multiplayer

[meager spade]

and adjust for rotation speed better

[twin juniper]

looks perfect 👌

[plush mist]

I am calling a server function, thats disabled CharacterMovementComponent via SetComponentTickEnabled(false) in multicasting it to all clients. Animation stop ticking and updating at listen server. Animation Graph just stopped its update. How do I force update it? Its very easy to reproduce in standard Epics TPS template by this code.
My goal is to make anim graph updated when CharacterMovementComponent is not ticking.

[meager spade]

why are you not ticking the CMC?

is there a reason why

and if you do disable the CMC tick, the skeleton will never tick, cause the CMC ticks it.

[plush mist]

@meager spade why only on server? "why are you not ticking the CMC?" strongly required

clients anim graphs continue update

[meager spade]

i don't really understand why you need to disable CMC tick tho

seems a bit strange

just set movement mode to none

and nothing will update.. 🤷

[plush mist]

@meager spade dude, thanks a lot. I will try your solution. I need to disable CMC because of becoming a car passenger and if I didn't disable CMC some jittering will arise at client.

@meager spade works just fine in blank project. Trying to use it in real battle field. Thanks you very much!

[barren patrol]

Hi all. I have been working on a MOBA/RTS style click-to-move character movement and I want it to utilize network prediction available in the Character Movement Component.
My approach was to enable client-side navmeshes and calculate the path on client. Follow the path on client side by translating into vector move inputs every tick and sending those to the server.

I was able to get a simple implementation working in Blueprints using the Find Path To Location Synchronously node and a Pawn->AddMovementInput node.

This approach actually worked perfectly under simulated lag, but there are obviously tons of edge cases to handle for the path following aspects. My character would bug out around path point transitions and reaching the end goal. It doesn't handle path updates. It doesn't do any avoidance. Therefore, I was digging into the AIController MoveToLocation C++ code and seeing if I could lift some existing code to do this for me.

I found the PathFollowingComponent handled all of this already, so my next approach was to make PlayerController subclass that had a PathFollowingComponent like the AIController does. I copypasta'd enough AIController code until I could call PathFollowingComponent->RequestMove(MoveRequest, Path);

This works as far as getting the path, but for some reason doesn't replicate the input correctly to the server and I can't figure out why.

[barren patrol]

What I'm seeing with the C++ version is the client gets a path and does a local movement input correctly on that first frame, but nothing on server. So its a giant jitter loop as client keeps getting reset to initial position.

I traced both Pawn->AddMovementInput() and PathFollowingComponent->RequestMove() down to the Pawn->Internal_AddMovementInput() call. Obviously the PFC has a more complicated codepath to get there, but this seems to be the common denominator.

Is Pawn->Internal_AddMovementInput() not always replicated to the server?

[barren patrol]

I see in CMC TickComponent() the input is consumed by const FVector InputVector = ConsumeInputVector(); So it shouldn't matter how it gets there.

I think I will make a custom subclass of CMC and see what it reads for that vector. but Im 99% sure its being populated since I am seeing at least one frame of input happening before being reset / corrected by the server

[winged badger]

@barren patrol the Pawn being moved client side has to have ROLE_AutonomousProxy

you also need a few alterations to CMC, where it does Cast to PC, and such, if your Pawn is possessed by AIController

but it is doable, pathing clientside that routes to CMC's AddMovementInput on its own

all the functions are virtual, so its not that hard

there is also plenty of stuff to reroute in APlayerController::TickActor

[barren patrol]

@winged badger I ended up adding a PathFollowingComponent to a custom subclass of PlayerController possessing my character. So its not an AIController, but I copied a bunch of code out of AIController to implement a PlayerController version of it's MoveToLocation()

If I am able to call the blueprints node for Pawn->AddMovementInput on my character and that works as expected without the infinite correction loop, does that mean I have the ROLE_AutonomousProxy set up correctly? I think i did the spawning/possession right for that.

[winged badger]

if you added pathfollowing to a PC, then its fine, provided you didn't break it

[barren patrol]

PlayerController:TickActor is something I haven't looked at yet. That looks like a bunch of ROLE stuff that could be relevant.

[winged badger]

as that is the default behavior for a PC possessed pawn

we got it working with AIController between PC and the PlayerPawn

and PC's pawn is basically camera

[barren patrol]

i saw that approach as well. does it use an RPC to replicate the click to server and run the logic there?

i noticed some restriction on AIController being on clients.

