[lament flax]

i just realized that

it saves the keys but not the values

[latent heart]

If the only value it ever has is 1, just use a set, not a map.

[lament flax]

no the value is a uint8

so it can be 0-255

i need to figure out how to serialize the values

[torn zinc]

I'm for some reason still struggling to getting smooth rotations based on mouse. The client jitters a bit still when i move the mouse slowly. Am i still not getting this right?

Enabling camera lag does seem to smooth out the visuals

[meager spade]

Timer on tick ?

Oof

[torn zinc]

Just something i tried, disregard that part 😄

[meager spade]

Why you replicating the rotation for

Control rotation is already all handled

I don't think I have ever needed to replicate the actors rotation to server

[torn zinc]

Doesn't work any other way, at least that i have tried. I'm doing 6dof, which might be why

[meager spade]

Right but there is better ways to do it other than this but require c++

If your BP only. Your very limited

[torn zinc]

Yeah i've noticed that. I'll keep it like this for now since it seemingly works, if i need to i might have to do some c++ instead

[torn zinc]

I assume this is the best way if i'm sticking to BP? Or is there a better way. If i introduce emulated lag it's bad.

[blazing bear]

you need to replicate smooth rotation?

[torn zinc]

Yeah basically

[blazing bear]

@torn zinc I did something like this recently. The actor that will rotate needs to have Start With Tick Enabled = false (I'm sure it exists in BP), and have a bool bShouldRotate. Inside the tick, have a branch checking for the bShouldRotate condition, when it's true, you set the rotation however you want. Have a RepNotify on the bShouldRotate, when it fires, it checks if bShouldRotate is true, if yes, then Set Actor Tick Enabled = true, if not, then set it to false. Now have the server call a function inside the actor that needs to rotate, the function shouuld start with a branch checking if Actor Tick Enabled = true, if so then return (leave the function), if Actor tick enabled = false, then set any parameters that define how your actor will rotate IF any, finally, set bShouldRotate = true.

[torn zinc]

Ok im gonna try that after dinner, thanks!

[blazing bear]

Np!

[queen escarp]

player controller

on client gets "access none"

but still works ?

[haughty ingot]

Think about who BeginPlay fires on for a player controller, here’s a hint. It exists for both the server and the owning connection.

[sinful tree]

Begin Play of Player Controllers fires on both the client and the server. If you're running a dedicated server, it doesn't have widgets as it's headless, so it can't create a widget, and then you're attempting to add that widget to the server's viewport, but because it couldn't create the widget, you get the accessed None.

[daring gorge]

i have!

its a bit messy to setup but i can help

currently only using it to store/retrieve some data though nothing too fancy

does anyone have any idea what those jitters are? im sure the attachment is working properly because i set it on server then use on rep to set for clients

hii

the oil rig is the only idea i could get for a cool conquest point on water

and yes rust is kinda to blame hehe

oh shit thats actually a very good idea, im gonna very much use it! thanks

i dont remember very well because i set it up long time ago, although let me look back into some of the code and let you know

also i do know some tutorials that might help you up

[formal solar]

If I have a reliable event that I call on server, let's call it event A, and in event A I do set timer by event for event B, will event B be reliably called even if I don't tick the box for reliable?

[short arrow]

All local events are reliable, if your event A called on the server and is reliable, and then calls event B which is an unreliable multicast then no it's not guaranteed for the server or the clients.

If event B is not marked for replication then it would always be reliable

[ripe lotus]

Hey ppl, simple question, im confused.
i have a mesh on each pawn, i want each pawn to move it (client side, auth proxy), and i want that movement to be replicated to other clients.
what's the most common way to do that?
should i add an rpc or a replicated var on the client to send the transform every so often?
im reading the docs but im confused.
https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/trying-to-replicate-a-static-mesh-component-from-a-client-to-all-other-players/1761002
https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/unreal-engine/networking-overview-for-unreal-engine?application_version=5.0#actorreplication

someone on the forums said
"Replication is Server to Client, Always. Then engine will not replicate changes on a client to the server or any other client.
Clients must request the server to make the change, then that change can be replicated out to other clients."
so i wonder if i should do the rpc route.

[grand kestrel]

The absolute minimum information you need to send is Location and Rotation
The usable minimum probably also includes Velocity and possibly Acceleration
It would be good practice to compress the information in some manner also - possibly using an FFastArraySerializer so you only replicate what/when you need - after you have it working
This should all be contained within a struct

Then you send it from Client (Auth) -> Server via unreliable RPC on Tick
And the server Replicates this data with COND_SimulatedOnly

Client auth is very simplistic 🙂

[ripe lotus]

you're a hero.

[ripe lotus]

follow up please. just to be sure. if i change a replicated variable on the (auth-proxy) client. that change is not sent to the server automatically right?

[grand kestrel]

As that someone said, replication is server to client only
So the client must send the information in an RPC instead of using replication
But then the server can replicate that to all other clients (i.e COND_SimulatedOnly)

[ripe lotus]

:drakeyes: aaaaaaaah thanks a lot! so helpful!! 🙏

[formal solar]

what about calling a server event from server
so if i have a reliable event A and in that event I do set timer by function name of event B, if i want B reliable I dont mark it for replication according to you, but what if I want it to be unreliable for bandwidth reasons

of course I always want A to be reliable because I want the initial timer trigger to be guaranteed

[short arrow]

So I'm a little confused, the only reason I can see event B being replicated is if it were a multicast, and yeah with my experience with unreal engine. It would be terrible design if the multicast only ever got called on the server and not the clients. I guess I am not 100% sure but I'm taking an educated guess as that is really bad design

Also the way unreliable works is pretty specific, either you have enough bandwidth available that frame to send out the multicast or you don't. It's not checking per individual client

Packet loss is a different story though

We are way over thinking this. Event A being reliable and guaranteed does not mean Event B will be reliable

It's great if you can't afford Steamcore

It actually works as intended I've never found any bugs with it

You might be doing something wrong

[kindred widget]

Just curious. Do you use SAS for anything more than the basic sessions?

[torpid lantern]

I'd like to build a widget that shows the number of connected players. I'm thinking of using OnPostLogin/Logout to send an event that counts the connected player and multi-casts the number to all player controllers.

Am I overthinking this, or is there an out-of-the-box way to do this?

[short arrow]

I did, it had some other features as well, but they're all pretty basic.

[kindred widget]

Playerstates are already replicated to all. All players have a PlayerState, and all playerstates are stored in GameState's PlayerArray.

[sinful tree]

Begin Play of PlayerState can call to the GameState and trigger an Event Dispatcher that signals when a player joins the game.
End Play of PlayerState can be used similarly to notify when a player has left the game.
Any UI and widgets can then bind to that event dispatcher in the GameState to know when a player joins and leaves - make sure you have the event dispatcher pass a reference to the PlayerState that calls that dispatcher so that your UI can read the appropriate PlayerState.
If you ever need to construct something based on whoever is currently in the game, then yes, use the PlayerArray in the GameState to get all the PlayerStates.

[torpid lantern]

Thanks both!

[fossil spoke]

Its terrible for other reasons.

Namely that each of those nodes is likely creating a new UObject for every call.

GameSparks had a plugin that had a similar design

UI Designers would go crazy with their nodes

Throwing them on Tick and in for loops

Creating crazy amounts of Objects

We ditched GameSparks after that.

So it was a short lived issue for us.

You are likely better off creating a Struct with the same layout as your expected data and exposing that instead.

If not, then you are kinda shit out of luck.

Probably

[nova wasp]

Is there a nice way to send somewhat large amounts of data (~100kb) that isn't me just sending an omega rpc?

I currently just yolo it into an RPC and it's of course turned into a large object rpc

[fossil spoke]

You could just open your own socket?

Stream it through that socket

[nova wasp]

I could probably look into it but I have no context for what a socket is here

[fossil spoke]

Just a TCPSocket

[nova wasp]

If it was static why would I send it?

[fossil spoke]

@nova wasp Take a look at FTCPSocketBuilder

[nova wasp]

Ah, so this is what python remote calls use

Hilariously the rpc is working... okay-ish

I could heavily compress it and I probably should

[fossil spoke]

RPCs arent exactly designed for large data

[nova wasp]

100kb is fucking massive beyond words for an rpc

that is like 20 separate rpcs end to end

it's not a lot of data at the high level but you have to consider that most rpcs are like 100 bits

of course, this is mostly for two things

• initial world state
• the occasional "you are being yelled at back to this state" rpc

Let me see if I have a network profile of it

server to one client

replicate the texture data? what replicates that?

Does anything send rendertargets over the network built in?

[fossil spoke]

If you havent realised yet, he typically makes suggestions that are completely off base.

