multiplayer

[quartz vector]

struct FItemSlot
{
    GENERATED_BODY()

    UPROPERTY(BlueprintReadWrite)
    AActor* Item;

    UPROPERTY()
    TArray<struct FItemSlot*> Slots;

    FItemSlot() {
        Item = nullptr;
    }
};```

[brittle sinew]

AFAIK, struct pointers don't mix with UPROPERTY/UFUNCTION at all

[quartz vector]

That was my findings from research and trying stuff myself

but he says they have an FShip of TArray<FShip*> and I would much rather go that route

[bitter oriole]

Anyway, you can fix that trivially by moving to an ID system

[quartz vector]

you're using SaveGameObjects?

[bitter oriole]

No

[quartz vector]

what are you using to save all of that

I was going to do essentially that in a MySQl db but decided against that

[halcyon abyss]

hey guys

can someone help me very quickly?

[quartz vector]

basically just storing "ParentItemID, ChildItemID"

but I didn't want to be too dependent on webrequests to populate game data

want to use it more for validation and intial generation

[inland sun]

Take it as a NO, they need to be in a private DM since they are ignoring everyone else who asks questions.

[quartz vector]

And another thing about my items, is that not every 'AK47' is the same

it depends what parts are making up that AK47

which is basically just an inventory

which is fine

if u spawn an AK47 u just have to spawn all of the correct parts

and initialize it

[bitter oriole]

The important point I'm trying to make is that

• you don't want the same object to do both data storage AND data display, because once day you might move to a fully 2D menu with UMG & Slate - your actor-based system would have to go away
• you want to replicate the least amount of data, definitely not your inventory display objects

I see zero difficulty with your concept, like I said multiple times

[quartz vector]

I'm using UMG now actually...but i agree about replicating the least amount of data possible

and Actors are not as light weight as a Struct or even UObject obviously

So you would have something stored that stores this nested structure... like a TArray with a KeyOwner an KeyChild?

and you can recursively iterate the TArray to get the content held by any "thing"

which could be a Struct or whatever

as long as it has an ID

[bitter oriole]

You need

• a "part description" struct with a "part description ID"
• a "part instance" struct for every part in your weapon, that has a "part instance ID", stores a part description ID plus dynamic data like how much it's been used or what the level is, and a TArray of other "part instance IDs" that it depends on
• and a "weapon" struct that has a flat Tarray of "part instance ID"

[brittle sinew]

@inland sun I mean, when you asked about it yesterday there was plenty of open space to ask a question, but if you ask in the middle of somebody else's conversation don't expect everybody to drop everything and focus on your question

[bitter oriole]

Your weapon just need a "part instance ID" for the root part and you're done

Infinite recursion with structs, and a clean content vs data separation

[quartz vector]

right im not concerned specifically with weapons more general purpose so it works with anything:
"So you would have something stored that stores this nested structure... like a TArray with a KeyOwner an KeyChild?
and you can recursively iterate the TArray to get the content held by any "thing"
which could be a Struct or whatever
as long as it has an ID"

is this what you are saying in summary?

the struct itself doesn't need to hold anything

you look in the TArray and find it's key

and get all things that this Struct "owns"

[bitter oriole]

Something like that, yeah. You could also use a TMap<FName, YourStruct> if you want crazy fast search

Not sure about replication etc

[quartz vector]

TMap doesn't replicate 😦

it's been on the to do list since 1999 lol

[manic pine]

you could have an array that replicates, and update the map onrep

[quartz vector]

yeah that is a workaround

but u have to mirror your data

[manic pine]

well, another alternative would be to make a class function to add/remove stuff from the tmap, and have that call a corresponding Client function

could potentially be nasty though, since packets could arrive out of order... one packet adds, next removes... remove arrives first, then add

result is client has an extra object in there

ye prolly not a good idea

[quartz vector]

in TMap, you need to store Key and Info like spawn class

and another TMap has OwnerKey and ChildKey

or TArray or whatever

[brittle sinew]

@halcyon abyss ask your question, and someone might be able to help.

[quartz vector]

or FInventoryItem FName SomeID TArray<FName> ChildIDs

[green cedar]

For anyone who has used Steam lobbies, do you normally leave the lobby when the game starts or do you use the lobby throughout the game?

Trying to figure out if I should have clients leave the lobby when the game starts

I can't find a downside to clients staying in the lobby other than perhaps resources on Steam's side

[lost fulcrum]

Isnt replication made with constant checking variables for updates? so replicating requires to store delta or hash somewhere and compare that so it takes alot of cpu time

so replicating large maps or arrays must be pain

[quartz vector]

can't replicate TMaps directly

but you can maintain copies so to speak

like if Client added something, then Server adds the same data or vice versa

or do like above mentioned and replicate a TArray that mirrors your TMap

and build a new TMap from that

[inland sun]

I have a central Lobby Map where players move around and do things. I need to get players to be able to leave to another map and then return to the existing lobby session they left from. So I need A a way to store that info so a teleporter (open level) can get the player to the origin lobby

[lost fulcrum]

hm.. or also just have a flag that makes it dirty and sendsout though rpc

[manic pine]

best approach would probably be to keep one replicated tarray and one local version

[quartz vector]

Yeah...you just couldn't do things with references like Actors

[manic pine]

after onrep, see how they differs, then add/remove from tmap as necessary

[quartz vector]

well you could perhaps

if you go through a "Controller" of sorts

otherwise Ownership issues will drop the RCps

[brittle sinew]

@inland sun if you're trying to connect to different sessions across the internet, you probably won't be using open level; you'll want to look into sessions

[quartz vector]

don't you have to do ClientTravel also

[brittle sinew]

They're a generic session system that can be implemented by subsystems, like Steam

[quartz vector]

oh steam

[brittle sinew]

Yeah, and you can also write your own subsystem if you don't want to use third-party solutions

I can imagine that's not a small task, however

[inland sun]

I want a single main session, and when the player returns to the lobby map, they are going to join session using the data I already have for the initial session they joined.

Im using a Steam advanced session for creating and joining the session

[quartz vector]

Is there a way to generate a Unique ID that can be used to identify Structs

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/24365331/how-can-i-generate-uuid-in-c-without-using-boost-library

something like this

[halcyon abyss]

Hello

Is there a way to do cross platform multiplayer keeping ue4s networking?

I don't want to rely on the steam OnlineSubSystem

[quartz vector]

what is FGuid

[inner iris]

@halcyon abyss well it’s possible to play Fortnite on PC with a party of PS4 players, however I’m sure Epic’s implementation is very custom with their account systems

[halcyon abyss]

@inner iris thanks for replying 😃 ... Besides going cross platform... I wanted to have two separate steam appid's one VR client and one desktop client to play together

[quiet raptor]

Do actors placed in level get spawned on server and client or just server?

[winged badger]

depends on if they are set to replicate or not

[quiet raptor]

@winged badger I have set them to be replicated, however they don't spawn on client for some reason.

could it be that the client loads in not at the same time as the "server/client"?

[winged badger]

are the parts of the actor you can see also replicated?

[quiet raptor]

Yeah, I've done some printing on the actor begin play and it only is printing stuff on the server.

[native moth]

Quick question regarding multiplayer. When having attacks(like a heavy attack) that takes time to finish, I guess its not safe to rely on anim BP notifies for when to check for hits, is it?

[winged badger]

its as safe as in singleplayer, as long you check for hits on server side only then notify the client of the result

[native moth]

Cool! Was worried that since anim notifies relies on the animation being played correctly... but comming to think of it, the server should always play all animations perfectly

[winged badger]

@quiet raptor net dormancy awake?

[quiet raptor]

@winged badger huh, what is that?

[winged badger]

its also in replication section on class defaults

you should also have NetLoadOnClient checked

[quiet raptor]

@winged badger https://i.imgur.com/qm0nlB9.png

[winged badger]

ah not the last engine version

they added the dormancy dropdown recently

but if you can't see it should be good

[quiet raptor]

this is on 4.17.2

[quiet raptor]

@winged badger it does actually create the actor, (did some printing in constructor) but doesn't call begin play on the client.

[winged badger]

just on the client?

[quiet raptor]

yeah, server creates and calls begin play and client only creates the actor.

created new blueprint based on same class, same issue with it as well.

@winged badger found the issue. I did not call base class function for "GetLifetimeReplicatedProps" on my GameState class. 🤦

[winged badger]

you have blueprints only, or is code involved?

[quiet raptor]

@winged badger c++ project with some blueprints.

[winged badger]

ah, was just going that way

[quiet raptor]

I need to get some post it notes on my monitor

[winged badger]

one funny thing about BeginPlay()

whatever is in code in BeginPlay() before the Super::BeingPlay() call will execute before the blueprint event

[quiet raptor]

@winged badger in this order:
Derived::BeginPlay
Super::BeginPlay
BP::BeginPlay
?

[winged badger]

(so don't develop a habit of slapping Super call ontop of every function without considering this implication, it goes for every overriden function that triggers a blueprint event)

Super::BeginPlay() calls its Super::BeingPlay() and so on until it hits AActor::BeingPlay() which calls RecieveBeingPlay() or something similarly named which is a BlueprintImplementableEvent that has a display name "BeginPlay" for blueprints

and only after all Super calls are executed in full does the code continue to the next line

[quiet raptor]

Ah, so it's Super::BeginPlay that actually executes the BP BeginPlay?

[polar bridge]

i am trying to fix some network lag here and wondering if anyone can confirm what i'm trying to do makes sense. i have a projectile being spawned individually on server and each client. if i want to move it ahead a bit to compensate for lag, does it makes sense to do ping / 1000 * velocity?

for the most part that seems to work, but sometimes things are just off

[opaque tinsel]

Does anyone know a good way to change the mesh color according to the right enum mode in multiplayer

currently i have it setup as this but it doesnt work correctly

[winged badger]

@quiet raptor yes

@opaque tinsel don't multicast, just replicate the enum with RepNotify and setup your color inside the OnRep function

if someone connects after the color was changed they would have no way of knowing multicast was fired before they connected

but the enum would still replicate and trigger OnRep

[opaque tinsel]

sorry, but where would i find the OnRep Function

[polar bridge]

you would setup rep notify on your variable

[opaque tinsel]

i did

[mild hull]

than implement the new function

[opaque tinsel]

oh sorry, didnt realize that a new function appear when i change the variable to repnotify

so im running into a new problem where when the server changes color, the client sees it however when the client changes color, the server doesnt see it

also theres a second delay when changing color

[thin stratus]

Replication is one way only

Client can't change replicated variables

ServerRPC to the Server first

Read my Compendium, it's all explained.

