multiplayer

[bitter oriole]

(listen = player hosting the game while playing)

[sharp plover]

No worries, but that's awesome. Heard that unreal has most things built in, but really seems like it's everything 😂

Tried to get large terrains going for unity... have to rely on bought assets

instead of native features in the engine

[bitter oriole]

UE4 has other sins, like being pretty inflexible, and generally poorly documented 😛

[sharp plover]

We had a embedded server running, but development time will be alot shorter it seems since server and client is coded in one go apart from tags (atleast from what I've seen)

We've had to do 2 seperate unity projects 😂

1 server, 1 client. Took awhile to develop

[bitter oriole]

Yeah, UE4 is single codebase with role variables to check for what is what.

[sharp plover]

Yupp, I used a network framework for Unity before called Forged

really sped up development time

although alot of bugs

But thank you stranger, that's awesome

[drifting plank]

@sharp plover Maybe you looking for that ?
https://wiki.unrealengine.com/Dedicated_Server_Guide_(Windows_%26_Linux)

[sharp plover]

That seems alittle bit more like it thank you 😄 I do see some blueprint in cooperation but the general jist of it should do

[jolly siren]

I'm awake, yeah I've done replay. @drifting plank What do you mean your third person movements? Normally you only have one character that moves and fp meshes are just attached to that. So when you are in third person the replay doesn't move at all?

[tribal shore]

hi i'm trying to make a small mobile Lan multiplayer game and ever since i added a posses character node, join session stopped working

can anyone help?

[solid lake]

Hi there :)
when deploying my app (local multiplayer), i have to deactivate the firewall in order to make it run normaly
do i have to authorize some specific port ?

[tribal shore]

thank you @solid lake !!!!!!

you reminded me of firewalls

i've been trying to fix the problem i have for soooo long!

THANK YOU!!!!!

wait, do phones have firewalls?

if i make my computer a server with firewall disabled, my phone joins

if i make my phone a server, my computer can't join

[drifting plank]

@jolly siren Yop ! No I have an asymetrical game.
One team plays a first person shooter
And the other team plays a third person (which is derived from the third person template). This one doesn't move in the replay

Else the mesh of the first person team works perfectly. He moves, rotates and do all their actions.

[tribal shore]

how do you replay it?

[drifting plank]

How do you mean by that ?

I record with StartRecording in the game instance

I record from one client (the player which play the third person).

I didn't test by recording with the server

[jolly siren]

The first person shooter isn't derived from the same class?

[grand kestrel]

@meager spade Have you dealt with CMC's speed hack detection before? Its actually built in but disabled by default. I did a if Role==ROLE_AutonomousProxy or w/e and increased the delta time on that condition, but it never detected the artificial speed hack

[drifting plank]

No

The first person is derived from the first person template

[jolly siren]

But don't they both use character as a base class? Or pawn?

[drifting plank]

Oh you're right, yes it's a character that i have created for both

TpsTemplateCharacter -> derived form my Character class
and
FpsTemplateCharacter -> derived from my same character class

[jolly siren]

So if everything is working in game, it sounds like it is an issue with your tpstemplatecharacter setup

[drifting plank]

I use the same logic to move them.
Except that I have added a logic for the third person which permit to walk on walls

Yes ! I checked the replication and movement settings but I didn't found anything

[jolly siren]

Maybe try setting everyone as a fpstemplatecharacter as a test

[drifting plank]

Hum the child hierarchy is very different but I can try

I will compare both code and BP settings

Did one setting can disable replay capture ?

[jolly siren]

bRelevantForNetworkReplays and then the replicated movement flags obviously

Also what version are you on?

[tribal shore]

Q:has anyone tested create session and join session in 4.22?

in 4.21 the mobile phone ip is given wrong in the search results

but if i manually get my phones ip and type "open 192.168.1.3" it works

[drifting plank]

I'm on the 4.21.2

[tribal shore]

i'm also on 4.21.2

[jolly siren]

okay, that's fine. Just wanted to make sure you were recent because replay code has changed a lot

[drifting plank]

I think the boolean is not in cause because my RPC are replayed but thanks for this information 😉

Ok so I progress

I've found that with a blank TpsTemplateCharacter my character moves 😃

But it's ridiculous to see ah ah it's like 8 months ago

[drifting plank]

Hum it's very strange, one child of my BP works but the others no 🤔

[glacial pollen]

@thin stratus @winged badger Thank you for your thoughtful input. I will attempt to clean up and better explain my post. The basic premise is this: Newb friendly, but you can still open the box and learn from it.

As to how I got the correct role before posses happens: I recursively call get owner -> check if PC -> get local role of PC.

If I cannot find a PC, and I hit a not valid, I assume its simulated

Also, I'm VERY sure the get remote role is wrong in listen server with auto connect. I had immutable look at it.

The clients have the correct local/remote roles. But not the server (during the controllers begin play at least)

Anyways, I abused this to determine, if I, the listen server, was handling one of my own actors (as my own client)

Also, my blue print function does not depend on an actor being possessed, or being possessible.

I can call it anywhere, anytime, and always get the correct answer.

However, I did not think about splitscreen and will have to think about that and add it in to complete the "universal" aspect

With this, I CAN make a complex multiplayer BP, currently have dedicated and listen server working with the same blueprints. I just split up server vs client blueprints and call then according to my made up system. For something like standalone I just connect it to server and client blueprints using sequence node

And if blueprints had a Get Top Owner, I wouldn't need a recursive search

Again, generic actors will ALWAYS be simulated on every client. Whether you own it or not. No way to tell the difference unless you posses it. I have an attached actor system, and I need to know per actor what role I am, I don't like putting on_rep, or storing owners in variables. It's just messy and not needed .

Again, you guys have solutions for various "one off" cases, each with their own way of checking. My blueprint does this without caring about who we are checking, it even allows components as input

I've basically redefined "autonomous" to equal "ANY actor or component that you own, that you can call RPC's on"

I made sure to point that out in my second post where I describe the functions outputs

[neon violet]

The on ground event fixed it for me but I still get a weird animation bug

[glacial pollen]

So this shows single player begin play of the controller, notice the remote role is simulated
(as a listen server, it would make more sense if this was None)

So now we will try with two players

So this is the first player, see its the same as above, but now we are "Server" instead of "simulating" in the top right corner

So here is player 2, on the server side, notice the remote role is None (should be autonomous)

Here is the client's side of begin play of the controller, notice the roles are correct

Here, is an example with my blueprint function that simplifies things:
This is player1, who "happens" to be a server. We will create a menu

Here we are creating the 2nd player controller, and we do not create a menu

Here is player2's begin play, on the client. Now we can create their menu

Notice the remote roles are still wrong on the server side, of begin play of each controller.\

However, they are predictably wrong, so I was able to use it to determine if "As the listen server, is this my own actor, or a remote clients actor"

And here, is a fully populated version, that handles every case:

With some proper separation of code, (ie, don't code with listen server in mind, and then try to switch to dedicated) its easy to switch between network modes (or non network modes). As long as you code in "dedicated / client" way of thinking, this will be a breeze

Just tested with split screen I'm having a hard time figuring out who the server is, I guess we can assume player 1 is always the server. (ie, player two cannot create widgets?)

[winged badger]

@glacial pollen if you do not use deferred spawn carefully, server and client side logic will not execute in the same order when constructing an actor

unfortunately, the BPs can only set expose on spawn variables and nothing else to affect this

normal spawn:
server: Spawn Actor (automatically calls OnConstruction and BeginPlay)
client: Spawn Actor (defers BeginPlay until all replicated variables, including those set by the engine under the hood are set), then calls BeginPlay

deferred spawn:
server: Spawn Actor (you can now execute any custom logic) , OnConstruction and BeginPlay are called only when you call actor->FinishSpawning()

note that client side, the construction script will execute before any replicated variables are set either way

[glacial pollen]

blueprints do not have deferred spawn, so far this system appears to work for me. (I don't use construction, so I cannot comment on that

[hardy crescent]

I was wondering how you connect other players in your multiplayer game
How players find eachother?
Is there some kind of relay server with concurrent user limit?
Do you somehow connect to steam and use steam as relay server? (spacewar?)