[winged badger]

no, its moves locally just fine

via AddMovementInput ultimately

this way bots get to share the AIController code

and PC only has player at the wheel specific logic

[barren patrol]

that is nice actually.

as a newbie i don't know how much i like the controller/pawn abstraction. it makes it hard to reuse logic between players and bots like you said. im tempted to push this into a MoveToLocation / MoveToActor function on the Character class itself.

[winged badger]

its all on same principle

if you tell the Pawn to shoot at target

it doesn't care about how that target was selected

AIController base class has GetTargetedLocation() function

the human player's will override to deproject mouse to screen, trace whats under mouse... etc

the AI will just return the location of its TargetActor, which the BT will attach to whatever it wants to shoot at

Pawn only knows that GetTargetedLocation function exists

[barren patrol]

don't get me wrong, I would use a thin layer of separation between input and character for sure. but for movement, it seems like the MoveToLocation pathfinding of AIController could have easily been part of the Character / Pawn instead. Then, as in your example, PlayerController and AIController could set the target move location differently but get the same result.

[winged badger]

the entire thing is pretty unfortunate atm

CMC is 13k lines monolithic monstrosity

tightly coupled to ACharacter and APlayerController

in general, works more or less fine unless you want something other then the common functionality

[barren patrol]

haha, so it seems

[plush mist]

@meager spade it's not work.

@winged badger can u suggest me how do I can disable cmc tick and wants my mesh to play animation on listen server?

[dry turret]

does the warning "no owning connection for X, function Y will not be processed" refer to the present situation or future shipping builds? while testing the development build everything the warnings refer to seems to be working, and the events are called from a pawn that's possessed by a player controller

[twin juniper]

Hi, if i want to make a dedicated server, what should i install in the server and how should i connect the server to ue4 ????

[real vector]

Can anyone tell me how to test a dedicated server in UE 4.25?
In the previous versions there was a checkmark to run dedicated but not anymore.
The docs are old, 4.9..

https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/Gameplay/HowTo/Networking/TestMultiplayer/index.html

The screenshot is 4.25 as I have it here.

[covert gorge]

Does anyone know if there is anyone to override an steam tools appid? i have created a dedicated server as a steam tool associated to my main game, but when I execute it from my steam library, the server doesnt work (it works if i execute the .exe directly)

[normal jacinth]

Hi 🙂 In my Shipping build, the Steam Friends functions do not work (I can't see my friends list) whereas in Development build this works. Does anyone know why? Am I meant to set up the Shipping build differently?

[winged badger]

@dry turret that probably means all instances of that Pawn, even ones that are simulated proxy are trying to send the RPC

[stoic acorn]

If I were to set up a TeamState BP how would I go about doing so?

[meager spade]

make a actor derirved from AInfo

then in C++ make it relevant only to players of the same team

if only the team can access/see it

(this does not affect server, just other teams)

[jovial cipher]

does inviting someone off the friends list on steam trigger anything in engine?

I'm trying to decide on how to do my invite system

[plush mist]

@meager spade Resolved

[buoyant wedge]

How and where can make a replicated widget?
I need after a time appear a widget to all.

[meager spade]

Yes @buoyant wedge

[ember needle]

i kinda managed to have optimized networked ragdolls... if anyone is interested let me know

[meager spade]

Widgets are not replicated @buoyant wedge

All widgets are local

You can send an rpc to all clients to show a widget

But they have to make it and display it locally themselves

[ember needle]

@jovial cipher if you use the advanced sessions plugin you can have the invite event on your GI iirc

[meager spade]

@jovial cipher yes it does

Even works if you use uworks

We also handle invites where the receiver has not got the game running

They load the game and try to join the session of the invite

Automatically

[ember needle]

i have the same behavior but i didn’t have to do anything about it again iirc

with steam and advanced sessions that is

[meager spade]

Well steam launches the game and sends in the lobby id

[ember needle]

yes

[meager spade]

Advanced sessions probably handles that under the hood

[ember needle]

probably

[fleet raven]

that ragdoll doesn't seem to sync up on the different screens

[meager spade]

Meh I never care for synching visuals like that

[ember needle]

@fleet raven that’s the optimized part. I only need the position, not every bone.

[meager spade]

If s ragdoll looks different to another player who cares its o lyrics visual

Its only

[ember needle]

^ this

[meager spade]

If it was a gameplay element then sure

[fleet raven]

it matters if they're like "wtf look at this epic pose" and their friend is like "huh?"

