multiplayer

[thin stratus]

But it's $$ of course

I think Steam also does matchmaking but doesn't do any hosting

Most of the times I strongly advice to NOT build a game that requires dedicated servers and matchmaking if you don't have a few $k to spare

[jolly siren]

Ahh okay, just trying to figure out which ones I need to override. ServerMove, ServerMoveDual, ServerMoveOld. I guess those three

[thin stratus]

Yeah but overriding doesn't let you add parameters

You could create your own functions

And try to override "CallServerMove"

Maybe that works

[jolly siren]

Ahh right that's what I meant, that's what UT does

[median elbow]

so the idea is in fact, that you'd have a "matchmaking" server that everyone connects to?

or should i do this outside of unreal completely?

[thin stratus]

Technically yes

Really depends.

Is there any relevant data this is based on?

LIke ELO?

If yes, then the ELO should already be stored outside of UE4, somewhere at a save place

ELO/Rank/Level

If it's just about quick matches, then you can directly communicate with the backend vai UE4

and ask for matchmaking

[median elbow]

ok, there won't be much for the actual matchmaking to decide from. ping i suppose, group people with lower ping to each other, probably not evne that right away

[thin stratus]

In theory a Client says "Hey backend, I want to matchmake."

[median elbow]

i just don't want the server to be empty and have someone jump in there and have to wait

[thin stratus]

The backend grabs all relevant data and adds a new request into the system.

Then it checks if there are other requests that fit some rules.

e.g. Level only 5 away from each other.

Must be 100 people to start. etc.

And if yes, it combines the requests

Until the 100 people are met

Then it tells the second backend to start a server

That one tells the first one the ip

[median elbow]

i actually don't have levels, i just don't want people to travel to a server until there's enough people to play wit hthem

[thin stratus]

And the first one tells ue4 clients where to join to

That's all I can really tell you

[median elbow]

ok, i just want to make sure there isn't anything super simple out of the box that will do this for me

like, no feature of advanced sessions plugin or something, which is really nice btw

[thin stratus]

Not really, cause UE4 doesn't know about others trying to join the server

[median elbow]

yeah

ok makes sense

[thin stratus]

Maybe you could hack something together with beacon stuff

But that's c++ and not easy

And might fail the idea

it's usually used for like parties

Where you don't share the level, but just some data

Until everyone joins the server

[median elbow]

i know ue was built from ut, so i understand the style it was originally "meant" for, i just also know its grown so much and theres a lot of features i don't know about

[thin stratus]

But beacons are really, really, really, shitty documenteda nd hard to understand

[median elbow]

a LOT since i basically finally decided to start using it rather than roll my own

beacon?

actually i come from a c++ background, so i don't mind any coding i'll probalby have to do

[thin stratus]

Yeah Beacons

If you see the normal "JoinServer" stuff as a full blown connection with replication of level and world.

Beacons are the light version

Where you only share some data

You can find and join beacons sessions the same way you do with nomral ones

Just one with a map loading in between it

As said, they are used for Parties

[median elbow]

ah ok!

[thin stratus]

Where you sit in a lobby in your main menu

WIth just 4 avatars

[median elbow]

thats awesome, they are hard to work with though?

[thin stratus]

And some names

They are not documented

[median elbow]

is this a ue plugin?

[worthy perch]

Do you recommend using beacons?

[median elbow]

are they at least open source?

[jolly siren]

I guess I could use my custom servermove functions only if meleeing, to avoid the overhead for all other movement 😆

[thin stratus]

it's build into UE4

You can just use it if you find documentation on it

E.g. UT source code or so

There is a Steam Party plugin

But that is more for inviting friends

It does work with beacons

So if you have $$ to spare, you could grba that to learn from

@jolly siren True

[median elbow]

i'm willing to throw down some money, probably not many thousands though unless i know its going to be worth it

ok, so beacons, thanks, i'll look into that

i was looking into the replication graph stuff, but there's not too much documentation on that either

not related to matchmaking, but yeah

[thin stratus]

Cost is relative

[median elbow]

hey exi, what if i did it so when you begin "matchmaking", you find an open server with the smallest average ping of all currently connected players, and you join that server, and while theres still not enough people to play, you continue looking for other servers?

[thin stratus]

https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/slug/steam-beacons

[median elbow]

does that seem weird?

[thin stratus]

Well

Wait a second

I might just be stupid

Why can't you join a session

And open the level later?

Sessions are just data holders on the backend

I mean, you could just Search For Sessions. Pick the best from the result.

Join the Session.

Every x seconds check the player count

If reach max, join the server beind the session.

[median elbow]

wait

[thin stratus]

The default nodes will do the session and server join at the same time

[median elbow]

ok i'm probably dumb, but i missed that part, you can join a session and prevent it from loading hte level?

[thin stratus]

Session != Server after all

The Session is some backend data on the MasterServer

The Server is the PC listening to a port

So you can join the session and not join the server if you are lucky

I haven't done that yet cause it was never needed.

And as said the default nodes do both at the same time

The join teh session

and on complete the join the server

[median elbow]

dude, that actually would work for exactly what i want

[thin stratus]

Sorry for not thinking about that earlier

[median elbow]

man, i'm not sure why i didn't look into it further

[thin stratus]

Head is too full haha

[median elbow]

i just figured the advanced sessions forced clients to open the level when they join a session

[thin stratus]

It might

[median elbow]

well i think that actually answers my question then! thank you!

[thin stratus]

But you can code that stuff yourself if really needed

[median elbow]

yeah

[thin stratus]

The JoinSession stuff is not hard

[median elbow]

if i have to code it, its not really a problem

[thin stratus]

Check the Blueprint Proxy Base classes

JoinSession for example

[median elbow]

there seems t obe quite a bit of resources on the internet anyway to help guide me if i have any issues

for the session stuff i mean

[thin stratus]

You can more or less copy that

And remove thejoining part

And make a function to join late

[median elbow]

ok, blueprint proxy base

i'll check it out

[thin stratus]

I made a tutorial about that once

[median elbow]

got a link?

[thin stratus]

On UE4's livestream

But it doesn't cover the join function

It covers some code for exposing steams friendlist

But I explain what the proxy code does

[median elbow]

awesome

even just enough to get going is helpful

[thin stratus]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDSJ7vixpCE

I hope that's all cool

Can't listen to my own voice etc haha

[median elbow]

haha

well, thanks again exi

gotta get back to work, but i feel a lot happier now that i think i have a way forward on this part

[thin stratus]

Cheers!

[stoic acorn]

I have two teams each with their own set of rules. Team A are ghosts and can walk through certain walls and objects. What would be the best way to set that up?

Would you put an Event Hit on the Ghost Character Blueprint and do a check on flagged objects?

or is that not efficient?

[graceful cave]

so hit events are generated every frame for the server and owning client when a character is moving along a surface

but other clients only generate a hit event for the initial contact

is there a way to get them generating hit events every frame?

[jolly siren]

Anyone have a CMC with custom ServerMove functions I could take a peek at? (other than UTs)

[jolly siren]

@thin stratus For your additional parameters that you pass via ServerMove do you store those in a custom FSavedMove? Trying to figure out the best way to set/get the MeleeDirection once I have the ServerMove functions in place.

Man if I have to store it in the saved move I think there is so much I need to override 😫

[winged badger]

@lament cloak SpawnActor is just SuperHeavy, but not particularly so on the network

you can't send just half the transform without overriding half the engine

@stoic acorn its not really a network question, as long as your wall collisions don't stop ghosts you should be just fine

they can still generate overlaps, but not block any collision on ghost

and if you are using pathfinding, you will need nav area other then Null for NavModifiers on those walls

[thin stratus]

@jolly siren Yes that stuff goes into the saved move

Saved Move is for the Client to know what they did in move XY.

So when they replay it they need all data.

[jolly siren]

Okay, so I need to override everything that uses FSavedMove_Character? Still banging my head against this

[thin stratus]

And you do want to make sure that if you send it,e.g., netquantized via ServerMove, you have to use the same rounded value for the client.

Don't think everything, but a good chunk

[jolly siren]

Right, I was just going to not quantize it for now

For testing

[thin stratus]

Fair enough

You have to override the SetMoveFor iirc

To save the value

And then also the function that later sets the value again

And then you might need to do the CanCombine as well as IsImportant

[jolly siren]

PrepMoveFor

I already had those overriden

[thin stratus]

There you have to make sure to return false if the data doesn't match (CanCombine)

Yeah that should be all though

Hm

Lemme check

[jolly siren]

nvm I already had it changed

[winged badger]

if your server and client lounge in different directions... how is replay going to help exactly?