(pinned to this channel)

[opaque tinsel]

thanks

[quartz vector]

how does Unreal repliate TArrays

i know TArray.h has a ton of lines of code in it

compared to a basic implementation of an Array

i mean if your custom TContainer is just data and replicated things

it should be easy enough to replicate

but it would have be done manually and not as a replicated property

[inland sun]

Noob Question: Im trying to retreive session info to store in a location where I can get that info from any game mode.

How can I get the session info from a session already created.

[upbeat jungle]

Anyone know why I can no longer connect to my dedicated server in the editor? I changed all the blueprints to the basics but it still wont transition to the main map.

https://wiki.unrealengine.com/Dedicated_Server_Guide_(Windows_%26_Linux)#Section_2_setting_up_a_dedicated_server_on_windows

[inland sun]

other than suggesting play in standalone instead of normal viewport

I have been letting this simple thing beat me for 2 days

[thin stratus]

@inland sun session info is saved in the Subsystem. Maybe even in the GameSession class. It's not really accessible from BP

[ripe raptor]

Guys, is it possible to get a users current country via the OnlineSubsystem?

for the purposes of matchmaking of course

[thin stratus]

Depends on the Subsystem

And if there is a function for it

You could just check the OnlineSubsystemInterface

And check if there is a function that gives you that

Or, if you use steam, check the steam api and see if that even has such a function

(Online in their documentation)

[ripe raptor]

Yeah just checked, there is "loccountrycode" described as "If set on the user's Steam Community profile, The user's country of residence, 2-character ISO country code" but it's under Private Data

I am not sure if games even have access to that

[thin stratus]

Probably not. I know that GameSparks, for example, saves the location via the provider or so

at least I can query the location in that

[ripe raptor]

The online subsystem interface has nothing along those lines either

[thin stratus]

Might need you to acces the api directly?

[ripe raptor]

Huh, according to UDN, UE4 has nothing, they suggest using external IP geolocation libraries.

[thin stratus]

But what does it help if the Player disables it

What about the download region

Can yo uget that from Steam

[ripe raptor]

surprisingly there's nothing mentioning that in the API docs that I can find on a glance

[bitter oriole]

Maybe because checking the country isn't such a great tool for matchmaking

You'd probably rather want to work based on lag

I'm confident you can get a faster london - paris networking rather than between random points inside UK, for example

[ripe raptor]

Of course, the idea was just to show country flags next to lobbies

[bitter oriole]

Generally speaking, I know people are sensitive about that issue

I'd much rather let them pick their own flag

/ country

People who study or work abroad could want to show their country flag, not their current location

Not to mention geolocation isn't always accurate

[ripe raptor]

True, I'll just live without it

[inland sun]

For all the information out there on Steam online subsystems there sure isn't much information on how to use it or access it properly.

[bitter oriole]

Yeah, the documentation on the OSS is abysmal

And ShooterGame is unusable as a learning resource, it's way too complicated

I took a week to learn the OSS and deconstruct ShooterGame, to create my own session tools, but getting the advanced session plugin works too

The session plugin is actually a more useful learning resource than SG, even if you end up rewriting it

[past bear]

bah, ActorComponent on GameMode on server apparently cannot call a client event on a Player Controller

any suggestions on neatly reorganising that?

[bitter oriole]

@past bear Do the calling from the server Player Controller ?

[past bear]

yeah, might work

just seems a bit silly to do Component(Server) -> PC (Server) -> PC (Client)

[bitter oriole]

I'm actually curious as to why the call from the component wouldn't work.

I suspect it's because GameMode is such a specific actor ?

Another option would be to move the component to another actor ?

https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Gameplay/Networking/Actors/RPCs/

"Actor must be replicated" -> guessing that is why.

So, I'd go for moving the component to a replicated actor.

[past bear]

the component belongs to the game mode, so that's where it lives

[bitter oriole]

Yeah, but obviously that component does networking, so maybe it would be more meaningful if it was moved to a replicated actor

[past bear]

there isn't a suitable replicated actor though, it's part of the game mode, heh

I mean, it defines game rules, this is what the component does

(not my architecture, for the record, but this is how our game modes work)

[bitter oriole]

Sounds like calling a ServerDoStuff on the PC is the way to go, then.

You could also try using GameState ?

[past bear]

yeah

we have a single generic game state class

so I don't want to put specific things in there

[bitter oriole]

GameState is supposed to be a replicated actor, so probably that one would work

Okay

[manic pine]

huh, component on gamemode cant do direct client rpc on a PC?

that seems weird

[past bear]

hmm, still isn't working, will need to debug more

[manic pine]

theres no reason it shouldnt be able to

[past bear]

I thought it should work, but replication channels can be mysterious sometimes

anyway, time to print string all the things

[manic pine]

yeah but the replication is done via pc

[bitter oriole]

@manic pine there is : GameMode isn't replicated, so no RPCs.

[manic pine]

not via the component

[bitter oriole]

(From the UE doc I linked above)

[manic pine]

i know, but the way i understood it he was trying to call a function on client's PC

[bitter oriole]

Yes

[manic pine]

which you can do from anywhere on the server

[bitter oriole]

Nope

Only from replicated Actors

[past bear]

okay, got it

[manic pine]

the function is on the PC which is replicated

[past bear]

when I checked by printing everything PC Server -> PC Client was also failing

made the RPC reliable

seems to work

[bitter oriole]

@manic pine GameState isn't replicated, so GameState can't call RPC. That's it.

[past bear]

and can now go direct from Component Server -> PC Client

[manic pine]

gamestate is replicated

[past bear]

why it needs to be reliable, I have no idea, but tbh it should have been reliable anyway

[bitter oriole]

Sorry, I meant GameMode

[past bear]

GameMode exists only on server, GameState is replicated

yes

[manic pine]

ye, and gamemode has always been able to call rpcs on PCs

[bitter oriole]

Well, the doc says otherwise, but I'll trust you

[manic pine]

the only condition is that the object that has the RPC is actually replicated

but you can call the rpc from anywhere on the server

[bitter oriole]

So the condition on replication is for the callee, not the caller ? Got it.

[manic pine]

otherwise the GameMode class would be fairly pointless ye

since it couldnt interact with any replicated actors

the whole reliable thing is a bit weird, it seems to behave differently for multicasts

[past bear]

WHARGARBL

function still doesn't work, hahaha

in the component I get all PCs with a valid pawn, then call a function on them, then on the client the PC doesn't have a valid pawn yet

fml

[manic pine]

yeah nasty timing issues... maybe have client inform server when he's received pawn

[past bear]

plenty of timing issues (timing drives me nuts in this engine, so much of the initialisation functions seem to happen in the wrong order)

amusingly, not only is the pawn not created yet, but BeginPlay on the associated actor that triggers the whole sequence gets it's being play after that

[bitter oriole]

Initialization is definitely a black hole in this engine

[past bear]

gonna have to put in a little code to here and there to defer things until vars are intialised properly

[inner iris]

@past bear how do you typically defer for small amounts of time like this? I find the delay node in BP works great to offset things just enough, but I guess in CPP the only option is to create a new timer for the small delay?

[past bear]

delay is unreliable

I wait until the variable I want has a value

polling is one way of doing it

[inner iris]

So you poll at a fixed interval and when set stop polling and call the function?

[past bear]

that is one option yes

the other is using something like a bool to mark the state of certain information

i.e you can have a whole pile of parameters and when you update one of them, use a flag to mark the state as changed, then run whatever update code is necessary

[inner iris]

That’s a good idea too, thanks!

Need to fully understand the order that things are called, usually just needs 200ms more time to ensure everything is set, either due to latency or order, I’m not sure

I guess polling on tick wouldn’t even matter performance wise as it’s only for the first few frames of a game

[past bear]

for now I'm just using a 2 second delay, but once I've got it all working I'll replace the delay with a simple polling check on the relevant data, I think

[inner iris]

Nice yeah that makes sense. And for that delay you just create a simple timer on begin play?

Just making sure there is no other delay equivalent in c++

[past bear]

timer or tick, whichever takes your fancy

timer is probably best

[inner iris]

Thanks for the info 😃

[reef tinsel]

Hello, has anybody been able to use level streaming in listen servers? I've run into an issue with the "server" side

Clients work fine, they stream the level as they should and only for themselves, but as soon as the server triggers the streaming volume, it appears for everybody

I've tried using the "is local controller" node, but without success

In dedicated server there is no issue because everyone is a client, but I need to set up the level streaming for both kinds of servers

[sterile pebble]

AutonomousProxy is always pawn or other character or something other possesed by player controller? Is there a way to make simple actor an autonomousProxy?

or they will always be simulatedProxy?

I mean, even when I set owner of actor to the player they still remains as simulatedProxy

[gleaming bobcat]

Hey guys. I really need a help. I have some issue with top down multiplayer template in C++. I used this template as a starting point:
https://github.com/Megachill/UE4TopDownMultiplayerTemplate/tree/master/Source/TDMP which support multiplayer walking. That's only one in C++ what I found.
The walking is smooth in editor if I use Single Process like this :

but if I uncheck Single Process then the dedicated server is running in separated window and client is connected from the editor window and the walking
is jerky like hell. Like in this video -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuZkTyst2bM&feature=youtu.be. Especially if a character is rotated.

It's also jerky if I run a server and client as WindowsNoEditor.

[left marsh]

Can anyone here answer some basic networking questions?

[mild hull]

there are some pinned resources maybe read them?

[winged badger]

was just about to suggest that

[left marsh]

1. How do you set an actor to be replicated via C++ header.

2. Does it replicate every property and function, or just UFUNCTION and UPROPERTY? or Only UFUNCTION and UPROPERTY with the Replicated tags?