[ember needle]

duh

[meager spade]

Yeah but that's common I most gsmes

I have seen my ragdoll In weird poses and others see me different

[ember needle]

the gameplay i need here is the ability to revive a dead team mate, so the position is very relevant

[meager spade]

I dont ragdoll

I just play a downed animation

And keep them in it

Whilst they are still alive

Down but not out

[ember needle]

yeah if you have flat land that’s ok

[meager spade]

Even so you can fake it

Look at fortnite

[ember needle]

how do you transition to the downed part

[meager spade]

When your down they just shove you in a downed pose

Happens so quickly you dont even see what happened

[ember needle]

hum

[meager spade]

Take a look at some fortnite gameplay

You will see

It's all smoke and mirrors a lot of things

[ember needle]

what, blend at 0.2 seconds to downed?

🙂

yeah smoke and mirrors is pretty much game development eheh

i will look into that option as well

[meager spade]

Ragdoll is fine if the player is dead and gonna be respawned

[ember needle]

but i was into deep this task... so wanted to experiment

[meager spade]

Not so great for DBNO

[ember needle]

dbno?

[meager spade]

Down but not out

[ember needle]

ah ok

so do you really just blend to downed pose?

[meager spade]

Yeah

[ember needle]

hum

well indeed..

most do

i have a couple of downed poses from mixamo, but none is great

couldn’t find any

[meager spade]

Yeah this is where you want custom made animations

But gets pricey lol

[ember needle]

anyway... i left that there so if anyone needs help i can try helping.

yeah indeed lol 🙃

[covert oriole]

Hello guys, can someone point me to a source were is the process of set up the game, build, run it on 2 machines and connect the players? I mean this is the part were I'm stuck, i have no idea how the player form Africa will connect with the one in UK

[dense atlas]

Anyone who have made there game with unreal engine and uploaded it on steam?

I needed some help

[primal pike]

Hey Unreal Friends :).
I've developed a third person sports game over the last weeks. I am stuck on network testing.
I've built a binary and shared it with a friend and my brother. I initiated a session as a listening server.
But neither of my clients can connect. They get a ConnectionTimeout:

"LogNet: Error: UEngine::BroadcastNetworkFailure: FailureType = ConnectionTimeout, ErrorString = UNetConnection::Tick: Connection TIMED OUT. Closing connection.. Elapsed: 60.01, Real: 60.01, Good: 60.01, DriverTime: 60.01, Threshold: 60.00, [UNetConnection] RemoteAddr: my-ip:7777, Name: IpConnection_2147482587, Driver: PendingNetDriver IpNetDriver_2147482588, IsServer: NO, PC: NULL, Owner: NULL, UniqueId: INVALID, Driver = PendingNetDriver IpNetDriver_2147482588
[2020.05.17-14.42.50:103][252]LogNet: Warning: Network Failure: PendingNetDriver[ConnectionTimeout]: UNetConnection::Tick: Connection TIMED OUT. Closing connection.. Elapsed: 60.01, Real: 60.01, Good: 60.01, DriverTime: 60.01, Threshold: 60.00, [UNetConnection] RemoteAddr: my-ip:7777, Name: IpConnection_2147482587, Driver: PendingNetDriver IpNetDriver_2147482588, IsServer: NO, PC: NULL, Owner: NULL, UniqueId: INVALID" (From the LOG)"

My Log of the listening server does not show any sign of an attempted connection. So it fails on the client side completely.
I am standing in the dark right now. Can someone point me in a direction?

Note: I have forwarded my Port on the Router for port "7777" to my local machine, but nothing...

[cyan current]

Are you blocking the connection in firewall maybe? I remember having to change my firewall setting to have both private and public network allowed once to make friends be able to join properly, even after portforwarding @primal pike

[primal pike]

@cyan current Yes, I created a rule specifically for UE4, UE4Editor and BootstrapWathever(the one for the binary executable).

@covert oriole https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/Gameplay/Networking/Server/index.html You need to run the client and enter certain commands in the command line ingame or run the game from the terminal with the same commands appended. One needs to host the game as a server (listen server to be exact) and one needs to connect to the ip of the host.

[dense atlas]

Anyone who have made there game with unreal engine and uploaded it on steam?

I needed some help

[buoyant wedge]

@meager spade ok. I fixed the widget problem and implement a HUD. But when I try to remove all widget to all player.. The widget persist on server/player. Any idea?

@dense atlas I have set steam for steam upload and make the page for download the test on my friends, but really basic

[opaque arrow]

hey everyone, did any of you managed to figure out the Package contains EditorOnly data error when running the dedicated server?