[thin stratus]

The replaying is so you don't get corrected when the Server finally sents the update back

[winged badger]

they do have to get synced at some point

[thin stratus]

The Client performs multiple moves before the first one actually arrives back from the Server (ping).
If you don't replay your moves, you'll just get set back to the result of the first move.

[winged badger]

isn't it, in this case, easier to do the exact came lounge and correct the visual with some animation additive?

[thin stratus]

He is doing the exact same one now

But you need to pass the Server the AttackDirection

Which means you also need to save it for replaying

This always goes hand in hand.

[winged badger]

must had missed a part of this story then

[thin stratus]

Yeah he/we came to the conclusion that you can only make this not correct the client, if you tie it into the CMC as much as jumping is.

Cause then you are sure that both do it in the same timestamp

[jolly siren]

By the way, I don't think AttackDirection is going to work because the melee lunge ends once your get close enough to the target. But if all the server has is the direction it won't know when to end. Hm unless it uses the location on the server. I'm not sure which would work there.

[thin stratus]

For that some data has to be send to the Server, in addition to the normal flags: AttackDirection.
Because the Client will see an older version of their enemy and the Direction will be different than what the Server uses.

[distant talon]

in rewind/replay systems how many frames of history/buffer typically needs storing?

[thin stratus]

Just to make sure: The "Replay" I talked about is the Client performing their pervious moves to avoid Server correction. :P

[distant talon]

aye

to replay you'd need to save some number of the previous moves right

[jolly siren]

Do you think AttackDirection will work? Or should I be using EnemyLocation? The server needs to know when to stop

[winged badger]

can that lounge miss Ethan?

[thin stratus]

@distant talon Yeah I think Epic saves 20 or so by default

[jolly siren]

No, we are trying to get it 100%

[thin stratus]

You basically have to see how long ago of moves you still want to accept

[winged badger]

you can send the Target instead of a vector

[thin stratus]

If you have a highping of 400ms, you need enough moves saved to replay from whatever the server throws back at you

[winged badger]

then server has its own context for where that target is exactly

[jolly siren]

That is what I tried originally

[distant talon]

makes sense, thanks.

[jolly siren]

Sending the target actor

via a separate rpc

instead of servermove

[thin stratus]

If the TargetActor is replicated, then it would be a GUID of sorts, that might actually be more or less good for bandwidth I assume

Is that actor always alive though?

[jolly siren]

I thought we determined the server needed the location of the actor on the client tho

[thin stratus]

Can you query it's location in the replays?

[jolly siren]

Right, that is the only case where it can fail. If the enemy dies or quits

While you are already lunging towards them

[thin stratus]

We did indeed, I also didn't say you should go for the Actor route yet :D

[winged badger]

you're not going to destroy an actor the frame its HP hits 0, are you?

[jolly siren]

no

it goes into ragdoll. we can ignore the edge cases like that for now

[thin stratus]

20 Frames Backwards, the SavedMove that is used could grab a nullptr/zerovector then

[jolly siren]

I'm not sure how to query the location in the replays

[thin stratus]

I also don't see passing the actor solving this. If at all the location if you need it

I didn't know, yesterday, that the attack has to stop at the enemy

[jolly siren]

Yeah, it lunges until it reaches the enemy and then applies dmg

[thin stratus]

Well, I wonder, can the Server keep track of how an actor was at timestamp x?

[jolly siren]

The velocity follows the enemy on tick

[thin stratus]

Cause as far as I understand all that movement network stuff, the main problem is, that the Server and the Client have different EnemyLocations

So the Server would technically need to check where the enemy was in timestamp xy

And use that information

So basically recreate the scene

[jolly siren]

Right, which is the lag compensation stuff I wrote. But it didn't always work because it was lunging towards a location and colliding with the victim if it was moving towards them. It didn't use CMC tho so it wasn't a good solution anyways.

[thin stratus]

It's sadly going beyond the stuff I did with the CMC

I will run into a similar problem with the colliding that I have

[jolly siren]

Saved moves have a timestamp

[thin stratus]

But I doubt it's that important in a fast game

Yeah, if you get access to another actors saved moves, you could check their location at frame xy

even what they did (jump, duck, etc.)

BUT

SavedMoves are local ;)

[jolly siren]

oh they aren't cached on the server?

[thin stratus]

As far as I'm aware, no

They only exist on the Client

[jolly siren]

😢

[thin stratus]

I would say you go for the ActorLocation

And see how that turns out

[jolly siren]

I went down the path of creating all the custom functions for it. ReplicateMoveToServer, CallServerMove, ServerMove, ServeMoveDual, ServerMove, ServerMoveOld. I wasn't sure if I needed a custom GetPredictionData_Client_Character, CreateSavedMove, FreeMove, etc.

I'll give it another go

[thin stratus]

You do need a custom PredictionData

And override the createSavedMove function

Otherwise it creates the old Character move

not your custom one

@jolly siren

[thin stratus]

I seem to have removed the ability of my pawn to be moved to the Server location

Cool

It works if you move, but if I teleport the pawn on the Server, the client just stays in place

.>

Weirdly enough it doesn't even get corrected in the next frame, wtf

[winged badger]

it does get corrected if you teleport then move?

[thin stratus]

I can't test that cause the teleportation is part of a lineup where the player has no input

.>

Welp, guess I have to comment out stuff

[winged badger]

it has no input, is the pawn possessed?

and you can hack in a AddMovementInput right after teleport for a test

if your pawn is not possessed and is not the viewtarget

it might not be... relevant enough for an update

[thin stratus]

The system was working before I redid the movement component

• it's more or less UTs stuff

It's also working for the server and in splitscreen

Just the clients aren't receiving the update

I can see the pawns being respawned on the spawn points

But the teleport to the lineup location isn't moving them

So let's see what happens if I move them by hand

[thin stratus]

So the APawn::TurnOff stops Movementcomponent tick

But the Character does that too

[tall raft]

Anyone here who knows things about multiplayer variable replication in ue4 ? I need to set variable from server to all clients but cant do in proper way. What's wrong with that bp? https://i.imgur.com/fa4XUbi.png

[fossil spoke]

Change your Custom Event to be Run On Server.

[tall raft]

Nope, still false on client side.

IsLockedDown is false by default, so if i press X it should set it to true for everyone.

And it does not, as pressing Z shows false in log until i press X on that client.

I want it to be set on client mostly but it's fine if i set it to everyone, so later i can just check authority and ignore server for script i want to do.

I'm struggling with this since few days, i could do a work around by creating object on map and checking if it's there but i cant believe its so hard to do replication of variable between clients

[gusty lily]

Hi peeps. I am running into this issue, where specifying the gamemode in the open level node options, is causing clients to not be able to connect to the game. Assuming I’ve set it up correctly (below). I’m using advanced sessions plugin with steam. How else might I be able to swap the gamemode on level launch?

[lone vapor]

Just an idea, but what about setting the game mode in the world settings for the level? Or the level blueprint?

---

Werbel, I think for that you need to run a custom event on the server, then from that event run another event that is multicast. So...

Input > CE server
CE server > CE multicast
CE multicast > set variable

Probably simpler to do via repnotify function

[tall raft]

By "run a custom event on the server" you mean that it should go... where? I'm pressing X as server, in viewport, so it does not count as running this event as a server?

[jolly siren]

@thin stratus Thank you. I'm back to it now. I'll let you know how it goes. Current options I see

1. Try to get my client authoritative solution working
2. CMC + ServerMove
3. CMC + saved move caching on the server and get location via timstamp and some ping calculation

[tall raft]

@lone vapor Thanks, but i'm still struggling. I've edited msg above, but i've also checked my bp and it looks just as you described. https://i.imgur.com/uerRgZN.png

X is Input, it asks to fire Custom Event 0 so it's Input > CE server
CE Server > Multicast > set variable is just to the right by 2 nodes (and CustomEvent is set to be multicast)

[thin stratus]

@gusty lily You can setup shortcodes for gamemodes

In your Maps And Modes Project Settings

Then you only need to pass ?game=ShortCode

e.g. ?game=DM

[gusty lily]

ah ok, great. thanks @thin stratus .

hopefully will circumvent that issue

i think the issue was a space after listen. not sure why it worked bnefore and now how tho

[jolly siren]

@thin stratus So in my custom FNetworkPredictionData_Client_Character I need to create new properties for SavedMoves, FreeMoves, PendingMove, and LastAckedMove? That use my FSavedMove_CustomPtr? Or can I leave those alone?