[winged badger]

also note that the actor doesn't replicate as soon as its spawned, so anything set server side in the frame its spawned in, including effects of being possessed, will be available client side before it calls BeginPlay

[glacial pollen]

Again, with the way I check against the owning controller, I don't need to worry about possession role being replicated on either side

[winged badger]

@hardy crescent look into Advanced Sessions plugin, probably the shortest way to get you started (its free)

that is pretty verbose @glacial pollen

[hardy crescent]

@winged badger What about unreal's networking system?
Is it bad or difficult?

[winged badger]

its good, but most people end up faceplanting into a wall for the first few weeks when getting started

http://cedric-neukirchen.net/2017/02/14/multiplayer-network-compendium/

[hardy crescent]

What about dependencies to external stuff?

Can you easily make your game work trough steam without any concurrent user limit and without paying any money?

[glacial pollen]

I've now added splitscreen detection as well. The results are perfect

Almost perfect. Tried with two clients, with two split screens each.

I'll have to work that out after lunch

[grand kestrel]

Holy walls of text Batman

I think it's best if you do your own thing and let some other people post 😉

To be blunt if you need this information prior to role being set I'd question why that is in the first place rather than trying to bandaid what isn't broken

[glacial pollen]

Deleted. I'm not feeding into this. Goodluck with your battle royal clone.

[grand kestrel]

You deleted it because you re read what you wrote 🤭

[neon violet]

Soo I'm a bit confused

I know that you need to run a server instance per game on different ports for the clients to connect to but how would you implement that with a hosting service like digital ocean? Also with matchmaking I understand that the client will click on start a game for example and then the matchmaking will create a server instance on digital ocean and then use the ip and port number to connect the client to the server

But how would you go about implementing a master server/matchmaking server?

Is that something that exists on the hosting service as it's own entity or do you code it in unreal

Sorry I'm a bit new to this if anyone can send me a doc or knows what there doing I'll appreciate it🙂

[neon violet]

Ok I've done some research
Can someone pls correct if I'm wrong

Client wants to play a game
He clicks create game/server
Ue4 server instance is then created on the hosting service
Session is also created
Player connects to server via the session using the server ip and port
Maps loads
Done

This can be done all in blueprint with the help of the advanced sessions plugin right?

[glacial pollen]

In order for you to be able to do that, in general:

On the DO server, you would write up an external program that waits for a request from a client

upon that, the program would decide if it needs to spin up an instance or just tell you to join one already created.

if it needs to spin one up, it will do so, and then tell the client to join the new instance

the rest you have right

(again, this is just in general)

I've seen people use VA Rest plugin as the interface between the custom program and UE

If you want a solid example, there is this guy that released a working version of this setup

Its called

I don't have the download link anymore, but google will find it by name

basically MP_SK, was his original version?
and
MSFS is his second version, with an update

I would download both, as he basically re-wrote everything, and the first version may be simpler to understand, while the second one is more complete

@neon violet

You should also read the "UE4 Network Compendium" its pinned I believe

[subtle karma]

Hey guys, i don't see a server room so i hope i'm asking this in the right section..

what i'm trying to do is have a mobile game that runs single player missions on a server that rewards the user. For instance, i want it to go to the level select, then launch the level, then the client will attempt to complete the level. if the client wins, the server rewards with random prizes based on what the client did in the level. if the client doesn't win, then the server doesn't reward and the client would have to try again.

Im assuming i will need to do server events but i'm not sure how i can tell the server that the client is starting a level, and then have the server tell the client what it wins if it wins. If this done through server events or is there different, maybe easier methods?

[glacial pollen]

@subtle karma If you want to involve the server, its best practice to have the client tell the server its "intent" and the server will decide if thats okay, then the server tells the client what to do.

[subtle karma]

So if i wanted the client to start an event and ping the server, i would have the server see that the client wants to do the event, then have the client also tell the server when its done and the result it had in the event? The server then tells the client what it wins or doesnt win?

[glacial pollen]

Client : Hey I want to go into this level
Server : Let me check to make sure you have unlocked this level
Server : Okay, looks good
Server : Tell Client to load level

[subtle karma]

How would i blueprint this?

[glacial pollen]

Um

[subtle karma]

With server events?

[glacial pollen]

So from say a widget

Create a button

On button click:

Get playercontroller (0) -> TellServerToLoadMap (You create this on PC with "Replicated to client") <-Doesn't matter because you are the client, but make it easier to remember

[subtle karma]

Alright im with you so far 1

[glacial pollen]

Inside of playercontroller:
TellServerToLoadMap : CallServerLoadMap ( create this function with "Replicated to server"

CallServerLoadMap : Open level (or servertravel or whatever)

So basically, the widget is on the client,

you press the button, which calls the function on the CLIENTS copy of the player controller

This calls a function on the SERVERS copy of the player controller

And then the server does the map load

[subtle karma]

Im with you, but how do i tell the client then to ping the results and have the server send back what it rewards the client with?

[glacial pollen]

First, off the client NEVER is supposed to tell the server what happened

They can cheat

You always tell the server "I want to"

[subtle karma]

Ah good poimg

Point

[glacial pollen]

let me explain

Say you want to shoot someone

You DON'T tell the server, you killed thim

you tell the server you shot your weapn

and THATS IT

the server determines, where you were aiming, how much damage was done, how much ammoe you used
EVEN determines if you HAVE ENOUGH AMMO TO EVEN SHOOT

and if you killed them

[subtle karma]

So in my example then i would tell the server that i started the event, and that i won the event or lost the event

[glacial pollen]

sorry, caps

no

[subtle karma]

Let me preface this by saying its mobile and i would like the least lag as possible

[glacial pollen]

What is the win condition?

Unless you are doing serious fast pace shooting or driving, lag is not that big of a deal

[subtle karma]

Level starts, multiple mobs come out. Player kills x amount of mobs and is then allowed to summon the boss. Once the boss is killed the total time it took and the boss death is recorded and rewarded

[glacial pollen]

Okay

simple

[subtle karma]

I just want this to run smooth is all, i havent really experienced much with servers yet

[glacial pollen]

Here is all the things the client will EVER say to the server
I want to move (forward, back, left right)
I want to shoot

[subtle karma]

Ok but cheating aside wouldnt this cause undue stress to the server? Would it not be easier on the server to say if you simply won or not and leave everything else client side?

I dont plan on having a huge server for this

[glacial pollen]

If you don't care about cheating

like you honestly dont

then you can "tell" the server you won the level

[subtle karma]

Idk if i can afford to care. I would like to have the least amount of server/ client interaction as possible

[glacial pollen]

Honestly if you are trying to do it like that

You don't even need a Unreal Server

You just want some c# or c++ custom program that records the results

Look at the VA Rest plugin

[subtle karma]

Alright, how would it help?

[glacial pollen]

It allows you to send "arbitrary" data to a server from within unreal

Basically, you would only have this kind of server interaction

[subtle karma]

And thats what i want yes. A database of sorts, like i picked up x amount of mob drops and beat the main boss is x amount of time, server then rewards

[glacial pollen]

Client login
Client won level
Send Client reward

However, if you are going to trust the client so much

why bother with client won level or reward

you can do that on the client

Actually, why even bother with login... ?

I'm sure you can do some sort of google games save system if you want them to be able to have progress saved on the cloud

[subtle karma]

My plan here is a gacha based game

With levels that reward for currency that then are used in gacha

Free to play but i want things to be server side so i can record results and post them to leaderboards, and also to constantly update with new features etc

I also would like the gacha to come straight from the server

So i can have pre determined sets of winnables from a client side event, but i would need the server to be able to take those winnables away in exchange for x thing

[glacial pollen]

If you trust the client, they will hack it
Apart from that, its still the same
Client tells server what it wants to do
Server does it

Or (possible cheating)
Client tells server what it did
Server records result, and replies

[subtle karma]

For the small audience that will play this proof of concept i'm not too worried

if it was a bigger show i would care much more

so what would i use to blueprint this? I still dont' know if i should use server events or not :S

[glacial pollen]

how else would the client tell the server anything?

or how else would the server talk to the client?

Have you read the Network compendium?

