#multiplayer | Unreal Source | Page 494

grizzled stirrup Sep 29, 2019, 9:10 PM

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What you are doing there is getting the first player character in the world and casting to it

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This would be the first character that has been spawned in the world. Typically you don't want this, you'd cast to a particular character that you got through a trace hit result or other method

twin juniper Sep 29, 2019, 9:13 PM

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how would you cast through a widget though? as in how do I get a reference back to the owner who created that widget?

grizzled stirrup Sep 29, 2019, 9:13 PM

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Widget has getters for owner and owning character I believe

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GetOwningPlayerPawn()

twin juniper Sep 29, 2019, 9:15 PM

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would I cast using that as a reference?

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i've also learned that you must create the widget in the player controller to avoid duplicate widgets spawning on other players screens

fervent yacht Sep 29, 2019, 10:25 PM

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Weird, on the system default I could swear they all showed up minimum 4 on my system

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Just a slotted storage space that's minimum given.

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Though I may be talking about it from a different perspective, not raw storage but minimum compiler allocation.

stable flicker Sep 30, 2019, 12:00 AM

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Hey guys I got a problem and I can't find answer anywhere for it. So I got a shop in my mobile game. The usual stuff. I want users to be able to make IAP but its sadly just not working. I have everything setup properly within the engine, submitted to play store, setup correct test profile etc. The main issue is that it doesn't get initialized. Here are two screenshots

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https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/221798862938046464/628014845731799042/unknown.png

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https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/221798862938046464/628014917773164544/unknown.png

silent birch Sep 30, 2019, 1:06 AM

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Do you know that for example in a game at the end of a timer or time at the player who has the highest score wins and A widget is displayed as you win and in the rest you lose

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Please help me

tropic moat Sep 30, 2019, 7:48 AM

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Anyone here with PlayFab's multiplayer servers experience? I made a simple windows server, just basic integration and everything works locally ( both with and without docker ) but once i upload to the service I get TooManyServerRestarts. Just the ability to extract unreal logs would be great blobThink

thin stratus Sep 30, 2019, 7:50 AM

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it's really easy to connect to the instances

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There should be a connect button on the right in the website

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Download the key from there and just use your windows Remote Desktop shizzle

tropic moat Sep 30, 2019, 7:50 AM

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i found that, managed to connect

thin stratus Sep 30, 2019, 7:50 AM

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Then you can access it

tropic moat Sep 30, 2019, 7:50 AM

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didn't find any logs

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there are those gsdk logs and unreal files

thin stratus Sep 30, 2019, 7:51 AM

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Well they should be htere if you had a dev server up

tropic moat Sep 30, 2019, 7:51 AM

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you mean gsdk logs or unreal files ? blobThink

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i will take another look just in case

thin stratus Sep 30, 2019, 8:01 AM

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I mean just hte default logs that you have with UE4 if you package dev

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The Server is only copied onto the virtual machine

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The folders are a bit hidden but you can find the stuff you uploaded just fine

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And there should be a Saved/Logs folder then

tropic moat Sep 30, 2019, 8:01 AM

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hm that's weird those gsdk logs are empty and there are no unreal logs at all blobThink

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like it never run

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i found both the zip and extracted assets, nothing there

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hm, what instance type should i use ? maybe unreal just dies on start

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i went with Standard_A2_v2 (2 cores)

thin stratus Sep 30, 2019, 8:08 AM

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Depends on your game

tropic moat Sep 30, 2019, 8:08 AM

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and windows build

thin stratus Sep 30, 2019, 8:08 AM

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The smallest one is most likely not working

tropic moat Sep 30, 2019, 8:08 AM

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for now it's just empty project with gsdk

thin stratus Sep 30, 2019, 8:08 AM

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Hm

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Then the smallest one is okay if you leave it at 1 server per machine

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Or maybe 2

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But your best bet is to boot up a normal Azure Machine

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So one that is not directly PlayFab

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Choose one that is listed on PlayFab as a container

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Put your servers onto it

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Let it run for an hour

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And check the performance in the azure profiler

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ANd if you see that it takes, idk, 50% CPU to run one server, then you know you can probably not run a second and need to upgrad it to run multiple ones

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But if there are no logs

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And this isa dev server

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Then the reason is most likely that you specified the launch path wrong

tropic moat Sep 30, 2019, 8:10 AM

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weird it says too many restarts blobThink

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i tested the zip locally with docker and settings are almost the same

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and it worked, maybe i missed something

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👀

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just tried running it on the VM and got

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📎 unknown.png

thin stratus Sep 30, 2019, 8:12 AM

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This is an empty server

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It has literally 0 stuff installed

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It can't run UE4 unless you install the requirements that ship with it

tropic moat Sep 30, 2019, 8:13 AM

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yeah, i got hopeful for a second

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but the local docker setup was designed to test this kind of thing

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so you are right

tropic moat Sep 30, 2019, 8:35 AM

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by the way did you manage to run linux builds ?

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looks like my server never complets PendingHeartbeat blobThink

split gust Sep 30, 2019, 8:39 AM

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that's the Visual C++ redist that is missing

tropic moat Sep 30, 2019, 8:40 AM

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yeah, but that was on a clean VM made just for looking up files

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what cedric said makes sense

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i think i'm just missing something stupid aquaCry

thin stratus Sep 30, 2019, 10:00 AM

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by the way did you manage to run linux builds ?
Haven't tested it yet. Only recently got the GSDK compiled for UE4 Linux.

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@tropic moat

tropic moat Sep 30, 2019, 10:07 AM

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ah, by the way what did you do with curl library ?

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gsdk runs global init function for curl but http plugin does it as well

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i just don't run the one in gsdk, perhaps this is why things fall apart on the server for me blobThink

twin juniper Sep 30, 2019, 10:27 AM

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hello guys,

it is possible to cast player controller to AiController? I'm trying to access the move to location function. The OP here mentioned that he has able to do it. https://forums.unrealengine.com/development-discussion/blueprint-visual-scripting/21610-accurate-alternative-for-simple-move-to-location

I wonder if anyone can enlighten me here thanks.

Unreal Engine Forums

Build powerful visual scripts without code.

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📎 unknown.png

tropic moat Sep 30, 2019, 10:32 AM

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APlayerController -> AController -> AActor
AAiController -> AController -> AActor
so no, you can't

thin stratus Sep 30, 2019, 10:34 AM

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@tropic moat I haven't tested it yet. I just got it to compile and set up Steam.

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Until now I only tested it on my Laptop cause my Docker Container is cut off the internet

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I still have to upload the image to PlayFab and test if that even works

tropic moat Sep 30, 2019, 10:35 AM

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you mean windows and linux ? or just linux ?

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windows would have the same curl dependency

thin stratus Sep 30, 2019, 10:35 AM

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Linux, we aren't using Windows if possible

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The GSDK is compiled against/with UE4 for Linux.

tropic moat Sep 30, 2019, 10:36 AM

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ah, i wanted to start with windows because it's simpler

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uploading linux build is more involved ( didn't try it yet )

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i see

thin stratus Sep 30, 2019, 10:36 AM

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Well yeah, given the fact that the Linux GSDK doesn't work with UE4 out of the box.

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At least if you use the default Linux compiled library.

tropic moat Sep 30, 2019, 10:37 AM

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i just copied gsdk into a separate module and compiled

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it may be the source of my issues blobThink but it also compiled for linux

thin stratus Sep 30, 2019, 10:37 AM

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I build the Windows and Linux solution of the GSDK( out side of UE4).

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And then added the .so and .lib files via Build.cs

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And that doesn't work for Linux

tropic moat Sep 30, 2019, 10:37 AM

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ah

thin stratus Sep 30, 2019, 10:38 AM

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Windows compiles fine. Linux can't find the symbols

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So someone compiled the GSDK with UE4 for Linux for me.

tropic moat Sep 30, 2019, 10:38 AM

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hm

thin stratus Sep 30, 2019, 10:39 AM

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@waxen imp was so nice of helping out here. You can read about it in #linux. There should also still be the link to the 4.22 version of the linux library

twin juniper Sep 30, 2019, 10:46 AM

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Thanks @tropic moat , i'll stop chasing that path 👌

solar stirrup Sep 30, 2019, 10:49 AM

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quick sanity check for myself, player controllers can have RPCs right?

winged badger Sep 30, 2019, 11:25 AM

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multicasts arent great in them, but otherwise yes

solar stirrup Sep 30, 2019, 11:35 AM

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aight ty

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just need a server rpc to ask the server to interact

glad sedge Sep 30, 2019, 11:49 AM

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If an actor isn't owned by anyone, will that impact server / client sync?

winged badger Sep 30, 2019, 11:53 AM

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just won't be able to send Server/Client RPCs

glad sedge Sep 30, 2019, 11:57 AM

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hmm yeah that'd be an issue

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If it's a general actor, can the server itself own it?

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er.. like a hockey puck in NHL -

winged badger Sep 30, 2019, 12:01 PM

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there is no reason to send server or client RPCs through a hockey puck

glad sedge Sep 30, 2019, 12:03 PM

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So if it's an overlap, doesn't that take place on the client?

winged badger Sep 30, 2019, 12:40 PM

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it does

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and on server

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and on other clients

compact osprey Sep 30, 2019, 12:40 PM

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hi , I'm currently prototyping multi game and I would like to know if I understood exactly how Game State and Player State work. The Player state stores value like Player Name, his Current score , his weapon class . The player State sends info to Game state for example like when the player Score and the game state knows exactly all Players Scores... It's means that HUD is only on client side, the player HUD takes info to Game state to update the scoreboard ?

winged badger Sep 30, 2019, 12:41 PM

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player state doesn't send any information to gamestate

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GS only has an array of pointers to PSs

glad sedge Sep 30, 2019, 12:41 PM

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Hmm I always thoguht overlap was on client only. Hrmm

winged badger Sep 30, 2019, 12:41 PM

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which are replicated

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for that you'd want the HUD to take that array, hook up in each of the PS OnScoreChanged delegates

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well, you'd want to HUD to create a widget, that takes that array, and hoohs up into OnScoreChanged delegates

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then in response to scores changing alters the scoreboard

compact osprey Sep 30, 2019, 12:44 PM

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there is something that I don't understand, The player Scores , so his update his Score var in PS right ?

winged badger Sep 30, 2019, 12:44 PM

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you make a custom PS

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then you have a Score, a SetScore function and OnScoreChanged delegate there

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if you're using blueprints, think event dispatcher rather then delegate

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whenever you change score, you call SetScore, which broadcasts/calls the delegate/event dispatcher

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when the score replicates, the OnRep function also broadcasts/calls the delegate/event dispatcher

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your widget, created by the HUD, the scoreboard

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iterates over the GS PlayerArray, casts them to your custom PS type and then binds a function/event to OnScoreChanged (which has an input/payload of the same type the score is, say integer, and a pointer to the PlayerState, or a PlayerName)

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then whenever your score changes on any PS, a function/event executes inside the widget that has the information about which player is involved and what the new score is

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from there its easy to update the UI

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gets a little bit more complicated when players can log in/out mid game, as you have to take into account PlayerArray changing, but not by much

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in that case you'd want a delegate/dispatcher to fire from GS that the widget also listens to, and in response re-generate the entire scoreboard, rebinding everything in the process

compact osprey Sep 30, 2019, 12:51 PM

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ok , i can't say that I've already all understand , it's easier for me with visual support but :

I create Custom PS
Inside I create 2 functions SetScore And OnScoreChanged

winged badger Sep 30, 2019, 12:51 PM

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OnScoreChanged isn't a function

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its an event dispacther

compact osprey Sep 30, 2019, 12:51 PM

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dispatch event sorry

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When score changed , I call SetScore in PS who calls OnScoreChange Dispatcher Event

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-When the score is replicated , TheOneRep ( Repnotify you mean? ) says to the HUD to update himself ?

winged badger Sep 30, 2019, 12:56 PM

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the setting is called RepNotify, the function generated is still called OnRep

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and if you are doing this from Blueprints you don't even have to call the dispatcher from SetScore, as OnRep will fire on the Server as well

compact osprey Sep 30, 2019, 12:57 PM

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Ok !

stable flicker Sep 30, 2019, 1:39 PM

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Can anyone help me with this issue please, would really appreciate it

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https://discordapp.com/channels/187217643009212416/221799385611239424/628018334549671978

bright perch Sep 30, 2019, 1:55 PM

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I think it's fine @stable flicker ,try to check the is consumable

stable flicker Sep 30, 2019, 2:19 PM

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@bright perch the product should be non consumable though as its a one time purchase only. I did try the consumable option with a different product and it didn't also work.