[mild hull]

1. see link 2) see link http://cedric-neukirchen.net/2017/02/14/multiplayer-network-compendium/

[left marsh]

Good document. I'll read it.

[light bronze]

Hi, I implemented an inventory as component, which handles item stacks as UObjects (so I can derive them in BP and customize Icon, Text, etc.). Now I need to replicate this with the clients.

1. Full UObject Replication by Owning Actor
2. Just RPC inventory actions to the server (which wraps UObject logic) and wraps the UI Important things in a struct for the clients

Which would you choose?

[upbeat jungle]

I am no longer able to get from my entrylevel to my mainlevel, i was following the dedicated server tutorial on wiki. I set it back up the way it used to be. Still wont load. Any ideas?

[tidal venture]

Some one know what is the best way to use «add movement input» with a custom server (out of ue4)?

[brittle sinew]

You could look at Unreal Web Server (I hear it's fairly easy to get working, but it's paid), or simply listen on a socket

(or set up an HTTP listener, but that's a bit higher-level and wouldn't support continuous connections)

[upbeat jungle]

when I run my dedicated server and use -log it opens for a few seconds and then closes. How can I make it print the log so i can see the error. Shit closes too fast.

[versed socket]

There are a lot of ways on the AnswerHub to implement a countdown timer in multiplayer, but the most reasonable way as far as I can tell is to use a Timer Handle. Unfortunately, though, it doesn't look like Timer Handles replicate their remaining time properly. Because of that, players who join the server after the timer has started will never know about the timer's status if I multicast the initialization of the timer at the beginning of a round.

What I'm thinking is to just make a manual timer on the server-side that updates a new replicated variable... then using that new replicated variable as the client's reference for the time remaining in the round. Is this the best way that you guys do it in your projects as well?

[tidal venture]

BEST WAY to move character pawn on a custom server (out of ue4)?

[brittle sinew]

Define what you mean by 'best'.

😃

There's no simple answer to the question; there are multiple ways to do it, each with their pros and cons

I already offered a few...could you elaborate on why you might not like those?

[tidal venture]

Wasn't sure if you talk to me because it's only a plugins that offer me to send data over network

I already can do this

I search how should I move a character pawn

Because from this -> http://www.gabrielgambetta.com/client-side-prediction-server-reconciliation.html
I should have a default position and update the position according to input, but I move my character with addMovementInput which doesn't let me choose any coordnate

[brittle sinew]

Sorry if I misunderstood your question, but I interpreted it as taking data from an outside source and feeding it into UE4 for simple movement

I don't really see where client-side prediction fits into that

[tidal venture]

No worries I understand

what do you mean by you don't see where client-side prediction fits into that ?

What I find hard is that from what I understand, the pawn coordinate need to be calculated in the server, but the movement only happen on the client since my server is not a unreal engine client

does it make more sens ?

[wary willow]

@versed socket no

GM-GS-PC

[fresh saddle]

Is there any reason why the Listen server wouldn't be transmitting its own voice data to users?

Client > Listen Client works
Client > Client works
Listen Client > Client doesn't

Using the Native VOIP in 4.18.2

[raven holly]

https://forums.unrealengine.com/unreal-engine/feedback-for-epic/1414496-example-networking-config-from-epic-games

Request for epic to explain wth the config does 😄

[gleaming bobcat]

Is anybody experienced with top down multiplayer walking in C++ ?

[thin stratus]

@raven holly Usually, each setting is somewhere to be found in the Source

If you want to know what it does, you can just search source for the variable

There should be a comment next to it

sometimes even with example values

[raven holly]

Yes but it would be good to get example values from fortnite and paragon

And a proper explanation, not a programslanation

lol

[thin stratus]

Sure, just saying

[raven holly]

Haha yeah i thought about that

But epic arent great at their source commenting

a lot of from udk

[manic agate]

Guys, I've got a question. Suppose I'm making a MMORPG, which has a NPC that is placed somewhere. A player interacts with it and receives something (money, or whatever). On the Unreal Engine side, how could I code it?

The NPC would be a replicated actor. I can imagine that there would be something like an RPC method "ServerOnPlayerInteracting" that would execute on the server and which would give the player the money, or whatever, server side. The problem is, a client can't call that method, since the actor isn't owned by the player. What workaround is usually used when dealing with these kind of situations?

[thin stratus]

Doing the ServerRPC already on the Player

And splitting the interaction into Client and Server

As well as rooting UI interactions through the PlayerController

[ripe raptor]

Hey guys, quick question

Even though I am using the steam OnlineSubsystem, I can only find games on the same PC

If I create a session on another PC it won't find it

Anything obvious I might've missed?

[manic agate]

@thin stratus If I do that then don't I need to implement each ServerRPC on the player class? I mean, if there is another NPC that needs a similar RPC, I would need to implement that too on the player. There would be a lot of code that shouldn't really be there... or maybe I misunderstood what you said 😅

[ripe raptor]

I have my own AppID, session count is set to 20 (Shouldn't matter if not using ID 480 I believe though) and I got my DefaultEngine.ini configured properly (I believe)

[manic agate]

@ripe raptor I didn't mess around with the Steam OnlineSubsystem, but I remember I was having problem because I was using PIE instead of Standalone. How are you playing your game?

[ripe raptor]

Two packaged builds on two PCs

[manic agate]

Then I'm at a loss, sorry 😅 are you sure Steam starts up ok in both PCs? Do you see the steam overlay?

[ripe raptor]

ayup

included the steam_appid.txt too

[manic agate]

No idea then 😦

[thin stratus]

@manic agate that's why you use interfaces

Generic use interface function

Which each different actor can implement on its own

[manic pine]

the server rpc thing could even just be a generic response handler...i.e. Server_ClientDialogResponse(uint8 DialogOptionIndex) called when player selects a dialog option

which in turn could fire an event on server that you handle however you want

[manic agate]

Mmm thanks guys, but I'm still not sure I get it. It's hard to grasp for me without seeing code

Can you maybe point me to an example code somewhere?

[manic pine]

not sure there are any multiplayer npc dialog/interaction examples around...
i'd say its not the code you have to worry about(yet) though, but rather the design of the system

id say document your expected use cases then try to design the actual server-client responsibilities and interactions based on that

[manic agate]

I'm actually doing that and came up with a way, but it's not pretty. I wanted to see code because for me it's easier to understand in these cases

The way I'm doing it now involves making another class that inherits from UActorComponent that works as a manager. The manager is spawned and replicated by the server for each client, so that it's able to make RPC calls. That manager contains methods that forward certain events to the server or to the clients, and does only that.

When the replicated actor needs to make a server call because of a client input, it calls the respective method in that manager class, which then makes the Server RPC call, and so on

[ripe raptor]

I am guessing my inability to find sessions is due to some local network port shenanigans...

[manic agate]

As I said, it's not pretty. But at least it lets me separate the code well

[manic pine]

well you'd need that anyway, either in a component as youve chosen or on the character itself

but the RPCs can be specific or general

are you handling the actual dialog part purely on client?

[manic agate]

Well actually the dialog thing was just an example. I'm actually doing a whole other thing, which is too long to explain, but the concept is similar 😅
But yeah, let's say I do handle things locally

Glad to see that it's not a completely bad approach anyway 😅 I just wish it could be done without adding a lot of boilerplate code!

[manic pine]

what exactly is the boilerplate part?

in my mind it should pretty much be doable with a single server RPC, where client simply tells server which option he picked in which conversation

server would need to verify etc of course

[manic agate]

Well, I'll explain what I'm doing with a different example, just to be clear. Suppose I've got a replicated actor, not owned by anyone (as the NPC in the previous example). It implements an interface with a method called "OnTriggerPressed", which can be called by the player's pawn from time to time. I want that event to be processed on the server, but since the actor isn't owned by the client, it can't make RPC calls.

// Inside my player's pawn class
void AMyPawn::Tick(float delta)
{
    // ... code here

        if(somethingHappens)
              ReplicatedActor->OnTriggerPressed();
}

// Inside my replicated actor class
void AMyReplicatedActor::OnTriggerPressed()
{
       // I would like to process this code on the server
}

The way I'm doing this now is this: I created a "UMyReplicatedActorManager", which implements these methods:

// RPC server method
void UMyReplicatedActorManager::ServerOnTriggerPressed()
{
         // I need to broadcast this on every client
         MulticastOnTriggerPressed();
}

// RPC NetMulticast method
void UMyReplicatedActorManager::MulticastOnTriggerPressed()
{
        ReplicatedActorReference->ExecuteOnTriggerPressed();
}

// While inside my replicated actor class, I added this:
void AMyReplicatedActor::ExecuteOnTriggerPressed()
{
        // Here the actual code is executed
}

[ripe raptor]

Ok, stupid question

Since I can't port-forward to two PCs on the same network, is there anything hacky I can do to forward the proper ports for hosting on one PC, and for joining on another?

[manic pine]

you have a keybinding on client that's bound to PressTrigger which in turn calls ServerPressTrigger(on client's character) which then takes care of it

PressTrigger being a character function(for the player, not the NPC)

its teh same with e.g. opening a door

you cant let the client do it, you instead let the client tell the server to attempt to do it

so for the regular 'interact' stuff i'd generally just use a serverrpc that says interact(objectwewanttointeractwith), then server does a raycast or something to determine if we're close enough to interact with that thing etc.

for collider triggers, the server handles it on its own

[manic agate]

Mmm I get it, of course makes sense

So the usual approach is always to make the server do the computation behind that given action. I mean, if the user wants to open the door and the client thinks he can because of some raycasting for example, it "waits" for the server to do the same computation and check if it can indeed open the door, and then opens it. Is that right?

[manic pine]

exactly, server is authoritative on everything

client just makes 'requests'

and sometimes client will simulate results to make the game seem more responsive

[manic agate]

Well, I was doing that, but had some problems with UMG

Basically I'm developing a VR application, in which there are 3D menus placed in the world, "powered" by UMG. It happened that if the server's pawn wasn't looking at a menu spawned by a client, it was like it wasn't there for the server. So if for example the client pressed a button on that menu, the server wouldn't becuase it was like the UI wasn't there.

[manic pine]

a menu spawned by the client?