[subtle karma]

I'm just very new to working with networking and trying to figure out how i might approach this is all

not the compendium, though ido have it saved so i can browse at work tomorrow

i have read the documentation though

[glacial pollen]

you should read that first, its basically the beginners bible for networking

[subtle karma]

i also have a server set up on AWS that i have succesfully been using for the last week but only on tutorials and not doing my own thing

alright, i will do that

[keen thorn]

Ue4 networking only has 2 parts, Replication (server to clients) and RPC (client to server

those are built in for u

[next belfry]

i've tried create session by using Advanced Sessions Plugin Plugin

but the problem happen when other network create session it has super high lentacy (Ping)

any can help me about this what do i missed

[neon violet]

@glacial pollen thanks man I'm gonna check it out

So what would that external program be written in? And could I one made instead of making my own one

And the va rest plugin gives you the necessary components in blueprint to communicate with the custom program?

[neon violet]

And if I use va rest do I need to use advance sessions?

[vapid egret]

with a dedicated server written in c ++ can I have full control over the features?

[bitter oriole]

What do you mean ?

[vapid egret]

with this, can I get the control to do anything with multiplayer?

[bitter oriole]

With what ?

Gonna need to ask detailed questions here

[glacial pollen]

still there @neon violet ?

anyways, here you go
https://forums.unrealengine.com/community/community-content-tools-and-tutorials/1516717-free-multiplayer-shooter-template-v2-dedicated-servers-manager-5-modes-dm-tdm-classic-br-mbr

If you follow that link, there is a full example with a c# session manager, php, va rest, mysql

He also, has an other version, in that link. I would use both as a learning tool, because the older one is a bit more organized and simpler, while the newer one is more complete

[vital steeple]

does anyone know if there are any future plans to allow dedicated server compiling without a separate source engine build? ive been doing the source build method, which is great, but it'd be nice to just be on the main branch.

[winged badger]

don't think thats likely to ever happen

[fresh grotto]

Hey guys, I'm super close to finishing my multiplayer game, but I've got one bug I've got to iron out. Projectiles do this crazy wobbly thing on clients , presumably because they're updating too slow, is there a suggested way to do slow(ish) moving projectiles on servers/clients?

[glacial pollen]

Are you using the projectile movement component?

That has built in client prediction like the Character Movement Component does. You should be able to tweak it to your taste, but don't quote me, i've done limited testing with it

[fresh grotto]

Okay, thanks!

[glacial pollen]

anytime

[wheat eagle]

Hey guys I have a question: Is is possible send an array of images or an array of steam unique IDs as a parameter? I'm trying to send such array from the server to a client. But I would either get an array of white images , or an array of invalid IDs.

[bitter oriole]

You don't need to.

Player state should have you covered

[grand kestrel]

@fresh grotto the projectile movement component has no prediction but it is the right thing to use for projectiles. Only CMC has prediction out of the box

[neon violet]

thanks so much man

im gonna check that out

[neon violet]

@glacial pollen ok so I put his master server on the hosting service as well as the dedicated server exe. When a player wants to start a game a session will request the master server to create a ue4 game server / find one and voila

How would the connection between session and master server happen?

Also I think I found a better solution

https://github.com/RyroNZ/UE4MasterServer/blob/master/README.md

Oh wait I think he provides the tools needed in order to retrieve info from and to the master server

[glacial pollen]

@neon violet Did you just put someone else's compiled binary on your server? You should never trust a stranger. I hope you looked at the code and compiled it yourself

also, just look at his ue4 project and see how he connected them

I hope you also read his description, as he mentions he has a tiny part in c++

Also, that link you posted is a different kind of master server, than the one I posted

The one I gave you, is a single machine, that spins up its own ue4 server instances

The one you just posted, is like a telephone book, and external servers register with this "master" server

To the end user, they wouldn't notice a difference

[neon violet]

Ohh ok

So which one would u go for?

[glacial pollen]

Well, how big is this game going to get?

how many players are you expecting?

A medium game, can hold 100 players

[neon violet]

Yh I'm looking for medium capacity

And hopefully as my game grows I can expand on that

[glacial pollen]

well if you need expansion, aka "scaling"

then the link you posted is better

[neon violet]

Hmm ok

[glacial pollen]

however, to make this better

mix the two

the first one is the server, all players talk to, to request a session

if it needs to spin up a instance,

instead of spinning up one on its local machine

it would tell the actual work horses (other external servers)

to spin one up

and then tell the player the ip address

and port

[neon violet]

Soo the player requests a session to the master server

But what do you mean telling the other external servers?

[glacial pollen]

well, you buy a bunch of servers, install the second link on it, set them up with the ip address of the master server

then they will automatically, tell the master server they are online

if its offline, the server will tell the server to spin one up

Look, let me be blunt

[neon violet]

Ok so I buy a server on let's say digital ocean. Then I put my second link on that server.

[glacial pollen]

you will need to know server management, ue4 networking, c++, c#, php, msql

how both of the links work

and then go about creating this

[neon violet]

I'm pretty familiar with ue4 networking now

[glacial pollen]

because neither one give you what you wan, pre-made

[neon violet]

It's just this master server stuff that's annoying

[glacial pollen]

Well, the clients don't need to know anything but one ip address

[neon violet]

Yh ik that

[glacial pollen]

The "master" server, isn't even unreal

[neon violet]

Yeh it's a third party managing server software

[glacial pollen]

its going to be php code, mysql, and c++ or c#

[neon violet]

Yh that's the link u sent me

But I'm kinda confused what the link I sent you was😂

[glacial pollen]

Then on the actual servers themselves, you write some more server management code,

All you want to do, is tell the master, hey bud, im available, let me know if I need to spin up an instance

[neon violet]

Ahh ok

Lemme try to explain

So to implement both systems you would write some code on I'm presuming a Linux based ue4 dedicated server telling the master server im on now and if a player wants to connect I'll make an instance. Then the player creates a session connecting to the master server and then in return the master server tells the game server to run an instance matching the player criteria or the master server will give an ip and port of an instance that's already going.

But what exactly was the link I sent you?

A ue4 plugin that provides the tools for creating sessions and retrieving Information from the master server?

[glacial pollen]

Why would the player ever create a session?

I thought the player is connecting to dedicated servers?

[neon violet]

Yes but isn't a session created first?

[glacial pollen]

whoever creates the session is the host

so unless you are trying to run a listen server, im not sure what you are doing

[neon violet]

Yep ur right

I got a little confused

[glacial pollen]

Honestly, you should focus on the game

you can mimic most of this with a single dedicated server

Once you have a complete game, you can work on the server stuff

[neon violet]

Yh ik I'm always juggling the game with school and I've only got a few weeks of dev left then I'm going to properly focus on the server stuff

[glacial pollen]

not to mention, that unreal is coming out with their cross platform tools this year

[neon violet]

Oh really

[glacial pollen]

yea,

[neon violet]

I'm definitely going to look into that

Is it going to require the latest version of ue4 though?

[glacial pollen]

i stopped working on multiplayer stuff because of it, just focus on gameplay

[neon violet]

I'm on 4.18

[glacial pollen]

I use the built in server stuff in the editor for testing

im on 4.22

I started in 4.17

[neon violet]

And my core game is in c++ And if there's any changes in api I'll have t 're write

[glacial pollen]

ah

yea, blueprints saved me from that

[neon violet]

Guess I'll wait for the cross platform then

Yh blueprints are amazing and really give an edge to unreal over other engines but personally i would like my core logic ran in c++ And then do the rest in blueprint

[glacial pollen]

I'm a strong pusher of blueprints

I have 3 years into my game

and 99.8% of it is in blueprints

It has its quirks, but with experiance you never have an issue again

I can close the game, and walk away for months, come back, and within 24hrs, have my bearings as to what does what, where things are ect

I can glance at a blueprint, and instantly recognize, where I'm at, and what it does

Not only that, but refactoring in blueprints is a cake compared to c++

[neon violet]

Blueprint really is good

I just checked out the cross platform

[glacial pollen]

yea its code

sdk

I'll wait xD

for the blueprints xD

[neon violet]

It's looking so promising

[glacial pollen]

or make them myself

or someone else will xD

[neon violet]

Yep I'm not gonna stress over c++

Eventually it'll come to blueprint

When's it gonna come out?

[glacial pollen]

the sdk is 2019

blueprint 2050

xD

[neon violet]

Haha

Hey maybe I'll get my head down and work at it in c++

But blueprint would be way bettter

When this year?