The relevant error being

[2020.05.17-18.45.26:570][  0]LogLinker: Warning: Unable to load package (../../../../../Epic Games/Ue4Source/Engine/Content/Animation/DefaultAnimCurveCompressionSettings.uasset). Package contains EditorOnly data which is not supported by the current build.
Assertion failed: !GEventDrivenLoaderEnabled || LoadPhase > ELoadPhase::WaitingForHeader [File:D:/Epic Games/Ue4Source/Engine/Source/Runtime/CoreUObject/Private/Serialization/AsyncLoading.cpp] [Line: 7288] 

any tip or trick would be appreciated 🙂

[barren patrol]

@winged badger thanks for help yesterday. i attached the debugger and realized i needed bUseAccelerationForPathfinding to trigger the right codepath... now works perfectly!

this engine is quite the learning curve. not the first time i have spent 4+ hours debugging, only to find a checkbox i need to tick 🤦‍♂️

[shy kelp]

This was my input for dropping a sword. This worked yesterday on both the client and server yesterday but for some reason, the client still "shows" an outline of the a sword in its hand like it isnt being replicated (replicates is on) and you cant use it. both events are "run on server"https://blueprintue.com/blueprint/k5_q_unq/

[terse prawn]

What would be a good way to go about spawning projectiles in a multiplayer project?
I had one setup as a multicast but this I didnt see to be the best. i.e if the player hits their own projectile by accadent somhow on their side but not on the server it destroys the actor on their end but not the server.
what would be a better way to do this

[plush lagoon]

Does the Ability System work with networking?

[shy kelp]

@plush lagoon yes

[plush lagoon]

oh nice. :3 Thank you, I remember being told at one point a while ago, it didn't work. So I have not been able to check back into this topic since then Xd thank you

[ionic mountain]

I’ve read that Clients can’t use the Game Mode, it only runs on the Server. But can Clients get info from the Game Mode and set variables within themselves based off the Game Mode’s information? Such as taking a “Game Type” (Deathmatch, King of the Hill, etc.) and setting a “Game Type” variable within itself to use for various in game mechanics and how to handle them?

[plush lagoon]

@ionic mountain from my handling its GameMode -> Player Controller (Server) -> Player Controller (Client)

so you can pass informaiton to the client for the player controller to handle

but it happens on the server's player controller

not the clients

then you replicate it from the player's controller on the server too your client player controller :x

[ionic mountain]

Hm, trying to figure out how I would use this with abilities. In one game mode your primary skills have 1x play rate, but in another have 3x play rate. I need to figure out how to get this info to the player.

I think I figured it out. On begin play the client will run an event on the server with an input pin of the “PlayerBP” which will then use that input (as the server) to set the Replicated “Game Type” variable as the server.

[pine flint]

Does anyone have experience with AdvancedSteamSessions Plugin? I created a dedicated server tool to for my game but when I launch it it forces the wrong app id(server app id instead of game app id). Making the appId.txt file readonly doesn't work unfortunately

[tidal sail]

I doubt there's an answer for this I'll like but, there's no server travel for PIE, right?

Is there any way people have run multiple versions of Unreal on the same machine, successfully testing standalone multiplayer games?

[pine flint]

you can use command line arguments to run a listen server

https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/Gameplay/Networking/Server/index.html

[hoary lark]

I wrote a bunch of .bat files myself to launch instances of the game (uncooked, unpackaged), one being a listen host and the other a client, on the left/right sides of my screen. I can share it all if you want, though it's got a ton of gobbledygook variables

[tidal sail]

I'll accept any resources. At the worst I'll just not use them? 🙂 I'll look at the CLI as well

Right now I'm just getting into the basics, and trying to be able to test. It looks like my multiplayer code -does- work as is, but I still can't get ServerTravel to work (heh)

[shy kelp]

I'm trying to network dropping a sword. This worked yesterday on both the client and server yesterday but for some reason, the client still "shows" an outline of the a sword in its hand like it isnt being replicated (replicates is on) and you cant use it so the character technically isnt holding a sword. both events are "run on server"https://blueprintue.com/blueprint/k5_q_unq/

[hoary lark]

@tidal sail a few sample files to set up .BAT files for launching editor game instances (uncooked, unpackaged) https://hastebin.com/ekobohawuf.pl maybe some info in there that helps you try stuff out

[tidal sail]

Thank you

the last thing I think I have to figure out is how to get UE4Editor.exe to come up in the CLI. I probably have to actually locate it and make it a path variable or something

[hoary lark]

if you wanted to, yes you could add the folder for the version you're using to your path env var

i didn't bother, used a settings file instead there

[tidal sail]

you used a settings file in your project?