[nova wasp]

yeah that is... not something that implies it being a texture makes it easier to send over the network

the data is arbitrary, it could be anything

nevermind...

[hoary spear]

TcpSocket ftw!

[nova wasp]

My other hilarious attempt: one giant fastarray

for each type of thing

it actually worked, but quickly starts capping out how fast it sends updates

[fossil spoke]

Just use a Socket man, its what they are for.

[nova wasp]

yeah, I guess I still also have another more "per object" transmission that's more typical of actor replication

because I am foolishly tiling at windmills not using actors here I am in for a bad time

[fossil spoke]

You might be able to use a UChannel but I havent looked into that

[nova wasp]

UDataStream maybe in Iris

they are incredibly annoying to make extensible because epic did not consider anyone would

[fossil spoke]

Im stuck in UE4 so not sure how much has been made better

[hoary spear]

Sounds like it would do about the same as a streaming socket

Guess theres no real-time network transmission options in UE yet

[fossil spoke]

Sockets are the option

...

They are literally right there, they are easy to use.

[nova wasp]

I imagine coming up with the hard parts of how to stream the data is the user's problem?

Do they require me to come up with acking the pieces?

[fossil spoke]

You just convert it to a byte array and push it through the socket

No

[nova wasp]

sick, this sounds great then

[hoary spear]

It handles that itself

[nova wasp]

thank you all for the suggestions

[fossil spoke]

The Socket API is really friendly

[hoary spear]

I wonder how a realtime protocol would compare to regular sockets tho

Probably wouldnt even be worth the implementation

[nova wasp]

The hilarious part is that the netblobbed reliable rpc is already kind of doing what I want

of course this is wasting some bits I imagine but... meh

but yeah I imagine the socket won't get cute with splitting it up 200 times

[tardy fossil]

Uchannels are pretty easy to use

[keen adder]

Hey broskis, is there a way to get a list of all connected PlayerControllers, or Controlled Pawns?

Basically when someone drops an item, I just want it to check if anyone is nearby to auto pick it up

[marble gazelle]

on the server you have all controllers, I think game mode and or game state knows about them

[keen adder]

Oh nm, looks like I can do GetNumPlayerControllers, and then loop over GetPlayerController(i)

Might be able to do it through ugameplaystatics 😄

[kindred widget]

Inventory or held items should have nothing to do with player controllers. :/

[keen adder]

When the item's on the ground, it's gotta check for anyone nearby to loot it

[dark parcel]

Why do you need to get the controller

The pawn are the one that physically there

[keen adder]

Works perfectly 😄

I don't see an option for GetNumPlayerPawns, but ^ works great

[dark parcel]

I would assumed the item will be dropped somewhere in the level, then it would just check nearby player pawns to be considered for the loop

[keen adder]

How would you get nearby player pawns, if not looping over them and checking their distance?

But you're right, because players might be in a different Level at some point, in which case this code may error

I guess GetActorsOfClass may work better? Or GameTags

[dark parcel]

You can loop and check the distance I am just not sure why you want to loop according to the number of the players in the world.
Imo it can just be the relevant pawn near the items

[keen adder]

How would you do something like this?

Relevant pawn near items

[dark parcel]

When the item drop, get the location, do a radius trace filter it with player character.

that will be the relevant

then I can just loop over them

so Player 7 at the end of the world don't need to be considered

[keen adder]

Oh, isn't that expensive to perform every tick?

[dark parcel]

there is no tick involved tho

I thought you are initiating the suck upon item drop

[keen adder]

Oh no if the item drops on the ground it can sit there until it expires, if no one grabs it

like minecraft

[dark parcel]

I wouldn't say it's expensive at all either, but you certainly don't want to send rpc on tick when you don't have to

You can just check for overlap

the item can have Collision component

on Overlap -> suck the item

no need to check every frame

[keen adder]

Yeah was wondering that too, not sure how expensive overlap is either as i assume it's doing the same traces internally

And what if players have some sort of upgrade that increases pickup radius

I figure individual checks might be easier

[dark parcel]

most mesh in the world already have collision anyway

the item shouldn't be an exception

[dark parcel]

Then you probably want the check from the player

instead item reacting to player

[keen adder]

Hmm yeah guess I could attach some sort of overlap on the players soon. I haven't looked much into unreal overlaps yet

Thanks for the suggestion!

So, is there any way to delay destroying an item for clients?

Ex: An object moves to a position and gets destroyed.
The clients see it's movement 0.5s delayed, but still see it get destroyed at the same time as the server. So it appears to be destroyed 0.5s too early.

Unreplicating it at the end would be nice, so the client can destroy it on their own time. But I don't think it's possible

[chrome bay]

Do a collision query

GetWorld->OverlapMultiByChannel or whatever and filter the results

Pickups querying players is wierd though. Should really be players querying pickups. You're bound to have far less of them to start with.

[keen adder]

Oh right! I forgot overlaps can be done in code. I was imagining setting up meshes and their collision properties and stuff lol

Yeah player overlaps -> items definitely makes sense

[chrome bay]

Well, you still need to set them up with a valid collision profile ofc, but scene queries are fast

Overlap events are slow. You can turn them off and quite literally get 50% of your CPU time back.

[keen adder]

GetWorld->OverlapMultiByChannel This would be considered a scene query right?

By overlap events, do you mean actual physical collision with meshes?

[chrome bay]

I mean ultimately they are the same thing, but yeah that's a scene query. Overlaps are also scene queries though tbf

But they're costly because they are updated everytime something moves, which is usually just wasteful

[hoary spear]

Arent they updated async ?

On some worker thread?

[keen adder]

Another interesting question: If it's possible to force OnRep, even if the var is the same?

[chrome bay]

nope, they're immediatte

Yeah, but only in C++

Use DOREPLIFETIME_CONDITION_NOTIFY and pass COND_Always as the last argument

[keen adder]

I've got an FString that stores the animation, and OnReps to clients. BUT if the animation is repeated, like Attack is done twice in a row, it won't rep it

O dang nice

[chrome bay]

If it's done twice in a row, it won't replicate twice anyway

Server sends all property "differences" at the end of the frame. If it thinks client already has a value, it won't send it again

[keen adder]

Yeah that's my question

[chrome bay]

Which is ofc by design, replications only job is to ensure the state matches

And it needs to do that as efficiently as possible

[keen adder]

Yeah, might have to send along a multicase if the attack is repeated

[chrome bay]

COND_Always is usually used when you are modifying replicated properties ahead of the server, for prediction or something. Rarely has much use though.

[lost inlet]

and COND_Always is clientside

[chrome bay]

Yeah

[lost inlet]

a multicast RPC is more appropriate for these one shot things

[chrome bay]

You could use an incrementing counter also, that would technically qualify as "different"

[keen adder]

My issue is that the Client who requested the multicast will also get hit by it

[chrome bay]

but ye, multicast might be what you want here

[keen adder]

Like, Client does "Attack", then "Attack". It obviously knows to repeat it properly.

Requests a multicast from the server, multicast comes back and forces is to run "Attack" again (a third time, now)

[lost inlet]

yeah so ignore it?

you could send a client RPC from the server to each individual player except the one you want to ignore if you really wanted, unreal doesn't have an easy mechanism for multicast RPC filtering

[keen adder]

Eh it just gets odd. If I do if(Anim == "Attack") return , then the other clients would ignore it, as they were already set to "Attack"

[keen adder]

Yeah that would have been ideal if it could multicast for clients except the requester

[lost inlet]

well that doesn't even sound like a correct condition for ignoring it

like you can tell if a pawn is locally controlled and therefore has predicted the action

[keen adder]

Considered this too lol. Lots of workaround possible. Was hoping there was some sort of built in solution like multicast filtering or forcing a repvar. But guess not. Oh well no worries

[quasi tide]

Which is a darn shame honestly. YawLighthouse has a PR for it though. Big change though.

[keen adder]

Oh no you're right, this is the key. Thanks that'll work

[lost inlet]

yeah I even gave feedback for the specifiers to allow more granular control

https://github.com/EpicGames/UnrealEngine/pull/11578#issuecomment-2074628083

[blazing bear]

Is the HasAuthority() function not available in an actor component class? I can't access it somehow

[chrome bay]

I would also strongly consider using FName not FString if you are doing string comparisons like that

Or tags, even

[lost inlet]

Or enums

but yeah like 3 better ways than a string

[quasi tide]

No. GetOwner()->HasAuthority()

[blazing bear]

Aah right thank you

[keen adder]

So what's the deal with IsLocallyViewed()?

My player uses a CameraActor that follows the pawn (and does some other stuff when needed), yet IsLocallyViewed() for all pawns at all times. Is it just better to use "WasRecentlyRendered?"