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could anyone provide me a checklist to see if I have infact done the necessary procedure for IAP to work properly please? would greatly appreciate it

twin sable Sep 30, 2019, 2:38 PM

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if I replicate a struct, but dont add UPROPERTY() to one of the variables. I know it wont be replicated but does unreal network a default value, or does nothing get sent and the client constructs it with a default value

winged badger Sep 30, 2019, 2:38 PM

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nothing gets sent

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the serializer doesn't even know that property exists

twin sable Sep 30, 2019, 2:38 PM

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awesome, thanks

chrome bay Sep 30, 2019, 3:50 PM

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Has anybody found that Inviting players to a dedicated server you're currently in in Steam doesn't get received by the invitee?

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Steam says it's sent, but invitee never receives it. Also can't seem to send an invite to a server unless I'm using the old Steam UI, the friends UI doesn't give the option at all

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When not in a game, the invites come through fine

thin stratus Sep 30, 2019, 4:01 PM

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Only DedicatedServer?

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Each Session has a setting for allowing Join by Invite. Maybe your DedicatedServer session has that off.

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@chrome bay

chrome bay Sep 30, 2019, 4:14 PM

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oooo good idea

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I'll check that

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Gah, apparently it's true

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based on shootergame so figured it would be

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Do you have dedicated server invites working via Steam?

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I can invite to lobbies but not dedicated.. really odd

high current Sep 30, 2019, 4:59 PM

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Do you do your lobbies with just having players in one map, or with the beacons thing (just curious, not really related to your question lol)

chrome bay Sep 30, 2019, 5:02 PM

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the lobby project was just for testing so it's just players in a map, normal session workflow

thin stratus Sep 30, 2019, 6:22 PM

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@chrome bay DedicatedServers and ListenServers are using different systems though.

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So I assume the sessions are different

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(the way they are saved on steam)

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We have Steam on DedicatedServers, but these are instanced, so no invite allowed anyway.

cedar finch Sep 30, 2019, 9:11 PM

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So I have a strange question/issue. It involves multiplayer and AI so I'm not sure which place to ask but, I have an enemy zombie that attacks with a trace and uses the "ApplyDamage" node to damage the hit actor. It works fine and all is replicated even on dedicated server. BUT if I change the zombies "idle/walk/run" blendspace to different anims, the zombies "Apply Damgage" node does not execute. I also notice that I only prints "Client" when it runs where as when the original blendspace was connected it printed "Server" and "Client"

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How can a blendspace affect ApplyDamage?

grizzled tide Sep 30, 2019, 9:55 PM

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hello

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im trying to make a game multiplayer for mobile with client-server/client model

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i made it work and connects android/ios each other but only with the lan ip. When i try to connect them using internet ip address i get a timeout

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i removed firewall from my router and open ports 7000-10000 and nothing happens

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i have spend the whole day so i was wondering if someone was able to make this work

winged badger Sep 30, 2019, 10:11 PM

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@cedar finch dedi not running the animation can

cedar finch Sep 30, 2019, 10:41 PM

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@winged badger The animation is running and the hit actor is detected. It just doesn't execute the ApplyDamage or it just applies zero damage. It doesn't work when I play in editor with dedicated server checked. But it does work when I use my other blendspaces and anims. https://i.gyazo.com/a0b5a5b01bdb45f2bb02bf666c493ad8.png

winged badger Sep 30, 2019, 10:48 PM

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tried a breakpoint?

cedar finch Sep 30, 2019, 10:48 PM

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So basically i have two blendspaces. "Blendspace_1" and "Blendspace_2". Blendspace_1 works perfect. I can play in editor, dedicated, non-dedicated, standalone, you name it, it works. Blendspace_2 on the other hand works fine in non-dedicated, play in editor, and Standalone dedicated but DOES NOT work in dedicated play in editor.

winged badger Sep 30, 2019, 10:49 PM

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i don't remember where the setting is for run on dedi

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but if its in animation asset

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and it isn't checked

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...

meager spade Sep 30, 2019, 10:50 PM

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its under skeletal mesh

cedar finch Sep 30, 2019, 10:50 PM

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so there is a setting in the actual animation? That would explain the wierd stuff

meager spade Sep 30, 2019, 10:50 PM

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visibility based search for that

cedar finch Sep 30, 2019, 10:51 PM

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Wait. I'm confused. So these are animations I imported and are using the same skeleton as the other animations that do work. So where do I search? In the new anims?

meager spade Sep 30, 2019, 10:55 PM

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no

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in your actors skeletal mesh

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the component

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http://www.interkaos.com/grabs/UE4Editor-Win64-DebugGame_iaBeaGGovO.png

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change that bottom drop down

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Always tick pose and refresh bones

cedar finch Sep 30, 2019, 10:58 PM

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🙂 Thank you so much. That made it work! Awesome! But can you explain why that works? My mind is blown.

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@meager spade @winged badger Thank you guys so much I would have never figured that out.

meager spade Sep 30, 2019, 11:02 PM

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cause server doesnt move bones

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to save on performance

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nor does it really run animations

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as it doesnt need to generally

cedar finch Sep 30, 2019, 11:06 PM

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But the bones were moving and I was getting hits from the enemies trace it just didn't apply damage. And my other blendpace did. I'm missing the explanation aint I?

gray scroll Sep 30, 2019, 11:09 PM

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Is there a way to trigger an event on all clients once some one joins the game?
I am trying to replicate a widget when anyone joins the game

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/221799385611239424/628236048430006272/image1.jpg

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/221799385611239424/628236048430006273/image0.jpg

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It works on tick but doesn’t work on posession rep notify

grizzled tide Oct 1, 2019, 12:43 AM

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@gray scroll gamemode is unaccessible from clients so what i did was to store every player after postlogin. Then if i need to send a message to all of them is to loop the array and send thr message/call function. Other option(not tezted by myself) is that
Gamestate is shared amongg players and gamemode.you could write the event there and subscribe with it

chrome bay Oct 1, 2019, 8:07 AM

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@thin stratus When you say instanced, you mean multiple instances on one machine? Or something else?

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I'm not sure why you couldn't invite someone to an instance sharing a machine with another as you join via ip/port

thin stratus Oct 1, 2019, 8:09 AM

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Ours are quickmatch and ranked servers

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We only invite to listenservers and parties

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But i know (iirc) that steam simply handles them different in the backend. It might be that the session that the client joins is simply not part of the Lobby/presence stuff

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Or it's a bug 😅

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@chrome bay

chrome bay Oct 1, 2019, 8:11 AM

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ah okay haha, yeah as in game servers vs lobbies

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Unfortunately I can't find a game with dedi servers that I own to actually test this with sigh

thin stratus Oct 1, 2019, 8:12 AM

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Cs go?

chrome bay Oct 1, 2019, 8:12 AM

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that might work

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it's free right?

thin stratus Oct 1, 2019, 8:12 AM

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Don't think so

chrome bay Oct 1, 2019, 8:12 AM

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free to play phew

thin stratus Oct 1, 2019, 8:12 AM

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But that's valve flagship in that regard i would guess

twin sable Oct 1, 2019, 8:19 AM

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if you set a replicated variable to something it already is, it wont replicate the same information again right? Can the engine tell the information hasnt actually changed? or is this something I should prevent myself

real yacht Oct 1, 2019, 8:19 AM

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📎 unknown.png

chrome bay Oct 1, 2019, 8:19 AM

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@twin sable the engine will detect the changes

real yacht Oct 1, 2019, 8:19 AM

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every time when player wants to attack, im playing montage locally

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isAttacking is repNotify, and condition is Simulated_Only

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and when isAttacking (onRep) function is called, i'm playing montage on other clients

twin sable Oct 1, 2019, 8:20 AM

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@chrome bay so i should test if the new variable is the same as the old one first? and only set it if its different

real yacht Oct 1, 2019, 8:20 AM

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this works, but sometime there is packet loss

chrome bay Oct 1, 2019, 8:20 AM

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You don't have to do anything

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The engine won't send a property if it matches the last acked property

twin sable Oct 1, 2019, 8:21 AM

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okok thanks

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haha I've got 3000 zombies, gotta keep my networking trim and fit

real yacht Oct 1, 2019, 8:21 AM

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and i think that i have packet loss because this Server Set Is Attacking is called on input

chrome bay Oct 1, 2019, 8:22 AM

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@real yacht variable replication is lossy, you're not guaranteed to receive all the changes to make to a variable, only it's resulting state

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You won't have any packet loss in editor

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Unless you've explicitly enabled the setting

real yacht Oct 1, 2019, 8:22 AM

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yes, and when i simulate package loss

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i see that

chrome bay Oct 1, 2019, 8:22 AM

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You need a different approach

real yacht Oct 1, 2019, 8:22 AM

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yes, and i need advice, because i want to play attack montage

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on other clients

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and there is 6-7 different montages

chrome bay Oct 1, 2019, 8:23 AM

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Use a counting integer

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When the integer counts up, play the montage

real yacht Oct 1, 2019, 8:23 AM

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didn't understand

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what do you think?

chrome bay Oct 1, 2019, 8:23 AM

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Don't use bools

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Use an integer, and increment it

real yacht Oct 1, 2019, 8:23 AM

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why that is going to be better?

chrome bay Oct 1, 2019, 8:24 AM

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If a bool changes from 0->1->0, you can easily lose that

real yacht Oct 1, 2019, 8:24 AM

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yes

chrome bay Oct 1, 2019, 8:24 AM

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If a variable changes from 0->1->2, and keeps going, you won't lose it

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because you will receive the final state and know that it has been changed

real yacht Oct 1, 2019, 8:24 AM

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okay, that is good aproach

chrome bay Oct 1, 2019, 8:25 AM

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a byte should be enough

real yacht Oct 1, 2019, 8:25 AM

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but i have another problem this bool

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is telling to animation blueprint

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in which blending phase is

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so i'm using this for blending

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and yes, i can blend pose with integer

twin sable Oct 1, 2019, 8:33 AM

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@chrome bay do you know if when I'm replicating a struct, and I delete the struct and remake it with the same variables if this will be re replicated, or if the system will understand the struct is the same as last replicated?

chrome bay Oct 1, 2019, 8:33 AM

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It will know it's the same

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You can't really "delete" it anyway since it's a property, it'll just have it's values cleared

twin sable Oct 1, 2019, 8:34 AM

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yeah you're right

real yacht Oct 1, 2019, 8:34 AM

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@chrome bay what will be approach with byte?