[glacial pollen]

Late from what I remember

[lone vapor]

Quick question... does anyone happen to know whether the RotatingMovement component works in a networked environment?
I have Auto Activate disabled by default and I enable it in the construction script, based on a switched condition.
This works correctly on the Server, but on a normal Client it automatically activates regardless of the condition met.

Or is the issue more because I'm doing this in the construction script? Doing some debugging and it looks like server and client are calling different things
NVM, managed to fix by authority guarding the construction script condition check 😃

[winged badger]

@lone vapor constructors/construction scrips should generally not contain any code that reacts to environment

[cunning stirrup]

Hello, how can I replicate the location of a newly spawned actor in an elegant manner ? Actors spawned on the server seem to always spawn at world origin, even though replicate and replicateMovement are true.

[worthy perch]

Do they have a Scenecomponent?

[cunning stirrup]

yes

Scene Component is replicated too

[worthy perch]

I actually had that exact same problem today. Didn't "solve" it, but it was really weird since I gave it a Transform in both Deferred and FinishSpawning. *didn't solve it because I was later just attaching it to a component.

[cunning stirrup]

weird

@worthy perch are you on UE 4.22.1 ?

[worthy perch]

I'm on 4.21.

[cunning stirrup]

seems to be a recurring issue then

Is the actor spawned before theclient joins @worthy perch

[worthy perch]

Nope, not in my case.

[cunning stirrup]

I'll investigate then

Do you spawn the actor with the location or do you apply a transform afterwards ?

[worthy perch]

FTransform MyComponentTransform = GetMyPlayer()->GetMyComponent->GetRelativeTransform();
    SpawnedMyActor = GetWorld()->SpawnActorDeferred<MyActor>(ClassOfMyActor, MyComponentTransform);
    if (IsValid(SpawnedMyActor)) {
        SpawnedMyActor->DoSomething(this);
        SpawnedMyActor->DoSomething1();
        SpawnedMyActor->DoSomething2();
        SpawnedMyActor->FinishSpawning(MyComponentTransform);
    }

That's pretty much it. I do it pretty much everywhere. Really weird behavior.

[cunning stirrup]

sounds like we need to set actor transform after spawning it

[worthy perch]

What do you mean?

As far as I know, it only happened with that one class/subclasses. My other classes work fine.

[cunning stirrup]

Spawning via BP works fine

wow spawning via BP is working correctly

[cunning stirrup]

See K2Node_SpawnActor.cpp, it's the version that works @worthy perch

now the hard thing is to understand how it even works ...

[balmy canopy]

Hi everyone.

I have a question can I do like a browse server to find a dedicated server that I hosted. Im not any good with Cpp Im still really new to Cpp. So any blueprint tutorial or advice will help. I`m using advanced sessions and Source 4.21.2. I saw people said on the forum that you should use Uwork but I dont have that kind of money to send on a plugin.

regards,

[neon violet]

@glacial pollen I was just checking out the cross platform and they arnt providing a master server setup

Just crops play login etc

So u would still need a master server to make ue4 instances and then use the cross play services on top

[cunning stirrup]

@worthy perch it calls BeginSpawningActorFromBlueprint then FinishSpawningActor from UGameplayStatics

[lone vapor]

@winged badger thanks for the tip regarding construction :)
I'm using the construction script to set a mesh. Its an interactable object with a few presets (health, ammo, etc) and I change the model based on what preset is used.

[winged badger]

its a little bit volatile with blueprints in multiplayer

it will run after all ExposeOnSpawn variables are set on server

but before any replicated variables are set on client

[lone vapor]

ill keep an eye out for it for sure, appreciate it. So far in local testing with a few clients it all seems to be synching up correctly but I know where to look if things start going spaz 😃

[neon violet]

can anyone tell me why the crouch works in multiplayer but the camera doesnt go down at all

in single player it did but when i started replicating it just stopped going down with the crouch

nevermind i got it😃

[meager spade]

why is the server doing the camera?>

the camera should be local

and the fact your asking the server to crouch

would break gameplay in high ping situations

it should be done locally and then the server informed

if the server disagrees, just for the player back to standing

[twin juniper]

@winged badger Continuing from the last convo at #blueprint, how would I go about doing so?

[winged badger]

don't know what you're using for sessions atm, the engine doesn't have much

you can look into AdvancedSessions plugin, exposes a lot of stuff to BP, and has basic steam interaction (its free)

[twin juniper]

https://i.gyazo.com/a7d6f9813792678fcb0e7626d1c9be52.png

AdvancedSessions?

[winged badger]

just google it, you'll end up on forum post with download links

[twin juniper]

This?
https://forums.unrealengine.com/community/community-content-tools-and-tutorials/41043-advanced-sessions-plugin

Downloading now.

[twin juniper]

@winged badger Alright so, it seems this is actually another C++ plugin and I am trying to avoid using C++ at all for my template. Trying to keep it strictly blueprints. So I will just have to scrap the game mode addon of the server browser listings.

Everything else works at least.

That and I am unsure if Epic will allow me using another's plugin to reference for my commercial template.

[pearl eagle]

Bada bing

Okay anyway gonna repost the vod and speak here https://gfycat.com/SpecificCriminalDrever

@past bear yeah they're characters

I mean they're just the default Paper2D movement scripts with some light modification

[past bear]

that may or may not be the problem - are they moving using character movement?

[pearl eagle]

https://i.imgur.com/n8bCEkV.png

yep

[past bear]

hmm, everything seems in order

[pearl eagle]

Exactly xD

A friend suggetsed to look into something called dead recknoning

Sadly google doesn't seem to understand that's not the name of a game or something

[bitter oriole]

Is your session set to LAN ?

Yes ?

Make sure both machines have the firewall OK for the game

Doesn't hurt to check.

Did you start setting things up for Steam ? Setting the net driver to Steam, regardless of the OSS setting might put it off

Weird. Dunno what happens in that case.

No

As to Steam, the larger question isn't what you do in development, but what you want to do once you're shipping the game. You won't be able to use the development SteamID for your game - players invited to a game will be redirected to that "Spacewar" game instead.

If you're going to have Steam at some point, might as well use it today, since it'll work for LAN too, provided you have two accounts

Dunno either, never used it.

[pearl eagle]

Is this what makes peers jittery to the host? https://i.imgur.com/8rccRl6.png

That's in every character

Is it supposed to be replicating something other than just the sprite?

[past bear]

should the sprite replicate at all?

[pearl eagle]

I'm not entirely sure what that means in the first place, tbh. It's in the default character script.

[winged badger]

@pearl eagle any component that is a part of ClassDefaultObject (like say added via AddComponent button in editor) of a replicated Actor, or an non-replicated Actor loaded from a Package (as in, pre-placed on map) can be referenced over network just fine

it does not need to replicate

unless you have replicated variables in it, or run RPC through it

[glacial pollen]

I have a weird issue, where collision works if I start in a map, but not with server travel

[winged badger]

just initial collisions?

[pearl eagle]

alright

@winged badger Do you have any idea why, then, for some reason the game's host sees peers update less often than peers see anybody else update?

[winged badger]

you'll have to define "sees <someone> update" for me

[pearl eagle]

So like when the host moves around, the peers see him moving as if they were moving, perfectly 1:! realistic movement

[glacial pollen]

Not exactly, if I fly back up, and try to land, the character will "pause" for a second but then keep falling through

[pearl eagle]

But if you're the host, everyone else appears to jitter/update less often

https://gfycat.com/SlushyUnitedIndianabat

For instance, the host is top-left and the peer is top-right

[winged badger]

we are talking about seamless travel?

[pearl eagle]

It's hard to tell because I believe my gif recorder caps at 30fps for faster upload speeds e.e

[glacial pollen]

yea

[winged badger]

because clients don't correct out of sync host, host does correct clients

i've heard of some weird issues with seamless travel

like in editor references getting nulled if you travel back to the map you already visited

as for this, do your collisions depend in any way on BeginPlay being executed?

[glacial pollen]

no, its all preset

but I have other issue like owner being null depending on if I use seamless and dedicated

This is so frustrating, everything acts different in different network modes

[winged badger]

i use seamless travel with listen server

[glacial pollen]

If I turn single process on, it behaves differently than without ect

[winged badger]

so far, had to make few adjustements

mainly because when you change the PC class, PC that loads the destination map is still a PC from a previous map

makes for some awkward code placement

[glacial pollen]

And then there is this:

What the hell is this

[winged badger]

you can see your collision shapes?