[lost inlet]

IsLocallyViewed is true if the pawn is a view target for a local player controller

and when possessing, your local pawn is likely to be the view target

it's not a visibility check

[candid quail]

Hello guys I have a question. Can a pointer to asset be replicated? I have a AnimMontage, that I know is loaded on every peer, can I replicate a direct pointer to it (instead of soft ref)

UPROPERTY(replicated)
TObjectPtr<UAnimMontage> Montage;

will appreciate any info ; )

[chrome bay]

It can yeah

[candid quail]

And what happens if this montage is loaded only on serwer, but is not in memory on peer? Will it still work?

[lost inlet]

depends on the value of net.AllowAsyncLoading

if it's false (the default) it will hitch

[candid quail]

hitch? I thought it will not play at all

ohhhh you mean it will block load?

[lost inlet]

read the cvar description

    TEXT("net.AllowAsyncLoading"),
    0,
    TEXT("Allow async loading of unloaded assets referenced in packets."
        " If false the client will hitch and immediately load the asset,"
        " if true the packet will be delayed while the asset is async loaded."
        " net.DelayUnmappedRPCs can be enabled to delay RPCs relying on async loading assets.")
);```

[candid quail]

ok i understand, so it will always load, it variable is false it will bock load, hence hitch

good, thank you very much

[fringe dove]

When serializing a struct for an RPC or replicated property is there a way to make sure it is byte aligned (for better oodle dictionary compression)? Or are they all packed into the Bunch as bit aligned with no control over it depending on what came before?

like can you read from the Ar an amount of padding bits to add/read to get things back into byte alignment?

[verbal vapor]

I made this object on my map

first of all, how do I get reference to it so i can rotate it - triggered by my character input action

and how does the replication works here?

[lament cloak]

How, if possible can I limit the tickrate of the server in PIE?

[fringe dove]

I think it may not be possible (someone correct if wrong), pretty sure it is all synced together; if you need to debug blueprints in dedicated server and another instance you could launch two editor instances and limit the server with t.maxfps, and also turn off the stuff that slows down unfocused windows in the editor settings

[lament cloak]

Ya, I think that's the way to go sadly. Or I just suck it up and package the server

[magic vessel]

First point, you'll want a soft actor reference and then you should be able to select the actor in the loaded level

As for the replication, you should be able to add a rotating movement component to it that (if memory serves) replicates the rotation for you

Then you just add to the rotation on the component

[quiet yarrow]

Is there a better way to do this?

im noticing some stuttering after this. Trying to keep it as stable as possible since it involves physics

[frail barn]

i have an issue with a minimap camera
this logic perfectly works with main camera, and makes visible characters of the same team to each other
but a minimap camera always showing team1 units, ignoring this check
how to make it affect another camera too?

[frail barn]

thanks god

[queen escarp]

https://blueprintue.com/blueprint/j667v7ab/
hey ive got this minimap in PIE it works as it should with listen + clients but when building and testing it dosent work for clients :/ ? any ideas (its on player character bp)

[sinful tree]

This seems strange and not sure why you need a multicast for this. Minimap stuff is almost always something that can be handled entirely locally based on data about the actors you're trying to represent within the minimap, so that means it almost always could be handled through OnReps and appropriate already locally triggering events (like begin and end plays). A multicast could maybe be used with a minimap if you're trying to do something like a "ping" on the minimap in which case a player would need to communicate to others the location of that ping, it's not something that late joiners would necessarily need to know about, and it's not something that needs to stick around, but that doesn't appear to be what you're trying to do here.

Team information is usually something you would store within the PlayerState if it's only players that can have a team. If you have AI or other actors that you want to have on teams, then you'll likely need to utilize the pawn to store that information. I'd highly recommend aginst using a Name for teams, and instead use an enumerator or GameplayTag, the GameplayTag being a bit more flexible to use. You can use OnReps of the Team variable to signal an event dispatcher that can notify your minimap of the pawn's team that changed - the minimap can also check the owning player pawn's team value against it, and if they match, then you know that they are on the same team.

[worn flint]

hello does anyone have a good video/website to understand what I need to change to make my custom movement component compatible with unreal's network prediction ? preferably in c++ but I could manage with blueprints, thanks

[queen escarp]

ohhh

tips on workaround/replacement

[sinful tree]

If you're only working in blueprint, then all you really have is an event in the PlayerController when their pawn changes, On Possess

[frail barn]

yes, i use this logic for "pings", and its bugged same way
i try to place this logic into GameState, and in a base Char class, multicasts, local events, everything, but always have the same result
reworked like 10 times and nothing helps

[queen escarp]

aye, but really i could just call it from the controller dont really need the event possessed stuff

[daring gorge]

are rep notifies reliable?
for attaching my player to boat im doing it on server and setting it as a replicated w notify variable, on the notify func im calling the attachment so any new comers and the client themselves know of this attachment, however its not really syncing" up, sometimes the client doesnt snap to the location yet is attached

[daring gorge]

the boat jitter,i cant tell what it is

never mind people, im literally stupid. it was the collission

is it a local function that gets called on each client?

but it acts on the client with their copy of the variable right?

i see

seems reliable to replicate stuff

[sinful tree]

Well, it boils down to:
Server replicates variables to clients and can call multicasts and run on client RPCs (which execute on the client that owns that actor).
As a client, you can only send Server RPCs on actors that you own.
Any data that you want to share with clients need to be replicated through replicated actors by setting replicated values on the server or sending those RPCs. Those actors need to be relevant to the client in order to receive the information as the actor wouldn't exist otherwise.

So if you want something to show and hide based on a Name value, then you should be setting the value as you need while running on the server and using the OnRep of that value to trigger the event that would then cause things to change as needed when the new value is received.

[daring gorge]

i mean i would only chose to use it in sitaution whre im sure that the value will change

for example the driver once seated cant be set to another one, and if he leaves then the variables to go null ptr so i believe that works

multicasts ruin my project because irrespective of stuff being set, it goes ahead

wouldnt i want to run something like that on multicast though?

right but as you said the repnotify wont work, then i wont really have a choice?

wow im gonna need some chai to do this

the collission being the problem and then this repnotify/multicast

i surely have to revisit a lot of stuff i wrote like 2 years ago or smth

[static owl]

This is my first time using Blueprint Interfaces. I have two doors: Safe Door and an actual Door. What am I missing here? If i disable the interaction input for the top (safe door) then the regular door opens fine and is replicated, and vice versa. If i leave both interaction inputs connected then nothing happens for either door (although if i put print statements at the end of the run on server and multicast, they are both printed).

Oh and this is in my Character blueprint^^

[sinful tree]

This completely negates the use of the interface if you're having to cast.
Press E (Or whatever input) > Detect Interactable > RPC To Server with Actor that is interactable > RPC then calls interface to interact with actor.

[static owl]

This was from Matt Asplands Replicated door tutorial!

[static owl]

Should i remove the cast altogether?

For instance if I have the Safe blueprint like this:

and then the character blueprint has this:

[sinful tree]

The purpose of an interface is to allow you to communicate to another class without having to know the specific type as you implement that interface in the target actor. If the target actor doesn't have the interface, then the interface function will not be called on it.

A cast attempts to convert an object variable's type to also allows you to communicate to another class but requires you to know the class (and also creates a dependency in your blueprint to that class) which then allows you to call the already known about functions and access the variables of that class. If the cast fails, then the output reference will be invalid preventing access.

Once you're running on the server in your character, you can call the interface in which case you can call any other multicasts or set any replicated values that your door can then use without having to involve your character blueprint.

[static owl]

Im sorry im very new, but im trying to understand. Do i need to remove the casting part, and somehow after TRUE branch, I need to send the interact message to the SAFE?

[daring gorge]

if bp safe implements the interface then you can call an event/func from the message directly

this is your message

you dont need a hard reference to that class anymore. think of it as if you had not just safe but many other things you wanted to interact with, would you send a message to that item and then on that message run a function or would you keep casting and binding an event and individually write down all your code in player/whatever that wants to interact

this is what that message calls

and instead of binding the event i believe you can just call a server RPC that sets the rotation right after the message comes in

[static owl]

@daring gorge Would you have time for a discord call so i could share my screen? im still a little confused!

if not i understand!

[sinful tree]

Press Input > Detect Interactable Actor > RPC To Server with Interactable Actor reference > Server RPC calls Interact Interface
Actors that Implement that interface > Do whatever is required from the interface call.

No casting is needed for this.

[daring gorge]

i might not be the best person but i can help with some basics, however cant rn its around 5 am haha

[keen adder]

Heyas, any way to know if a remote pawn is controlled by a player or AI?