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and how can i later use that byte to blend poses?

chrome bay Oct 1, 2019, 8:35 AM

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Blueprint Structs aren't the same as C++ structs anyway IIRC, so they might behave differently - but in native UE4 only the properties of a struct which have changed are replicated by default

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A byte is just an int with a smaller range

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255 values should be more than enough for a counter that doesn't replicate very often

real yacht Oct 1, 2019, 8:35 AM

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yes, but every time when i attack, i will increment counter

chrome bay Oct 1, 2019, 8:35 AM

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It'll wrap back around to zero

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All you do is detect the change, the value doesn't matter

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Using a counter just ensures that the change in value replicates

real yacht Oct 1, 2019, 8:36 AM

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i need to know when is true, for blend time

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and when is false for false bland time

chrome bay Oct 1, 2019, 8:36 AM

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That won't work in a real scenario anyway

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You'll have jitter and variable lag, you can't drive animations or time-critical stuff from networking like that

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Well, you can, but it won't be seamless

real yacht Oct 1, 2019, 8:37 AM

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okay, so on value change of that counter, i can set isAttacking (not replicated) to be true or false

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something liek that

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like that

chrome bay Oct 1, 2019, 8:37 AM

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I guess so

real yacht Oct 1, 2019, 8:37 AM

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okay, thnx

thin stratus Oct 1, 2019, 9:30 AM

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What's a straight forward way of checking on a client if we are connect to a dedicated server?

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(instead of a listen server)

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If there is none, I would just put it into the GameState as a boolean and set it on InitGameState in the GameMode

chrome bay Oct 1, 2019, 9:30 AM

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Hmm.. I actually don't know if there is a default way is there?

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Without checking the session settings maybe?

thin stratus Oct 1, 2019, 9:30 AM

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Most likely not connect sessionwise

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I guess a rep boolean in the gamestate it is

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Just need it for a different UI

shy nymph Oct 1, 2019, 10:05 AM

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is there anyone here already having some experience developing on stadia? would love to know if just developing a dedicated server will still work on stadia

chrome bay Oct 1, 2019, 10:08 AM

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I thought the whole point of stadia was that you don't need the servers? Game just runs locally

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If anything you probably want more of a split-screen like affair I guess

rose egret Oct 1, 2019, 10:09 AM

#

@chrome bay . in native UE4 only the properties of a struct which have changed are replicated by default.
seriously?

chrome bay Oct 1, 2019, 10:10 AM

#

yep

#

Unless you're using a custom serialize function

rose egret Oct 1, 2019, 10:11 AM

#

if my native struct has 20 UPROPERTY and one of them changes UE4 will replicate only the changed property.
that will save my life.

#

I dunno who told me it sends the whole struct

#

😂

chrome bay Oct 1, 2019, 10:12 AM

#

The engine stores an FRepLayout for the struct and compares the properties one-by-one, then packs them up

#

So it doesn't send the whole struct, unless you're sending it via RPC or something

#

If it's via normal variable replication, only the changed property is sent. That's true to C++ structs at least, I don't know if BP structs have special handling because they're an abomination

rose egret Oct 1, 2019, 10:14 AM

#

thanks alot now I should go back and change my codes

chrome bay Oct 1, 2019, 10:14 AM

#

Is you use a custom NetSerialize function it will send whatever the serialize function does - you lose the per-property replication

#

But if you're doing that you should know what you're doing and why anyway

twin sable Oct 1, 2019, 11:43 AM

#

is it possible to set how often something replicates? I've seen "min net update frequency" but I cant see how it works

chrome bay Oct 1, 2019, 11:44 AM

#

NetUpdateFrequency yeah

#

If it's set to 1, the whole actor will be considered for replication only once a second

#

You can't control how often individual properties are considered

fleet raven Oct 1, 2019, 11:54 AM

#

worth noting that the property replication is very sketchy

#

it can replicate things out of order and result in the client temporarily seeing a completely nonsensical state that never existed on the server

#

very fun to debug...

shy nymph Oct 1, 2019, 12:05 PM

#

@chrome bay well yes the game runs locally in there network and for multiplayer communication wouldn't need to leave their respective network but for a multiplayer game you would still need a server for central communication right?

#

*their network

thin stratus Oct 1, 2019, 12:11 PM

#

@shy nymph Not sure what you actualy problem here is

shy nymph Oct 1, 2019, 12:12 PM

#

I'm working on a multiplayer shooter using unreal's internal replication and dedicated servers with amazon web services atm where you upload the dedicated server files in order to to start instances for server sessions and to handle communications between players

#

i would like for this project to go stadia and am wondering how multiplayer would work at all

thin stratus Oct 1, 2019, 12:12 PM

#

Right, and Stadia, if they don't have instance based server stuff, would only get the Client

#

Which then connects to the outside server

#

Is stadia even proven to be a good match for something like this?

#

I can't imagine playing a streamed game that has outside network connection

#

That must be slow af

#

So if they don't allow hosting the dedicated servers on their internal network, then you'd host them outside

shy nymph Oct 1, 2019, 12:14 PM

#

okay that i do understand, but didn't they say that multiplayer would be revolutionary since all communication would happen internally in their network so communications between clients would be way faster

thin stratus Oct 1, 2019, 12:14 PM

#

Yeah ListenServer based I'm pretty sure it's gonna be fast

#

Cause all Clients are hosted in the same network

#

And those connecting to each other is obviously more a LAN scenario

shy nymph Oct 1, 2019, 12:16 PM

#

yes okay but then most code im currently working on should just be fine since then in unreal instead of a dedicated server it would just be a listen server (a player) acting as "has authority" right?

thin stratus Oct 1, 2019, 12:16 PM

#

If your game doesn't need dedicated servers, yeah

shy nymph Oct 1, 2019, 12:16 PM

#

not exclusively no

thin stratus Oct 1, 2019, 12:16 PM

#

But since you are working with AWS instances, I would guess there is a reason you don't use ListenServers

shy nymph Oct 1, 2019, 12:18 PM

#

well yea since the shooter is supposed to be competetive and i dont want an individual to be the server, historically not working well together ^^

#

but thanks this helped a lot to sort this out in my mind^^

#

just the question remains how matchmaking would work but i guess this will be like a subsystem find other instances of the game winthin the network

ivory portal Oct 1, 2019, 1:26 PM

#

Is there also a server match start tim,e?

thin stratus Oct 1, 2019, 1:33 PM

#

@ivory portal "Also"? And what should that time do?

ivory portal Oct 1, 2019, 1:53 PM

#

Give the time when Start Match has been called

#

But I solved it by saving the world time when start match is called and substracting that

#

(From the Server World Gametime)

#

But I have noticed, I thought begin-play would only start when Start Match has been called? But it seems Begin-play is already called before that

echo snow Oct 1, 2019, 2:31 PM

#

hello

#

i am using advanced steam sessions to create a matchmaking system.

#

when one client creates a session, the movement of the players who joined are rubberbanding

#

this issue does not happen in the regular 2 player PIE

#

if anyone has experience, please help

thin stratus Oct 1, 2019, 2:33 PM

#

Well PIE is not really a test scenario :P

#

Do you have the same issue when simulating lag in PIE?

echo snow Oct 1, 2019, 2:33 PM

#

i dont have any lag in pie

#

im going to test it in standalone now

thin stratus Oct 1, 2019, 2:34 PM

#

You can simulate it though

echo snow Oct 1, 2019, 2:35 PM

#

how does that work

#

i just tested it in standalone

#

its significantly better but still laggy

thin stratus Oct 1, 2019, 2:40 PM

#

Well is it only the Client rubberbanding for the server?

#

Cause that is I think a year long existing bug

#

https://issues.unrealengine.com/issue/UE-32005

fleet raven Oct 1, 2019, 2:41 PM

#

it isn't a bug they did it on purpose

thin stratus Oct 1, 2019, 2:42 PM

#

Well I know there is a boolean for that in the CMC

#

But I don't really see the need to do this on purpose

#

Why would you want the clients to not interpolate visually on the server?

fleet raven Oct 1, 2019, 2:42 PM

#

because you might be relying on the state of animations etc for various gameplay purposes

#

so they explicitly tick the character animations only when receiving a network update, for the exact delta it is advancing the movement

thin stratus Oct 1, 2019, 2:43 PM

#

// Smooth on listen server for local view of remote clients. We may receive updates at a rate different than our own tick rate.
if (CharacterMovementCVars::NetEnableListenServerSmoothing && !bNetworkSmoothingComplete && IsNetMode(NM_ListenServer))
{
    SmoothClientPosition(DeltaTime);
}

fleet raven Oct 1, 2019, 2:43 PM

#

that isn't everything though

#

that moves the visual mesh a little

#

the animation will still tick manually with this enabled

#

so it looks like ass

thin stratus Oct 1, 2019, 2:44 PM

#

Yeah, either way, it should be an option

#

Not a forced thing

#

I noticed this in hoverloop too that clients look like ass on listen servers without* it

fleet raven Oct 1, 2019, 2:44 PM

#

this option is on by default though

thin stratus Oct 1, 2019, 2:44 PM

#

Yeah, it's not solving it

#

Idk where they do it wrong, but something is wrong with it

#

Otherwise it would be "Won't fix" and not "backlogged"

#

So at some point they admitted it's not intended

fleet raven Oct 1, 2019, 2:45 PM

#

backlogged just means "we don't care about this" doesn't it

thin stratus Oct 1, 2019, 2:45 PM

#

They do have a Won#t Fix tag though

fleet raven Oct 1, 2019, 2:45 PM

#

they backlog everything not relevant for fortnite and then never touch it again

thin stratus Oct 1, 2019, 2:45 PM

#

That usually has a message at the top explaining why

fleet raven Oct 1, 2019, 2:46 PM

#

you can remove this to make the animation smooth on the server

📎 unknown.png

#

theoretically? haven't tried it

thin stratus Oct 1, 2019, 2:52 PM

#

It might be that it is actually smoothing

#

But the interpolation time is way too quick

#

NetworkSimulatedSmoothLocationTime = 0.100f;
NetworkSimulatedSmoothRotationTime = 0.050f;
ListenServerNetworkSimulatedSmoothLocationTime = 0.040f;
ListenServerNetworkSimulatedSmoothRotationTime = 0.033f;

#

On another note, GameMode calls InitGame before the GameState exists. fml

chrome bay Oct 1, 2019, 2:53 PM

#

In theory the transform of the mesh would be interpolated, just the anims will look pretty blocky

fleet raven Oct 1, 2019, 2:55 PM

#

could have the game pretend to be a listen server but it actually starts a dedicated server under the hood br_big_brain

chrome bay Oct 1, 2019, 2:55 PM

#

Steam would like a chat

fleet raven Oct 1, 2019, 2:55 PM

#

only problem is it doubles the ram usage..

thin stratus Oct 1, 2019, 2:56 PM

#

@ivory portal

void AGameMode::HandleMatchIsWaitingToStart()
{
    if (GameSession != nullptr)
    {
        GameSession->HandleMatchIsWaitingToStart();
    }