[civic zenith]

Hi, anyone knows how can I get the server address in blueprints???

[bitter oriole]

Which address

[civic zenith]

I have an open level with the dedicated server IP, but I wrote it manually so I want to get it through blueprints if it's possible

[thin stratus]

You mean the ability to type it in via UMG Widget UI?

[bitter oriole]

You need some kind of third-party infrastructure that your dedicated servers connect to, to tell it they exist

Then your clients need to connect to that too to get the list of servers

[thin stratus]

Cause the IP itself is not available without a third-party system like Stranger says.

@jolly siren Eeehm lemme check

Half sure you only need to override the CreateSavedMove function

Cause it's a pointer after all

So they are saved properly anyway

You just need to cast whenever it comes up

To get your own custom struct

[civic zenith]

Im looking for a way to automatically get my own ip to use in the open level node instead of using 127.0.0.1

[jolly siren]

Ahh so I don't need to create a custom TSharedPtr?
typedef TSharedPtr<class FSavedMove_Custom> FSavedMove_CustomPtr;

[civic zenith]

what i want is the 192.168...

[jolly siren]

That would be good news, because this spider webs out of control

[thin stratus]

Yes you do

But you create that

In that one function you override

[bitter oriole]

@civic zenith Is your server going to be somewhere else than your home some day ?

Are you going to have more than one server ?

[thin stratus]

@jolly siren You might actually need to use AllocateNewMove, not CreateSavedMove, lemme check

[civic zenith]

yes, it will probably be, but not just yet, the problem is we cant just use localhost becasuse the current network has some weird stuff regarding visibility between machines

[jolly siren]

ahh okay, and then I cast when things like this come up
if (const FSavedMove_Character* const PendingMove = ClientData->PendingMove.Get())
Instead of changing all the underlying properties to use my custom FSavedMovePtr

[thin stratus]

FSavedMovePtr FNetworkPredictionData_Client_Character::AllocateNewMove()
{
    return FSavedMovePtr(new FSavedMove_Character());
}

That'S the original function

[jolly siren]

I'm already overriding AlloCateNewMove

[civic zenith]

so we have to treat it like it is online

[thin stratus]

The rest should work the same

Cuase they are pointers

Saving a child pointer into a parent type variable is fine

[jolly siren]

FSavedMovePtr FNetworkPredictionData_Client_CustomCharacter:AllocateNewMove() {
    return FSavedMovePtr(new FSavedMove_CustomCharacter());
}

[thin stratus]

Yeah

[jolly siren]

I already have this

okay, that simplifies a lot

[thin stratus]

That should be enough for this

[bitter oriole]

@civic zenith The generic answer to this is sessions, which (IIRC) work well to discover local games on LAN, though that needs veryfing. You'll need sessions later unless you plan on never using Steam

[thin stratus]

However if you have custom data in your savedMove, then you might need to cast at some points

To set and get that

@jolly siren

[civic zenith]

but sessions with dedicated servers get overlycomplicated

[jolly siren]

Right, that is the part I wasn't sure on. Where I am actually setting and getting my custom data

[civic zenith]

besides dedicated server sessions are impossible without steam iirc?

[thin stratus]

The FSavedMove_CustomCharacter class

There you can create new uint8 flags and other variables

And you have to override the Clear, GetCompressedFlags, CanCombineWith, SetMoveFor and PropMoveFor functions

And in the do whatever you need to to save or recreate the state of the movementcomponent

[jolly siren]

Right, yeah I have all that setup because I've been using custom flags for a while

[thin stratus]

That's all you need for the local player

And of course make sure that your custom client data is used

But if you use flags already, then ti should be done

[jolly siren]

I guess I'm just confused on how to tie it into the ServerMove. And where the attach points are for getting my custom data in and out are.

[thin stratus]

Well, Server by default has no moves

[jolly siren]

I meant ServerMove. To send my custom property

That is the part that isn't setup already. So I have to override ReplicateMoveToServer and create custom CallServerMove, ServerMove, ServerMoveOld, ServerMoveDual

So you are saying I don't need to change the parameter types for something like CallServerMove
virtual void CallServerMove(const class FSavedMove_Character* NewMove, const class FSavedMove_Character* OldMove);

I can leave those using ootb types

For example, the attach point for getting data in to the ServerMove call would be in CallServerMove

        ServerMove(
            NewMove->TimeStamp,
            NewMove->Acceleration,
            SendLocation,
            NewMove->GetCompressedFlags(),
            ClientRollBYTE,
            ClientYawPitchINT,
            ClientMovementBase,
            ClientBaseBone,
            NewMove->EndPackedMovementMode
            );

So I need a custom function for that with an additional parameter

And the data for that parameter comes from the move?

[thin stratus]

Does this help a bit?

[jolly siren]

So I need to cast NewMove?

[thin stratus]

Wups, typo, wait

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

Well, it works like this ^

The Client creates a SavedMove from all the Data they have.

Velocity, Location, etc. etc.

Including input flags, like jumping etc.

So whenever they need they can perform the same exact movement again (replay it)

At the same time, the client uses the saved move to pass the Server all data

"NewMove->Acceleration"

"NewMove->GetCompressFlags()"

Mainly cause it's convinient that all data is already at hand

Now you'll notice that ServerMove only allows passing flags

Which is a problem for you if you need to pass any other data

[jolly siren]

Right, that makes sense. So how do I get my data in?

I assume in ReplicateMoveToServer

    // Get a SavedMove object to store the movement in.
    FSavedMovePtr NewMovePtr = ClientData->CreateSavedMove();
    FSavedMove_Character* const NewMove = NewMovePtr.Get();
    if (NewMove == nullptr)
    {
        return;
    }

That is where they are creating the new move

[thin stratus]

ReplicateMoveToServer does the "Create new Move" "PerformMovement" and "FillMoveWithPostData" stuff

And then call "CallServerMove" by passing old and new move

That part can remain unchanged

CallServerMove however calls the important RPCs

If you can override "CallServerMove"

Then do that and perform your own RPCs

Then you can give them more parameters

[jolly siren]

Doesn't the data I am trying to inject have to be on a saved move tho?

[thin stratus]

Sorry?

[jolly siren]

        ServerMove(
            NewMove->TimeStamp,
            NewMove->Acceleration,
            SendLocation,
            NewMove->GetCompressedFlags(),
            ClientRollBYTE,
            ClientYawPitchINT,
            ClientMovementBase,
            ClientBaseBone,
            NewMove->EndPackedMovementMode
            );

Wouldn't I be adding
NewMove->MeleeTargetLocation?

As the last parameter

[thin stratus]

Yeah

+- a cast

[jolly siren]

That is the part I'm confused about. It's passing in a FSavedMove_Character into CallServerMove

Because it created that in ReplicateMoveToServer

[thin stratus]

It's a pointer

It can hold a child struct

const class FSavedMove_Character* NewMove

You can cast that to your customCharacter one

You should at least be able to

[jolly siren]

Right, that makes sense. So where do I cast tho?

[thin stratus]

CallServerMove is virtual

Override it

Put the cast right at the start of the function

Do teh same the original one does

• your custom RPCs

[jolly siren]

And then fill the value for NewMove at the beginning of that?

[thin stratus]

https://hastebin.com/hokevisoga.php

[jolly siren]

After casting

[thin stratus]

This is the original one

[jolly siren]

Okay, I'll try it now

[bitter oriole]

@civic zenith Sessions require an online subsystem - Steam being the most prominent on PC

You'll need something like it anyway at some point, either sessions, or your own equivalent system

Right now you have Steam, GOG has some kind of session support too, Epic is bringing one

[thin stratus]

@jolly siren https://hastebin.com/ofidukowin.coffeescript

This is somewhat the new version

I added ////// where i changed something

That's just out of my head, can be that stuff is missing

Also the c-style cast might be mäh, but I'm not so good at that stuff

[jolly siren]

haha that's fine, yeah you missed the * for those. But I'm testing it out now to see if it's working like this.

I was duplicating way more than this when I tried

Where would I actually set the value of TargetLocation though?

[thin stratus]

When you perform the attack you need to tell the MovementComponent that you want to attack and the TargetLocation

Your SavedMove has a function to be setup

(Not PrepMoveFor but the other one )

There you can grab the TargetLocation of that frame from the movementcomponent

As well as all the booleans/falgs

[jolly siren]

SetMoveFor

Ahh right, so I have a property on the character movement itself as well

For TargetLocation

[thin stratus]

Yus

[jolly siren]

Okay, then I think the last piece of the puzzle is actually using the TargetLocation serverside.