IsPlayerControlled() returns false for everything

unless.. beginplay is just lying again -- in which case, which event to use??

[static owl]

So do you think the RPC's should be in safe logic? Like the custom events?

[fossil spoke]

If you assign a PlayerState to the Pawn you can check APlayerState::bIsBot

AI Controlled Pawns dont have a PlayerState by default, you would need to set that up yourself.

[keen adder]

Nopenope

[keen adder]

If you try this in BeginPlay, Playerstate is nullptr for everything lol

That's why I ask if there's some correct event to use, as seemingly nothing net-related works in beginplay

[fossil spoke]

Yeah probably because the PlayerStates havent replicated that early.

[keen adder]

and I feel odd using an arbitrary timer

[keen adder]

Yeah exactly, so is there some ideal event to use, or safe time to wait before initializing everything?

Or like, how is it done in most games

[fossil spoke]

Wait until the PlayerState calls BeginPlay

[keen adder]

And for remote AI? (which have no playerstate OR AIcontroller)

How/When are they initialized remotely

Atm I have no way of knowing if a pawn is controlled by AI by a remote player, as it doesn't really trigger any playerstates or controllers

so it just looks like a Pawn that's not net-ready yet

[fossil spoke]

I told you above, that AI controlled pawns do not have a PlayerState by default, they can be setup to have one.

Look at the AIController

It should have a property called bWantsPlayerState

This should give a PlayerState to your AI Pawns

If its enabled

[keen adder]

Oh interesting, but then am I able to specify which Playerstate? Or do the AI pawns get the same PlayerState as human players

[fossil spoke]

They get the same PlayerState

You would need to override the functionality to inject your own.

[keen adder]

Which seems like a very odd way of just knowing when they're net-ready lol

Aight nvm, was hoping there was an easier solution but guess not

Unreal could really benefit from an OnNetReady() event or something

[fossil spoke]

🤦

[keen adder]

🤦‍♂️

[late stratus]

Anyone ever run into an issue where Mutli Box Trace By Channel doesn't work on their dedicated server, seemingly for no reason? I've triple checked all the obvious reasons it wouldn't generate a hit event, and still I'm stumped. I'm getting the feeling that it's some hidden setting

I'm calling it in an Anim Notify State during an animation montage, when a sword is swung

[fossil spoke]

What do you mean by "doesnt work"?

[sinful tree]

An RPC to the server must happen on a client owned actor. If you attempt to call a server RPC on any other actors, like your safe, it won't work.
You can run mutlicasts on other actors when executing code while running on the server.

Input (which would happen on something normally owned) > Detect Interactable Actor > RPC to Server with actor reference > The RPC should then call the interface on the actor reference passed through the RPC.
The implemented interface in the actor (which would be running on whatever actor you call it on if it implements it, and also on the server if you called it in the RPC) will do whatever you want it to do.

An interface can be called locally on the client, but then that code is only going to be executing on that client. An interface is a means of calling a "generic" function that classes can choose to implement and each class can have their own implementation - they don't specifically care about any networking themselves as it's just like calling a function.

[late stratus]

Doesn't generate any hits.

The animation montage is running on both the server & client through a gameplay ability. The hit is successful on the client, but for some reason, not the dedicated server.

I've read that VisibilityBasedAnimTickOption can potentially affect that, and have changed the property, but to no avail.

[static owl]

Does this look better?

Character BP.

Safe BP:

[static owl]

oh sorry didnt see your message hang on

[sinful tree]

No. After your branch, call an RPC to the server passing in a reference to the actor you want to interact with.
Once running on the server, use the referenced actor from the RPC and call the interface.
The interface implemented on the actor can then do whatever you want - exactly like how you're calling the timeline. You don't need to have separate events for each object your character may want to interact with in this way - just one RPC for causing an interaction from a client to the server, and then letting the server replicate anything necessary back VIA the actor itself rather than the character that first initiated the process.

[static owl]

Would you have 5 mins to hop in a call so i could share my screen? if not its alright.

[sinful tree]

Sorry, don't do voice.

[static owl]

no problem

[static owl]

by RPC do you mean custom event (checked for Run on Server)?

[sinful tree]

That is one type of RPC, yes.

Three types of RPCs:
Server (Run On Server) ---- Will execute on the server if executed while already running on the server on any actor, but if requesting to execute on a client it will only start to execute on the server if called on a client owned actor.
Client (Run On Owning Client) ---- Will only execute on the client that owns the actor. I believe if there is no link to a client being the owner it'll execute on the server
Multicast (Executes On All) ---- Can only be called by the server and will attempt to communicate to all clients, so long as the clients have that actor relevant.

[static owl]

im sure this is still incorrect lol

[sinful tree]

That is closer.

You need to pass a reference to the actor you want to interact with through the RPC (You'll need to take the "Array Element" pin and have it connect into the RPC)

Change the "SAFESM" type to "Actor" and rename the pin to "Actor" then use that to call the interface in the RPC.

[static owl]

It worked!!

I was originally asking because I have two doors, and the code looks the same^ but i could only operate one at a time. If the InputActionINTERACT (at the start) was connected to both sets of code for the different doors in my character blueprint, then nothing would happen. It would only open if one was disconnected. Im going to change the code to the updated version and see if i can use both now

[sinful tree]

Now you can rename that RPC to be something like "Interact ON SERVER".
This will work for any actor that implements the interface, so yea, any doors you place should work fine. If you want to create more actors that utilize this functionality, all they need to do is implement that interface and code out what happens when someone interacts with it.

[static owl]

okay turns out that I had some weird code from a tutorial, causing the second door not to work! Thank you so much for your patience and help! Made my night to get it done! Have a good one!!!

[native tapir]

I'm trying to create multiplayer game and I have some question.

I want to damage system according to which body is hit.

For example, if bullet or sword is hit head then dealing damage 50, if bullet or sword is hit arm then, dealing damage 20

In this circumstance, server need to know client is cheating or something.

So, I need something like rollback system to get sort of information about the actual head or body physics body is actually that position certain of that time.

To achieve this, I started looking at charcter movement component but I'm not sure, this component actually can handle physics body rollback system.

Does anyone know how to figure it out this problem?

[fossil veldt]

In this circumstance, server need to know client is cheating or something.
no u dont
So, I need something like rollback system
use GAS

[woeful ferry]

Hi,

I have a native actor class I'm spawning on the server side that doesn't get replicated. Anyone knows what could cause it?

Ctor:

{
    PrimaryActorTick.bCanEverTick = false;
    bReplicates = true;
    bAlwaysRelevant = true;
}```