[glacial pollen]

dedicated is turned off, with only a single player

[winged badger]

that is not a seamless travel log there

[glacial pollen]

?

what log?

[winged badger]

the printouts

[glacial pollen]

thats my stuff

nothing to do with seamless travel

[winged badger]

ok

[glacial pollen]

Why do I have two players?

(well, 1 player, and 1 broken screen)

[winged badger]

because you mucked around splitscreen and some setting was not undone?

no idea otherwise 😦

[glacial pollen]

yea, no. Thats now how split screen works

[winged badger]

yeah, never used it

altho

looking at it, your setting doesn't seem to make sense

you are starting a listen server game, as a client, with 1 player

[glacial pollen]

I'm trying different things and getting different issues.

the issue with collision after server travel is another issue

owner being null is a different one

mysterious 2nd player is another one

[winged badger]

its not mysterious

[glacial pollen]

yes it is

[winged badger]

to have listen server client

[glacial pollen]

i don't have two players

[winged badger]

you have to have 2 players

[glacial pollen]

no

thats not how that work

no way in hell

I get one begin play, as a listen server

I had to write a complicated blueprint function just to determine if the client was a listen server or not

[winged badger]

and the editor makes a viewport for the client because you told it to

and it doesn't make the client because you told it not to

[glacial pollen]

the listen server IS the client

[winged badger]

not with PlayAsClient setting

[glacial pollen]

I see

[winged badger]

whats your owner supposed to be?

[glacial pollen]

Char_Base (or child of)

[winged badger]

owned by the PC?

[glacial pollen]

yea

[winged badger]

Only GameMode, GameState, PlayerStates, GameSession, PlayerControllers and things "attached" to them survive seamless travel by default

[glacial pollen]

that bug wan't a part of seamless travel

and I re-create everything on travel

[winged badger]

what is everything?

overriding HandleStartingNewPlayer?

[glacial pollen]

The charcater

and all actors that attach to the character

[winged badger]

seamless traval actors don't call BeginPlay

if that helps any

that includes your PCs, GM, GS and PS

im going to bed now, starting to doze off

gl

[glacial pollen]

well, they call begin play in blueprints with seamless travel

[slender yarrow]

Is there a reason a run on client event would not run? Its no different than the other 30 run on client events I have in this blueprint but it just gets skipped? First time ive had this issue and its very strange

[glacial pollen]

There are a few times things get weird

explain what you are doing

It would help, if you gave us a screen shot of the calling blueprint, the called blueprint. And even better if you could break point the beginning of both, and screen shot who is calling it (in the top right corner : Simulation, Server, Server Simulation, Client)

[slender yarrow]

well everything is in the same BP im just calling a client event right above the bulk of the code.

the code in between the overlap and the event call is just a bunch of branches and forloops. nothing noteworthy

[glacial pollen]

First, make it reliable, for testing at least

Second, I know what your issue is

Begin Overlap

How are you setting it?

static or at runtime?

[slender yarrow]

ThirdPerson is just the third person mesh i have on my character

im using the mesh to trigger overlap events

i assume runtime?

[glacial pollen]

How are you setting the collision?

[slender yarrow]

oh

[glacial pollen]

Are you pre-setting it in the editor

or at runtime?

Do you change it at runtime?

[slender yarrow]

no sorry not runtime. Its set in details before i run

[glacial pollen]

Okay, so set a break point on....

where you call "Gun Pickup Text"

on the overlap event

play up to that point, and show me a screen shot of the top right (where it says simulate/server/client/server simulate)

then put another break point on the event "Gun Pickup Text"

and send another screen shot of the breakpoint there

be back in 10 minutes

[slender yarrow]

wth it works now

doing these break points like magically made it work

😵

that is so wonky and weird

oh no it was the reliable...

[neon violet]

Ha ha

[slender yarrow]

still strange that i cant have that event be non reliable

[glacial pollen]

lol

So reliable makes sure its fired

that was like the first thing I told you to do xD

So non-reliable, means that if the "queue" is full, it gets skipped

you only want reliable turned off for things that happen on somehting like tick

Like turning, or moving

This way, if an event is dropped, its not really noticed

Also, you won't loose important data

Also, the editor treats things differently while you are breakpointing for a simple reason

[slender yarrow]

Ok i just got paranoid with checking reliable on a lot of events cause people made it seem bad

[glacial pollen]

break points, give the back end network buffer a chance to clear up the queue before you hit play again

[slender yarrow]

so eveything but ticking events on server are ok to set to reliable

[glacial pollen]

For inital gameplay design, and in editor testing, save your sanity

worry about reliable, when you are ready to release, and want to opitimize the network traffic

I wouldn't put movement/turning as reliable

[slender yarrow]

Ok duly noted. Thanks a lot for the help ✌

[glacial pollen]

Now if someone could tell me why I can't create a component for an actor at runtime while using seamless travel that would be cool

If I add the component to the character in the editor, all is fine

but during runtime? Nope.

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/221798862938046464/572214760968421407/unknown.png?width=1443&height=75

[grand kestrel]

Can I ensure that an arbitrary component has fully ticked prior to executing Server RPCs (sent from owning client)

I'll just cache the RPC data and call it from a component if needed but figured there should be a way to ensure the order

[grand kestrel]

I guess I really just need it to process the RPCs at the end of the frame 😐

Its so extremely inconsistent

Might be an engine bug in recent versions because in 4.15 it was consistent

[fleet raven]

aren't rpcs processed at the start of the frame

[grand kestrel]

There is no order

[fleet raven]

but there is

[grand kestrel]

Let me try that again

In CharacterMovementComponent::MoveAutonomous() I'm storing the client timestamp

In the weapon, when it fires, it uses that timestamp

Sometimes its a frame behind, sometimes its not

So sometimes the RPC on the weapon is processed before and sometimes after CMC has ticked

I need CMC to tick first, always

This is a Server RPC from owning client

[fleet raven]

cmc does not simulate every frame on the server

only when an rpc with client input arrives

[grand kestrel]

But its only ever 1 frame behind

And I haven't been providing any input

Furthermore if I reduce FPS it is more consistently in sync

Meaning at lower fps it more commonly processes rpc's after CMC ticks

At 30 FPS its very rare that it doesn't (but can happen)

At 60FPS it happens ~50% of the time

15 FPS extremely rare but possible

Its definitely a same frame issue

[fleet raven]

cmc does not "tick" on the server

it will simulate a frame when the input arrives

(with an rpc)

so if you send your weapon thing as an rpc too, on a different channel, it's possible for them to execute in different order

[grand kestrel]

I guess with MoveAutonomous thats called from RPC

In ServerMove and ServerMoveOld

And ClientUpdatePositionAfterServerUpdate

Mm

I need to find a solution

[fleet raven]

what I've been planning for our weapon system is to send the weapon inputs as part of ServerMove and have cmc call it after updating

[grand kestrel]

Wonder if theres any form of prerequisite/dependancy for RPCs

Similar to how tick does it

[twin juniper]

what do i do if an On_Rep() depends on a variable that hasn't replicated yet?
is there a way to get On_Rep only to fire during beginplay only if all variables have been initially replicated?

[glacial pollen]

IsValid (if its an object/actor reference)

= 0 (or whatever the default is) for int /float/bool

[grand kestrel]

@fleet raven Went through all the net driver and channel stuff and there isn't anywhere that the data is actually sorted 😦 I might have to rework it to send it with ServerMove like you're doing

[twin juniper]

i did something where each on rep calls a "im here" function then returns out and if enough "im here's" are called then all on_Reps are fired for the clients, and individual onReps after beginplay, during normal gameplay get called normally

[grand kestrel]

If its all sent together then at least I can be sure its processed in the right order

Whats really annoying though, is the order that I'm calling the RPCs in is consistent, it would be nice if they were also be processed in the same order they're called in

Because any RPCs I call for the weapon I call from the end of ::TickComponent in CMC

In fact.. why do they lose their order?

Something feels very wrong here

If I'm always calling ServerMove and my fire weapon RPC in a consistent order, where is it getting scrambled

[glacial pollen]

Are we not allows to dynamically add components to actor with servertravel?

Would you look at that, manually adding the component to asset manager in project settings solves that mysterious issue

[thin stratus]

Are there any pre-defined querysetting keys for Steam?