Would I use the CMC::TargetLocation or the SavedMove::TargetLocation?

[thin stratus]

You are passing the TargetLocation to the Server

Via the RPC

[jolly siren]

Ahh right, and then would I cache that in CMC::TargetLocation or something?

[thin stratus]

That RPC can be used to set the passed Targetlocation to the one the of the Server

Yeah

Server::CMC::TargetLocation = RPC::TargetLocation

Best. Pseudo Code. Ever.

[jolly siren]

haha 😃

[thin stratus]

Cause, in your Movement code

[jolly siren]

Okay that makes sense. And that would be done in each of the ServerMove functions themselves?

[thin stratus]

The TargetLocation will be used to move to the target

So if you use the CMC::TargetLocation

The Server can call the same movemetn code

You just have to prepare the variables by hand

e.g. Server::CMC::TargetLocation = RPC::TargetLocation

Yeah kinda the SErverMove rpcs are actually simple

Half of them call the ServerMove directly

e.g the Dual one calls 2 times ServerMove

gg

[jolly siren]

ahh okay awesome, I think I have the entire flow now. I feel dense for having to ask so many questions.

I'll get it implemented now 😃

Thank you so much!

[thin stratus]

Don't worry

I spend multiple days just reading through it and writing stuff down

At some point I had a full notebook

[jolly siren]

Yeah I write so much down too. I'm surrounded my loose papers full of it haha

[thin stratus]

It gets a lot easier if you cut it into 3-4 pieces

starting at TickComponent

And then following each of the net roles

Authority, Local Client and Simulated

Then it starts making more sense

Cause you'll se that they all go through the same function in the end

[jolly siren]

Right, I was reading through James forum post from a few years ago about how to improve CMC. A lot of good suggestions. This thing is a beast.

https://forums.unrealengine.com/unreal-engine/feedback-for-epic/101132-suggestions-for-a-refactor-of-character-movement-s-netcode-for-better-diversity

[civic zenith]

@bitter oriole Yes I know I will need an online subsystem like steam in the future, but right now I want to use the default online system that don't use session, so the only way I found to join the server is doing an Open Level with the server IP. My problem right now is that I want to restart the match when I want just for makes me easier to test the game. I don't know witch is the best way to restart the game but what I'm doing is just an open level but it disconnects the clients, so I want the server IP to force the clients to reconnect to the server doing an open to the server IP.
I don't know if i'm explaining my self well, English it's not my first language sorry.

[bitter oriole]

If you just want to switch levels ion server you just need server travel

Players should be kept

You only need the IP when first connecting (if not using sessions)

[jolly siren]

@thin stratus Do you think I should set the Server::CMC::TargetLocation in ServerMove or MoveAutonomous?

[thin stratus]

Not sure that matters much

[jolly siren]

And do I need to add it to FNetworkPredictionData_Server_Character

[civic zenith]

@bitter oriole Yes, but I don't want to travel to another level, I just want to restart the same level. So I don't want to keep any client info, just a totally restart like if they were joining again to the server.

[jolly siren]

I'm looking at what servermove is doing now

    const UWorld* MyWorld = GetWorld();
    ServerData->CurrentClientTimeStamp = TimeStamp;
    ServerData->ServerAccumulatedClientTimeStamp += DeltaTime;
    ServerData->ServerTimeStamp = MyWorld->GetTimeSeconds();
    ServerData->ServerTimeStampLastServerMove = ServerData->ServerTimeStamp;
    FRotator ViewRot;
    ViewRot.Pitch = FRotator::DecompressAxisFromShort(ViewPitch);
    ViewRot.Yaw = FRotator::DecompressAxisFromShort(ViewYaw);
    ViewRot.Roll = FRotator::DecompressAxisFromByte(ClientRoll);

    if (PC)
    {
        PC->SetControlRotation(ViewRot);
    }

    if (!bServerReadyForClient)
    {
        return;
    }

    // Perform actual movement
    if ((MyWorld->GetWorldSettings()->Pauser == NULL) && (DeltaTime > 0.f))
    {
        if (PC)
        {
            PC->UpdateRotation(DeltaTime);
        }

        MoveAutonomous(TimeStamp, DeltaTime, MoveFlags, Accel);
    }

And am wondering if I should be doing ServerData->TargetLocation = TargetLocation;

[twin juniper]

Hello again-can you recommend me cheap server for multiplayer-not listened server, for normal multiplayer, not local

[thin stratus]

There is no "cheap" solution.

@jolly siren They do both

They set it before and inside of MoveAutonomous

Just try and see what works

[twin juniper]

ok

I understand

[thin stratus]

You can't pass it to MoveAutonomous without making your own anyway @jolly siren

[twin juniper]

but something that is cheaper than aws 😃

[thin stratus]

It's all relatively the same price. Hosting Dedicated Servers costs a lot of money.

[twin juniper]

do you use any server? for multiplayer? I understood for erebel but you

ok

[thin stratus]

We use GameLift, which is AWS

[twin juniper]

ok

[jolly siren]

Okay, I wasn't sure if MoveAutonomous needed it. Or if I could just do Server::CMC::TargetLocation = TargetLocation within ServerMove itself. I'll test both ways.

[twin juniper]

you both?

[thin stratus]

Azure from Microsoft has the same sort of prices.

[twin juniper]

ok

I will check it - thank you exi 😃

[thin stratus]

I can tell you that for multiple Servers, it's quickly in the thousands of €/$

[twin juniper]

this is cloud service or?

omg

I need to learn on it and to test things

not to earn money with this

[jolly siren]

You can learn without a hosting provider

[thin stratus]

Golden Rule: No Dedicated Server Matchmaking stuff for small teams.

[twin juniper]

?

what you mean?

[jolly siren]

Create a dedicated server on your own machine. Or setup a vm.

[twin juniper]

I setuped already

[jolly siren]

There is no need for a hosting provider to learn

[twin juniper]

but now what?

[thin stratus]

A small team, 1 to x people, that barely has the money to support their game, should NEVER have to rely on third party hosting services.

It costs multiple hundred €

And it's a high chance you will never have players in your game to even use that stuff

Cause believe it or not, a lot of games never make it

[twin juniper]

ok

we are 12 now

[thin stratus]

So who's gonna pay?

If you all can't provide that money, don't do DedicatedServer Matchmaking stuff

[twin juniper]

I but if it is cheap but I understood now that it is expensive

[thin stratus]

Stick to ListenServers or let players host the Dedicated Servers

[twin juniper]

so can I ask you use these services for what and who pay?-xD

[thin stratus]

What?

[twin juniper]

the game won't be with making a host and this

you use this service -aws

soo it is expensive

[thin stratus]

I'm a contractor. I do what my Clients need.

[twin juniper]

wht you do with it

[thin stratus]

I don't pay for that stuff.

[twin juniper]

ok

why?

how?

[thin stratus]

It's used to create instances of a DedicatedServer on demand

Like most ranked games do, LoL, Overwatch, CS:GO.

How? The Client pays that stuff.

Or rather their publisher

[twin juniper]

a ok

so you work and help them for money? like 15 euro an hour(for example)

[jolly siren]

lol

[thin stratus]

Yes, I'm contracted to work on their project.

[twin juniper]

ok

cool

[thin stratus]

And def not for only 15€ per hour

I think not even when I started as a freelancer I worked for that few

[bitter oriole]

@twin juniper you still haven't explained why not listen servers instead of hosting

[twin juniper]

ok

[bitter oriole]

@civic zenith server travel should work for same level

[twin juniper]

I don't need listen servers

[bitter oriole]

Why not

[twin juniper]

because the game we make will be with server not with making host and invite

[thin stratus]

@jolly siren Ethan is all like "Damn I'm lucky he's not charging me for all that CMC info. "

And why? @twin juniper

I mean you have to plan the costs upfront

[twin juniper]

because...

[thin stratus]

ThirdParty DediServers are shit ton expensive

[jolly siren]

hahahah I am very lucky 😃

@civic zenith You can use ?Restart in the travel url to restart the level

[bitter oriole]

@twin juniper You don't need invites to have listen servers.

Listen server brings too serious restrictions : cheating is made easy, and you can't have large player counts.

However, as a new developer with no professional gamedev experience, you're going to fail at cheating and large player counts anyway

So don't design a competitive PVP game with large player counts, because your future probably looks like a lot of work on dedicated servers for 5 total players out-cheating eachother

[thin stratus]

I feel like this is wasted time explaining this.

[bitter oriole]

I say this to everyone here, so I feel like a crazy old man yelling at clouds

[thin stratus]

They never planned for this, they have no idea how all this works. They believe that there is a cheap way of doing this (there is not) and will find out sooner or later that they wasted tons of hours.