[manic agate]

So to overcome that I moved the logic to the client, and now I'm only telling the server "hey, client has pressed that button, do something" (in my case cheating is not a problem, so I don't have to worry about the client doing weird stuff; I'm not developing a game actually)

Well not exactly spawned, more like owned by the client

[manic pine]

ah, you didnt set owner?

actor->setowner(client player controlle)

[ripe raptor]

Ok so apparently, IOnlineSubsystem* const OnlineSub = IOnlineSubsystem::Get(); returns the NullSubsystem for me.

[manic agate]

The UI window is replicated, but the UMG that's in there is not

[ripe raptor]

NOW I'm lost. >_>

[manic pine]

right, umg doesnt replicate

to work with your current system i'd just do a server rpc with command(command index)

[manic agate]

It's kind of a mess dealing with these 3D menus, because they have a lot of stuff going on. I've got a 3D window that is an Actor, which contains a UMG C++ class, which is overridden by a Blueprint that actually builds the UMG. Kind of a headache. So, because the server somehow doesn't see the UMG window until it's shown (it needs to be shown at least once; after the first time, it will be always shown even if the menu is actually far away from the server's pawn) I was forced to move the logic away, hence all my questions today 😄

[manic pine]

and handle it in a switch or something on the server i think

ye, sounds like its gotten a bit messy

[manic agate]

Yeah that's a solution. But since I have a lot of different menus, I'm trying to separate them, otherwise I would have a very big switch or something

[manic pine]

ye

anyway i have to run, best of luck

[manic agate]

Thanks a lot for the help raap! See you 😄

[manic pine]

later

[ripe raptor]

I went from "can't find games on different PCs" to "not even the 2-clients-on-same-PC works anymore" without making any actual changes to anything.

Go me.

[manic agate]

@ripe raptor Probably the Steam OnlineSubsystem isn't properly setup, if it returns the NullSubsystem

Hows your build.cs file?

[ripe raptor]

Includes the OnlineSubsystem and OnlineSubsystemUtils

Target specifies bUsesSteam = true;

[manic agate]

Added "DynamicallyLoadedModuleNames.Add("OnlineSubsystemSteam");"?

Not sure how it works now, but in 4.14 I used that I think

[ripe raptor]

// To include OnlineSubsystemSteam, add it to the plugins section in your uproject file with the Enabled attribute set to true

[manic agate]

Also, checked from the plugin section in the editor if it's activated? I remember that for me it was disabled by default

[ripe raptor]

It's on

Is it possible to get the display name of the current online subsystem?

[manic agate]

You didn't tell me if you've added the DynamicallyLoadedModuleNames.Add("OnlineSubsystemSteam"); part to the build.cs

[ripe raptor]

I already told you, that comment line I pasted comes directly from the build.cs file.

Implying that the dynamically loaded modules isn't necesary anymore

[manic agate]

Well, it doesn't say it's not necessary anymore... I mean, even in the past you needed to manually activate the plugin. It's worth a try anyway

[ripe raptor]

Well, the Steam part was apparently me being an idiot, because I was running from PIE and wondering why I'm getting OSS Null

[manic agate]

Thought you said you were trying on packaged builds 😅

[ripe raptor]

I was, but realized I don't have debugging in a release build so I thought "hey, why not try PIE"

but in any case, this is where things get interesting... I now run my build, and run a standalone game from PIE. The build hasn't even done anything, and yet the standalone game from PIE finds a session.

[manic agate]

That is weird... the 2 packaged builds where exactly the same, right? You didn't change anything now in the code, excepted your playing in standalone?

[ripe raptor]

Of course not

[manic agate]

Mmm I've no idea!

[ripe raptor]

Ok I seem to be making some headway...

WHen I try to look for lobbies and do a find session command

on one client it prints out this:

Verbose: STEAM: Server query complete '2' eNoServersListedOnMasterServer (No servers match)

Along with a few other STEAM lines

The other client though spits out

LogOnline: Verbose: Sending 16 bytes to 255.255.255.255:14001
[2018.01.17-15.21.41:986][406]LogOnline: Verbose: Sent query packet...

Is it possible that two instances of the same game run different OSS's?

[light bronze]

Hi, I have a problem that after going prone and stand up (AI Character), the character is bugging in the floor but only on the client (still moving but sometimes in the floor). Any idea why?

nvm, I accidentially set movement mode back to navwalking after standing up, which does not simulate well on client

[thin stratus]

@ripe raptor ListenServers?

[ripe raptor]

Hey @thin stratus - yeah, listen servers. I just found a UDN post that might be helpful so I'm trying that to see if it works

[thin stratus]

Own AppID?
ini file properly setup (if not sure, check it again)?
If Shipping build, steam_appid.txt properly added?
Hosting with bPresence on?
Download region of both PCs similar?
Proper settings used to create the session?

[ripe raptor]

Hosting with bPresence on? <-----This one was false.

About to test with it set to true

[thin stratus]

NoServersListedOnMasterServer technically means the FindSession call is okay but CreateSession is wrong

[ripe raptor]

Hm, still nothing even with bPresence true.

[thin stratus]

Have you tried using the native nodes from epic?

[ripe raptor]

There is one weird thing in the CreateSession log

[thin stratus]

There is not much magic to hosting with steam using listenservers

[ripe raptor]

https://pastebin.com/hKZqqbJT

That's the create session log

[jolly siren]

Is there anything I need to do to get my steam app id working? Do I use the overarching app id that it gives me or the "developer comp" id? I've tried both and neither are connecting to steam properly like 480 did in standalone.

[ripe raptor]

@thin stratus - not using the vanilla nodes, using your approach actually from the wiki.

[valid python]

Hey guys! So I was reading about seamless travel and how certain actors are persisted to the new level. How does this affect custom actors in the new level. For example if the new level has a custom player state is the data from the old player state somewhow used to create the new custom one or something else? I want to persist some things like player name and stuff to the new level even though I'll be using a different player state and gamemode

[thin stratus]

There is a function in the PlayerState that should be called iirc

There are acutally two, but I can never recall which does what

OnOverrideWith could be it

OnCopyProperties is the other one I think

[valid python]

Alright thanks I'll look at those two!

[worthy wasp]

i just got baffled..... TMaps are declared to be NON-REPLICATEABLE.

Tested & proved - i can access TMap values that are set via server (ClientRPC) to a NON-REPLICATED TMap variable - and access them accross the network....

#Stumped

[winged badger]

i crashed trying to replicate TMap only few versions ago

[manic pine]

youre just sending them as an argument?

[winged badger]

i have an odd problem with seamless travel - if faster PC is hosting everything is fine, but if a slower one is the client shows map loaded before the server, it doesn't get notification for changes in MatchState, and best i can tell, none of the Actors placed in the Level seem to be affected at all on the client-side (supply crates show wrong content, they don't change visual state when used, etc...), while everything works just fine server-side

and i did not forget to call Super::GetLifeTimeReplicatedProps() in the GameState

[manic pine]

do you have a transition map?

[winged badger]

yes

client also has no trouble with actors that spawn after the match starts

and if someone does a late join, they are fine as well

[jolly siren]

When building with steampipe should I be using the same sdk version as ue4 is using?

[bitter oriole]

We don't, works fine

Steam SDK updates itself, anyway

[jolly siren]

ahh okay cool, thank you 😃

[bitter oriole]

Well, SteamPipe updates itself, really

[jolly siren]

ahh I just got my app id, so learning. My app id doesn't work in standalone until I upload a build?

[winged badger]

it works just fine

only thing you need to upload a build for is distribution

[jolly siren]

hm it's not working for me. 480 was working fine in standalone, but mine isn't

[winged badger]

it activates the steam overlay?

[jolly siren]

480 did, but not mine

[winged badger]

did you copy the files from steam client dir to Engine/Binaries/Steam/ThirdParty/x664/v139 ?

[bitter oriole]

This isn't needed

[jolly siren]

I copied the dll files from Engine/Binaries/ThirdParty/Steamworks/SteamvXXX/Win64 into my projects Binaries\Win64 if that is what you mean

But that's all been setup for forever

and working with 480

All I've done since I got my id was update the SteamDevAppId in DefeaultEngine.ini

[winged badger]

nod you're not the only person i heard this from today

[bitter oriole]

We've never copied DLLs in our game. We don't use Steam sessions or matchmaking, but we do get the Steam player name, and we have the overlay, screenshots, etc

I'm very confident no manual operation is required

[winged badger]

very possible, unreal docs are rarely timestamped

[jolly siren]

The dll copying is for dedicated servers

[bitter oriole]

That might make sense.

[jolly siren]

But yeah overlay isn't working in standalone when I switch SteamDevAppId from 480 to my app id. I've tried both the overarching app ID and also the ones that are listed under "promotional or special-use packages"

I've also tried using SteamAppId instead of SteamDevAppId

[bitter oriole]

Let me try something

@jolly siren So yeah, my game also doesn't get Steam stuff in standalone here.

Only when launched through Steam

But I think that's an option

[jolly siren]

Oh that's interesting. 480 works fine in standalone if you have the steam client running

[bitter oriole]

It does, I've tested that a week ago

What does bRelaunchInSteam do ?

@jolly siren I figure Steam might deny your game if it's a real Steam game that isn't launched from Steam itself

[jolly siren]

hmm okay yeah bRelaunchInSteam is set to false for me. I'll flip it and see what happens

Do you guys still use 480 when you are testing steam things in the editor then?

[winged badger]

i use my own

the very top of the logs should show you the steam initialization when you start the game

[jolly siren]

okay, I'll check the logs

[bitter oriole]

You don't have logs in standalone though

And I don't believe the OSS works in editor at all

@jolly siren I currently don't need to test Steam stuff with a real game that has its appId, my released game is SP. But I definitely see the same issue - no overlay in standalone unless started from Steam.