How I spawn it: 

```void UVallhundVoxelWorldManager::Initialize(FSubsystemCollectionBase& Collection)
{
    Super::Initialize(Collection);

    UWorld* World = GetWorld();
    if (World->GetNetMode() != NM_Client && World->IsGameWorld()) 
    {
        WorldManagerActor = GetWorld()->SpawnActor<AVallhundVoxelWorldManagerActor>();
    }
}```

[pseudo wagon]

What is the parent of AVallhundVoxelWorldManagerActor.

[woeful ferry]

AActor

[pseudo wagon]

AActor does not have RootComponent by default. Without RootComponent your actor won't get replicated. Add RootComponent or set bAlwayRelevant to true.

[woeful ferry]

Right! I forgot about that 😄 Thank you!

I guess AInfo is better for these purposes

[queen escarp]

hey im creating an actor from a character to the server (all works) inside that actor im Timelining movement around the map (this works but not showing same for Server/Clients) which is the problem

how would i replicate that character so the client tells the server where it should move etc ?=

this is how im moving the Actor

i need the player to tell the actor to move via the server rather then have the actor moving itself on server since its local side and cant talk with the server right

[magic vessel]

Some basic questions here:

• Is the actor you are trying to move definitely replicated?
• Is the actor setup to replicate it's movement?

[queen escarp]

it is replicated
it is set to replicate movement

but i changed it calling the movementpart from the character bp (owner) then everything works

i knew it would its more what practice is best when creating an actor on the server how would u "controll" it via the client

since the other way i only know how is using the CMC which is very costly

was the settings on the Actor

[sonic frigate]

Hey guys

I have **multiplayer widget( cull) **problem
There is a nametag above each players ( child component in Pawn blueprint), host always can see others, but if a client is too far deactivate or cull other players, when REAPPEAR in certain distance the widget reset all values and name is incorrect.

Any idea, what event can I call to set name again ?
( temp solution: I increased Net Cull Distance Squared, )

[storm abyss]

Hey there, I’ve been following the tutorials from GameDevRaw on how to create an online game with blueprints and I have reached a point in the editor where I when play a standalone game I can create a server, it shows up in a server list for another player, I can join with that other player and the game can start with both players. But when I made a build for the game to test it out on two different computers, when I try hosting, it doesn’t show up in the servers list on the other computer with the build. Did I forget to check a box that allows it to actually create servers or be online or is it some other issue?

I think it might be find sessions that isn't working but I don't know

it also seems when I play in the editor it doesn't matter if it is set to lan or not, the server always shows up in the list

[boreal bison]

Does anyone know how I could conditionally make a static mesh in my level see-through for just one player but normal for everyone else?

I basically want to have one player who can see through all the ceilings in my level

[silver lagoon]

I have a question I can’t find an answer to online; does a replicated ACharacter, seen by a client that doesn’t control it, still execute all the ticks of its components?

[keen adder]

2 separate actors. A replicated one and a personal one

Heya guys, RPCS can not have return types right?

Like it won't do anything?

[fossil veldt]

Yo so - i'm a lil rusty on gameplay network programming, quick question for you peeps - how does attachment work in a networking context? If I do AttachToComponent on the server, does that rep down to clients or do I need to multicast the attachment

[quasi tide]

I think it is replicated. I can't recall me ever doing an onrep/rpc to attach on clients.

But would it really matter? Server is authority on positions and the client would follow the server's position.

So as long as it is attached on the server, probably doesn't matter much.

[fossil veldt]

yes, because it means the position would be latent and out of sync with predicted movement

and if you don't want that behaviour - aka you want mismatching positions on an actor

[quasi tide]

Yeah - attachment is onrep'd @fossil veldt

USceneComponent::SetAttachParent marks the field dirty

And there is an onrep for the attach parent

[burnt coral]

So my understanding was that Switch Has Authority execution pins only get called if it happens on such.. For instance the remote would only happen if a client uses it.. Is this wrong? Because I am having an issue where if my player moves left / right / or backwards then it creates two line traces.. So I am misunderstanding something here??

[dark edge]

You don't care if you're a client or not

you care if you're locally controlled

[burnt coral]

Isn't that the same thing?

[dark edge]

no

[fossil veldt]

ahhh interesting, ty

[burnt coral]

See I am not understanding something.

Can you elaborate please.

[fossil veldt]

I wonder is there a way to do attachments without triggering the onrep

[dark edge]

Your character would return Remote on my machine

if we're both clients

You don't want that, you want your character to trace only on your machine

[fossil veldt]

like i actually don't want the behaviour of server + client attachment in this case, i'd like an item to be attached to the 1P mesh on the local client and then for everyone else it's on the 3P mesh

[dark edge]

does it have to be a replicated thing?

[fossil veldt]

yes

ideally

[burnt coral]

okay thank you.

[quasi tide]

I mostly stick to 3rd person games because of stuff like this. Zoom far enough in OTS and it is pretty much first person 😄

@chrome bay might remember how they did it in HLL

[burnt coral]

What is remote then? I couldn't find docs for it for some reason. I thought local control and clients where the same thing.

If you have doc link to explain Ill definitely read that.

[dark edge]

Remote means not authority.
Locally controlled means the local playerController owns it.

Your character on your machine is remote and locally controlled.

Other clients characters on your machine are remote but not locally controlled

Listen servers character is authority and locally controlled.

[dark edge]

The 2 concepts are orthogonal. You can be locally controlled or not, and you can have authority or not.

[burnt coral]

So remote is just another way of saying a replicated entity in the world that is controlled by a client?

Also do you mean orthogonal in the sense that they do not affect each other directly? ( but we assume they can do it indirectly, maybe? )

Appreciate your patience.

[haughty ingot]

Server has authority over all actors spawned on its instance, clients don’t have authority over actors spawned on the servers instance. If the server spawned an actor, it will be the authority on the actor, the clients will not be. To them it’s a simulated proxy. Being controlled by something doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with network authority.

[opaque forge]

So I'm having a really weird issue regarding replicated physics. When the game starts, all my replicated physics objects work as well as can be expected. However, once a player picks one up (and gains ownership) and drops it (and loses ownership), it becomes extremely buggy:

Anyone know what to make of this?

It also happens if another client player picks it up, although I wanted a high FPS for the demo so I left it as one player

[haughty ingot]

Is the TV set the simulate physics by default (class defaults), or are you setting it at runtime

[opaque forge]

Both

[haughty ingot]

You check the box and you set it to simulate physics at the start of the game?

[opaque forge]

yeah

The parent class sets it to simulate physics on beginplay

But I check the box anyway

[haughty ingot]

And when you drop it, who sets it to simulate physics then?

[opaque forge]

the parent

from c++

lemme pull that up

[haughty ingot]

Which connections

[opaque forge]

void APickupActor::Detach()
{
    GetRootPrimitive()->SetSimulatePhysics(bWasPhysicsEnabled);
    GetRootPrimitive()->SetCollisionEnabled(PrevCollisionType);

    DetachFromActor(FDetachmentTransformRules(EDetachmentRule::KeepWorld, true));
}

[haughty ingot]

Is that function called from an RPC?

[opaque forge]

repnotify

And I know it works because the detach works properly

[haughty ingot]

Well attachment replication is already handled via a rep-notify. But shouldn’t matter anyway

Which type of physics simulation are you using?

[opaque forge]

rigid body

I'm a fucking...

I replaced bWasPhysicsEnabled with true and it worked

I think

I need to test more

[haughty ingot]

Is the server calling that rep-notify as well?

[opaque forge]

yeah

[haughty ingot]

So just know that attachment is already handled from a rep-notify. When the server executes that function it’s going to set the attachment again when the notify fires, which is fine. But just know it’s happening twice

See AActor::OnRep_AttachmentReplication()

[opaque forge]

Well thanks for the help I guess

Is SetSimulatePhysics also replcated?

[haughty ingot]

Nope

[burnt coral]

So I think the root of my question has came to what does "Authority" and "Remote" pins do off of Switch Has Authority node?

Does it just check if the said actor or whatever is client or server?

[opaque forge]

Basically, it checks whether the current piece of code is running on the server or the client

For a replicated actor, authority = server and remote = client

Although if a client spawned an actor, it means the client has authority and no one else knows it exists

[worthy oak]

Authority and remote actually has to do with who owns the object it is not necessarily the server

[opaque forge]

The server still has authority over player-owned actors

Like pawns

[worthy oak]

But in your own example if a client spawns something they are the authority

[opaque forge]

Yes

But ownership is something completely different

[worthy oak]

So its authority over the object it isn’t a network check

[opaque forge]

?

[dark edge]

Non-replicated actor -> has authority
replicated actor -> server machine has authority, others are remote

[opaque forge]

exactly

[burnt coral]

Thanks for help.

I appreciate it very much.

[keen adder]

Heya guys, can Clients spawn actors?

[opaque forge]

Yeah, but they'll be client-only

[keen adder]

I ask because I'm making a large open world game. So in some situations, clients will be far from the host, and thus the host will not have their area loaded

So if the host spawns the items, they'll fall down into the abyss

[opaque forge]

In that instance, no

[keen adder]

Any way way to give ownership after they're spawned?

[opaque forge]

The host needs to have the area loaded. If it's not, actor spawning is the least of your concerns.

[keen adder]

Same goes with enemies and AI, I might have to transfer ownership when to whoever is closest