¯_(ツ)_/¯

[twin juniper]

we don't need cheat and this

I don't need listen s erver and that's it

[bitter oriole]

Is your game a PVP game ? How many players do you want on each session ?

[twin juniper]

no

[thin stratus]

Why does it need AWS then?

[twin juniper]

survival open world multiplayer

[thin stratus]

Why do you want to host the Servers?

[bitter oriole]

Just use fucking listen servers

[thin stratus]

Even if not

At least just hand out the DediServers

To the Players

So they can host

[twin juniper]

we won't use to make a lobby or host a lobby

[thin stratus]

If you have an open world survival game

I would want to host my own server

That I can play with friends on

So either ListenServer

Or DedicatedServer that I myself can host wherever i want

AWS or GameLift or not needed at all

You let the Gamers host their own servers

Tada, no costs

Minecraft does it that way and most of the other Survival games too

[twin juniper]

but we won't make it with host- 😡 or the player to make lobby or to host a lobby

[thin stratus]

That sentence doesn't make sense

Or DedicatedServer that I myself can host wherever i want

[twin juniper]

I want totell you this

[thin stratus]

Yo uare asking for "Cheap Hosting Methods"

There are none

[twin juniper]

ok

[thin stratus]

Now have fun creating your game

[twin juniper]

but I wrote without listen server

😉

[bitter oriole]

"Cheap hosting" is called listen servers

[twin juniper]

ok

[bitter oriole]

aka free hosting

[twin juniper]

so other?

[thin stratus]

It's not only ListenServers @bitter oriole

They can just give their players the DediServer

That's also free hosting

Just the developers hosting the DediServers for the players is nonesense

There is no cheap way for them to do that

[bitter oriole]

That only works if you're paying for an initial batch of dedicated servers

[twin juniper]

ok

so I wrote to you what I need for

so server b ut not listened

[bitter oriole]

You've been told.

[thin stratus]

You are not listening haha

• DedicatedServers hosted by you on AWS, Azure or whever -> Very expensive, doubt you can pay that. Multiple $$$$$k.
• DedicatedServers hosted by the players on their machines or something THEY pay -> You still have the DediServer stuff, but not costs.
• ListenServers -> You don't want that.

[bitter oriole]

@twin juniper

1. Listen friendly servers, best option by far
2. Buy one official server on AWS or something and if you have players on your game, which isn't granted, give them the dedicated server software + hosting instructions + matchmaking support
3. Just pay for AWS or Gamelift or whatever.

[thin stratus]

That's all you need to know.

[bitter oriole]

Well.

[civic zenith]

@jolly siren i'm don't know how travel server works why i'm doing is this. but it doesn't work

[twin juniper]

ok

2. I didn't understand

[thin stratus]

@civic zenith ServerTravel only on the Server

Not in a Multicast

[bitter oriole]

@twin juniper 2 == pay for one server on AWS, and distribute your dedicated server software to others so that they can host it on their PC

Or their own server

[twin juniper]

a ok

for the gamelift it isn't expensive

[bitter oriole]

Hosting is expensive

[thin stratus]

That is the price for ONE instance

And the r4 isn't cutting it

[twin juniper]

what is this one instance?

what you mean?

one player?

[civic zenith]

@thin stratus Yes, i know, this function is on the GameMode and in the player controller i'm doing this:

[thin stratus]

No, one Virtual Server

[twin juniper]

ok

[thin stratus]

That can host something around 10 to 20 Servers.

[twin juniper]

I need one virtual server

[thin stratus]

That's not what GameLift is for

GameLift is not for ONE Server

[twin juniper]

ok

ok

so for one s erver for us what you will recommend me?

[thin stratus]

The normal AWS then

[twin juniper]

uuf

[thin stratus]

But keep in mind that you might need the r4.xlarge or higher to support your game server.

[twin juniper]

xD

[thin stratus]

So if you need more than one instance

[twin juniper]

at l east this:

[bitter oriole]

probably c4 tbh

[thin stratus]

You are quickly in the thousands

You need to test that

Run 20 servers on it

Will full player counts

And see how the virtual server behaves

[twin juniper]

why 20 servers?

[jolly siren]

game servers

[twin juniper]

I need 1 server

[bitter oriole]

How many players do you target per game ?

[twin juniper]

idk

[bitter oriole]

10 ?

20 ?

[thin stratus]

Why do you only need one SIngle Server?

[twin juniper]

it will be open world game

[bitter oriole]

More than 20 ?

[twin juniper]

not like fortnite lobby 100 people

[bitter oriole]

100 is a lot

[thin stratus]

You need one GameServer for each 30-40 Players.

[bitter oriole]

More than 100 isn't really possible with UE4

[thin stratus]

Probably one per 20 players even

[twin juniper]

in the begining it will be little

ok

so for 30-40 players

[bitter oriole]

In the beginning it will be 0 to 2

[twin juniper]

I need 1 server

yeah

[jolly siren]

In the beginning you can just host the server on your own machine

[twin juniper]

so which of the servers I need?

[thin stratus]

Ah well, have fun. This sounds not planned at all.

Depends on your game.

No one can say that. You have to test it.

[twin juniper]

for now it will be max 30-40 but in the beginning it will be 0-2 players as he said

[jolly siren]

You can support 30-40 players on your own computer, assuming you have something with decent specs. Just go learn first, there is a lack of knowledge here that is causing you to ask a lot of questions that can just be answered by experimenting with it.

[bitter oriole]

Here's my final, and very serious advice @twin juniper . Make your game a game you play with your friends on Steam with one hosting player and like 10 friends who can join you. You're making this much harder than you can support.

Literally just removing 50% of the work here

To focus on the game

[twin juniper]

ok

what work here?

I don't want to support the players on my computer

[bitter oriole]

With listen servers you don't have to 🙄

[thin stratus]

@jolly siren He's asking tons of questions each day. We also all know why.

[bitter oriole]

Anyway, good luck with your project 😃

[twin juniper]

ok

ty

I don't walk about listen servers

I won't support these players on my computer

but I will try this with the steam

[red sand]

Are there any samples available for dedicated server matchmaking?

[thin stratus]

That's pretty vague

@red sand

What should that sample do?

There are multiple ways to do matchmaking.

[next belfry]

Hey

can we Get Player Controller in Game Instance Class ฦ

?

I've try it and it not valid

[thin stratus]

Depends on when you are trying to do that

[next belfry]

try to call function that get player controller in Game Instance from other pawn now it working.

thank you 😄

[red sand]

@thin stratus I mean, like how you create multiple sessions for matches.
For example: Each match has a player limit of 4 players and there are 40 players searching for game.
How do you create multiple sessions for those 40 player = 10 sessions automatically

[civic zenith]

Guys I don't know if u read what I just wrote you adove, I'm doing the server travel in the GameMode, but the restart doesn't work. I'm ussing this command "ServerTravel BattleRoyale_Map?Restart"

[thin stratus]

@red sand That's usually done by the backend

[jolly siren]

@civic zenith You don't need to supply the map name in that case

[thin stratus]

Third Party services like GameLift or GameSparks/PlayFAb do that for you.

[jolly siren]

@civic zenith Just "?Restart" as the travel URL

[thin stratus]

@next belfry Just so you know, your GameInstance is not supposed to have Gameplay related code in it.

[next belfry]

Thank for the Info @thin stratus Lovely !

[civic zenith]

@jolly siren If u mean this, it still doesn't work.

[jolly siren]

Are you running that on the server?

via a rpc?

[red sand]

@thin stratus So that's what I was looking for, is there any simple example sample available with this functionality...

[civic zenith]

@jolly siren I think so, In the player controller I'm doing a run on server event that call this event on the Game Mode, and the server is executing it for sure.

Adove I posted the photo of the player controller event

[jolly siren]

Are you testing this in PIE, standalone, or a packaged game?

[jolly siren]

@thin stratus Hmm I'm still getting rubberbanding and my enemy location isn't matching for all of the moves.
For example,
Client Moves:

1. 4788.793, 1659.422 100.920
2. 4805.896, 1667.092, 100.920
3. 4819.582, 1673.205, 100.920

Server Moves:

1. 4775.31, 1653.400, 100.920
2. 4788.793, 1659.422, 100.920
3. 4805.896, 1667.092, 100.920

I'm wondering if I need to a custom MoveAutonomous and ClientUpdatePositionAfterServerUpdate

Client 1 and 2 match Server 2 and 3

[twin juniper]

Exi-what is your payment an hour?