    // Calls begin play on actors, unless we're about to transition to match start

    if (!ReadyToStartMatch())
    {
        GetWorldSettings()->NotifyBeginPlay();
    }
}

#

GameMode calls BeginPlay before ready to start is true

#

To answer that question from earlier

chrome bay Oct 1, 2019, 2:56 PM

#

Steam won't let you host and join a dedi server on the same machine either. Sux

thin stratus Oct 1, 2019, 2:56 PM

#

That I doubt though

#

If you use the actual Tools stuff from Steam

#

You should be able to start both

#

Just not if you use some packaged server outside of Steam

#

Cause I recall being able to host CS servers while joining them

#

(I do have a linux laptop next to me for the Server build though :P)

chrome bay Oct 1, 2019, 2:58 PM

#

Ah maybe it's an Unreal thing then.. everytime I've tried to join a packaged dedi server on the same machine it just cries about it

thin stratus Oct 1, 2019, 2:58 PM

#

It usually deactivates Steam on one of the two

#

For the Server you have to add the library to the binaries folder so it doesn't need steam installed

#

But that still causes issues when hosting it on the same pc

velvet parcel Oct 1, 2019, 3:00 PM

#

If you are doing day and night cycles for a multiplayer open world game does it make sense to avoid having a replicated directional sunlight rotating slowly at all times?
Or does it not really matter?

thin stratus Oct 1, 2019, 3:01 PM

#

I would, if at all, replicate an int every now and then to keep the cycle in synced

velvet parcel Oct 1, 2019, 3:02 PM

#

I am leaning toward 24 hours being about 120 minutes

thin stratus Oct 1, 2019, 3:02 PM

#

Right, that's 7200 seconds

#

So just increment an integer

#

And keep it synced

#

Clients and server can do the rest on their own

echo snow Oct 1, 2019, 3:03 PM

#

@thin stratus is there any fixes for that?

twin juniper Oct 1, 2019, 3:03 PM

#

Replicate a time value like in Minecraft
Then create an event in the OnRep and bind every object which need to reacts to time

thin stratus Oct 1, 2019, 3:03 PM

#

Yeah basically that ^

#

You can limit it to replicating the time every 10 seconds

#

Or so

#

Cause it doesn't need a per second replication if you just increment it on the client too

#

@echo snow Not sure tbh

velvet parcel Oct 1, 2019, 3:06 PM

#

I might also replicate things like sun color and weather effects too. But all of that is probably not that crazy

#

Could probably do a repnotify for every moment the timer updates then have all clients rotate the sun locally

thin stratus Oct 1, 2019, 3:20 PM

#

You really just want an int for this

#

And based on the int calculate the rotation of it

#

Additional info like color or so is either based on the int too or replicate as settings once

velvet parcel Oct 1, 2019, 3:24 PM

#

kk thanks

#

What is the most optimal way to update the int? I am thinking a delay on an event tick basically

jade patrol Oct 1, 2019, 3:27 PM

#

hey guys, is it possible to create ue4 server for html5 build?

thin stratus Oct 1, 2019, 3:30 PM

#

@velvet parcel BeginPlay of GameState, start a Timer called "DefaultTimer" that loops every second.

#

In that, update a non-replicated integer.

#

Further, have a Replicated integer that is RepNotify

#

In the DefaultTimer, filter for Server, check if the int % 10 equals 9 and if yes, set the replicated int with the normal one

#

That should keep everything in sync every 10 seconds

#

Ah and in the repnotify set the non replicated int with the replicated one of course

thick patrol Oct 1, 2019, 5:54 PM

#

i have a question about dedicated servers how can i get the server build to ALSO create a custom config file for what map, server name, player cap and other server specific stuff
so i can set the session info in BP

fathom aspen Oct 1, 2019, 7:18 PM

#

Guys what's the best way to tell the clients about a timer that exists on the GameMode?

#

Should I use GameState?

thick patrol Oct 1, 2019, 7:34 PM

#

anyone?

jolly siren Oct 1, 2019, 8:28 PM

#

@fathom aspen yes

fathom aspen Oct 1, 2019, 8:28 PM

#

How exactly, that's what I can't figure it out

high current Oct 1, 2019, 8:47 PM

#

I am guessing that you want the time to be synced between clients and the server?

fathom aspen Oct 1, 2019, 8:49 PM

#

Yes

high current Oct 1, 2019, 8:52 PM

#

the game state should already have a synchronized time variable, no?

#

It could be only in UT tho, last time I used that it was in UT and not UE4

fathom aspen Oct 1, 2019, 8:56 PM

#

Yes GameState is the key here

#

I'm not quite sure though how to set it up

high current Oct 1, 2019, 9:00 PM

#

So there is a synchronized time variable or there isnt

#

I should boot up the editor and see for myself...

winged badger Oct 1, 2019, 9:01 PM

#

the GameMode creates and has a reference to the GS

high current Oct 1, 2019, 9:03 PM

#

AGameStateBase::GetServerWorldTimeSeconds()

#

this should already be synced(ish)

winged badger Oct 1, 2019, 9:07 PM

#

its not great, better to send a RPC with your timestamp server replies to, sending your timestamp and its own timestamp back, and assume half of the difference between your current timestamp and the one you originally sent to server is travel time server->client

#

then store the difference between server timestamp and your current timestamp - half the difference between your original timestamp and current timestamp as your offset from the server time

#

and just call GetWorldTimeSeconds() and add that offset every time you need the server time after that

#

after that you can go crazy on timestamps over RPCs, get better sync

thick patrol Oct 1, 2019, 11:48 PM

#

😦

topaz agate Oct 1, 2019, 11:52 PM

#

I'm working on a turn based project, and was wondering how I could have each player have turns with different things they are able to do through blueprints, could I assign each player a different player controller?

thick patrol Oct 1, 2019, 11:53 PM

#

i think thats what you use the int thats on get player controller

royal isle Oct 2, 2019, 12:16 AM

#

@topaz agate each player would play through their player controller but the controllers themselves are not replicated over the network so you would need to keep track of the moves they made in that turn and replicate them to all other players through other classes like a player state or just by outright calling RPCs from your controller as multicasts

topaz agate Oct 2, 2019, 12:17 AM

#

alright, im probably going to have questions about that.

#

thanks for the tip

thick patrol Oct 2, 2019, 12:51 AM

#

have a question about dedicated servers how can i get the server build to ALSO create a custom config file for what map, server name, player cap and other server specific stuff
so i can set the session info in BP

#

IE custom ini file

worthy wasp Oct 2, 2019, 3:11 AM

#

Hey all - digging through engine source and trying to find the event that a Steam account gets an invite - What i've found so far is FOnSessionInviteReceivedDelegate (OnlineSessionInterface.h) and the Delegate: DEFINE_ONLINE_DELEGATE_FOUR_PARAM(OnSessionInviteReceived, const FUniqueNetId& /*UserId*/, const FUniqueNetId& /*FromId*/, const FString& /*AppId*/, const FOnlineSessionSearchResult& /*InviteResult*/);

When I add these to my game instance (I hope appropriately) - i'm not getting the delegate to fire... but the invite clearly comes through my remote (receiving) clent from IOnlineSession::SendSessionInviteToFriend()

HEADER
    /* Delegates for receiving a party invite*/
    FOnSessionInviteReceivedDelegate OnSessionInviteReceived_Delegate;
    FDelegateHandle OnSessionInviteReceived_Handle;

    void OnSessionInviteReceived(const FUniqueNetId& UserId, const FUniqueNetId& FromId, const FString& AppId, const FOnlineSessionSearchResult& InviteResult);


SOURCE
     (CONSTRUCTOR) 
    OnSessionInviteReceived_Delegate = FOnSessionInviteReceivedDelegate::CreateUObject(this, &UOBT_GameInstance::OnSessionInviteReceived);

    (INIT)
    OnSessionInviteReceived_Handle = Sessions->AddOnSessionInviteReceivedDelegate_Handle(OnSessionInviteReceived_Delegate);


void UOBT_GameInstance::OnSessionInviteReceived(const FUniqueNetId& UserId, const FUniqueNetId& FromId, const FString& AppId, const FOnlineSessionSearchResult& InviteResult)
{
    GEngine->AddOnScreenDebugMessage(-1, 10.f, FColor::Purple, FString::Printf(TEXT("OnSessionInviteReceived - CPP CODE EXECUTED DELEGATE!!!")) );

}```

#

i've done ALOT of digging on this and have found some mixed results with information - from the fact that "FOnSessionInviteReceivedDelegate sits idle - never truly fires in Steam Backend" to using a macro: STEAM_CALLBACK_MANUAL(UOBT_GameInstance, OnLobbyInviteReceived, LobbyInvite_t, OnLobbyInviteReceivedCallback); Which i cant get to work for the life of me.... Alot of those params of that macro are in private folders in Engine source - but its within the modules that i've already added to the project.... OnlineSubsystemUtils is where i dig up most of their references

plain flume Oct 2, 2019, 7:29 AM

#

In multiplayer there is only one replicated GameState, right

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 7:39 AM

#

Yes

#

@worthy wasp You are on the right track though

#

For the invite it is indeed the STEAM_CALLBACK_MANUAL

worthy wasp Oct 2, 2019, 7:52 AM

#

@thin stratus exii cant get it to compile... the LobbyInvite_t is in a private file in the OnlineSubsystemSteam .... and i dont know how to get it to compile right.... all modules are included to my knowledge

#

Unfortunately laying in bed so i wont get to this till tomorrow.... i dont know how steam party plugin can access private files and i cant get the same files in a project source files.

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 7:58 AM

#

The Party Plugin on the Marketplace includes the Private path of the Steam Subsystem Plugin.

#

Cause otherwise you run into that exact issue of not being able to access the private types header.

worthy wasp Oct 2, 2019, 7:59 AM

#

Right... so i should just be able to include OnlineSubsystemSteam module in build.cs right?

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 7:59 AM

#

It's more about that specific path

worthy wasp Oct 2, 2019, 8:00 AM

#

Oy vey.... so the ONLY way to get this... is via plugin?

#

I cant pull this same sution off in source?

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 8:00 AM

#

No, you should be able to do that some stuff in the build.cs of your project

#

Build.cs has a PrivateIncludePaths array

#

You need to add the Engine directory to that private folder of the steam subsystem to it

worthy wasp Oct 2, 2019, 8:01 AM

#

I tried.... i cant get the private include path.... ooof lemme go fire up my pc while ur here

#

Ill be just a minute....

#

ok i'm here - one sec while i pull up project

#

ok so in SteamParty example project - they use in the build.cs:

        var EngineDir = Path.GetFullPath(BuildConfiguration.RelativeEnginePath);
        PrivateIncludePaths.AddRange(
            new string[] {
                            Path.Combine(EngineDir, @"Plugins\Online\OnlineSubsystemSteam\Source\Private")
                        });

#

this errors out for me in my build.cs (dont know why) about Path variable not being valid.... i can compile it real quick 1 sec

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 8:04 AM

#

Can I see your includes at the top?