But think of games like minecraft, valheim, etc. Where clients can be literally miles away from the host and still play normally

[opaque forge]

The host still loads those areas

They're just not rendered

Unreal Engine uses a server-authoritive model. If you're looking to change that, you're gonna be in for a world of hurt

[keen adder]

lol

[opaque forge]

But Unreal has a really powerful open-world system out of the box, and a lot of great resources on how to use it

I'd start there

Don't re-invent the wheel

[keen adder]

Oh interesting, though I find unreal tools are VERY hard to customize

like you either cookie cutter exactly what they have, or make your own from scratch

Though mine's a voxel game, so already the host is generating the world as fast as it can for a decent draw distance

Can't imagine it also generating 3 other areas at once, when players split up

[opaque forge]

Well that's how Minecraft works

And every other open world game I can think of

(there's a reason the server starts to chug in MC when players split up and load new terrain)

[keen adder]

Oh interesting, I didn't know it did

Man this project just grows and grows lol

[opaque forge]

I've learned the hard way that it's important to have a strong foundation before getting into the details like replicated actor spawning

Notch had "cave game" years before he made it open-world

[keen adder]

Oh yeah, I've got a pretty good voxel base with turn based combat and all

works great in multiplayer too

BUT

[opaque forge]

nice

[keen adder]

when players split up, nope

All broken

lol

[opaque forge]

Yeah the host needs to have all areas loaded

That's a major performance concern you're gonna have to think about

[keen adder]

Yeah because the rendering itself is nothing, but actually generating the voxels is what takes the time

Especially because mine are much more details than minecraft

[opaque forge]

For instance, Minecraft has a separate render distance and "simulation distance," and world processing that would need to be synced is only done within the simulation distance

[keen adder]

Hmm interesting, yeah and my shapes can be simple cubes for collision too

[opaque forge]

Even if you think it might not work out in the long term, I highly recommend exploring some of Unreal's open world tools before ruling them out entirely

[keen adder]

Is this written somewhere? I'd love to read more about it

[keen adder]

Oh yeah I'm already looking for them lol

[opaque forge]

https://minecraft.wiki/w/Simulation_distance

[keen adder]

Awesome

[opaque forge]

But keep in mind they were implementing their engine from scratch

I do modding, so I can tell you that Unreal is structured quite differently to the Minecraft engine.

[keen adder]

Oh yeah for sure

[opaque forge]

I would focus on what people have done in Unreal first.

Like Fortnite

[keen adder]

Fortnite is dedicated server though right?

So I'd imagine it can handle a lot more, not having to render the world it's simulating

[opaque forge]

Yeah, but listen servers and dedicated servers work on the same principles.

Also, rendering and simulating happen on separate threads

So the fact that you're doing both won't be too much of a performance hit

[keen adder]

Hmm okay, yeah thinking about it already

Would you happen to know the name of their Openworld sample?

I can't seem to find it

[opaque forge]

Also, I don't play fortnite, but I think it can be a listen server as well

The city sample?

https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/city-sample

[keen adder]

This

The great resources you mentioned

[opaque forge]

What I just posted

[keen adder]

Oh shit that's it?

I don't think that's gonna be an easy learning experience lol

[opaque forge]

Also, just google "Unreal Engine Open World"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxJ5DG8Ytog

[keen adder]

I have, I'm just worried about the engine generating procedual voxels for a bunch of players at once, as apposed to just flipping on/off premade areas

[opaque forge]

I'd say try to get a pre-made open world working first, then try to focus on dynamic generation

[keen adder]

Mmm shit, I've already got my minecraft game going, would hate to start over lol. But definitely a lot to consider, thanks for all the info man!

[opaque forge]

You don't have to start over

If you've already got the combat system and other stuff in place, you have a really strong framework

But if you've built the voxel system with the assumption that clients can be authoritive in generation, that's gonna have to go

That's just not how UE works

Or any mainstream game engine for that matter

[keen adder]

Oh I meant testing with pre-made areas, as it's already designed for loading chunks, breaking blocks, etc 😛

But yeah definitely a lot to think about here 😄

Thankya 😄

[opaque forge]

If you can figure out how to serialize your world at runtime in a format that's compatible with World Partition, that could probably serve you really well

But I don't know the details of your game

[keen adder]

The base of it is very similar to minecraft -- the other details aren't really that important in this circumstance

[opaque forge]

cool

[keen adder]

Do you mean like, saving the world to disk?

[keen adder]

https://i.gyazo.com/56fa440d3929940357c906524867cc7e.mp4

[opaque forge]

In minecraft the way it works is that the server has complete control over the voxel world. When you break and place blocks, the client just tells the server via RPC that it wants to break or place a block in a certain spot.

That's how I would do it

[keen adder]

That's how I'm doing it atm yeah

[opaque forge]

And also, make the particles that appear when she breaks the block completely client-side

No reason to waste bandwidth and processing power replicating those

[keen adder]

Oh? I replicated every single block in the particle!

Jk of course lol, server just says what broke

and clients take care of all the visuals 😛

[opaque forge]

just making sure lol

[keen adder]

But here were ya talking about saving to disk?

[opaque forge]

yeah

Not really in the scope of multiplayer lol

[keen adder]

How would that speed things up though?

[opaque forge]

I assume you're saving the contents of your world to disk when they're unloaded

If not, ignore that part

[keen adder]

Oh nope lol

[opaque forge]

ok lol nvm

[keen adder]

I just save any block that was modified in a big tasty TMap

And then regenerate the world, plugging back in the changed blocks

[opaque forge]

oof

It might be easier to save the world to disk

[keen adder]

Haha 🤷‍♂️

[opaque forge]

Minecraft loads its worlds from disk significantly faster than it generates them

[keen adder]

Yeah I'll prob incorporate that later on, just trying to get it feature rich asap

[opaque forge]

Like, almost three times as fast

But I guess that depends if you expect players to enter pre-explored terrain much

And if they'll be updating it a lot

[keen adder]

Oh, I only generate like 5 blocks tall though (not gonna have huge cave systems), the big resource sink is actually creating the procedural mesh

[opaque forge]

Ah

Well you could always cache those meshes

But it's probably not worth

Also, you probably shouldn't be replicating the mesh

Tell the client about the voxel pattern and then generate it on the client

[keen adder]

Yeah that's why I let everyone generate their own world based on a seed

and only replicate changes made to it

But hmm, I think the simulation thing could be a good idea. Generate ultra basic collision for other players

[opaque forge]

I see what you were thinking with client-authorative generation then

[keen adder]

Yeah everyone explores their own identical worlds, and RPC back changes made

[opaque forge]

What I would do is have the server do base voxelization alongside the client, and then the client handles generating detail parts of the mesh

That won't effect gameplay

[keen adder]

Yeah that's what I'm thinking

Will also read a lot more into this in case of any other pitfalls

[opaque forge]

But look at Unreal's default open world system and see if you can use anything from it

Could be very helpful

[keen adder]

Right on will do, and will try to find as much other info as I can. thanks man!

[daring gorge]

exactly how imma do proc gen replication in mine

i have afriend who did the same and even let people have their own lil radius to generate and delete chunks around em

[opaque forge]

Yeah that can cut down on network lag significantly. But the server still needs to have it generated as well

[daring gorge]

in my case the server spawns in the proc gen actor and replicates the seed, im making like 4-5 small islands at max in my game

[opaque forge]

I think Lego Fortnite does procedural open-world generation

Maybe you could try to research how they did that

*in a multiplayer setting

[daring gorge]

ive already made the terrain generation and even added in some monuments, ive even experimented with caves and such so, all we need is to layer up stuff basically and since my case isnt very complex i dont have much left to do

theres also an article for replicating proc gen

[opaque forge]

Really where?

I think @keen adder could benifit from that

[daring gorge]

https://vorixo.github.io/devtricks/procgen/

[keen adder]

Oh hey sorry just explaining all this to my GF haha. But def gonna give it all a read over again after 🙂

[daring gorge]

i just have it bookmarked, yet to look into this myself

[daring gorge]

all the best mate! your project looks v cool!

[keen adder]

Oh thanks man haha. Goodluck to yours as well! 😄

[quiet yarrow]

Been having this issue with my client. The server sees it perfectly, but the client seems to be missing some info. Any suggestions or help is welcomed :)

[glacial moat]

Hello, What do I need to replicate in order to get each of these to only apply to the person activating it? It should be visible to everyone that that person has it activated.

Current Workflow is
Widget button click > widget icon hover > third person character (widget component)
https://streamable.com/8f9gul

[daring gorge]

basically what id suggest is the widget has a character variable to it and the selection can either be saved in the character bp itself or the attachment done through that variable. so when the character spawns in the widget takes the information from the character variable that being the person it belongs to or is on top of

[daring gorge]

is the cart to be attached to the vehicle?

[quiet yarrow]

yes, It is attached using a physics constraint

[glacial moat]

What do you mean character spawns in the widget? Currently It is a widget component on the character

[quiet yarrow]

I have it setup to RPC server from the player BP when you press E. Then it leads to the entire connection process within the wagon BP

[daring gorge]

so i dont know how to solve your exact issue but i had issues replicating actors with physics so i tend to simulate physics locally, and as for the attachment i had this sorta issue so i made sure the clients were informed of the attachment through a rep notify