[jolly siren]

That isn't information people normally share publicly Brick.

[thin stratus]

@red sand Not that I know of, sorry

@jolly siren Weird that looks delayed yeah

You seem to be off by one timestamp o.o how does that work

[jolly siren]

I'm not sure where that first server move is coming from

I'm setting CMC::MeleeTargetLocation clientside when the melee is started and then in PerformMovement after setting the Velocity

        Velocity = DirectionToEnemy * MeleeSpeed;

        if (PWCharOwner->Role < ROLE_Authority) {
            MeleeTargetLocation = MeleeEnemyLocation;
        }

[twin juniper]

дн

[thin stratus]

@jolly siren Hm you should set that with a simple function call

Similar to how Start Jumping works

[jolly siren]

Hmm

Are you talking about DoJump?

I need to set the value of MeleeTargetLocation on the client so it gets sent with the move to the server.

So I set it at the start of the melee and each time velocity is updated by PerformMovement

[thin stratus]

Ah the TargetLocation changes each tick, right

I really have no idea how you end up one off

[jolly siren]

I'm creating a custom MoveAutonomous now

to see if it helps

[thin stratus]

Is 1, 2 ,3 really the same timestamp?

[jolly siren]

They might not be

I'm outputting them in ServerMove

For the server

I'll verify timestamps, I was just printing the location

And looking at the order they printed

[thin stratus]

You can't go by that

Check that timestamp yeah

[civic zenith]

@jolly siren Sorry i was going home. I tried both, PIE and standalone. And if it doesn't work there it shouldn't work on packaged game isn't it?

[shy apex]

hey im having problems replicating launch character. when a client calls it, its on the server which makes a delay for the client. i tried having the client launch separately and then replicate that to the server and correct it the end location but it looks very buggy. can someone explain a good way to replicate this ?

[jolly siren]

@shy apex https://wiki.unrealengine.com/Authoritative_Networked_Character_Movement

[shy apex]

any way to do this through blueprints? @jolly siren

[jolly siren]

lol good luck, it's hard enough through c++

[shy apex]

alright ill try

thx for the help

[jolly siren]

np

[distant talon]

In replay designed systems what happens if some moves the client makes are dropped in transit?

will the replay keep correctly incorrectly

[lone vapor]

@tall raft I had a crack at it this morning and i'm stuck on it too. I tried in both the character and controller BPs but it only updates for the local machine.
I'm thinking you can't do it this way because it could probably be used easily as a cheat, to have clients be able to set a variable on another client so easily.
I guess it would work if it was a third party object that clients can communicate between, but they can't directly communicate with one another in this way.
That said, I would've thought if the server did the change (even a listen server) then it would propagate to the clients, but maybe in this case its not allowed because its technically also still a client

[stark hull]

Hey guys, this might be a trivial problem. I was trying to test for player behavior on disconnection. But for whatever reason when I type 'open 127.0.0.1' I don't have the client reconnection back to the server. Is there some config I'm missing to allow that?

[stark hull]

Figured it out, needed to add the port as well

[thin stratus]

@distant talon The whole system is done based on dropping packages.
The RPCs aren't reliable. It would flood the buffer instantly.

So it's pretty much expected that this can happen.

[bitter oriole]

"Reliable" RPCs are reliable, no ?

[thin stratus]

Yeah they are made sure to be received.

ServerMove however calls on tick and is unreliable.

If, in the middle of running somwhere, a ServerMove RPC is dropped, without looking into the CMC, I would assume the replay to simply correct the client.

Actually it most likely doesn't correct the client. It might just end up slightly off from where it should be.

And as long as that is less than sqrt(3), it will just continue.
Once it's more than sqrt(3) it will cause a correction anyway

[chrome bay]

yeh. net movement is inherently lossy

[dusky light]

Hello, I have an inhereted static mesh in my player character. I am capable of changing its visibility when the player is the host (listen server) but on a dedicated server and with clients on a listen server the visibility of the mesh does not change. I am sure that I am calling the right character.

[worthy perch]

The static mesh visibility of a static mesh component doesn't replicate by default.

[dusky light]

Thanks, fixed it.

[thin stratus]

Hm, so the PlayerState has a valid PlayerController as Owner on BeginPlay, but the LocalPlayer in Splitscreen is not yet set on the PlayerController.

Coooooooooooool

Even on BeginPlay of the PlayerController, the splitscreen players have non localPlayer yet

Wtf

Well, found an entry point:

void AHLPlayerController::ReceivedPlayer()
{
    Super::ReceivedPlayer();

    // Give Blueprints an entry point
    OnPlayerReceived();
}

By now it's really just "Pretty important part of this Actor isn't available yet? Let's see if there is a C++ function that calls when it's ready." -> Create BlueprintImplementableEvent. >.>

[jolly siren]

😛

[rough iron]

@thin stratus @jolly siren hey long time no see ^^

[thin stratus]

Did you get swallowed by a wave while sitting at the beach? :D

[jolly siren]

The Man, the Myth, himself

Hey Moss 😃

[rough iron]

xD hahaha Just a lot of work xD

Working eager on the next release before I get some rest and can put some effort in some personal projects xD

[thin stratus]

Sounds familiar

[jolly siren]

Haha yeah same here

Any specific personal projects?

I just noticed that I recorded 100GB of videos over the past week working on this melee. Been watching them in low motion, frame by frame haha.

[thin stratus]

Got any further ?

[jolly siren]

I went back to clientside authoritative. I couldn't get the movement looking perfectly smooth with the CMC move system.

[rough iron]

Not very specific actually, I would like to go back on writing my own profiler

[jolly siren]

This was the bit I was missing for clientside authoritative to look smooth.

void UCustomCharMovementComponent::ClientAdjustPosition_Implementation(float TimeStamp, FVector NewLoc, FVector NewVel, UPrimitiveComponent* NewBase, FName NewBaseBoneName, bool bHasBase, bool bBaseRelativePosition, uint8 ServerMovementMode) {
    if (!bIgnoreClientMovementErrorChecksAndCorrection) {
        Super::ClientAdjustPosition_Implementation(TimeStamp, NewLoc, NewVel, NewBase, NewBaseBoneName, bHasBase, bBaseRelativePosition, ServerMovementMode);
    }
}

Profiler for UE4? Network or ?

Does this look correct for dead reckoning? It seems to be giving me much further results than I would expect. At least with bots.
const FVector PredictedPosition = meleeEnemy->GetActorLocation() + meleeEnemy->GetVelocity() * (PS->ExactPing / 2);

[rough iron]

Any executable basically

[jolly siren]

Ahh nice 😃

[thin stratus]

Ah I thought they already do that !bIgnore part

Weird that the boolean isn't filtering that

[rough iron]

@jolly siren basically using this lib => https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/pin-a-dynamic-binary-instrumentation-tool

[jolly siren]

They use it to block some corrections, but it doesn't seem like all. I need to dig into it deeper.

[rough iron]

Still struling with the custom server move?

[jolly siren]

Yeah, I couldn't get it looking as smooth as client authoritative. I was still rubberbanding in some cases.

[rough iron]

For such a smooth experience it's mainly client side plus an extra verification on the server and of course you have to simulate it accordingly in the correct time window for the others xD

Basically hell hahahaha

[jolly siren]

Yeah it's been rough. But I think I have the movement looking good now in all cases. Client authoritative gave the best results and I'm glad to hear that some other games do it this way too.

Now I'm working on adding some clientside predictions to bail out before starting it in cases where it predicts failure (collision, enemy velocity, etc.)

So I'm working on some dead reckoning logic.

[neon violet]

Ive been working really hard on my game and have made it multiplayer with appropriate replication. I can host a game on my computer and ive enabled portforwarding on my router and it works! But i have no idea how to let players make a server and then this server to pop up on a list of servers. Won't the player need to open a port on their router? Is there a way of opening a port of the router vi unreal? Help is appreciated!