#

Or rather

#

the using statements

worthy wasp Oct 2, 2019, 8:05 AM

#

doh you may have caught me

#

❤

#

using UnrealBuildTool;
using System.IO;

#

lemme put htose into my build.cs lol

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 8:05 AM

#

UBT should be there already

worthy wasp Oct 2, 2019, 8:05 AM

#

system.io isnt

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 8:05 AM

#

But you might indeed need System.IO

#

Yop

worthy wasp Oct 2, 2019, 8:07 AM

#

error CS0122: 'UnrealBuildTool.BuildConfiguration' is inaccessible due to its protection level

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 8:07 AM

#

Yeah try Target

worthy wasp Oct 2, 2019, 8:09 AM

#

well it didnt error out immediately - going strong still

#

❤

#

baam - lemem try that macro now ❤

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 8:10 AM

#

Please make sure you always go to the GameThread from Steam Callbacks

#

I often see users try to open up a UMG widget from the callback directly

worthy wasp Oct 2, 2019, 8:13 AM

#

no i was deifnitely going to do a blueprint assignable delegate fired from the callback

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 8:14 AM

#

Yeah :P

#

That should technically crash

worthy wasp Oct 2, 2019, 8:14 AM

#

that way i can pass some exposed info (FSteamFriend for example)

#

oh?

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 8:14 AM

#

I didn't check where the callback exactly comes from

#

But I have the hard feeling it comes from a thread other than gameThread

#

If you don't move the call over to the gameThread it might crash on an assert

worthy wasp Oct 2, 2019, 8:18 AM

#

heres what your talkin about - jus tcame across this: https://pastebin.com/C5dsuVnX

Pastebin

LoginId:06ecb5fe433d1c72cff72f8180e4cf27 EpicAccountId:4fc92f0351...

#

i do have a compile error - i gotta hunt down these delegates in SteamParty -find out where theyre defined... because i dont see them in the engine: OnLobbyInviteReceived

#

LobbyInvite_t - is defined in ISteamMatchmaking.h ....
& pulls up in OnlineSessionAsyncLobbySteam.h as well - though i dont see any traces of it in here.... probably jus tpicking up on the LobbyInvite text

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 8:25 AM

#

Yop

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 12:36 PM

#

@twin kite Hey, I sadly have to annoy you once more

#

Currently trying out to ping a Steam Dedicated Server that runs on my laptop and given the IP that Steam Response and the 27015 default port, it always fails to ping.
Does the Session need some specific settings? Are they any other ports than 7777 and 27015 UDC/TCP to open?

#

The Server does NOT show up in ServerLists (which is kinda wanted) but it does allow connecting via steamid if I type it by hand

#

I do wonder why it's not showing up in the ServerList though

#

The LogOnline shows a proper response from CreateSession and connecting works too

chrome bay Oct 2, 2019, 12:46 PM

#

I have that exact issue also.. can only join a server hosted on the same network via console

#

Never did work out how to get it so show in the server list

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 12:47 PM

#

Not sure if it has to be the same network

#

I can join via open steam.12345678987654321:7777

#

But not showing the list

chrome bay Oct 2, 2019, 12:47 PM

#

Yeah same here

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 12:47 PM

#

And now I run into the annoying issue that it doesn't respond to pings

chrome bay Oct 2, 2019, 12:47 PM

#

All my PC's are linked via the same network switch

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 12:48 PM

#

Yeah here too though, the Steam ServerList should show it though

#

defines in the target.cs are done as well as the Steamworks page is setup

#

sigh

#

            FOnlineSessionSettings Settings;
            Settings.NumPublicConnections = 8;
            Settings.bShouldAdvertise = true;
            Settings.bAllowJoinInProgress = false;
            Settings.bIsLANMatch = false;
            Settings.bUsesPresence = false;
            Settings.bAllowJoinViaPresence = false;
            Settings.bIsDedicated = true;
            Settings.bAntiCheatProtected = true;

#

Tried starting the session later, but even that doesn't make it show up

chrome bay Oct 2, 2019, 12:50 PM

#

yeah it's really odd. I can see servers on other networks (aka not in my house) just fine - but never can see them here 😦

#

Only dedicated too.. lobbies work just fine

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 12:51 PM

#

So if you host outside ot your network, you can see them in the serverlist?

#

Can others see your hosted server?

chrome bay Oct 2, 2019, 12:51 PM

#

I'm not sure if others can see tbh, never checked that. But yeah I can the "real" game servers, just never my test ones that I spool up locally

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 12:52 PM

#

maybe the 27015 port is closed then

chrome bay Oct 2, 2019, 12:52 PM

#

I thought that also but it's open as far as I can tell

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 12:52 PM

#

Yeah, windows or linux?

chrome bay Oct 2, 2019, 12:52 PM

#

Winsauce

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 12:52 PM

#

hmpf

#

Funny thing is

#

If the server is off, steam reports that the master server has no listings

split gust Oct 2, 2019, 12:57 PM

#

Currently trying out to ping a Steam Dedicated Server that runs on my laptop and given the IP that Steam Response and the 27015 default port, it always fails to ping.

likely lack of "hairpinning" on your router

#

most routers don't do that at all, or by default

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 12:57 PM

#

If the server is on, steam reports no servers on the master server responded

#

So the server is listed but doesn't respond to the ping >.>

chrome bay Oct 2, 2019, 12:58 PM

#

Do you get the ServerRules back from the Server when finding sessions?

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 12:58 PM

#

I'm just talking about the server browser of steam itself

chrome bay Oct 2, 2019, 12:59 PM

#

Ahhh roger

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 12:59 PM

#

Haven't tested in game cause they shouldn't be in there anyway

chrome bay Oct 2, 2019, 1:00 PM

#

NAT Loopback.. maybe that's my issue

split gust Oct 2, 2019, 1:00 PM

#

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hairpinning

Hairpinning

In network computing, hairpinning (or NAT loopback) describes a communication between two hosts behind the same NAT device using their mapped endpoint. Because not all NAT devices support this communication configuration, applications must be aware of it.
Hairpinning is where...

chrome bay Oct 2, 2019, 1:00 PM

#

Still, the fact you can connect directly means it might not be

split gust Oct 2, 2019, 1:00 PM

#

yep, a classic

#

if you use the "local IP" to connect you don't need the loopback

chrome bay Oct 2, 2019, 1:01 PM

#

Ah I'm not, I'm connecting via the "Steam" ID, which I think resolves to a public facing IP

split gust Oct 2, 2019, 1:01 PM

#

ah

gray scroll Oct 2, 2019, 1:01 PM

#

Make sure your steam is not open

split gust Oct 2, 2019, 1:01 PM

#

well I'm not sure what Steam does in that case

gray scroll Oct 2, 2019, 1:01 PM

#

Otherwise you wont find local games

split gust Oct 2, 2019, 1:02 PM

#

true!

gray scroll Oct 2, 2019, 1:02 PM

#

@chrome bay

chrome bay Oct 2, 2019, 1:02 PM

#

If Steam isn't open I can't use it to find sessions 😄

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 1:03 PM

#

It's a relatively simple setup:

Linux Steam Server on Laptop
Steam on Windows Desktop

Master Server does indeed recognize that a Server is registered, but that Server (Linux) isn't responding to a ping.

#

For TheJamsh it's a Windows Server, but same issue (I guess).

gray scroll Oct 2, 2019, 1:03 PM

#

Oh i thought you were testing locally

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 1:03 PM

#

Connecting directly via SteamID of that Server works.

#

Server and Client (or Steam PC) are in the same network.

split gust Oct 2, 2019, 1:04 PM

#

maybe it's the "discovery" packets that can't reach the Steam servers when they tried to get the server info?

chrome bay Oct 2, 2019, 1:05 PM

#

@gray scroll I am testing locally but across different PC's and Steam accounts etc.

gray scroll Oct 2, 2019, 1:06 PM

#

Is the app id 480 or your custom app id?

#

I believe 480 is the local one

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 1:06 PM

#

Guess custom for both of us

#

480 is just the spacewar one you can use if you have no own app

chrome bay Oct 2, 2019, 1:07 PM

#

Custom yep

gray scroll Oct 2, 2019, 1:07 PM

#

Hmm interesting

chrome bay Oct 2, 2019, 1:07 PM

#

It's a live game, it's just for testing stuff periodically that I can't test on one machine

#

Life would be much easier for me if we supported listen servers but yolo

gray scroll Oct 2, 2019, 1:08 PM

#

Trust me... listen servers are a pain in terms of bandwidth 😂

#

Do you see the session in the list... or you don’t see the sessions at all?

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 1:09 PM

#

Only tested with Server List of Steam (not ingame) i don't see the server in the list, but the response of the search differs for when the server is active or not.

#

So I would guess the server register properly

#

I guess I have to move this server onto some linux server I can open the ports on manually

#

.<

twin kite Oct 2, 2019, 1:17 PM

#

@thin stratus It just might be because of the fact that your server doesn't advertise (not listed on the Steam master server)

#

but not sure, our servers are listed in the server list and we can in fact ping them

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 1:18 PM

#

I would have guessed the same, but it is advertised cause the Server dialog of Steam has a different response for when it's on

#

The only thing I can try is putting the server onto an azure machine and open the ports there too.

#

Cuase idk if the ports here are closed by Unitymedia

#

.>

#

(Firewall and Router have them opened)

#

You speak german, right?

#

https://i.imgur.com/3ORbfHN.png
That translate to "On the master-server are no Internet games listed that match your filter settings."

Imgur

split gust Oct 2, 2019, 1:20 PM

#

there might be a different port for reporting server info (and ping)

#

and for connecting

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 1:20 PM

#

https://i.imgur.com/3KmKthQ.png
And that is when the server is on and translates to "No internet games responded to your search."

Imgur

#

sigh why can't this be more straight forward.

twin kite Oct 2, 2019, 1:22 PM

#

Hmm, I don't have much time to help currently. Feel free to send me a DM and I'll get back to you later.

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 1:22 PM

#

I actively doubt anyone can really help, cause there is no real error to work on.
This can ahve a thousand reasons

#

Gonna have to go through possible causes 1 by 1 -_-

split gust Oct 2, 2019, 1:24 PM

#

are you using a single socket for your server? aka sharing your server socket for clients with the socket for the steam master servers?