[daring gorge]

yea so all you need is a variable in the widget and use a RPC to set the variables value to your character on server so the widget thats attached to any character has the value of that character for all the clients

[daring gorge]

ive had the same thing without using physics constraint, so i cant tell if the physics constraint would make the difference

[daring gorge]

also the same way i got mine working

[daring gorge]

dont mind the breaking character but only when client knew of the attachment was this smooth, or else it would just lag around in the air whilst the boat would be going forwards

[daring gorge]

is this character BP?

[quiet yarrow]

gotcha, so maybe thats the part im having a hard time grasping. What should I tell the client and when?

[daring gorge]

you could use a rep notify? something like set the wagon as a variable and on the func call the attachment. this makes sure it is called on all the clients. if this doesnt fix it then it could be literally physics being replicated. physics actors do that, you can try debugging this part by simply using smoothsync component, if it works then it should be the physics, if not then sure attachment

[glacial moat]

This is the widget that that character BP uses

[daring gorge]

right so the widget should have a character variable, the character it belongs to and you could essentially take the image variable from there and it should work easily

[glacial moat]

On event construct it casts to BP_ThirdPersonCharacter and stores it as a variable

[daring gorge]

UI is not replicated so imagine it as a local component

[daring gorge]

you could store the image variable in the character BP and extract and use it from there itself using that character variable

that way the UI works in respect to that character variable

[glacial moat]

I have the HUD widget that uses an event dispatcher to pass in to this widget what the image should be, then that character has that widget as a component on him

I just don't know what inside this widget should be replicated

[daring gorge]

UI cant be replicated

wait let me show you like a simple thing i have in my project

[glacial moat]

So I should just use the event dispatcher to pass the image directly to the character?

How do I set it so that the space is Screen If I do that?

Guess I'm trying to wrap my head around what to do after the character gets the image

I have it set to screen so that all the icons face the individual user (client)

[daring gorge]

ive sent ya dm

[lament flax]

I don't fully understand, you want to display the icons above the characters head for all players ?

[glacial moat]

yes

In screen space so that all the icons face the client

[burnt coral]

Runescape?

[lament flax]

The space type doesn't impact anything on how to make that "replicated" :)

[glacial moat]

I'm just figuring what I need to replicate to get it to work properly.

[glacial moat]

Basically lol

[lament flax]

What i would do:
(Lets say you want to replicate the info using a texture, but it could be anything, a tag, some id, etc)

• Have the actor with the widget component or the widget component replicate
• make a soft ptr Texture(2D?) variable
• make it replicated OnRep
• in the onrep, load the soft ptr and apply it to the widget

Now to make it set on server (so it gets replicated) you need to call a Server RPC (with the texture as parameter) on the characters/widget components

[daring gorge]

^^

[glacial moat]

I will try this after I get done with dinner

[daring gorge]

also you neednt use a dispatcher at all but if you do then you can use it as the alternative of on rep

just to say "ive set the image"

do arrays in bps when marked as onRep not call the onrep function when stuff is added?

[verbal dust]

I'm trying to set up a listen server and conect from an external network. Its worked fine on the local network between 2 PC's. It doesnt work with external network.

I've opened the port (17777) and have a public IP. I've used online port checkers and they are saying the port is closed. From what I'm reading this could be because the service (the unreal game) isnt listening, or something isnt working with port forwarding

[cursive steeple]

Idk about newer versions, but you used to have to set the array to itself to guarantee a callback. This might only be the needed when an element is changed, and onrep might be working as expected for adding/removing items.

[verbal dust]

If it works over the local network, does this confirm that the service is forwarding the port correctly, and that I should focus on troubleshooting the router, etc. instead?

[daring gorge]

i see, im using 4.26 and my onrep func doenst hit when i add an element

[cursive steeple]

yeah that's what I had in the exact same version. Bit weird, but yeah, the method I mentioned should work.

[daring gorge]

yeah that worked

weird way

[cursive steeple]

I'm only forwarding 7777, and if the map is opened with the 'listen' option, it's working perfectly for me 🤷

[daring gorge]

think i might just use fastarray replication and convert code to cpp cus why not

[cursive steeple]

yeah you get much less of that random behavior 😄

[verbal dust]

I'll try 7777, 17777 was default for me but maybe it doesnt work for some reason

[cursive steeple]

wasnt 17777 the port for PIE? Let me know how it goes!

[lament flax]

BP is not great when working in MP

[daring gorge]

really isnt, im planning to convert almost all -except some of what ive written to cpp

[lament flax]

Thats good news

[verbal dust]

7777 is also coming back as closed

I allowed inbound and outbound for that port in firewall too

[cursive steeple]

UDP I assume

[verbal dust]

ive set it to both udp and tcp on the router

so that should be fine

[cursive steeple]

other than your usual antivirus stuff I have no immediate ideas :x I'd definitely be interested tho when you find the reason.

[verbal dust]

Is there a way to troubleshoot ports? Want to figure out if its a router issue or a game issue first. I havent used port forwarding on this router before so it could be that

If I run netstat in command prompt would the port show up there while the game is running? because its not

[neon obsidian]

I'm clearly overthinking here....

How would I spawn an actor locally for each player knowing that one of them is a listen server?

I've tried making it a non-replicated actor that is only relevant to the owner.

[fossil spoke]

What does the Listen Server have to do with that?

In what context are you trying to spawn the Actor?

All non replicated Actors are considered "local"

[neon obsidian]

Player State Server event runs through a series of spawn functions (Load save, create save, etc). Which then spawns a widget.

I'm trying to spawn a local actor that will hold the character "creator" that you visually see in that widget.

If I call the spawn within the server event, both users see the same thing and only the server can "change it" (It's still replicated somehow 🤔). If I spawn it on the client, it's reverse, they both see the same thing but only the client can use it.

[fossil spoke]

You want to check the PlayerController for IsLocalPlayerController

Only spawn the Actor that belongs to that PlayerState if the PlayerController is a Local PlayerController.

[neon obsidian]

ah, nm I found the issue 🙂

Thank you!

[cold cipher]

is there any tutorials about mesh visibility? like setting mesh as visible to other players only
doing a fps game,
but other persons should only see the third perso mesh

or should I use the same mesh for first person and third person view since I'm beginner on ue5

(or replicating a mesh with yourself being the one that can't see it)

[dark parcel]

That's not even network related?

You just need to tick bOnlyOwnerSee in the component panel

Or something down that line

[thin stratus]

Since when?

[dark parcel]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding what he want

Isn't it just a component that only the owner see e.g first person hand

[thin stratus]

They want what you answered them: Only display FP Mesh to Local Player and TP Mesh to others.

That's a Multiplayer problem. So why is that not network related?

Or wydm with Network Related?

[dark parcel]

Cuz I thought ticking only owner see will do the trick. Regardless multiplayer or not

Since only the owner will see the mesh

[thin stratus]

Yeah but that's a Network Owner.

And the question is still about a multiplayer problem.

[dark parcel]

Ohh ok, well I never done fps before but I would suppose other character like A.I can also "hide" their fps arms from the player by ticking the box

Yea my bad

[thin stratus]

The Boolean is even worse. Cause it relies on the ViewTarget

You can tick that and change the ViewTarget and you will see the TP Mesh

Which is good of course, but the Boolean is shitty named

Booleans fwiw

But the problem is a multiplayer problem, even if the solution is useful in Singleplayer too

[thin stratus]

No you usually have 2 mesh components. Which you either add by default or spawn dynamically when needed to save performance.

The TP one will have the full body with the bOwnerNoSee flag true.

The FP one will have the arms with the bOwnerOnlySee flag true.

Most people for starters have the character's Mesh Component as TP and add an additional one as a child to that as FP.

Just make sure you don't add the FP one to the capsule directly, but rather to the Mesh when using a character

Add / Attach I mean

Cause the Mesh is smoothed so everything visible has to be attached to it

[quiet yarrow]

Anyone have an idea on what would be the best way to attach a playerpawn to a unpossed/ai pawn using a physicsconstraint?

this is my current setup just to get debugging with replication

just have no idea how to replicate a physics constraint tbh

i've done it on my player pawn, but I cant get it working with an outside object

[cold cipher]

it is
multiplayer fps
you can see your hands, but not your feet
I think most fps you can't see your feet when you look down
but other players can see your whole body

[dark parcel]

The ones you can are called true fps afaik. It is network related, I was just confused how owner only see work internally since we can just tick it on A.I and it still work.

Ignore what I said and read what exi says about it

[cold cipher]

I know, he mentioned me

[chrome bay]

@fossil veldt for items? No movement replication - just drive attachment from inventory

[chrome bay]

constraint components don't have any replicated properties so they won't replicate, you'd have to replicate yourself and create constraints locally. Keep in mind a physics constraint won't do anything unless your pawn is a physics-simulating body

[reef dew]

these modular arms are working fine from players perspective but in mulitplayer it seems its not moving at all
could it be becuase these arms nor replicating their animations ? or is there some other issue

[chrome bay]

You usually have entirely separate first and third person meshes. Nothing about them should be replicated.