[drifting plank]

Hello !
I am currently implementing the replay system in my game.
It works correctly with the editor but strangly without the required lines in the DefaultEngine.ini found in this tutorial https://wiki.unrealengine.com/Replay_System_Tutorial :

[/Script/Engine.GameEngine]
+NetDriverDefinitions=(DefName="DemoNetDriver",DriverClassName="/Script/Engine.DemoNetDriver",DriverClassNameFallback="/Script/Engine.DemoNetDriver")

The first issue is that when I add these lines, the server can't listen for connections and display these errors :

[2019.04.25-15.49.53:004][  0]LogNet: CreateNamedNetDriver failed to create driver from definition GameNetDriver
[2019.04.25-15.49.53:005][  0]LogNet: CreateNamedNetDriver failed to create driver GameNetDriver from definition GameNetDriver
[2019.04.25-15.49.53:005][  0]LogNet: NetworkFailure: NetDriverCreateFailure, Error: ''
[2019.04.25-15.49.53:005][  0]LogNet: Error: LoadMap: failed to Listen(/Game/BlackHive/Maps/LevelDesign/GameTestLD?Name=Player)

Then I have an asymetrical game with a First person character (This one moves correctly and does all their gameplay abilities during the replay).
And a Third person character which can walk in any surfaces (Derived from the Third person template).
This one doesn't move at all but does their gameplay abilities during the replay. Althought it works perfectly in a real game.

Did anyone can help me ? Thanks in advance 😉

[limber mortar]

I have it appearing now

for those helping me with my decal problem over the last few weeks, it ended up being a lighting issue

[glacial pollen]

Finally did it! A fully universal "get local role" in 100% blueprints

[meager spade]

seems rather easy tbh 😄

[glacial pollen]

Okay, do "get local role" on begin play, of a character you posses and tell me your result

[meager spade]

it depends on who calls it

[glacial pollen]

uh...

I said... of a character you posses, you can assume, its the owning client's begin play we are speaking of

Doesn't matter, you only get two results, Auth and simulated

Autonomous wont be one of them

unless you wait till after begin play

Not only that, but do the same test, on any actor that is not possed

In that case, autonomous will NEVER be the answer

because only on posses, does the server tell the client to change to autonomous for said actor. And only AFTER the begin play of whatever actor

So this works around all that

Now, I can tell the difference between local client owned vs another client owned

[worthy perch]

Huh, that is an interesting point. Never noticed that before, but that makes sense because the Role has to replicate. However, how did you get around that?

[glacial pollen]

Follow the get owner chain, in a recursive loop, with an isvalid check

Check against a cast, against player controller

THEN call get local role

I might still need to check how it handles player states an stuff like that

Thanks to @severe widget for slapping me across the head, when he saw me MANUALLY place 4 repeated getowner->check if pc's
Recursive was the answer. (also, better, because you never know how nested someone set's up their owner chain)

So far two things:
I forgot to connect the boolean on the recursive call
Also, I never check the boolean on the output of it

[worthy perch]

Do you really need to be able to know the Role during BeginPlay? There are simpler workarounds.

APawn::OnRep_Controller() is virtual.

[glacial pollen]

Blueprint only (I have only .1% of my game in c++)
I'm not against c++, but with navitization, and engine upgradability, fast iteration, fast restructuring, very good "glance" overview ect. I can't see myself staring at code, trying to remember some recursive function I wrote 2 years ago, break pointing and jumping line to line, ect ect

I've figured out all the blueprint quirks, and now that I have those understood, I've never lost a piece of work.

[glacial pollen]

Revised:

This now checks against player state correctly, then if we can't find a PC as an owner (get owner recursively) , then it must be another players, so simulated.... (could be the servers, but still simulated)

[versed berry]

1>------ Build started: Project: RPGTest, Configuration: Development_Server x64 ------
1>Creating makefile for RPGTestServer (no existing makefile)
1>UnrealBuildTool : error : Couldn't find target rules file for target 'UE4Server' in rules assembly 'UE4Rules, Version=0.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null'.
1> Location: E:\Epic games\Epic Games\Launcher\Engine\UE_4.22\Engine\Intermediate\Build\BuildRules\UE4Rules.dll
1> Target rules found:
1>C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\Common7\IDE\VC\VCTargets\Microsoft.MakeFile.Targets(44,5): error MSB3075: The command ""E:\Epic games\Epic Games\Launcher\Engine\UE_4.22\Engine\Build\BatchFiles\Build.bat" RPGTestServer Win64 Development -Project="E:\RPGTest\RPGTest.uproject" -WaitMutex -FromMsBuild" exited with code 5. Please verify that you have sufficient rights to run this command.
1>Done building project "RPGTest.vcxproj" -- FAILED.
========== Build: 0 succeeded, 1 failed, 0 up-to-date, 0 skipped ==========

help?

[worthy perch]

You need to download the engine from the Github.

[versed berry]

I got it, thanks

[neon violet]

Can I build a Linux dedicated ue4 server and host it on digital ocean?

How would you host the ue4 server on digital ocean

[grand kestrel]

Is there a net-synced float/time value between server and client with CMC that I can use as a rand seed

[glacial pollen]

<@&213101288538374145>
Can we pin this in multiplayer?? (The second post does a lot of explaining, and the first post even describes some gotcha around multiplayer
I made it
https://forums.unrealengine.com/community/community-content-tools-and-tutorials/1612271-asset-tutorial-universal-get-network-local-role

[jolly siren]

These are already spelled out in the pinned compendium

[glacial pollen]

no

not even close

The basics maybe

I've read it. Several times.

[slender yarrow]

so i have a GunPickup blueprint that gets spawned on the server. when 1 character overlaps the blueprint, another character on the server nowhere near it is reporting that it is also overlapping??????? how the hell is this possible? And i cant run anything on the client on that blueprint either. What could be going wrong here?

[glacial pollen]

but, you just gave me a good idea, I need to link to that compendium as a preface.

[grand kestrel]

That forum page is terribly written

/ formatted

[glacial pollen]

Suggestions?

[grand kestrel]

I don't think anyone would use it

Oh its yours?

Umm

Nope, no suggestions other than redo it so its presentable and written with decent grammar etc

Not sure its really needed though

[glacial pollen]

There are no blueprints that show how to handle every case. You are left to figure that out. Its nice that the compendium explains stuff in general, but its not enough.
It took me forever to figure out how to differentiate between a simulated proxy and autonomous proxy, because unreal does not set an actor to autonomous unless its possesed, which only happens after begin play. (Thats ONLY if you plan to posses, or can)

Also, the compendium does not clarify how to handle listen server logic. As you have Auth, but need to handle the clients side of things, which would usually be Autonomous

I will try to work on the grammar, I wasn't aware that it was that bad... bad enough that people who are confused about networking (even after reading the compendium, when certain things still don't work), would rather not read it.

[glacial pollen]

Also, I just figured out how to tell the difference between
Listen Server as Server (Controlling other players stuff)
Listen Server as Server+Client (Controlling your own stuff)

Now I can spawn a menu on Auth, and it wont spawn the menu multiple times on my screen.

[grand kestrel]

@meager spade Did you ever get the NetSynchRandomSeed() from UT's weapons to ever work in later engine builds without their custom CMC?

I noticed in UT it syncs up at the point they call it from but if you add your own RPC called on input it wont.. so theres something they've done that causes it to sync up there, which is likely related to all the stuff they did with their custom prediction/replication (which is a nightmare to go through)

[ivory portal]

Hi everyone, I am testing something out, I do open-level to an outside server but the firewall is blocking this. Now I want to implement an error screen but NetworkError event nor Travelerror is fired. Anyone has an idea how to capture a connection error?

[thin stratus]

@glacial pollen Idk, while I get your point, I don't see the problem. Some of your problems can easily be solved and don't require any Role to be checked.

There is no easy way to tell the difference betwen ListenServer as the server (traditional dedicated) and ListenServer as the client (traditional client)

On what Actor though?

ListenServer is not split into Server and Client.

Authority + DedicatedServer check tells you exactly if you are on the ListenServer

happens AFTER the character is spawned, so we work around that by doing a recursive "get owner" and looking for a player controller to check against```

[winged badger]

and in setups like having a PC possess a camera Pawn, then forward orders to AIController that controls the PlayerPawn

[thin stratus]

That's just wrong, you utilize the "OnPossessed" or in C++ "PossessedBy" function and for the Local Client you use the "OnRep_Controller" function

[winged badger]

going so deep into Roles will bury you

[thin stratus]

I have a huge Multiplayer game at hand and never once was I required to do a recursive search for the Owner

[winged badger]

you can't OnRep_Controller in BP tho :/

[thin stratus]

You shouldn't try to make a complex Multiplayer game in BP only anyway.

And even if, you can RPC to the Client from the Possessed Event

I did that tons of times in BP only projects

I mean, yeah it's nice to have a common function that executes a pin depending on where you are, but I really didn't miss that function at all

And I'm also not a fan of "Newb friendly"

Shortcuts aren't gonna help you with Multiplayer anyway

I guess the biggest difference and the biggest struggle @glacial pollen seems to have is with ListenServers being Server and Client in one.