#

this looks like a good place to make things fail 🙂

chrome bay Oct 2, 2019, 1:29 PM

#

My guess is, while the steam will be registered with steams master servers, you might still not be able to get a rules files back from it or ping it

#

Steam sucks like that, all the actual server details are retrieved from the server itself.. not the master servers

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 1:31 PM

#

No that's not the issue

#

Steam has a Ping Function that works just fine (iUltimateLP shared that stuff)

#

And that gives you the steam id you wanna connect to based on the ip you pinged

#

That's the stuff i need cause our backend only gives me the ip of the server

#

BUT, as long as the server doesn't show up in the list, I probably can't ping it

#

Cause that's most likely the same process

#

And as of right now, I blame my network

#

So I'm uploading it to an external server now, open the ports there and try again

split gust Oct 2, 2019, 1:33 PM

#

just for the extra datapoint of info it's probably worth trying

chrome bay Oct 2, 2019, 1:33 PM

#

Yeah that's what I mean, the server won't show in the server list unless it can retrieve the ServerRules for it from the server directly (since that's not stored by Steam - Steam only master server only has the ip address and nothing else)

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 1:33 PM

#

Yeah of course

#

Steam uses Ping Server themselves to get the updated ping and data

chrome bay Oct 2, 2019, 1:33 PM

#

So it might be registered, but the client probably still can't ping or communicate with the server directly

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 1:34 PM

#

That's even what the API says

#

The Server has to answer the 27015 ping I assume

#

Cause that's the one they want to have open

split gust Oct 2, 2019, 1:34 PM

#

that does point to either the server uses a different UDP socket/port for the master server reporting, and so you should check if that one is forwarded correctly too

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 1:34 PM

#

Would be a lot easier if the would split this

#

Ping for Ping

#

And GetData from MasterServer

split gust Oct 2, 2019, 1:34 PM

#

or it shares the UDP socket with the client connection and the code needs to split correctly the packets received

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 1:34 PM

#

But they probably keep the masterServer db light

split gust Oct 2, 2019, 1:35 PM

#

the typical dedicated server protocols

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 1:35 PM

#

UE4 has 7777 udp

chrome bay Oct 2, 2019, 1:35 PM

#

Yeah they do, by default you can advertise some stuff on the master server directly, but it's really limited and UE doesn't use that method

split gust Oct 2, 2019, 1:35 PM

#

just use the same UDP packet for server info and for ping

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 1:35 PM

#

And Steam has 27015 UDP and TCP

split gust Oct 2, 2019, 1:35 PM

#

aka, the server response time to the info request is used to determine the ping

chrome bay Oct 2, 2019, 1:35 PM

#

UE uses the ServerRules method, which means clients have to ping servers directly for server info

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 1:35 PM

#

This is also part of the broken ping for listen servers

#

We all remember the 9999 ping

#

Cause the response from the master server doesn't include a ping in UE4

#

So you would have to ping them all manually

chrome bay Oct 2, 2019, 1:36 PM

#

The issue we found is while you can get ping for a dedicated server it's massively out of whack because it's ping to the master server, not the server you're actually connecting to

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 1:36 PM

#

Yeah you have to manually ping from the client

chrome bay Oct 2, 2019, 1:36 PM

#

Once we get the servers back from steam we just ping them manually

#

yeah

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 1:36 PM

#

That's also super easy to do

#

IF

#

The server response ;D

chrome bay Oct 2, 2019, 1:37 PM

#

I can sort of see why, but it's a pain in the ass nonetheless

#

Also not sure if this helps anyone, in HLL we had issues for months with servers not being visible to players sporadically

#

We had to send out query packets in bursts rather than all in one go like UE4 does by default

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 1:38 PM

#

have some class inherit from public ISteamMatchmakingPingResponse
Override virtual void ServerResponded(gameserveritem_t& server) override; and virtual void ServerFailedToRespond() override;
And then call SteamMatchmakingServers()->PingServer

chrome bay Oct 2, 2019, 1:38 PM

#

It makes the search process longer for the user, but it was the only way to fix it we found

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 1:38 PM

#

Yeah

chrome bay Oct 2, 2019, 1:38 PM

#

I wonder why we didn't use that...

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 1:38 PM

#

well I only got told about that from Ultimate

split gust Oct 2, 2019, 1:38 PM

#

yeah you shouldn't send too many queries at the same time

chrome bay Oct 2, 2019, 1:39 PM

#

Well that's just what steam / UE4 does by default

split gust Oct 2, 2019, 1:39 PM

#

some user routers will just "crash" or stop working if you flood their UDP Nat translation table 😛

chrome bay Oct 2, 2019, 1:39 PM

#

In peak times so many players would be requesting info from servers, that servers would just stop responding

#

And the ServerRules would timeout

#

Could replicate it quite reliably for some folks by spamming the refresh until they stopped appearing 😄

#

I thought it might have been DDOS protection at first

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 1:40 PM

#

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Refusing to run with the root privileges.

chrome bay Oct 2, 2019, 1:41 PM

#

Lawl

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 1:41 PM

#

I just want to test this, Epic stop annoying me

split gust Oct 2, 2019, 1:41 PM

#

fixing it in that order isn't hard 😛

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 1:52 PM

#

Right

#

It shows up when hosting on digital ocean

#

So it's the port I would guess

#

Now let's try pinging it

#

Right that works too now

#

Okay at least I can be sure that this part works

icy zephyr Oct 2, 2019, 2:06 PM

#

Does anyone know how the OSS authentication work? I'm pretty loss after "TriggerOnLoginCompleteDelegates" I was expecting it to maybe set the UniqueNetId for the local player.. but seemingly nothing happens afterwards. I get the gist that building logic for the OSS doesn't require you to interact with your specific implementation of a custom OSS everything seems to happen in the backend. The login process seems a bit vague though.

high current Oct 2, 2019, 6:28 PM

#

Is there any way that I can make like a global game text chat thing, purely using the steam subsystem, and not relying on stuff like firebase and so on

echo snow Oct 2, 2019, 6:51 PM

#

i want to a boolen isRanked to my settings, i am not sure how to do that and i couldnt find any documentation

📎 unknown.png

#

this is the steam advanced sessions plugin, help please

glad maple Oct 2, 2019, 7:20 PM

#

sorry to jump into the middle of some other issues but I have a hopefully quick question - in a rule set in a game mod/plugin (which only executes/is loaded on the server), I want to execute something on a client of a player that just died (specifically to close all open menus). What is the cleanest way to do that? Best idea I have is to have an unrelated blueprint which is set to replicate; have the server call an event in that BP, and then send a client event from that BP to itself... I don't know if that will work, but I feel I could do better. (Being just a mod I can't easy create instanced playercontrollers and suchlike)

high current Oct 2, 2019, 7:35 PM

#

Does that event on the client already exist, or do you need to create it

glad maple Oct 2, 2019, 7:35 PM

#

there's a function in the HUD I want to call, but it's a function proper, not a RPC (I think)

#

so I figured I needed to create a custom RPC/event to bounce it to the client (but I can't make that in the rule set because it doesn't execute on client)

#

I'm dealing with game code that isn't mine so I am making some assumptions (C++ source is closed)

high current Oct 2, 2019, 8:18 PM

#

Well if you have authority over the client, you can just execute that function on the owning client(as you wont have access to the hud)

winged badger Oct 2, 2019, 8:22 PM

#

you can't send a client RPC unless the object is owned by the PC

#

but i am guessing you already have the information that player died somewhere

#

so there is likely no need to send a RPC informing it of that again

glad maple Oct 2, 2019, 8:26 PM

#

if I call a multicast event from/in the rule set, it only seems to execute on the server, but that's based on what's going in the output log in a UE4 test session (with dedicated server) so I don't say that with 100% confidence

#

one thing I don't have control over is the event I'm picking up to say the player is dead - seems that maybe some stuff is destroyed by this point which may also be throwing me off course

winged badger Oct 2, 2019, 8:28 PM

#

if i was making it, the Pawn itself would be broadcasting a delegate upon death

#

client and server side

glad maple Oct 2, 2019, 8:29 PM

#

there are many things I would like to change about this setup, but I'm just modding a plugin so the only hooks I seem to have are game mode overrides and game rules (attached to a specific map)

#

and also hooks in whatever I put into that map

#

I'm currently experimenting with a magic rock (just because) which I'm sending events to from the game rule BP

#

in the hope I can use this to bounce stuff to the client

#

what I can say with 100% confidence is that I hate making game mods in this game

winged badger Oct 2, 2019, 8:31 PM

#

is the pawn destroyed on death?

glad maple Oct 2, 2019, 8:35 PM

#

I think so

#

the game controller not, I think

#

the stupid thing is that it automatically goes to spectate when you die, but normally it's an unlimited spawn mode. They made it so that dedicated servers stop you spectating unless you're an admin, which is different to listen server and SP behaviour

#

so I have to fake what it normally does and close the deployment window that appears if you die on a server but are not an admin

#

I'm explaining poorly. Basically I can just about get my head round normal replication but this is doing my head in

#

I think I might have it working now - called a multicast event in my magic rock (found by doing a get all actors of class ...) with a playercontroller as parameter. The event logic is: If playercontroller = (get current playercontroller) then close windows

#

I'll wager there is a cleaner way to do this...

#

that was a couple of days of my life right there

high current Oct 2, 2019, 8:54 PM

#

Doesn't if you have authority imply that the you need ownership over said actor, or that might not be clear to some people

glad maple Oct 2, 2019, 8:56 PM

#

to be honest, not sure. I am struggling a bit with this stuff when not applied to straightforward copies of the same actor etc

#

however I seem to have a working solution, which I'll post for posterity

high current Oct 2, 2019, 8:56 PM

#

I was more asking Zlo, as he corrected my response

#

Does Squad have mutators

#

like Unreal Tournament does

#

I am assuming you are modding Squad

glad maple Oct 2, 2019, 8:57 PM

#

apols. Here is the server side call in a Game Rules BP

📎 unknown.png

#

here is the client side event 'code'

📎 unknown.png

#

I expect this can be critiqued hard, but it works and I'm done

#

yes it's Squad. They don't seem to do mutators. So far only modding seems to be by way of plugins which must contain a map, because the only hook is game modes and game rule sets which are specifiable by maps

#

I don't like that but I think it's a temporary situation and they're working on more flexible modding

#

the necessity to have game mode mods tied to specific maps is pretty horrible in fact

#

if anyone here is involved with Squad dev I'll let them explain the ins and outs

#

I got the impression that their custom UE4 editor was 'the way Epic think it should be done', though that might only be broad brush concept rather than these details

#

moving everything into a plugin (from a normal content directory) breaks so much f***ing stuff, I have shed tears getting everything working, but that's not something for here. In conclusion, got it working, but for the love of Jesus please someone make this easier for relative noobs at MP coding like me.

winged badger Oct 2, 2019, 9:10 PM

#

shrugs

#

i am not a fan of networking in blueprints at all

#

your options are very limited, code is usually an unreadable mess

glad maple Oct 2, 2019, 9:25 PM

#

I mostly do level design so blueprints are usually sufficient/appropriate for what I do. I've ventured into C++ in UE4 (had to extend some navmesh abandonware code) but frankly, having spent a while fixing obscure packaging errors, I don't relish spending more time fixing obscure C++ compile errors

#

though I take that on board and maybe I'll have to change my approach for heavier modding stuff

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 9:26 PM

#

We usually tear off the pawn and handle any form of death stuff on the torn off function

#

Visual death stuff that is

glad maple Oct 2, 2019, 9:27 PM

#

that makes a lot of sense

thin stratus Oct 2, 2019, 9:27 PM

#

That only entails things that don't need to know why someone died

#

If you need to display a kill message ,then it's probably an rpc

glad maple Oct 2, 2019, 9:30 PM

#

what I wanted to do would be sorted with a server configuration option to allow randoms to spectate on permadeath (not available)

#

so everything I did was hacky to start with, and my interest in doing MP coding in this area was poorly motivated to begin with

#

I am grateful to everyone for their input, allowing me to move on at last

fathom aspen Oct 2, 2019, 10:03 PM

#

Guys. Can I call a NetMulticast from GameState?