I'll definitely need standalone to work when I have an appid for the MP game I'm planning

[jolly siren]

you still have logs in standalone. They are written to Saved/Logs

LogOnline: Warning: STEAM: Steamworks: SteamUtils() failed!
LogOnline: Warning: STEAM: Steamworks: SteamUser() failed!
LogOnline: Warning: STEAM: Steamworks: SteamFriends() failed!
LogOnline: Warning: STEAM: Steamworks: SteamRemoteStorage() failed!
LogOnline: Warning: STEAM: Steamworks: SteamUserStats() failed!
LogOnline: Warning: STEAM: Steamworks: SteamMatchmakingServers() failed!
LogOnline: Warning: STEAM: Steamworks: SteamApps() failed!
LogOnline: Warning: STEAM: Steamworks: SteamNetworking() failed!
LogOnline: Warning: STEAM: Steamworks: SteamMatchmaking() failed!
LogOnline: STEAM: [AppId: 0] Client API initialized 0
LogOnline: Display: STEAM: OnlineSubsystemSteam::Shutdown()
LogOnline: Warning: STEAM: Steam API failed to initialize!
LogOnline: Display: STEAM: OnlineSubsystemSteam::Shutdown()
LogOnline: Unable to create OnlineSubsystem module Steam
LogOnline: Unable to load default OnlineSubsystem module Steam, using NULL interface```

[bitter oriole]

Right, I had that confused with "Shipping"' 😃

[jolly siren]

ahh

Here is 480

LogOnline: STEAM: Steam User is subscribed 1
LogOnline: STEAM: [AppId: 480] Client API initialized 1
LogOnline: STEAM: [AppId: 480] Game Server API initialized 1```

For some reason it thinks my app id is 0 when I enter my own 🤔

[winged badger]

steam does have some policy of not activating something app-ID related if its a free game until explicitly requested i think

[jolly siren]

okay, I'll submit a ticket with them

[winged badger]

haven't dealt with them personally

but it was mentioned in their docs

[bitter oriole]

Our game is paid, and it's been shipped for some time

We have exactly the same behaviour

[winged badger]

then i have no idea 😦

[bitter oriole]

People on the UE forums talked about this happening if you don't have packages created but we very much do 😃

https://issues.unrealengine.com/issue/UE-23238

https://answers.unrealengine.com/questions/351745/steam-integration-not-working-in-shipping-build.html

[jolly siren]

hm in my case this isn't a shipping build. I'm running as standalone from the editor and it works with 480

[bitter oriole]

Let me try standalone.

Welp, standalone works here

[winged badger]

mine worked just fine, both with OnlineSubsystemSteam and OnlineSubsystemUWorks

[jolly siren]

ahh okay cool then it must be something with my app id

[bitter oriole]

@jolly siren Do you have packages set up in Steam ?

[jolly siren]

I haven't uploaded a build to steam yet

[bitter oriole]

https://answers.unrealengine.com/questions/547007/steam-app-id-not-working.html

Sounds like this issue, then.

[jolly siren]

I have those two entries under "Promotional or special-use packages" tho

[bitter oriole]

My "issue", which isn't really one, is that Shipping builds need to be launched from Steam in order to get Steam features. This sounds like a feature more than a bug, and it doesn't impact Development Standalone builds.

[jolly siren]

but yeah I opened a ticket with steam support

[bitter oriole]

I'd go for setting up all the Steam stuff right away, since it takes time, needs testing, and is pretty great for private betas, etc before launch

[jolly siren]

Yeah I agree

[wary willow]

@worn nymph unpossed pawn?

use player controller

you just use the player array also given after postlogin

(create one in gm, match is gs)

or ps

[winged badger]

this is for storing the ID in the PlayerContoller, but you can just as easily grab GameMode, or PlayerState if you add an extra PlayerControler input and feed a reference to self into it, then pull and cast the PlayerState from the red node

as for GameInstance, it will persist, but you have to store info into it on Client side, retreive it Client side and then send it to server like this

and i assume this is a character select level then you move to a new one to play?

that makes it abit more complicated

when i saw that server event trying to set a variable in GameInstance i just tunnel visioned on that part

you can OnClicked -> GetGameInstance -> SetID

(no server events here!)

then

something like that

inside PlayerController

with ID input being GetGameInstancec->GetID

sorry, made an error, new pic coming

and PlayerPawn input being GetControlledPawn

now the lower part executes on server, so it will push the ID from your GameInstance to the server copy of your PlayerController

and invoke a function in your character class/blueprint that takes an integer ID parameter and runs the setup

well, a function that can call it, or run the setup on the character from PlayerController in this case

but the networking part is good

(i didn't set this up in the controller, so my options were somewhat limited)

ok

and on PostLogin in new level you push the variable to server and setup your character server side

no server events ever with the GameInstance as the target

you can call them FROM GameInstance tho

the input pin in the top node

is GetGameInstance->GetPlayerToSoawnID

you do the getter and connect it

[worn nymph]

pretty sure i already did it all like this and it didnt work

[winged badger]

no you tried to set the variable on a Server copy of your GameInstance

which does not exist

you can do it directly from PostLogin

cast the player controller which is provided there

and plug it to target

[ripe raptor]

[ 79]LogOnline: Warning: STEAM: You must be logged in to an online profile to search for internet games

Why can't anything ever be simple

[rare cloud]

Because Steam

[upbeat jungle]

Anyone wana shoot me a DM and help me out. I'm using this guide to create my dedicated server. https://wiki.unrealengine.com/Dedicated_Server_Guide_(Windows_%26_Linux)#Section_2_setting_up_a_dedicated_server_on_windows But all of the sudden I can't connect to my damn server anymore. And the compile button on my editor doesnt do anything. I think they both might be the error hand in hand

[ripe raptor]

So apparently

Two PCs on the same network = can't see steam session
Two PCs on separate networks = works just fine

[drowsy notch]

Anybody had trouble with replicated actor spawns being seemingly delayed vs regular RPCs?

If I send an RPC and spawn a replicated actor on the same frame, the actor seems to appear on the client 30-100ms later than the RPC

[worn nymph]

@upbeat jungle start youre game and server with logs and see what is happening

in the exe shortcut of the server and the game add this  -log LOG=MyGameLog.txt       MyGameLog.txt can be named anything you want and it will save the log into a txt file

so you can see any errors it will also let you see any print strings set in the editor for easier debugging

once i have more information i can try and help .

[ripe raptor]

Is it possible to run steam matchmaking on a single PC for testing purposes or will I have to fall back to null?

Alternatively, can I directly "connect to the local session", skipping the steam lobby stuff entirely?

[thin stratus]

Steam only runs once per pc

Second instance of the game will error out on steam load usually

[twin juniper]

Do you need to init all camera settings from server when spawning new pawns? things like spring arm length, FOV etc. Just thinking of the case where a cheater sets unfair values that allow him to see more than other players can

[manic pine]

you cant really prevent that anyway though

[light bronze]

Hey, when using OnlineSubsystemSteam, do the Steam Servers only list and find sessions, or do they additionally act as passive server in the game, so that no port forwarding is necessary for listen servers?

[manic pine]

it uses UPnP doesnt it...nvm, it doesnt

[light bronze]

yeah but does it work without the need to forward ports (e.g. I cannot do that bc of Dual Stack Lite, where I only virtually have an IPv4 Address and ports are useless)
So like the Listen Server actually does the calculations but the Steam servers forward the network communication.

[thin stratus]

Steam should work without port forwarding

[bitter oriole]

Is that only required for dedicated servers, or listen servers need it too ?

[manic pine]

if steam servers acted like messengers for data packets, the added latency would be very nasty no?

[bitter oriole]

They don't.

[light bronze]

I think I will just test it later, best way to find it out ^^

[manic pine]

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=5452-TASB-6078

so presumably it doesnt do it for you

[bitter oriole]

@manic pine Correction to my latest post : you can use Steam as a packet relay

For when a direct connection fails

Not sure if you want to, though

[manic pine]

ah... yeah, sounds like a bad idea for most games

[bitter oriole]

There is paid UPNP plugin for UE4

I'd love some feedback from our experienced MP guys here. I won't have dedicated servers, so I guess i'll need this

[manic pine]

well, most routers ship with upnp turned off, and if the user is competent enough to turn it on then he's probably competent enough to do port forwarding

i think upnp is considered a security risk today

[bitter oriole]

It looks like options are

• NAT punch
• UPNP
• Packet relay
• Dedicated servers
• Telling your users to open up ports on their router, 1998 style

UPNP is a plugin, packet relay can be done with Steam but doesn't sound good

Does UE4 do nat punch ?

[manic pine]

looks like the onlinesubsystem should take care of it

potentially by using steam's nat punch

https://forums.unrealengine.com/development-discussion/c-gameplay-programming/25933-does-ue4-have-nat-punch-how-combine-steam-s-networking-with-ue4

[light bronze]

Am I actually allowed to use Steamworks during Development? So I am in a really early phase but I want to set it up to work with steam (Test App ID) early.

[bitter oriole]

Of course

[light bronze]

Because on the official doc of UE4 is stated that I have to contact Valve and read the SDK Doc etc. to determine if I fulfill the requirements. Or does that only apply to publishing?

[thin stratus]

Publishing

You can use it with app ID 480 as much as you want

[light bronze]

Ok, thats awesome! Thanks

[boreal mountain]

Hey guys, if a server is running locally to the game venue (ie LAN with 0 packet loss or lag) is it possible to keep everything in frame sync between clients? Assuming your players are on Quadro cards and taking a genlock house sync signal into the cards to keep them in time with each other, does the engine keep itself in time as well with the server? Would physics stay in time across the network?

[thin stratus]

Pretty specific question :D No idea if that would work

You can always sync physics by syncing the location and rotation

[manic pine]

doubt it, due to different tick times

[boreal mountain]

Specific indeed, not intended for true multiplayer though. Essentially I need to spit out multiple camera angles from the same scene that are in lock-step, and my required resolutions I cant do it from a single machine. I'm looking at 16k total of camera resolution from 4x cameras

I figured if I could split the scene between machine's I'd have a solid way forward, but I cant have any drift between them

[mild hull]

cant you simple run physics on server and make frequent updates to all clients?

[boreal mountain]

Well physics was my poor example, I'm really just running a level and letting it sit there with some baked lighting maps and wind animations. No true physics, but for example will the sway of my trees in the wind match across 4 different machines?