Idk if SEARCH_NONEMPTY_SERVERS_ONLY is supported by steam

@rough iron Since you are back, any tips on how to handle query settings for Steam?

[rough iron]

You mean within the sessions?

[thin stratus]

Both, Create and FindSession.

UE4 has some pre#defined keys, but not sure if Steam supports them all.

[rough iron]

You normally handle it 2 layers, 1 on the backend (steam filters them) and one on the frontend (your self)

Steam has limited support

[thin stratus]

Correct, however I know Steam has some backend filters

Such as "hasplayers" etc.

But not sure how to utilize them with the Session Interface

[rough iron]

Yeah I normaly use a single tag to define the state of the sessions

like: Searching for players, or waiting for players, inprogress etc

to make a highlevel filter

plus an open slots property

to define how many players are free on the server

[thin stratus]

There is no "CurrentPlayers" key yet?

[rough iron]

No idea xD There was not long time ago xD

[thin stratus]

I mean there is open slots in the result itself

[rough iron]

You might have to see what UE translates into Steam stuff

[thin stratus]

Nearly nothing, they have a custom FName to whatever steam wants function

[rough iron]

For any extra info that you do not need to handle on the backend I encode it into the mapname key

which UE4 should add automaticallyu

just make a very simple URL Query string enconding xD

[thin stratus]

I only have a handfull of stuff

NumBots, GameMode, MapName and if full, empty or nothing.

The Bots,GM and Map is easy

Just wondering with the full,empty etc.

Cause I know steam has a backend filter

[rough iron]

I would add that all into the map name, the GameMode might be one for tyhe search tag I guess

[thin stratus]

But that's just a plain value, if it's defined they use it. The query filters always want the comparison value

Map, GameMode and Bots can all 3 be filtered

So I leave them in 3 separated settings for now

[rough iron]

Yeah the less the better

But no idea what UE4 feeds steam, the last time I just did it all custom xD

[thin stratus]

Gnah, alright

I need to find out if I can filter for NumopenSlots

Then it's easier >.>

[rough iron]

yep

also you can generate a hash string to search these

GameMode::SessionMode::Slots

so a host could define it as:

TDM::WAITING_FOR_PLAERS:4

[thin stratus]

Yeah the optimization I can do later

For now I wanna know if I really have to create my own slots stuff

Cause the Result returns the num open slots

So they must be available somehow

[rough iron]

There should be enough stuff already, and if not an engine modification should be trivial.

Are you about to implement a matchmaking algo?

[thin stratus]

No, just finding servers for a list

Matchmaking is handled in the backend already

[thin stratus]

How can it be that "DestroySession" has an empty Sessions Array and "CreateSession" has a Session Array with one entry? (NULL SubSystem)

DestroySession->OnSuccess/OnFailed->CreateSession

https://issues.unrealengine.com/issue/UE-38897

The fuck

So apparently calling Destroy Session is the one that isn't working like it should

The Session Array prints 1 (length) the whole time, but the breakpoint in the GetNameSession returns null

(and the array in that breakpoint is empty too)

I have a custom one and not yet using 4.22

So, it's two different session interfaces

DestroySession calls for a different NullSubsystem instance o.o

[distant talon]

Looking for general advice on custom move components for vehicles, is it a good idea to start by inheriting the base movement component or is it better to just go from scratch?

[thin stratus]

I went from Nav iirc

Or actually from Pawn

[distant talon]

Oh, hmm. Did you get AI working with that?

[thin stratus]

We do that more or less custom

AI just uses the same input the Player would give

[distant talon]

gotcha. the chain of inheritences above the pawn movement component can get a little confusing with which features are where

[strong karma]

hello guys, i dont come here often but ive had a search through the channel and cant seem to find any info on it.
ive switched my NPCs over to navmesh walking, and since doing so any overlaps are only triggered on the client side, and refuse to trigger server side. not very useful. cant seem to find a way round it. im not knowledgably enough to roll my own CMC though, i am willing to learn if it really is the best solution.

[thin stratus]

Overlaps shouldn't be affected by NavMesh Walking 🤔

[golden aurora]

Quick question: In a multiplayer game, all player data (about his itens, health, etc etc) is saved in DB server, right? Or that content is saved locally in client?

[thin stratus]

Can be both

Depends entirely on the game

[golden aurora]

Just because I dont want the players change the content file to get more itens and things like that. In server is more secure I think

And if I want add a new item, I "just need" add a column in DB. If the data is saved in server I think is more easier, right?

Or I'm wrong?

[thin stratus]

You need a complete DedicatedServer architecture for that

[winged badger]

it really doesn't matter, difference in difficulty implementing it is trivial

[thin stratus]

WIth hosting servers away from clients etc.

Also, I just found out that using two different ways of getting the SessionInterface breaks the whole shit

The Default Destroy Session node uses these BP helpers

[golden aurora]

Idk how server update the client files, I need to verify that

[thin stratus]

I used Online::GetSessionInterface

Created two different subsystem instances and suddenly I couldn't destroy the session anymore

[winged badger]

@golden aurora if you don't know how server and client communicate in Unreal, i suggest reading exi's compendium a couple of times, before even thinking about anti-cheat systems

[golden aurora]

Right, one thing at time. I just wanted do a list with what I need to keep going. Just to organize. Thanks 😉

[thin stratus]

Just saying, stopping players from cheating is expensive

Cause as just mentioned, you need to have DedicatedServers that are hosted away from the Client. So that the client never can issue any "AddItem" functions.

[strong karma]

yeah, i figured it shouldnt. heres a gif to show exactly what im running into 😃 i might be being a dofus or something.
https://gfycat.com/FaroffFloweryJumpingbean

[winged badger]

and by expensive, he doesn't mean performance, he means money expensive

[golden aurora]

I know

Thanks to both for help

[thin stratus]

@strong karma Strange

The CMC calls the SafeUpdateMove in NavWalking too

So Not sure what this is causing

[strong karma]

i did see someone mention earlier that CMC replication seemed to be "thrashed" in 4.22 maybe a bug on epics side ?

[thin stratus]

That can always be the case

[strong karma]

well, i shall report it and work with walking for now. still early in proto typing so its not going to be a big issue. 😃 thanks for just reassuring me im not crazy. lol.

[rough iron]

@thin stratus OSS needs some love xD

[thin stratus]

Yeah it's working now at least for LAN

¯_(ツ)_/¯

More sh`t tomorrow

[drifting plank]

@jolly siren It was a terrible easy solution :
The BP_Parent had the "Replicates" option checked.
And the childs not for any random reason 😦 !

So now the replay works for all !
Thanks in any case 😉

[jolly siren]

Awesome, glad to hear you got it fixed 👍

[fleet raven]

an actor that was replicated from the server will always have a netguid, so there's no need to worry about it ever sending a huge string to reference it in an rpc, right?

[winged badger]

@fleet raven iirc yes, and huge strings will be sent once then converted and saved as GUIDs as well

[fleet raven]

nice

[ionic mountain]

Regarding Multiplayer replication for a peer-to-peer connection as opposed to server based, does the host count as the server? Trying to wrap my head around how I should go about modifying my game to allow for multiplayer before release as I've been told it is a nightmare to back-track and allow replication after the game is done.

[worthy perch]

You should probably check this out if you haven't: http://cedric-neukirchen.net/2017/02/14/multiplayer-network-compendium/.

[grand kestrel]

@thin stratus imo the real expense with stopping cheaters is developing prediction etc instead of taking the easy way out

[past rain]

@ionic mountain UE4's default multiplayer mode is the Client/Server model. Where the Host is the server, if that is what you're talking about

And depending on the size of your game, it can definitely be a nightmare to back-track and make sure everything functions correctly in multiplayer

[median elbow]

is it possible to connect to a session in unreal without connecting to the server, but still receive some kind of event or information from the server?

basically what i'd like to do, is connect to the first session i find, but not connect to the server until the server is ready. in the meantime, continue looking for a server thats going to start sooner, and stay in the menu

[fossil spoke]

PartyBeacons should help you there.

[median elbow]

i mean, i know anything is possible, but just kind of out of box

[fossil spoke]

Though they are C++ only.