#

I guess I can't because it's a server-owned actor, right?

glad maple Oct 2, 2019, 10:09 PM

#

that's pretty much the problem I had (see above if you can bear)

#

my solution was to create a dummy actor in a level I could call a multicast on to do the client stuff I wanted - I suspect you can do better

#

that is, you can't do a multicast to the same actor but you can do it to others that are on both server and client (I think) - but I am ready to be corrected on that

fathom aspen Oct 2, 2019, 10:18 PM

#

What I know is that it's replicated for clients so you can replicate variables that live in GameState to the clients

#

But I wanna know what kind of RPCs I can call in GameState

glad maple Oct 2, 2019, 10:19 PM

#

ah sorry I misread it as game mode

fathom aspen Oct 2, 2019, 10:23 PM

#

All good 👍🏻

#

So for future reference. For those wondering, in GameState you can call NetMulticast rpc because it's called from the server, while you can't call Server rpcs because they are called from the client

#

Not sure about Client rpcs though, but I guess they can be called as Multicast can be called (correct me if i'm wrong)

fluid flower Oct 2, 2019, 11:19 PM

#

NetMulticast can only be called by server.

#

Server RPC can only be called from client owned actors ( so not gamestate )

#

Client RPC can only be called from server.

meager spade Oct 3, 2019, 12:36 AM

#

ClientRPC can be called from client but it will activate locally, server can call a ServerRPC. http://www.interkaos.com/grabs/firefox_6OH67MVDkF.png

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 1:14 AM

#

While you can't replicate a TMap can you send it to the server via an RPC?

#

If not is the best option to break the map into two arrays before sending?

icy zephyr Oct 3, 2019, 1:26 AM

#

👀 Anyone know the process behind "TriggerOnLoginCompleteDelegates" where it gets passed a new FUniqueNetId. Is this being set in the player state or local player? Or should I be adding it to a FUserOnlineAccount?

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 1:43 AM

#

To answer my question, you cannot use TMaps in a server RPC so you have to create two separate arrays and send those instead (which seems to make the map kind of pointless in my case as I create it and then have to convert it back one function later)

silent birch Oct 3, 2019, 2:36 AM

#

In my game I also did that when the life of the character is 0 which makes actor destroyed and 10 seconds after the same actor disappears but it works only at the server not at the client I even tried the custom event but nothing.

#

The score is added to the one who was hit by the ball while the score must be added to the one who shot

thin stratus Oct 3, 2019, 6:34 AM

#

@grizzled stirrup Correct, TMaps can't be send over the net at all.

winged badger Oct 3, 2019, 6:45 AM

#

they can, manually

#

transform them into something that can be sent, then reassamble the map when it arrives

thin stratus Oct 3, 2019, 7:32 AM

#

So they can't :P

#

If you have to move them into a different structure you arent activel replicating the tmap

#

Why does epic actually not implement this?

high current Oct 3, 2019, 7:44 AM

#

I remember being able to replicate TMaps in Unreal Tournament (but I might be mistaken)

#

but there they are actually hidden in the engine and still in beta

#

is there an actual reason behind why they are not yet replicatable, as I cant think of one

winged badger Oct 3, 2019, 8:13 AM

#

up until recently (4,21 i think)

#

just trying to replicate a TMap ended up calling a function with some weird log text and log category Fatal

chrome bay Oct 3, 2019, 8:26 AM

#

I doubt TMap replication would ever be the most efficient way to do something anyway. Might be the path of least resistance but honestly, may as well just use a struct.

#

Can't really see it working out unless they send the whole Map in one go, or rebuild it each time.

high current Oct 3, 2019, 8:46 AM

#

Does shooter game have example usage of network beacons?

#

TMaps are logical for blueprinting IMO, but nothing much past that

#

As I concept I meant, maps are easy to understand and grasp

chrome bay Oct 3, 2019, 9:15 AM

#

Well TMap certainly has plenty of use-cases in C++, it's just the nature of the container makes it hard to replicate efficiently IMO.

#

And no, ShooterGame has no example of beacons. AFAIK there isn't an Epic example of those at all, outside of UT

#

And that is dependent upon their custom backend so yolo

silent birch Oct 3, 2019, 10:08 AM

#

In my game I also did that when the life of the character is 0 which makes actor destroyed and 10 seconds after the same actor disappears but it works only at the server not at the client I even tried the custom event but nothing.

frank copper Oct 3, 2019, 10:10 AM

#

for replication better create a structure with key and value and use a TArray. If you need to search by the key or value, either use FindByPredicate, or you can implement an == overload in the struct and use FindByKey. Even better use a FFastArraySerializer. Obviously you need some C++ to do this, but you can get rid of TMap if you need replication. and keep some logic from it

silent birch Oct 3, 2019, 10:25 AM

#

I do not understand

zealous saffron Oct 3, 2019, 10:28 AM

#

can you share the code?

silent birch Oct 3, 2019, 10:43 AM

#

There I can not

#

But my is a thing of the kind in the blueprint level event tick cast to player if the lives are at 0 destroy actor then Spawn actor from class then possessed

#

@zealous saffron you can't help me?

zealous saffron Oct 3, 2019, 10:52 AM

#

I don't use BPs, sorry man.

#

Wouldn't use BP for networking either

#

works well if you have a game that heavily relies on scripted events and or interactable objects, but that's about as far as I would willingly use blueprints.

silent birch Oct 3, 2019, 10:55 AM

#

OK

#

Do you know someone who does Blueprint?

zealous saffron Oct 3, 2019, 10:56 AM

#

it should replicate provided you're doing it on the server and your character/pawn is set to replicate. I assume you're setting its lifespan rather than outright destroying it? (either way should work).

#

nope

#

I don't.

silent birch Oct 3, 2019, 10:57 AM

#

I destroy the actor

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 11:44 AM

#

@chrome bay in the usecase of using a TMap after a shotgun blast to calculate a list of HitActors and corresponding DamageAmounts to deal to each actor, is there even a point in using a map instead of two side by side arrays? (assuming the client has to convert the map into two arrays eventually to send via a ServerRPC to deal damage)

#

It made my function arguments a bit simpler for the 2 functions inbetween the calculation of the map and the RPC, however it is creating a bit of wasteful data having to convert them to arrays on each shot when they could just be arrays to start with, right?

thin stratus Oct 3, 2019, 11:48 AM

#

Why would you even use a TMap for that

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 11:48 AM

#

I had thought it's better practice if making two properties that have to be linked

#

Making side by side arrays seems more hacky

thin stratus Oct 3, 2019, 11:49 AM

#

Also why would the client send a ServerRPC to deal dmg?

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 11:49 AM

#

Because the client calculates damage in my game clientside

thin stratus Oct 3, 2019, 11:49 AM

#

Right, that obviously makes things more complicated

#

Usually the only RPC in the whole process of the player damaging another one is located at the start of input.

#

E.g. FireWeaponPressed

#

All the rest should happen on the server anyway

#

And at that point you don't need to send any RPCs with TMaps or Arrays of course

#

If you however need to do that, then use a TArray with a custom Struct

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 11:51 AM

#

Thanks so a struct with 2 arrays inside?

thin stratus Oct 3, 2019, 11:51 AM

#

Why the 2 arrays

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 11:51 AM

#

ActorsToDamage(AActor) / DamageAmounts(Float)

#

A shotgun blast fires 16 pellets

#

Multiple pellets can hit the same actor

zealous saffron Oct 3, 2019, 11:51 AM

#

dependent on how you set up dealing damage, it's more efficient to use client side traces if you are using traces (for say a some sort of gun).

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 11:51 AM

#

So I don't want to be sending redundant data twice

thin stratus Oct 3, 2019, 11:52 AM

#

Then sum up the damage beforehand

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 11:52 AM

#

Which is why the array only stores the actors hit and if they are hit multiple times, that damage index is increased

#

It is

thin stratus Oct 3, 2019, 11:52 AM

#

The struct has "ActorToDamage" and "Damage"

#

And the array has the struct

#

Each array entry descibes Actor and Damage in form of a struct

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 11:52 AM

#

But then you have to send multiple RPCs if 2+ actors get hit in the same shot

thin stratus Oct 3, 2019, 11:52 AM

#

You send one RPC with the data of who you hit

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 11:52 AM

#

Yep but if you hit say 8 actors in one shotgun blast, that's 8 RPCs

thin stratus Oct 3, 2019, 11:52 AM

#

No

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 11:52 AM

#

Isn't it more efficeint to send one

zealous saffron Oct 3, 2019, 11:52 AM

#

Client -> Server Handles Dmg -> Calls multicast event that checks to see how it should handle the event.

thin stratus Oct 3, 2019, 11:53 AM

#

That's one RPC with an array of size 8

zealous saffron Oct 3, 2019, 11:53 AM

#

use net roles in the multicast

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to decide what to do

thin stratus Oct 3, 2019, 11:53 AM

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They don't do the normal damage stuff

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If it's client authoritive

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So just focus on the data they want to send

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 11:53 AM

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They want to send the actors they hit and the damage they did to each actor specifically as they calculate a lot of stuff locally depending on items and upgrades they have

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The damage is not server authoriative

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It's a PVE game

thin stratus Oct 3, 2019, 11:54 AM

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Thing is, even if it's PVE, doing it client authoritive goes against the way UE4 works

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And makes things harder

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But anyway

chrome bay Oct 3, 2019, 11:54 AM

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Yeah. Even in PVE, I would still do it server-side

thin stratus Oct 3, 2019, 11:54 AM

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TArray<FDamageInfo>

zealous saffron Oct 3, 2019, 11:54 AM

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^

thin stratus Oct 3, 2019, 11:54 AM

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FDamageInfo has ActorToDamage and DamageToDeal

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 11:54 AM

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Ahh good idea I can put the actor to damage in the struct

zealous saffron Oct 3, 2019, 11:55 AM

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regardless if it's a listen or dedicated server it should go to the server.

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 11:55 AM

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I have a struct already that is being sent with the type of damage, if it was a crit etc.

thin stratus Oct 3, 2019, 11:55 AM

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Yeah one entry in the Array should describe all damage etc. done to that one actor

chrome bay Oct 3, 2019, 11:55 AM

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Generally speaking, it's also just a lot more efficient to do it that way

thin stratus Oct 3, 2019, 11:55 AM

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And per actor you have one entry

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It certainly is

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The Client Authoritive way is def shit

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Not because of cheating

chrome bay Oct 3, 2019, 11:55 AM

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All the client cares about is how much health an has, and replicating that is one float or int32 per actor

thin stratus Oct 3, 2019, 11:56 AM

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You can still simulate all the damage stuff locally

chrome bay Oct 3, 2019, 11:56 AM

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All the client has to tell the server is when and where they fired from

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You also have to deal with race conditions, like when two players shoot a character at the same time etc.

thin stratus Oct 3, 2019, 11:56 AM

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Yeah not in PVE though :D

chrome bay Oct 3, 2019, 11:56 AM

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Client-auth makes it much harder to attribute kills, etc.

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 11:56 AM

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The server still actually confirms the damage etc.

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The client just says what he hit

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But yeah I get ideally you do all that on the server

thin stratus Oct 3, 2019, 11:57 AM

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Yeah that's still wrong :D

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But yeah if you need to do it the way of sending the data to the server

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Then just make it an array of struct

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And that struct holds data about a specific hit enemy

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 11:57 AM

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That's better than 2 arrays of hit actors and structs

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Thanks!

thin stratus Oct 3, 2019, 11:57 AM

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Yeah 2 arrays is really not needed :D

chrome bay Oct 3, 2019, 11:57 AM

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Sending what they think they hit isn't necessarily bad.. sometimes necessary, like if you want to do lag comp etc.. But yeah, if the client controls how much damage is dealt - bad times.