Or the movement of clouds over head? I've been requested to essentially spit a 360 camera view out to the real world

[mild hull]

if you sync the clock it will be close, but you cant be truly equal

[manic pine]

cant you use frame buffers or some such?

to do it from one

like its done with e.g. cube mapping

[boreal mountain]

my thought was to either use a Scene Capture Cube or 4x Scene Capture 2d's, I'm not sure how frame buffers apply to that though?

a 8k or 16k feed from a scene capture cube will throw a wrench in performance for sure, thus I thought of breaking it apart

[manic pine]

well yeah, but does performance matter?

[boreal mountain]

mizuki did you mean unix time sync?

Raap yes? Unless you're talking about letting it buffer like 5 minutes worth of frames and then playing all that back, in which case thats a novel idea I hadn't thought of but doesn't lend itself well to trying to adjust anything in the scene very quickly

[manic pine]

yeah i was thinking you'd do video capture or some such

but if you need it to actually be interactiblle then i guess thats out of the question

[mild hull]

you can also use your own time sync at start of server, but as long as you make everything advance with time it should look the same

[boreal mountain]

well its definitely an approach

[manic pine]

even a perfect time sync wont really help, since clients will be running different deltatimes in ticks

[mild hull]

a cloud that moves 1m/s will still move the same speed

[manic pine]

but i guess its a question of how accurate you really need it to be

it might be able to fool casual observers

[mild hull]

i dont think that he need 100% at all times mathematical identical worlds

[boreal mountain]

Well I'm trying to project the UE camera's into the real world with actual projectors

so if my timings are off considerably there will be taring between the edges of the cameras when my clouds or trees dont line up

I come from a majority broadcast television video world, so i'm accustomed to working in video line-offset

but working in 24fps I'm not entirely sure how much leeway I have in this scenario

[manic pine]

adding some blur to the scene might help

[boreal mountain]

fair. How much delta do you think you're talking about between ticks here though?

It may be within tolerance?

[manic pine]

impossible to say without knowing how fast objects can be moving and at what distance

whether its within tolerance i mean

imagine a fast moving large'ish object being shared between two of the clients

a tiny offset would make it look very skewed

[boreal mountain]

yeah suppose it's a bit of both really, with trees in the background but some client animation moving in the foreground

its all a predetermined animation, I guess the only way forward is to see how it looks

[manic pine]

yeah, i think youre heading into new territory with this one

[boreal mountain]

well, I'll come back in 6 months after banging my head against a wall and let you all know

[manic pine]

though hmm i was thinking

game can record yeah... in game recording

so technically you could record the scene and play the recording

in-game

thus avoiding network latency stuff

[boreal mountain]

I think I push the limits of performance though, even with a Quadro p6000

[manic pine]

no i mean play it on multiple

[boreal mountain]

just record each frame back?

internally to each system?

[manic pine]

well not frames per se, this would be an in-game recording

like the one they do in fps games

[boreal mountain]

oh sure, then I supposed 4x machines are just playing the animation in time thus eliminating the math of any of the animations

[manic pine]

yeah, depending on how the playback and recording actually works

youd still have potential deltatime issues though eh

[boreal mountain]

yeah I basically fall apart when I have to depend on UE to be in framesync across machines

though its another thought I didnt have before so I appreciate it

[manic pine]

yeah, best of luck. sounds like an interesting idea, though probably way outside the design scope of the engine

[boreal mountain]

👌

[upbeat jungle]

@worn nymph sorry was asleep when you sent that. The errors I get is something about editor only assets or something like that. I'll send the log when I get back on the computer

[manic pine]

another idea would be to disable tick on everything

and only tick on a netmulticast which contains deltatime

[worn nymph]

no need i know the problem

you havnt put the server files in the packaged game folder

you take them from the project and copy it to the packaged game binaries folder

@upbeat jungle

[boreal mountain]

@manic pine raap can you explain that further?

[manic pine]

well, its possible to manually call an objects tick function, and have it do all the stuff it normally does in tick

same with components

if you call all ticks functions on all clients with the same deltatime

you should get the same results

[upbeat jungle]

So once I package once and change things, I from then on out have to build in VS, and go move the server in there?

Cause I have packaged like 4 times before, and then moved the folder to another location.

[boreal mountain]

so I guess the hard part is defining the respective offset for each server?

[upbeat jungle]

And I think moving the folder might have messed me up

[worn nymph]

yeah

[upbeat jungle]

I need to go to the packing settings and choose the location dont I, now that I moved it

[worn nymph]

so find youre server.exe file . copy it and put it in youre packaged game binaries folder. "windows no editor >youre game name>binaries . paste server.exe .

then right click server.exe and create shortcut

[manic pine]

actually, you'd prolly get as good results by replicating all positions/rotations and turning off all kinds of client smoothing

[worn nymph]

@upbeat jungle

[boreal mountain]

@manic pine ...you'd have to expand on that one for me too. I am not a multiplayer systems eng so I'm sure I'm coming at this a bit obtuse

[manic pine]

well, normally stuff like positions and rotation of objects is only replicated a few times a second

then the client smooths it out to make it look good

[boreal mountain]

If I took your earlier idea and recorded the animation, would that still apply?

[boreal mountain]

since they're all just playing back?

[upbeat jungle]

So this is the error @worn nymph

[manic pine]

possible, but its also possible the playback will start at slightly different 'world times' in each case

thus having a slight offset with everything

[upbeat jungle]

WhiteSquareTexture.uasset Black.uasset all containing EditorOnly Data

etc

[mild hull]

you can sync the start the same way you sync time, it will become to close to tell

[boreal mountain]

mhh. I guess that goes back to setting the same time on startup as @mild hull mentioned

ah yes, this sounds promising

[worn nymph]

yes because youre launching the server in the wrong place so its trying to use engine/editor assets and not youre cooked ones

[manic pine]

yeah, you should with some experimentation get close enough

[mild hull]

and if you sync the game clocks, than timestamp all change from server and stream them to the clients and they execute them 10ms later than the timestamp, you should see no diference for the human eye

[boreal mountain]

@mild hull good thing I'm designing to a camera hahaha

[worn nymph]

@upbeat jungle scroll up i told you how to fix

[upbeat jungle]

Yea threw it into the BuiltProject now. Server running

[worn nymph]

lol cool

[boreal mountain]

appreciate the help guys, really

[upbeat jungle]

Waiting on Editor now. My main issue was that I never even had to open the serve before and could hit play in the editor and it would load the world for me

[green cedar]

Has anyone implemented NAT punchthrough on a client hosted listen server?

[upbeat jungle]

With LoadLevel BP and IP address

[worn nymph]

not sure how . maybe it was just connecting to the map but not the server .

if you wanna do testing from the editor you can launch only the server . then click play in the editor and it will work. faster than having to package to test

[upbeat jungle]

How do I know when to go into VS and Build the DevServer again?

[worn nymph]

i always rebuild both whenever i make any significant changes. just to be on the safe side

[upbeat jungle]

And im not sure either, but i was in the entry map, and it would go to the transition map and connect me to my serverdefault. Never had to laod the server.

Was really useful. Now it wont work.

And the compile button in my editor seems to be broke too. Doesn't do anything.

[worn nymph]

what do you mean by load the sever . like you want it to join automatically im confuesd lol

[upbeat jungle]

I never had to open GameServer.exe while testing in the editor. It would just go straight to the correct map.

While on the Entry map

[worn nymph]

then you most probably was testing as a listen server . no way to join a dedicated server without it running lol

[upbeat jungle]

Hmmm possibly. Not sure how tho. I guess it defaulted without me touching it.

[worn nymph]

if you put -log in the server.exe file you will see a join succeded 256

then join succeded 257 etc for each player so you know when they have successfully connected

[upbeat jungle]

Another question tho. If im trying to set someones name in the Entry map, that should be a variable saved into the GameInstance correct?

[worn nymph]

im just on bus home . then ill boot up my pc and can pm you

[upbeat jungle]

No worries, going to grab lunch ill be back in a few.

Thanks for all the help tho!

[twin juniper]

Hello friends I set up DEDICATED SERVER but I do login only as IP but I want to select as a list how to do so i want to make a list of how many people i have received ping but i can not find the room in '' Find session ''

[thin stratus]

You need to have a Subsystem enabled

Like Steam

so you get MasterServer that stores and sends the server sessions

[twin juniper]

I set up the Dedicated server, activated the steam and it seems to find the room but it does not find it, it does not set up the room, it says it only found the room on the search part.

Dedicated server create sessions need to get error when setting up

[valid python]

What is the best way to test multiplayer stuff? I'm trying to test out seamless travel but I got an error saying "Seamless travel currently NOT supported in single process PIE" I tried unchecking use single process but then the editor only launches one window instead of multiple like before. I've tried looking on the web but couclnd't find anything

[sterile pebble]

@valid python from my experience server travel does not work in PIE

for me it worked only in packaged game

[valid python]

hmm alright i was afraid of that. I think i've run multiple instances of debug client before so i might try that as an alternative to packaging the game to test stuff. Kind of a pain either way but oh well

[winged badger]

you can do 2 standalones

[valid python]

really? It only ever launches one standalone from the editor even if i select to hvae multiple clients unless i'm missing something

[mild hull]

you can start more directly

[winged badger]

make a shortcut "<full path to your engine's UE4Editor.exe file in double quotes>" "<full path to your project's .uproject file in double quotes>" -game -log

you will be able to launch it from desktop without launching the editor

[valid python]

ohhh ok

[winged badger]

and you will have a command prompt window printing logs in real time

alongside the game one

[valid python]

alright awesome thanks!

[twin juniper]

I added a Dedicated server project (Online Subsystem Steam) and gave me such an error I can not open server.exe file and it gives an error

LogInit: Display: LogOnline: Warning: STEAM: Steam API disabled!

[worthy wasp]

@rough iron @twin juniper - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbrO0Nt0SIY&list=PLY09rqamTMqeyRIUU2kFlZL7TYlMnWRAT

Anyone here experienced with the APartyBeaconHost & Client seup? Looking to extend into this funcitonality and have some questions.