[median elbow]

ok, partybeacons?

c++ is ok, i come from a c++ background so its all good

thanks! i'll check that out

[fossil spoke]

No worries

[median elbow]

ooh, yeah, i think i read something about this or something related to it, about lobbies or something

i thought they were more for like connecting with friends then traveling together though

i'll read more up on it

[fossil spoke]

Kinda. They can be used to open a channel for connectionless communication with a Server.

There is a bit of documentation and user guides on them.

If you search around.

[median elbow]

oh yeah, thats perfect

awesome, thanks

oh! they are built into unreal!

i was thinking they were a plugin or something

ok, so this is actually the second time i came to this page:

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

and i'm wondering, just from an architectural point of view, if i ever decided to release a game for another platform, like, using another kind of plugin for that platform, in unreal engine what would be the best way to go about it?

is there a macro or something in c++ saying which platform is currently being compiled?

i'm just curious how one might do it in unreal, i'm still learning the engine

or is it something you would create a separate unreal engine project for?

[fossil spoke]

PartyBeacons arent platform specific if im not mistaken. They are a generic method for communicating with a Server prior to connection.

[plucky horizon]

How can I start a listen server & load a map? I posted in #blueprint but I think this is probably the better channel.

[sharp pagoda]

@median elbow Here's my stash of beacon-related links which should be useful:

https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-us/Gameplay/Networking/OnlineBeacons
https://forums.unrealengine.com/community/community-content-tools-and-tutorials/1355434-onlinebeacons-tutorial-with-blueprint-access https://answers.unrealengine.com/questions/467973/what-are-online-beacons-and-how-do-they-work.html
https://forums.unrealengine.com/development-discussion/c-gameplay-programming/85348-party-beacon-how-does-it-work-o-o https://github.com/EpicGames/UnrealEngine/blob/release/Engine/Plugins/Online/OnlineFramework/Source/Lobby/Public/LobbyBeaconClient.h
https://github.com/EpicGames/UnrealEngine/blob/release/Engine/Plugins/Online/OnlineSubsystemUtils/Source/OnlineSubsystemUtils/Public/PartyBeaconClient.h

[median elbow]

Awesome thanks @sharp pagoda

[sharp pagoda]

The third link is by the engineer who worked on them, so that's definitely one of the better resources

[ionic mountain]

@past rain Yeah, that's what I'm referring to - The host being the server as I will only have 3-4 people in a single match at a time. I'm at the point now where I have 26 skills functioning and 4 enemy types so I'll have to back-track and do that if I decide to... But I think being Multiplayer would really bring something awesome to the game and likely be worth it for the player-base to be able to hang out with family and really come up with some complimentary character builds. Still weighing my options, but a strictly single player ARPG (D3/PoE) style game might not be as enticing as a Multiplayer one...

[plucky horizon]

I finally found the Create Session node, but now I can't figure out how to join the session, I want to be able to manually set the IP and join it. The Join Session node doesn't seem to support such a thing, so.. if somebody can point the way that'd be extremely helpful

[twin minnow]

you need to use the Find Sessions node to get a BlueprintSearchResult object that you pass into Join Session, then on the success of Join Session, you call servertravel or openlevel. @plucky horizon

[plucky horizon]

What if I'm a non-conformist?

[twin minnow]

wut

[plucky horizon]

I want to enter the IP to connect to

[twin minnow]

but to join the session u need to use find session

[plucky horizon]

How can I create a session server that i can connect to with an Ip then?

[twin minnow]

have u read up on the dedicated server guide? https://wiki.unrealengine.com/Dedicated_Server_Guide_(Windows_%26_Linux)

[plucky horizon]

i have not

[twin minnow]

i would suggest that then first

[plucky horizon]

Thanks Mr Wiseau.

[plucky horizon]

@twin minnow do you know if this is only possible with source built projects? my workstations doesn't have enough space for building from source

[twin minnow]

unfortunately is only with source built projects

really anything involving a server is

[plucky horizon]

I guess this means I can put this part of the project on hold then

I thought it was weird when my source directory didn't have the Server.Target.cs file, and creating a new project as shown didn't provide one either, but owell

[thin stratus]

@plucky horizon You can connect to Listen and Dedicated Servers via IP.

So you don't have to build one if that's not what you wanted in the first place.

Listening for incoming connections is always done via "OpenLevel" node with "listen" as an option.

Sessions are an additional layer that would provide your players with an easy lookup via ServerLists

However they require a Subsystem such as Steam to be used.

For a simple connection via IP, you openLevel with listen and the client uses the "ExecuteConsoleCommand" node with "open IPADDRESS"

[plucky horizon]

Oh okay, OpenLevel cool

[thin stratus]

The IPADDRESS can be fed via a UMG widget or so

Keep in mind that direct IP connection requires proper ports to be opened (7777 by default)

[plucky horizon]

I got the menus setup

oh it needs ports in the address?

127.0.0.1:7777?

[thin stratus]

Yeah

Internally maybe not

Be def if you want to do that over the inet

[plucky horizon]

mm

is the port in the ini?

[thin stratus]

Might be

Not 100% sure atm

Probably not by default by they probably pull it form there if defined

[plucky horizon]

I will check tomorrow when I'm at my workstation

[thin stratus]

Righty

[plucky horizon]

Thanks for telling me the correct node setup 😃

[pallid mesa]

@thin stratus hello cedric, can we please pin this?https://discordapp.com/channels/187217643009212416/221799385611239424/572592952887607308

[pallid mesa]

thank you! <3

[meager spade]

we should really have a one stop link page

pinnged

pinned*

for all useful links

[pallid mesa]

actually, yes.

[meager spade]

and categorised

[thin stratus]

Feel free to create a Wiki for the Server and host/manage it ;)

[pallid mesa]

now that you are speaking, if I find some time, I could do one blog entry on my github.io for this stuff

since I use it myself a lot

[thin stratus]

Is there a function I can hook into that calls when I move from map to map to clean up my UI?

Cause apparently even the connect to a server keeps my widget alive.

I assume connecting to a server does not kill the LocalPlayer

Hm, I'm already using PreClientTravel I just noticed

Nvm, think I found why it surives the travel

[twin minnow]

@thin stratus just curious, why does it survive? cuz ive noticed that as well

[thin stratus]

I have my Menu in the ULocalPlayer

And the Player doesn't seem to be killed and recreated when you join a match

I already had it setup to clear widgets when seamless traveling

In PIE everything worked. Now in standalone (we only had splitscreen until now) it was breaking when joining

@twin minnow

Well in PIE it's probably also breaking but I can't find a session in PIE

.>

[twin minnow]

makes sense

[rough iron]

@thin stratus you could register yourself into the map events, there is an OnMapChange or something like that

would have too search for it though.

and yes the LocalPlayer is reused

[thin stratus]

Already fixed, but thanks!

[rough iron]

xD

Using a PlayerController would get it autoremoved

[thin stratus]

Having lots of other shizzle though :D

Man I hate custom online movement

[rough iron]

yeah it's an art in it self hehehe

[thin stratus]

[2019.04.30-13.24.55:940][172]LogNetHoverMovement: Error: CombineMove: add delta 0.016670 + 0.016667 and revert from 2625.896973 5985.262695 to 0.000000 0.000000

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

[rough iron]

xD

[thin stratus]

The nice thing is: This doesn't happen in PIE

I love debugging stuff with two game instance, on two different pcs

So much joy

[rough iron]

plus timeouts 😛

[thin stratus]

LogNet: Warning: UNetConnection::Tick: Connection TIMED OUT. Closing connection.

You mean these?

[rough iron]

^^

You can also change the engine code and get rid of it, while you do have to send a keep-alive on a different thread though

[thin stratus]

I seriously get the movement correction stuff only on one map

wtf

I need a break

[rough iron]

Relevancy? Too many actors might split packages too much adding a lot of latency

[thin stratus]

It's the only map where a simple jump or drop is causing moves to be combined

And I was returning a wrong value, which I hope I fixed now

[twin juniper]

when 2 players trying to connect, one of them connects with the right gamemode and model, but the other one connects as a flying camera (like spectator).
it worked for me before and now its ruined, anybody knows how to fix?
Thanks in advance.

[twin juniper]

nevermind, turns out I just had to restart my PC.