Also, a good amount of times, "Roles are wrong" is not correct and just misunderstood

I've seen countless of members here trying to figure out roles and in the end realizing it's all working like it should

[winged badger]

I use this alongside simple Role Authority check, and so far its been sufficient: (static function)

bool USolsticeObjectLibrary::IsLocallyControlled(AActor* ActorToQuery)
{
    if (!ensure(ActorToQuery))
    {
        return false;
    }

    AActor* TopOwner = NULL;

    for (TopOwner = ActorToQuery; TopOwner->GetOwner(); TopOwner = TopOwner->GetOwner()) { }

    APlayerController* controller = Cast<APlayerController>(TopOwner);
    return controller && controller->IsLocalPlayerController();
}

[thin stratus]

Right, do you have an example as to when you'd need that?

Cause I never ran into the need of such a function and maybe I do something by default that isn't clear to others?

[winged badger]

yeah, works for attached actors as well

my weapons are running independent simulation on every machine

so sometimes i have a need to know if i am running the code on OwningClient

or not

[thin stratus]

Lemme see what I do in that case

[winged badger]

and i have a RTS setup, so querying Autonomous_Proxy isn't really an option

[thin stratus]

Right, my Weapon has a Replicated PawnOwner variable

Which allows me to check where I am on

[worthy perch]

If you're on a pawn, you can just do IsLocallyControlled().

[winged badger]

mine does too, single static function that works for any situation is much easier to digest for a design team tho 😄

[thin stratus]

Fair point, I'm pretty focused on the Controller with all that stuff

Might be me being damaged by doing Splitscreen stuff as well ;-;

[drifting plank]

Hello there ! Did anyone can help me with the replay system for a multiplayer game running on a dedicated server ? 😃

[thin stratus]

Right, so the Weapon on a Character/Pawn, owned by the Character/Pawn or even PlayerController, should have ROLE_Authority on the LocalRole and ROLE_SimulatedProxy on the RemoteRole or?

[drifting plank]

I think it's more ROLE_AutonomousProxy if the weapon is replicated and spawned from the server

[winged badger]

not even my Pawn has ROLE_AutonomousProxy

joys of not possessing a PlayerPawn directly with a PC

and if i change it manually, the AIController tends to break spectacularly

[thin stratus]

ROLE_AutonomousProxy is really just for ClientOwner and Controlled Actors

Pretty sure all other scenarious where a Client owns an Actor, it's SimulatedProxy and Authority roles being visible

[winged badger]

yeah, and with my setup, only the PC and the CameraPawn have it

everything else is SimulatedProxy

[thin stratus]

Right, so I never ran into the recursive function cause I keep a ref to the Owning Pawn, guess that's not always possible

Could make sure the PC is the Owner and check on Valid+Local

[winged badger]

i still didn't have to use it

but you do get tired after a while answering "how do i check if this is on local client?"

[thin stratus]

Yeah I guess that can happen

[winged badger]

with a single function that works for every scenario, the questions stop pretty quick

[thin stratus]

I do not see how Evo's code solves the "BeginPlay has wrong role."

Cause it's normal that a pawn isn't possessed at beginPlay

It would be better performing a PR to expose the OnRep functions

[winged badger]

no, and role gets swapped during possess

imo, epic made a mess by not making SetPawn BPNative

you could handle almost any scenario from that function, as it gets called from both Possess and OnRep_Pawn

[thin stratus]

The most important exposed functions I currently have:

• OnRep_PlayerState in Pawn
• OnRep_Pawn in AIController (or in Controller in general but can't edit Engine for this project atm)
• OnRep_PlayerState in PlayerController
• OnRep_Controller in Pawn
• OnReceivedPlayer in PlayerController (only important if you do Splitscreen stuff)
• Custom "PawnOwner" in PlayerState with OnRep_PawnOwner (but I think they have that by now?)

[drifting plank]

Wow that can be very usefull thanks !

[thin stratus]

All these are super useful if you need to time initializing your players

[winged badger]

did you alter the NetPriority of your PS @thin stratus ?

[thin stratus]

No, sir!

[winged badger]

i usually don't have the PlayerState Actor replicated by the time its OnReps are called

[thin stratus]

You mean the internal variables?

Or the whole PlayerState?

Can't type -.-

[winged badger]

the variable replicates, but the PS isn't there yet

[thin stratus]

I never had that

That is also not how OnRep's should work

The only thing I had to filter is OnRep calling for setting the varaible to null

Cause that causes it to call too of course

[drifting plank]

yeah logicaly the OnRep is called when it's replicated so it needs to be here else it's broken

[winged badger]

i ended up increasing the PS NetPriority, 1 is not adequate for it anyways

then it worked just fine

[thin stratus]

I do have a few ForceNetUpdate calls

But that shouldn't have anything to do with the OnRep

[winged badger]

when the Actor is constructed, client gets a message to spawn an actor of type, at a transform, and receives all its replicated variables in the same bunch

i do have the inventory on PS tho, so i needed the thing right away

[thin stratus]

@glacial pollen To make sure this doesn't come over wrong: The idea is nice, I just think you should go over a few of your notes again and check if they are really true.
I see the issue with knowing if an Actor is executing locally or not, but a lot of the other stuff (specially Pawn BeginPlay etc.) feels wrong.

[drifting plank]

I have a question about an another topic if you want to help.

I have implemented the replay system for my game. Basicaly it works, I can replay a match played.
But my game is an asymetrical game. I have one first person versus one third person (which can crawl on wall and any surfaces).
I don't know why the third person don't moves during the replay althought it moves correctly in a regular match.
Maybe you already have this issue ?

[thin stratus]

You mean like a "Replay the scored goal in Rocket League" system?

[drifting plank]

The overall replay system of UE4
It can be that but also a replay played after a game like in Fortnite or directly in streaming like Dota/Lol

[thin stratus]

I thought that System of UE4 doesn't support live replays yet?

Wasn't that still on their roadmap?

I know you can record and later watch it

[drifting plank]

Not live but stream yes

[thin stratus]

Oh, so you are "just" recording and then later playing

Like in ShooterGame

[drifting plank]

Yes

[thin stratus]

Fair enough, sorry, I still wish to get the live replay system hehe

[drifting plank]

It's the native implementation of Ue4

[thin stratus]

Wasn't there someone else who had a problem with their meshes in replay?

@jolly siren maybe even?

Probably sleeping atm

[drifting plank]

But I don't get why my third person movements (RPC works) are not record althought this works perfectly in a real game
And the first person character works correctly (all movements, rotations and actions works)

[thin stratus]

But I know someone was rampaging about it not working a few months ago

@fossil spoke Did you do any Replay stuff and had problems with parts not recording properly?

I'm pretty sure it was one of the mods

Either Devil or Ethan

[fossil spoke]

Nar havent done Replay, ive heard its difficult to get working properly though 😛

[thin stratus]

Fair enough, let's wait for Ethan to wake up. Maybe he can help you if he faced that.

Not a lot of people do the replay stuff, at least based on never having any questions here

[drifting plank]

Yeah and it's pretty poorly documented 😦

[fossil spoke]

Never needed to implement it honestly.

[thin stratus]

All I can come up with is looking at the ShooterGame

Cause they have it iirc

Maybe you can spot something in their code

[drifting plank]

Yeah maybe, I missed something or I disabled something 🤔

[fossil spoke]

Does UT have Replay?

Might be an idea to have a look at UT as well.

[drifting plank]

It was hard to do properly but the replication works fine ^^

In replay, only the rotation to the surface is replayed. so it's fun but I will search why ^^'

[sharp plover]

Are there any good articles on getting a authorative server setup with c++ (Could only find blueprint examples)

[bitter oriole]

@sharp plover Well, UE4 only really does authoritative servers - might want to be more specific here.

[sharp plover]

Oh wow my bad then 😄 Thought there would be more of a specific setup for it, that's awesome. Well, is there a setup with authorative movement (syncing input) for unreal?

[bitter oriole]

The default character class does it

[sharp plover]

Seems like everything is done for you already 😂 Coming from unity where we had to write everything from barebones

That's awesome, thank you

[bitter oriole]

Everything is done for you if you want to make a multiplayer shooter

There's next to nothing for multiplayer vehicles, on the other hand

[sharp plover]

Yeah our game is medieval, so it's not that far off tbh

realtime

[bitter oriole]

And dedicated servers still require building the engine from source, while listen servers (still authoritative) don't

[sharp plover]

Just moving things over from unity to unreal slowly

I guess linux builds for headless server is possible right?

[bitter oriole]

Yeah, that'd be a Linux build of the dedicated server

headless == dedicated

Just a bit more involved than a listen server