[twin juniper]

[2018.01.19-02.07.42:680][784]LogNet: UChannel::ReceivedSequencedBunch: Bunch.bClose == true. ChIndex == 0. Calling ConditionalCleanUp.
[2018.01.19-02.07.42:680][784]LogNet: UChannel::CleanUp: ChIndex == 0. Closing connection. [UChannel] ChIndex: 0, Closing: 0 [UNetConnection] RemoteAddr: 127.0.0.1:49480, Name: IpConnection_0, Driver: GameNetDriver IpNetDriverUWorks_0, IsServer: YES, PC: VeritexPlayerController_BP_C_0, Owner: VeritexPlayerController_BP_C_0
[2018.01.19-02.07.42:681][784]LogNet: UNetConnection::Close: [UNetConnection] RemoteAddr: 127.0.0.1:49480, Name: IpConnection_0, Driver: GameNetDriver IpNetDriverUWorks_0, IsServer: YES, PC: VeritexPlayerController_BP_C_0, Owner: VeritexPlayerController_BP_C_0, Channels: 22, Time: 2018.01.19-02.07.42
[2018.01.19-02.07.42:681][784]LogNet: UChannel::Close: Sending CloseBunch. ChIndex == 0. Name: [UChannel] ChIndex: 0, Closing: 0 [UNetConnection] RemoteAddr: 127.0.0.1:49480, Name: IpConnection_0, Driver: GameNetDriver IpNetDriverUWorks_0, IsServer: YES, PC: VeritexPlayerController_BP_C_0, Owner: VeritexPlayerController_BP_C_0```

i keep getting this issue

where the character connects

and is then instantly disconnected

and im not sure why

very strange...

[winged badger]

do you do any unsanctioned replication?

like multicast from your gamemode or playercontrollers?

[twin juniper]

i dont think so lol

[winged badger]

asking because if you tell the client to run a function on its copy of gamemode, or something else the clients do not have

it would result in that

also

that looks like computers self IP (127.0.0.1)

so are you trying to run UWorks inside PIE?

[twin juniper]

no

its packaged

@winged badger

[winged badger]

that address looks like "connect to self"

and i had a local IP used (192.168.x.x) when i tested 2 games from the same computer

[manic pine]

do you have anything but return true in server rpc verification implementations?

[twin juniper]

all the connection issues are in BP

so yeah

What I mean is, all the connection code is done via blueprint

[twin juniper]

@manic pine @winged badger seems like its happening

right after calling Possess()

Do you know if there's a way to get a callstack for this?

Because it's not really crashing, it's just rejecting the connecrtion

[winged badger]

share the entire log file?

[twin juniper]

https://hastebin.com/yamenorelu.md

@winged badger

there lol

[winged badger]

[2018.01.19-02.58.44:946][863]LogNet: Login request: /Game/Maps/MainMenu userId: Invalid

[twin juniper]

never been a problem

lol

coz im not using that for the userId

i have an idea

[winged badger]

that is dedicated server and client?

[twin juniper]

yea

[winged badger]

just blueprints, no code?

at this point i'd bet either on calling a client/multicast from server on an object the client doesn't have

[twin juniper]

im about to package again with TravelError and NetworkError on UGameInstance

printing ount

so i can see whats happening

[winged badger]

or as raap suggested, a failed validation, so that would be _Validate() function in code returning false

in any case, im off to bed, work tomorrow

[twin juniper]

night

Has anyone else noticed when creating a session in 4.18.2 (have yet to try 4.18.3) it will crash the editor if you have two or more players in the play drop down menu? It also crashes games launched from the right click menu on uproject. J/W if this was a known issue or should i report

[inland sun]

Im using 4.18.3 but Im using Advanced Steam Sessions and Advanced Sessions. No issues with players finding my lobby and joining. Had 5 of us in one map testing level streaming last night with no issues. We are about to do another test on a deathmatch arena in 30 mins though we still have a minor aiming bug.

[twin juniper]

When I connect to my server I get "Net GUID Mismatch Error" and then it disconnects

anyone heard of this?

[inland sun]

not I, sorry. I made a base steam multiplayer project template and thats all my team uses now. its been bulletproof.

[twin juniper]

https://i.imgur.com/vuE47Ba.png

hey guys i literally am having this error occur whenever i try to login to my game with using blueprint nativization (login to my server)

however, it works when i turn off nativization

i was wondering if anyone has had this issue before

im going to bed now so if u dont mind direct messaging me or @ me so i can see responses

night!

[winged badger]

@twin juniper one of the classes it not the same on host and the server

[ripe raptor]

So when exactly are new controllers given their controller ID? I checked in my game mode's OnPostLogin and on PlayerStart and in both cases my remote controller's ID was -1 (the server's local one was 0)

[manic agate]

Guys, I have a replicated Actor which is attached to a client and it follows it around. At some point I need to detach it, and since attachments are replicated, I call DetachFromActor() from the server. This works, but the detached actor is brought to position (0, 0, 0) in the client, even though I use "FDetachmentTransformRules::KeepWorldTransform"

Why is that?

Am I missing something?

PS: I'm NOT replicating movement

[thin stratus]

Attachment is not replicated

You attach the Server version

Which replicates its position to the client

But it got never attached on the client

So when you remove it, the client resets it finally

Probably updating it next time it's moved on the Server

Replicate the attach and detach and it should fix itself

@manic agate

[twin juniper]

@winged badger how would i find out which one

also it wasn't "Checksum mismatch"

my mistake

it was "Net Guid mismatch"

[winged badger]

logs usually accompany that with the blueprint path/name

[twin juniper]

yeah it doesnt

It's really lame ;X

I really just need to figure out this last thing

No idea where to start though

[manic agate]

@thin stratus Actually attachment is replicated. There is a OnRep_AttachmentReplication() inside AActor which is called whenever the attactor is attached/detached from something. That's why attaching it from the server only worked for me (and I'm not replicating movements); also tried to print out the parent of the actor inside the client's instance and it's consistent.

As a workaround, I've looked at the implementation of OnRep_AttachmentReplication() inside AActor and copied and pasted it in my actor class. I then commented a line of code that called OnRep_ReplicatedMovement() when the actor is being detached. Apparently it assumes that the actor is replicating movements too, which is not my case

[thin stratus]

Hm, I only had success using Attach on all instances

rather than server only

But good to know

[rain coral]

when a client calls an RPC on the server, is there a way the server can call a function on all other clients to give them the updated state?
I realize variable replication has a workflow for this, but I feel like functions are a better fit in my case.

just moving a pawn, and letting other clients know and interpolate the results

[manic agate]

@thin stratus That's weird, because I had problems do it that way. I actually wanted to use "attach" on each client, but it wouldn't let me, and there is no way to disable replication on attachment, as far as I could see...

@rain coral If you want to execute some code from the server to all clients you need to use NetMulticast, like this:

// Inside .h
UFUNCTION(NetMulticast, Reliable)   // Either Reliable or Unreliable
void MulticastTest();

// Inside .cpp
void MulticastTest_Implementation()   // It's important to add _Implementation!
{
    UE_LOG(LogTemp, Warning, TEXT("This is a method that when it's called from the server is executed in every client (and in the server too)");
}

[rain coral]

thanks! had misunderstood that functionality then =)

[loud sage]

So....something I'm trying to figure out: Is the + before NetConnectionClassName in the configuration file really required? Most steam/subsystem things appear to use it, but there are also subsystems where the official documentation ommits it. It doesn't appear to be too essentiall looking at Epic's definition for the + for configuration files. I've done some testing, and it appears I can still create/find sessions. So is it just an optional thing, or is it required for everything to work properly?

[mild hull]

• • Adds a line if that property does not exist yet (from a previous configuration file or earlier in the same configuration file).
    • • Removes a line (but it has to be an exact match).
        . - Adds a new property.
        ! - Removes a property; but you do not have to have an exact match, just the name of the property.

without + you will always override the config, its more a feature to allow better management of multiple lvl of config files

[loud sage]

Ah, I guess that makes sense

I read the same, but I guess I had a different interpretation. So if I understand you correctly, ommiting it works, but it's best not done right?

[mild hull]

when you have some that would expect that he can change the config on a higher lvl and you set that he no longer could, so if thats not the case for you it doesnt matter

for example you could set a different config in Engine/Config/[Platform]/[Platform]Engine.ini on a test system to set something for the test and if you add all config without + you would need to change the config file each time for that test

[loud sage]

Ah got it, that system makes sense I'd suppose 🤔

[rain coral]

can someone point out how I misunderstand this functionality? https://hastebin.com/atirikehef.php
I want to let the player call a server function to move, and then the server should let all clients set the new position of that client, apart from the player (frog) who made the call.

where I check if the player reference sent by the server is not us, is where it fails. it's always 'us'

[mild hull]

you are always in the same object, the original on server and each client has a copy, but you can check owner

[rain coral]

do you mean to check the incoming Frog's GetNetOwner() against the current Frog's GetNetOwner()?
my confusion is why they are the same object. the function is called on all clients from the server, with the same parameters, right?

[twin juniper]

https://i.imgur.com/ENE8uY2.png

[manic pine]

cant modify a collection while looping through it

[unborn nimbus]

Ok so I have a spawn particle that's playing when my enemies get spawned and I call destroy component after 5 seconds but if I move far enough away to trigger the net cull distance, the particles show back up. Any idea what would cause this?

[twin juniper]

@manic pine im not tho lol

it doesnt even crash haha

it just keeps fgoing and everytthing is fine

i think its an engine bug tbh

[rain coral]

is there a good variable I can use to compare the time difference between the client and the server? I want to know how far to rewind the player locally if the player's server position is too different, after taking the time difference into account

[winged badger]

its not, it can recover from that @twin juniper

it is horrid for performance tho, so don't do it

your game can easily freeze for upward of 30 sec

[twin juniper]

@winged badger its happening

when booting the server

and thats it

never does it again lol

i dont really understand it tbh

[next falcon]

Hey is someone here from germany who makes a survival Game?

[stuck pilot]

ue4 web browser problem how to fix it ?

how to make full screen

[vital steeple]

do you guys use the normal damage events or make your own BPI's for damage?

[fossil spoke]

Depends on the needs of the system. Sometimes its useful to create your own Damage function that will call specific damage events depending on some criteria.