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 11:58 AM

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Nah not doing lag comp at all

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And if they cheat, they cheat

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It's mainly playing with friends against AI

chrome bay Oct 3, 2019, 11:58 AM

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I simulate all damage locally for UI/FX, but ultimately it's all estimated - server is ya boi doing the damage

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 11:59 AM

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The problem with the shotgun approach is that you'd probably get a completely different result to what the client saw he hit on his screen and what the server hits

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UNLESS

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you do full blown lag comp

chrome bay Oct 3, 2019, 11:59 AM

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You still would even without a shotgun

zealous saffron Oct 3, 2019, 11:59 AM

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You run into issues of high and low ping advantages in either route

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 11:59 AM

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Since it's not PvP at all, I am favoring the experience of the player over true fairness

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I get that it's not the correct approach

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But you can trust the client a lot more when it doesn't matter if he can cheat or not

zealous saffron Oct 3, 2019, 12:00 PM

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if it's not spawning a physical projectile and performing just a trace, perform the trace on the client, send the hitresult to the server.

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 12:01 PM

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I'll try sending only the hit actors to the server and letting it handle the rest but I believe there was a reason I kept it clientside

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For projectile weapons I do indeed spawn the projectile on the server etc

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And that handles damage

chrome bay Oct 3, 2019, 12:01 PM

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For a projectile weapon, there's not much you can do unless you want to do prediction for those too - but that's not so easy

zealous saffron Oct 3, 2019, 12:02 PM

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Damage Calcs shouldn't be client, the trace(s) itself should be clientside.

chrome bay Oct 3, 2019, 12:02 PM

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For hitscan, send the hit result to the server

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If the actor the client hit is "roughly" where the client thinks it was, accept it

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If not, rejecto

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It's up to you how you verify whether the client hit is allowed or not

zealous saffron Oct 3, 2019, 12:02 PM

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current game I'm working on it spawns a physical projectile which is run on the server and simulated to clients.

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 12:02 PM

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Oh yeah I kind of remember: if I send 16 hit results to the server via one RPC it gets quite heavy. Doing those calculations on the client filters out everything so you only end up sending max 2-3 hit actors / damage structs

chrome bay Oct 3, 2019, 12:03 PM

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16 Hits is a lot of data

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 12:03 PM

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Yep and some of my shotguns have 24 pellets+

chrome bay Oct 3, 2019, 12:03 PM

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And I grauntee you aren't using 80% of what an FHitResult contains

zealous saffron Oct 3, 2019, 12:03 PM

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are you using hitboxes?

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 12:03 PM

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Exactly

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Which is why I do it locally

chrome bay Oct 3, 2019, 12:03 PM

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Send the actor and a quantized location

zealous saffron Oct 3, 2019, 12:03 PM

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@grizzled stirrup

chrome bay Oct 3, 2019, 12:03 PM

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That's more than enough

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 12:03 PM

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I then replicate a centralized FVector_NetQuantize

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So the remote clients can retrace the shot

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With FX

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Using that vector as the impact point

chrome bay Oct 3, 2019, 12:04 PM

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Yep, not much different to what shootergame does

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My advice would be to not send any damage values to the server

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Just send an array of actors and quantized actor locations, and num shots which hit each actor

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struct { Actor, Loc, NumHits; }

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Let the server do the rest

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9/10 times most pellets will hit the same actor anyway

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 12:05 PM

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Would this be purely to prevent cheating instead of sending struct {Actor, DamageDealt}; ? Considering there won't be verification on the server, he would just deal damage x NumHits in that case

chrome bay Oct 3, 2019, 12:06 PM

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The point is the server should be what decides how much damage is dealt to something

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And you can very very easily do some basic anti-cheat with just that information alone

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Rule of thumb, if players can cheat, they will

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And UE4, unfortunately, makes it very easy to cheat

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In fact, you can skip NumHits entirely

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Send the seed that you use to generate the shotgun blast

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have it resimulate each shot

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 12:08 PM

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I do a delay before each shot is evaulated however which complicates things

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And that'd mean lag comp would be needed on the server

chrome bay Oct 3, 2019, 12:08 PM

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You're making this hard for yourself 😄

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 12:08 PM

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Basically on the client- takes shot, calculates damage at that instant, then sends to the server after a delay (Delay - Ping)

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Why you ask?

chrome bay Oct 3, 2019, 12:08 PM

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Why delay?

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 12:09 PM

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It feels much better for damage to have a subconcious delay even in single player. Yes that could be delayed AFTER the server deals the damage but that comes with other issues

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I could calculate damage right away on the server BUT even then the server would be a bit out of sync

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So it would hit slightly different areas

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Then that means lag comp which is a whole can of worms I don't want to get into

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Alternatively let the client handle it and accept that people will cheat

chrome bay Oct 3, 2019, 12:10 PM

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I don't necessarily agree that a bullet hitting something and damaging it later feels better, but maybe you're going for something specific

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 12:10 PM

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Which for a PVE game is fine I think

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And yeah it's purely just choice in this case

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As gunshot start sound / impact sound / hitmarker sound all happening at once clashes

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It's nice to get the feeling of fake bullet time

chrome bay Oct 3, 2019, 12:10 PM

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Yeah but you can work around the sound overlap without needing to delay actual gameplay

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 12:11 PM

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But that means delaying the UI notification / score etc. too

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It feels easier to delay the damage event from the server which triggers it all

chrome bay Oct 3, 2019, 12:11 PM

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I just don't know why you would, I've never seen any other game have an issue with that

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 12:12 PM

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True it's just choice after playing around with a few options. Anyway bottom line if I wanted to do my backwards way, I should favor a single struct instead of a tmap with ActorsToDamge and DamageAmounts, correct?

chrome bay Oct 3, 2019, 12:12 PM

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IMO yeah

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 12:13 PM

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And if I ever did need to send two arrays side by side over the net, there's no real benefit to making them a map first (for cleanliness) and converting back to two arrays before the RPC?

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Thanks for the help, I understand my approach is confusing / wrong in many ways

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I am just going for the feeling of a single player game while still being able to enjoy it with friends

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so the effects of lag etc. are minimized: clientside movement and damage calculation. Everything still happens on the server but the client provides the input, so a cheaters paradises but a good experience for the client

zealous saffron Oct 3, 2019, 12:15 PM

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pretty much

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you can do some basic checks on the hit that the server is receiving

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 12:16 PM

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yep even like the shootergame bounding box approach

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But the way I see it, why even bother if there are a million ways a potential cheater could get around it

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May as well let them

zealous saffron Oct 3, 2019, 12:16 PM

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ultimately I wouldn't worry in PvE game

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or as much

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rather

worthy perch Oct 3, 2019, 12:17 PM

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Are arrays sent over the net always in order? I recall reading that order may not be preserved, but that may just be for FFastArraySerializer.

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 12:17 PM

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Yep it's not going to impact anyone else unless your friend is a crazy cheater!

chrome bay Oct 3, 2019, 12:17 PM

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@worthy perch the latter

zealous saffron Oct 3, 2019, 12:17 PM

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well it won't screw over other players

chrome bay Oct 3, 2019, 12:17 PM

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Always in order, unless you use the special Serializer

zealous saffron Oct 3, 2019, 12:17 PM

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just the enemies

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 12:17 PM

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Yep and I mean if you are cheating at a PvE game, it's like cheating in a singleplayer game 😄

zealous saffron Oct 3, 2019, 12:17 PM

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pretty much

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upside for physical projectiles harder for clients to cheat 🙂

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 12:18 PM

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Yeah my projectiles are serverside but they are noticeably laggy on the client under higher pings

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As in the interp

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I have to play with the settings more I think

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Might do something like UT where they spawn a fake clientside one that matches the position of the server one over time

zealous saffron Oct 3, 2019, 12:20 PM

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I will probably need to adjust my code later on when I get to network performance, I would really only worry about the setup for RPC calls now and performance later (aside from factoring in RPC calls).

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 12:20 PM

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Yep I remember my initial prototype like 3 years ago had 24+ server RPCs sending hit results with multicast RPCs being called right after per shot 😄

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For the shotgun

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A single RPC with 2-3 minimal structs per shot is certainly an improvement

zealous saffron Oct 3, 2019, 12:23 PM

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anyone have any success in creating a physics based movement component that runs smoothly online? I know Rama did one awhile back.

chrome bay Oct 3, 2019, 12:24 PM

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Rama did client-auth

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If you want physics movement that's pretty much the only way

zealous saffron Oct 3, 2019, 12:24 PM

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damnit

chrome bay Oct 3, 2019, 12:24 PM

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server-auth is an unsolvable problem

zealous saffron Oct 3, 2019, 12:24 PM

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that's what I've found so far 😐

chrome bay Oct 3, 2019, 12:24 PM

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Many have attempted, all have failed miserably

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Myself included, for multiple years

zealous saffron Oct 3, 2019, 12:25 PM

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back to kinematic based buoyancy then

chrome bay Oct 3, 2019, 12:25 PM

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Fortnite uses client-auth, and it's the most popular game in the world, so I wouldn't worry about it 😄

zealous saffron Oct 3, 2019, 12:26 PM

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eh, I don't think this 4v4 age of sail game is going to get many hackers.

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 12:26 PM

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I love that fortnite does client-auth there, so basically the CMC switches to the state where it accepts updates from the client and interpolates proxies on other machines to that location, then when the CMC exits flying state for example, it switches back to server auth?

chrome bay Oct 3, 2019, 12:27 PM

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CMC is all server-auth all the time

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but the vehicles are all client-auth

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They go in hard on the anti-cheat, but naturally they don't give away any details on that (for obvious reasons)

zealous saffron Oct 3, 2019, 12:27 PM

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will probably look into again when I overhaul movement and inherit from pawn instead of character so I can have horizontal collision capsules working that will actually affect movement.

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 12:27 PM

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Yep it seems like the dream combo

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I wonder in cases like using a launchpad and taking extreme fast turns

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That would seem to be client auth too

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Just because I've never experienced a correction

chrome bay Oct 3, 2019, 12:28 PM

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I did kinematic for ages with my hovertanks, but the trouble I kept running into with collision resolution just wasn't worth the hassle

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Also had to patch the engine to support moving a skeletal mesh and sweeping using all it's bodies not just the root

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Which got expensive realllll fast

zealous saffron Oct 3, 2019, 12:29 PM

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why not use a generic capsule or shape component to encompass it?

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rather than every body

chrome bay Oct 3, 2019, 12:29 PM

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Wasn't a good enough approximation

zealous saffron Oct 3, 2019, 12:29 PM

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ah

chrome bay Oct 3, 2019, 12:29 PM

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Especially when you have a wheeled vehicle which is in contact with the ground etc.

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My vehicles can be enormous too, and have a wide variety of shapes

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Box/Capsule just doesn't cut unfortunately

zealous saffron Oct 3, 2019, 12:30 PM

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I suppose ships are easier considering all you have to have is a capsule encompassing it.

chrome bay Oct 3, 2019, 12:30 PM

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I want to revisit the semi-kinematic approach when chaos is more fleshed out

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Yeah that and characters 😄

grizzled stirrup Oct 3, 2019, 12:30 PM

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Can't wait for the prediction plugin when it gets finished up

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Will have some fun trying to make a very basic CMC

zealous saffron Oct 3, 2019, 12:30 PM

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what plugin?

chrome bay Oct 3, 2019, 12:31 PM

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Prediction plugin will be useful. They are planning to make a new character movement based on that if it goes well