Add the -log argument. By default they run with no window

So they're probably all running in the background if you look at task manager

Should get a crash dump or log file somewhere you can look at

If not, launch it via visual studio and see why it crashes

seems okay, just outputting the available device memory I think

[reef dew]

so what do you think could be a problem here ?

thirdperson's arms are hidden and modular arms are used instead of them
viewport looks like these

[chrome bay]

Don't hide the third person arms. Use them for third person characters

hide the first person arms for third person

Doesn't make sense to do it any other way

None of your animations will match up

[glass crescent]

Hello guys ,
i am attaching one actor to another while spawning on the server side and then giving possesion to player controller , that object is coming under the parent in server side only but not on client side , so do i need to again attach it to that parent on client side ?

[glacial moat]

Hello, I am still having trouble with what exactly to replicate. I've tried different suggestions the best I could but am still having difficulty getting things to replicate. Or knowing exactly what to replicate and where. I was able to fix an earlier problem where the buttons were affecting both characters.

Issue : When one character clicks on the button, the icon should show up for that player on every client.

https://streamable.com/k1r92d

[dark edge]

Widgets don't network

what you should be replicating is some struct or class CurrentlyCastPrayer or something to that effect, in the pawn

the HUD or widgets aren't doing the prayer, the Pawn is

[glacial moat]

So I cant replicate anything inside the widget blueprint or the widget itself?
I need to replicate a structure?
I'm still not understanding how to do it if I cant replicate the widget

[dark edge]

UI should never be the source of data, just a view into that data

The UI isn't where a spell "comes from"

[upbeat basin]

Is FWorldDelegates::OnPostWorldInitialization delegate safe to use for checking if the menu or game world is being loaded? I am using the World parameter on the delegate itself to get the world name and compare it with my predefined menu and game level names in developers settings to determine which level is being loaded. But from time to time I'm getting a crash from World->GetName() function even though I have a valid check for world. Logs and callstack shows it's caused by GetFName().ToString(), the implementation of UWorld::GetName() with an access violation. Is there anything visible that I'm doing wrong here?

[glacial moat]

That defiantly makes sense when you put it like that, it just brings the next problem of how to get it to look like that on another client if I don't use the widget as the replicant. I can replicate the image right on the character, but how do I get it to show up above the head with the size and what not in the right place

[dark edge]

Everyone knows what prayer is active because it's a replicated repnotify variable on the pawn

onrep -> look at the ActivePrayer -> set widget based on ActivePrayer.IconImage

[glacial moat]

So Instead of setting the variable on the widget BP, I need to set it on the BP_ThirdPersonCharacter?

[keen adder]

Only Actors and ActorComponents can replicate. And only replicated objects can use Replication. Eg: A hud cannot use replication as it is not replicated to other players the same way pawns are (every pawn exists in every game).

The way I get around this is using a helper class (You can use PlayerState, as all players have one)

[glacial moat]

I have the widget to spawn as an actor component during runtime, but I guess that is not going to count?

[keen adder]

So for example if you want a button to appear on everyones hud, your character would ask the helperclass (playerstate) to create a button on everyones hud.

Player -> Helperclass.CreateButton() -> Multicast to all HelperClasses -> Createbutton on player hud

I don't think you can create replicated components. You can have them replicated on replicated actors but I don't think they're as flexible

[dark parcel]

That's an option

[dark parcel]

No multicast

Just have a replicated variable in the character or controller

On rep -> update widget

[glacial moat]

I've read that multicast only works if you dont want to count on it showing up on other peoples things, and should only be used for like emotes

[dark parcel]

#multiplayer message

Just avoid multicast completely for now

100% for anything stateful

[keen adder]

So with this, you use the Helperclass to contact the server, and multicast or netRep to other helperclasses, which would create the widgets on the players. This keeps the net logic all in 1 place when you're using things that can't replicate normally

[dark parcel]

It's really as simple as replicating a variable

I have name tags for each player

They are represented by a fName, that lives in a character

OnRep -> get widget -> set text

No multicast should even be considered for something like this

Only lead to broken codes

You don't have to ask the server for anything, the server update the variable eventually if it's marked as replicated

The client respond accordingly with OnRep function. In your case just update the widget

[glacial moat]

Okay, right now I have a HUD widget that updates the ActivePrayerOverhead Widget on button click, Should I use an Event dispatcher to Character, then set the ActivePrayerOverhead Widget from there?

[dark parcel]

Who's updating what

Do the client have a say on what image it will be?

The tip here is that, the only way for client to talk to server is via server rpc

[glacial moat]

So (currently) my HUD widget has all the buttons, when a button is clicked, it sends what image should be updated on an event dispatcher to the ActivePrayerOverhead widget.

[dark parcel]

So if you want to click a button that change the variable for everyone, you need to send server rpc as client. Telling the server to change the variable to the value you send.

If the variable is marked as replicated, the server will then update the variable on all clients

Where client can update with OnRep

I would suggest trying to synchronise some primitive values if you still not sure how replication work

[glacial moat]

Where do I set the variable as replicated? on HUD widget, ActivePrayerOverhead widget, BP_thirdpersoncharacter

[dark parcel]

Sync a boolean across all network

If you can't do that, it will be harder to leap

Imo stay away from w.e you are doing. Just get very basic replication work

[glacial moat]

I have done replication before like this >>

[dark parcel]

Sync one variable across all network. Allow server and client to modify the value but ensuring that everyone sees the same thing eventually

Because the idea is the same

[dark parcel]

Can't read that on my phone

[glacial moat]

Button press > call on server > add static mesh > set static mesh > set is replicated (component to add)

[dark parcel]

No, hud and widget are local to each machine. Read what adriel says

Your been given the answer tbh

[glacial moat]

Yeah, im going to try to go back and read a few times,

[dark parcel]

This is an option btw

If it make sense to put it in the character then so be it

[lost inlet]

the mesh on a static mesh component isn't replicated

[glacial moat]

It worked in that code that i posted

[lost inlet]

ah RIP, it is replicated. the more you know

    TObjectPtr<class UStaticMesh> StaticMesh;```

[glacial moat]

Looks like you know more than me haha XD

[lost inlet]

well I'm not scrolling through the lore, what is the actual issue

[glacial moat]

I think im going to try one of the solutions and see what happens

[lost inlet]

solution to what

[glacial moat]

Basically Widgets dont replicate, and I need to set the variable not inside the widget

if I understand what everyone is saying properly

[lost inlet]

yes, widgets don't replicate and only exist clientside

[glacial moat]

One thing that has happened to me though, is that If I set the widget as a component, instead of creating at runtime,

the widget will replicate client side only

for all characters

maybe I didnt use the word replicate properly in my explanation just now

[lost inlet]

what does this mean

[glacial moat]

here

That was an issue when I had the widget as a component instead of adding it at runtime

[dark parcel]

The logic looks flawed, networking aside.

[lost inlet]

well widgets shouldn't be responsible for any actual gameplay state, but for it to work over the network, it has to be sent using an actor relevant to each player that needs to see it

[dark parcel]

It doesn't matter if you add it on run time or add as component

[lost inlet]

such as a character or player state

[dark parcel]

How are you updating the image to begin with?

[glacial moat]

It was setting the widget for both characters when I had it as a component, only on the client that activated it though

[dark parcel]

Yes but isn't that a bug? Networking aside

Shouldt you have the icon on top of the character you control only.

[glacial moat]

Yeah it was, I fixed it via adding widget at runtime

[dark parcel]

I don't think that's a fix, but just a hunch

Might just be saved by a race condition which could happend in the future

[glacial moat]

Currently its set to HUD widget button pressed > send image via event dispatcher to another widget , then BP_ThirdPersonCharacrter uses that widget

[dark parcel]

Show this event dispatcher and how it is binded

[glacial moat]

Not sure how much of the code you want to see, so Im going to send this part >>

Then on the widget that it gets sent to >>

on rep notify >>

[dark parcel]

Where is this located?

[glacial moat]

The widget that the HUD sends the image to

[dark parcel]

Widgets don't replicate

Your rpc is useless

[glacial moat]

IE ActivePrayerOverhead widget

[dark parcel]

Incorrect way of doing it. Calling rpc in hud or widget will just get dropped

[glacial moat]

Yeah thats what im gathering from everyone, so my idea was to just send to BP_ThirdPersonCharacter, then update inside the character like what everyone is suggesting

[dark parcel]

Good luck

That will work if done properly

Player state or characters

[glacial moat]

That was just me trying to figure out how to do it, it will get reverted

[dark parcel]

Well as mentioned you can't call rpc in widget as it is not replicated. You will have to route the rpc call to an actor the client owned.

Player state or player character normally.

[glacial moat]

Yes Sir, that's what I'm about to try. I was just answering everyone's questions about how its currently setup.

[dark edge]

Think about it.

Does it seem more correct that the client says what image it wants to display, or rather, that they say which prayer they want to cast?

[glacial moat]

I set it to update from the character BP (Executes on Server) and have the variables set to replicate. Then update the widget. Its still not working.

[dark edge]

You are making this way more complicated than it has to be