[urban dew]

I'm converting my game to multiplayer, I've tested this by spawning 2-4 multiplayer characters

some of them worth randomly

everything works fine

for the others they can't move or do anything

i think it has something to do with this?

im not sure, it's not getting the character pawn

[winged badger]

@urban dew yikes

hardly know where to begin, like networking the SetInputMode, Multicasting from the PC

[urban dew]

that's not so much the issue, thats just there as a temp bugfix at the moment

as it was having ussies with ui the other day

[winged badger]

getting PlayerState via Pawn when controller has direct access to it (in fact it sets the PS on Pawn)

getting PlayerPawn via index from the controller instead of doing GetPawn()

i even have trouble imagining how did you get HUD to not find the controller 😦

this is not meant to discourage you, but to tell you its all wrong

from HUD its controller is GetOwningPlayer

if you really want to avoid continuous casting

then you make a variable of your PC type

make a function that checks if the variable is valid, if it is returns it, if its not then casts getowningplayer, stores it into the variable and returns it

and then it can never fail

[smoky ore]

So, I'm trying to figure out what is causing other clients to stutter (from the other players perspective) on a game I am working on, and disabling network smoothing on the character movement component seems to fix the issue, is this a known thing or just a false positive? Because that seems like a weird setting to turn off to actually make the stuttering stop.

[reef tinsel]

Does anyone know if it'd be more optimal to use a Vector Net Quantize variable, rather than a normal vector variable? I'm going to be updating on tick the position of all players for a minimap.

though I know the vector net quantize variable has a reach of 2^20

[winged badger]

@reef tinsel sending that over network is not required

players should be always relevant, and every client has a very good idea where all player pawns are at any moment

so sending the position, on tick no less, is a really bad call

you just need to have each local minimap be aware of all PlayerPawn references locally, nothing more

[reef tinsel]

🤔 makes a lot of sense

[winged badger]

to answer your original question, NetQuantize vectors take less space, and there is no need to alter the code to use them

they are basically a struct inheriting from FVector with a different NetSerialize function

see: NetSerialization.h header for details on all options for it

[reef tinsel]

thing is, I wanted to update the player's controlled pawn representation. E.g. in my minimap

but you're quite right

so, I'd iterate over every actor of class "player character"

and store a reference to them in my minimap

on client side, ofc

[winged badger]

if you have AI using the same class, there is IsPlayerPawn function you can use to filter them out

[reef tinsel]

nice nice

[winged badger]

or IsPlayerControlled

[reef tinsel]

though player pawns change on runtime

[winged badger]

something like that, intellisense knows

[reef tinsel]

like, getting on vehicles and such

I guess I'd need a dispatcher from the controller?

OnPossessed

[winged badger]

OnPossessed doesn't happen client side

[reef tinsel]

well, I'd need to replicate it then

if it makes sense 🤔

[winged badger]

use PlayerStates

they don't change as pawns do

you can just have APawn* CurrentPawn; in it

[pallid mesa]

    ps->currentpawn->loc()

[winged badger]

then have the local minimap update positions

for (APlayerState* PS : UGameplayStatics::GetGameState()->PlayerArray)
{
    if (ACustomPlayerState* MyPS = Cast<ACustomPlayerState>(PS))
    {
        UpdatePosition(MyPS->CurrentPawn);
    }    
}

something along those lines

[reef tinsel]

so essentially, I'd just need to replicate the pawn's current state, not its location

(by state I mean if it's dead, if it's a vehicle/player, etc)

[winged badger]

you override AController::SetPawn to set the variable in the PlayerState and have it replicate

[pallid mesa]

AController::OnPosses from the server if in BP's

[winged badger]

with replication it will work

variable in PS being replicated, that is

[reef tinsel]

exactly

thanks a lot

makes a lot of sense now, not having to replicate the positions

[winged badger]

and if your Pawns aren't suited to share the same base class (vehicle, character)

i suggest implementing an interface for the state on all of them

[reef tinsel]

I was thinking in setting up an enumerator

and just update it based on the controlled pawn type

[winged badger]

yeah, but without a common base and no interface, you'd have to cast it all the time

makes for some fugly code

[pallid mesa]

jorge

add an interface

[winged badger]

interface can't have variables in it

but you can have virtual EMyPawnState GetCurrentState(); function in it

and each class overrides it to return the value of that enumerator

[pallid mesa]

we have a common usage interface for some of our pawns

so he can use it

[reef tinsel]

ye, found it

thanks a lot for the guidance @winged badger

[jolly siren]

Has anyone had issues where quitting players are timed out after 60 seconds instead of logged out immediately? Only happens to a select few players for some reason.

They exit the game clientside. But remain on the server and their character remains until timed out

[twilit swift]

I'm doing some optimization and have a question. When I'm dealing with replicated variables, if I select Replicated rather than RepNotify is it replicated every frame by default?

[jolly siren]

It is replicated when it changes value

[twilit swift]

I see. So, what's the difference between that and RepNotify? I thought that's what RepNotify does?

[stoic acorn]

Would pay good money for a Blueprint Multiplayer series by @thin stratus that fixes all the erroneous info in the official video tutorials.

[twin vault]

@twilit swift rep notify also calls a notify function

[fossil spoke]

ReplicationCondition modifies when and to who the variable is replicated.

Replicated and RepNotify are almost identical, but as Takain mentioned, RepNotify calls a specific function when that variable has its value replicated.

Meaning you can do stuff when a variable is replicated.

[twilit swift]

Got it. Thanks.

[jolly siren]

Has anyone had travel issues on 4.22?

[glacial pollen]

@jolly siren servertravel + seamless appears to work for me in 4.22 editor (turn off "use single process")

GetSeamlessTravelActorList <- is there a way to mark an actor for seamless travel? (in blueprints?)

[stoic acorn]

I have just spent the last couple of months following the official BluePrint Multiplayer Tutorial series only to discover that the guy has been teaching incorrect practice. Tutorial 15 is just a mess. What to do? Are there any decent Multiplayer tutorials out there?

[unborn nimbus]

So I'm trying to just do OpenLevel(127.0.0.1) and I'm just getting this warning LogNet: Warning: Incoming ip address doesn't match expected server address: Actual: 0.0.0.0:0 Expected: 127.0.0.1:7777

[jolly siren]

@glacial pollen Intermittent issues. I don't mean completely broken

[glacial pollen]

Oh okay, yea i'm not using more than one server travel per play.

[jolly siren]

Right, I mean with thousands of users a small percentage is getting travel issues now. Seems like they might have broken something in 4.22

[glacial pollen]

c++ or blueprints?

[jolly siren]

c++

[urban dew]

im having massive issues with my multiplayer and I have no idea why, everything spawns, however only 1 client can actually move around

anyone experienced this or have any idea what the cause could be

Half of them spawn properly

andwork

the other half dont... im very confused..

wasd movement working on half, not on the others..

justdid some testing, and all the functions for movement and everything

are still firing

from what I can tell, it seems like only two pawns are being possed

[twin juniper]

Are you using p2p connection?

[urban dew]

yes, i've done a temp fix on it

only 2 pawns where being possessed

so i just made it so if it fails the cast, it spawns a new pawn and possesses iot

[twin juniper]

Sorry?

You’re saying that one of the players can move

Do you?

[grand kestrel]

🤦 🤦 🤦

void AMyActor::PreReplication(IRepChangedPropertyTracker & ChangedPropertyTracker)
{
    DOREPLIFETIME_ACTIVE_OVERRIDE(AMyActor, AttachmentReplication, bWantsReplicatedAttachment);

error C2248: 'AActor::AttachmentReplication': cannot access private member declared in class 'AActor'
I reject your design philosophies, Epic 🤔

🔔 shame 🔔 shame 🔔 shame

(I'm just being annoyed, I don't need help solving anything)

[winged badger]

@glacial pollen when i was prototyping something with seamless travel actors, i added 2 BlueprintCallable functions to add and remove those from the SeamlessTravelActor list

pretty sure you can't do it with just BP 😦

[glacial pollen]

I rolled my own in c++ and just made it a part of my base gamemode class

Thank you though @winged badger

Funny how it was only a few lines of code... They could EASILY put this in blueprints....

[winged badger]

there are quite a few things in core framework that could had been easily added to BP, and should had been, but weren't

[glacial pollen]

c++ elitists xD

"How do we make it look like we care?"
"Idk, give em like 98% of the functionality, and don't tell them"
xD

I wish LevelSequence was seamless travel friendly