Using the built in damage events is convenient

[vital steeple]

Yeah i was just having problems becuase it didnt work directly with my health component, so i had to bind damage effects to the owner of the health components "on any damage" event

so i started having timing issues with reference replication and reporting (for kill feed etc)

i think im just going to use a BPI or direct BP/custom event and casting ahead of time instead of the built in damage event

i think the built in damage event would be perfect if the health was part of the character itself and not a component. im just using a component because i have several other types of actors in the game that have health and its easier to use a component to handle damage events.

though honestly at this point... i think it would have been faster to just avoid the component and just do the built in damage event and just use some pre built functions

[fossil spoke]

Why would the KillFeed need an reference to be replicated? KillFeed is generally just printing text (unless your doing something more complex), sounds like you have an bigger issue.

[vital steeple]

game state gets sent a message with a reference to the killer and killed, then pulls info from there. i could just feed it a string, but i used a reference because game state also handles rewards

so its simpler to just have one event being fired on the gamestate with the reference to the killer and killed and pull playerstate and then team/name etc from there

actually worked fine until i started using projectile weapons 😦

so every time a player damages something, the health component tracks the last actor to do damage to it. when it dies, the last actor and controller is ssent to the gamestate. the gamestate then pulls the player name/team from the playerstate (from the controller), then sends the reward to the playerstate (where the money is tracked)

[zenith yarrow]

Is there a specific way to use FUDPPing::UDPEcho() ? because while FIcmp::IcmpEcho() works perfectly for me UDP Echo always timesout ?

[rain coral]

what's a good way to compare timestamps between client and server? is there some variable which will be ahead on the client and behind on the server?

[brittle sinew]

You're basically looking for a replicated current time between the server and clients? It's not necessarily "ahead on the client", but you can probably make use of one of or both AGameStateBase::ReplicatedWorldTimeSeconds and AGameStateBase::ServerWorldTimeSecondsDelta

[rain coral]

I see, hmm! my goal is to know how far to rewind the player on the client, based on a list of previously stored positions and times

The difference from the local world's TimeSeconds and the server world's TimeSeconds. sounds correct though

[manic pine]

what youre probably looking for is PlayerState->ExactPing

[rain coral]

isn't the ping both directions though? and I'm not sure if the time between server and client is equal both ways? (in which case you could divide ExactPing by two)

[manic pine]

exact ping is calculated on server and replicated to client

and yeah, multiply by 0.5

and by 0.001

[rain coral]

I'll try and see if that looks correct then. ServerWorldTimeSecondsDelta is protected, couldn't use it from outside of the GameState

[manic pine]

im not sure how accurate that one is anyhow

dont think its actually intended for that use

in the Unreal code itself they just use exact ping, from what i recall

[brittle sinew]

Shoot sorry @rain coral didn't notice that, but there's AGameStateBase:GetServerWorldTimeSeconds

[manic pine]

keep in mind though, exact ping is an average... if you e.g. use console command to increase ping from 100 to 400, it's gonna take 5-10 seconds before it has fully caught up

[rain coral]

ah

[brittle sinew]

(it does specifically say it's useful for syncing animations though)

[rain coral]

would be useful if it was not averaged

otherwise someone with unstable ping might constantly be jumping around, if I've thought this out right

[manic pine]

hmm ive only seen it used for hitscan lag compensation

what exactly are you planning on using it for?

[rain coral]

syncing movement

since the client will move ahead of the server version, I wanna compare the timestamps between the two and correct the player only if a previous location of the player was out of sync with the server's current one

[manic pine]

isnt that identical to what charmovecomp does?

[rain coral]

hopefully :D I haven't looked into it, I'm using my own movement code

[manic pine]

yeah, maybe have a look in that code

should be some good tips

[rain coral]

yeah I'll check that out

[manic pine]

client performs move then sends input and results to server... server runs it and if result diverges beyond a set point, tells client to make a correction

otherwise the server acks the client's move and client removes it from its history

[rain coral]

hmmf.. feel pretty silly for not trying that out first. that sounds like a lot less headache.

[rain coral]

seems to work pretty well!

[icy nacelle]

I've been struggling with this problem for the past few days.
I moved my entire inventory system from PlayerCharacter to PlayerController after realising it should be there.

Let me start by saying: This system worked perfectly before migrating the files over. I've saved a backup and have cross referenced EVERYTHING. And its a carbon copy.

Currently, when I try to pick up an item (dedicated server, playing as client 1), the pring string in 'Add to Inventory' is called when the inventory widget reference is not valid.

I've noticed when an actor is spawned in game and is tried to be picked up, the inventory reference variable IS valid, but it does not appear in the inventory.

(I was told this may be a multiplayer issue so I'm dropping my question here.) Thanks for all the help. Please let me know if I can do better to describe my problem.

[feral valve]

Hey, looking for some guidance here. Can anyone suggest the best way to implement an inventory system in multiplayer? ATM i have a component that attaches to the player character that handles the inventory logic however im not sure if its possible to get it to work across network (to replicate whilst picking/dropping is dealt server side to prevent exploit). Thanks

[thin stratus]

I can only give you the idea

InventoryComponent: Component put onto Player, Actors, etc. | Holds Items and has function to generall manage ITSELF
ManagerComponent: Deals with moving Items, adding new items, removing items. Basically gets 1-2 Inventories passed in and then calls their functions for adding and removing items.
E.g. Move Item from Inventory1 to Inventory2, where they could be the same inventory if you moving the item withing the same, or different once, if you move from one to another

aka Source Component and Target Component

Together with Source Index and Target Index (given the Inventory is an array)

@feral valve

Manager should always sit on the PlayerController

That way you can always root ServerRPCs through it

E.g. wenn you use a Chest with an Inventory COmponent

You get PlayerController, ServerRPC in the Manager and pass the Player and chest inventory

[feral valve]

@thin stratus thx, il give that a shot :3

[next falcon]

guys how can i create session settings ?
like i set a value 2 in a widget and create a session and than open a level but how can i get the Value 2 now ? where do i need to store this so every player can use them ?

[rain coral]

should variables marked for replication only be used where they don't need an update every tick?
I notice that Replicated variables update a lot slower than multicast functions

[calm hound]

Variable replication is guaranteed. Multicast functions have the ability not to be, if you're updating every Tick (which, you honestly should not replicate anything every Tick) you can set it to Unreliable

whatever you're doing, it definitely shouldn't be replicated every tick

[rain coral]

hmm, I'll do all the multicasts on tick unreliable then.

but let's say I receive updates only 2-3 times a second, for another client moving. in order for it not to look choppy, we gotta interpolate. so we should interpolate this other player's position on tick, using the latest position we received every now and then - how do I know which client to interpolate? I'd basically need a dynamic list of positions for every player that plays, and send their ID from the server's multicast?
is that way off?

[manic pine]

careful with unreliable multicasts

their timing is unpredictable

you should be able to control update frequency of replicated vars

have a look at the object's net settings

[rain coral]

I'll experiment with both - but regardless, how is smoothing typically solved? there's no use lerping positions if it's done only when receiving them from the server. and if it's to be done on Tick, is there a standard way of handling who is who? (see my text above)

[manic pine]

who is who is not a problem

anyone who is not the client would need to be interpolated ye

[rain coral]

it's not a problem if the interpolation happens in the multicast function. but that function runs relatively rarely. if we wanna run a lerp every tick, then we need to know which player to do it on, and which server locations to lerp to

[manic pine]

you wouldnt do it on a multicast

youd have e.g.

UPROPERTY(Replicated, usenotify=OnRep_NextDestination(FVector olddestination)
FVector NextDestination

and use condition not-owner

and record the time when replication was received

[rain coral]

but isn't the OnRep function running as rarely as we get server updates? doing the lerp in there wouldn't provide the smooth result you'd get from Tick

[manic pine]

yeah tick would do the actual lerp

in your onrep you'd set:
OldDestination = olddestination
RepTime = now

then in tick you'd lerp between old and next

based on time since rep and your desired interpolation time

e.g. if you receive 10 updates a sec, youd want desired interp time to be 0.1sec

what do you mean 'as rarely as we get server updates' though

you control the update rate

[rain coral]

but my issue is like.. say there is 20 players on a server. one of these players must interpolate 19 other players' positions on Tick. so when we set NextDestination, that is set to be the next position of the player we last received an update from. so, what I'm thinking is that you'd have to iterate through all 19 players in a loop, and interpolate there between their old and new position. and that's a lot of variables. and this is because Tick is tied to your own player and hmm I think I just realized my mistake. damn. you're already running Tick on all players.

my mistake :D I've had the same realization a couple of times before

I was thinking the player is oblivious to the other ones. but of course they aren't >.<

[manic pine]

yes, this is per character

the code is runnning on the clients version of every single character

[rain coral]

yeah, makes sense now. gotta get used to thinking that way properly

[manic pine]

im still confused by your rare updates comment though

you control update rate through NetUpdateFrequency on each character

also MinNetUpdateFrequency when adaptive net frequency is in use

[rain coral]

ah, I mean, like you said, you don't wanna replicate on every Tick, so compared to doing a reliable multicast every Tick, an unreliable multicast or OnRep is rare (though still frequent enough)

[manic pine]

onrep happens whenever replication changes something

i believe the default update rate for the charmovecomp's client prediction stuff is 10 per sec

with interpolation between those

not entirely sure on that though

unreliable multicast is very nasty in my experience... it can sometimes be held for hundreds of milliseconds, think ive seen over a full second once

[rain coral]

hmm. do you think that's because it updates regardless of whether something has changed? like it's overloading the network?

[manic pine]

no its an artificial delay they introduce

hmm struggling to think of where i read it

"It is intentional that unreliable multicast events get queued up an processed on the next net update for the actor. However, unreliable unicast events should be getting sent immediately. I guess the thinking was that part of being "unreliable" also meant that the event wasn't time-critical either."

[rain coral]

I'd have to introduce some otherwise needless variables if I switch to OnRep

[manic pine]

https://answers.unrealengine.com/questions/423902/unreliable-events-delayed-until-net-update-intende.html

[rain coral]

I see

I'll try to solve it using OnRep then. thanks for help =)

[manic pine]

remember you could always have a look through existing classes