[hoary lark]

no for the .bat files... to locate UE4Editor

[tidal sail]

Ah! Of course. I see it at the top.

[slender dove]

there's something i'm unsure about when it comes to programming client-prediction

let's say i want to play a melee attack on a client predictively and then notify the server so it can play it on other clients as well

implementing it like "play animation on client, if this is a client then tell the server to do the same" allows the host to see client animations, but the clients won't see the host or other clients, at least for playing animation montages

so i would assume i have to use a repnotify to notify other clients? at least that's how the shootergame example does it

i see multicast as an option as well but then that wouldn't be predictive

or at least, i don't know how i would skip replicating to the client that instigated the animation in the first place

[foggy hinge]

You can't really predict that.

Unless what you mean is simulation.

Anyways word play, so ... what I usually do is:

LocalClient -> RPC to server that you did an attack, play anim montage. Server -> Set flash byte. NonLocalClient -> Receive flash byte, play anim montage.

[slender dove]

can you define flash byte for me

[foggy hinge]

The flash byte can be flagged to skip the owner

Flash byte is just a replicated uint8

[slender dove]

alright so this seems like the reason why i should be using GAS instead

i assume

[foggy hinge]

What's GAS?

[slender dove]

gameplay ability system

[foggy hinge]

Yeah, you can use that if you want.

[sly arch]

Hello, I'm trying to setup a server using advanced sessions but it doesn't seem like its working. A listen servers works great with steam and the dedicated server works if steam isn't enabled. But, it seems like it's not connecting to the master server correctly because when I check view servers on steam, it won't show up under lan. Any suggestions would be great. 🙂

[marble imp]

Has anyone managed to do pixelstreaming? (Not local) Im having the issue of a client not being able to connect on a open port IP 😒

[kindred widget]

So I've managed a fairly decent grasp over RPC and Replication lately, but I'm curious about how to handle one thing in particular. Keeping it simple, I want a simple container box that has an inventory in it(Already done), I get how to use the player's input to say.. Open the box and show the inventory, but how would I handle telling the server to transfer items from the box to the player, or from the player to the box? Do I need to put this functionality on a client owned actor like the character? I already have an inventory component that I've created for the likes of characters or containers alike. Can I use this to call server functionality on the server version of the container and then just let the container replicate it's changes? What is the general or preferred way that people handle this?

[chrome bay]

To keep things contained, and since the Character 'Owns' their own Inventory Container and can call RPC's on it, my advice would be to route all the RPC's through that container. This is psuedo-code, but you would have a couple of functions that allow you to transfer items between them, such as TransferTo(Container, Item) and TransferFrom(Container, Item). These would call RPC's if you aren't the authority, then the server can transfer the items and replication would update the inventories.

If you want to GalaxyBrain it, you can even have the inventory component be the thing that "scans" out in front of the player character to find other objects (e.g, chests), and route RPC's to open and close the chest through that too, just through some generic OpenContainer() function.

Depends on the game ofc, but that's probably how I would do it.

[kindred widget]

@chrome bay Thanks. I'll keep on this path with that then and see how it turns out using a replicated version of my InventoryComponent. Initial testing shows it working well.

[chrome bay]

Inventory systems are fun to build tbh, there's so many different ways to do them.

[kindred widget]

I've done a couple single player ones so far. But I haven't done a whole lot with multiplayer stuff yet. I'm loving this though. I probably wouldn't have had such a hard time with it if I'd have understood what RPC meant. Coming from blueprint, there's no real mention of RPC. So reading docs is confusing for a while. I don't even remember where it was I was reading when I realized it was just an event called differently.

[chrome bay]

Yeah BP terminology is quite different for some reason, BP often does things CPP doesn't too.

(Like calling OnRep functions on the Server...)

[kindred widget]

Actually.. that wasn't a half bad idea. Using the component itself for the checking. Now I need to go figure out how to reparent my CPP Inventory version to a scene component instead of an actor component.

[chrome bay]

You don't necessarily have to use a scene component, I would still keep the inventory as a generic actor comp

Just scan for the actor under the crosshair for example, and check to see if it has any "inventory" components

If it does you can then present that to the UI.. etc etc

[kindred widget]

How do you generally scan from your actor components? Last time I did something like this it was through a Scene component I attached to the camera on the character. So it just used it's own location for traces and such.

[chrome bay]

It's up to you really, Pawns have some handy functions you can leverage, such as GetViewLocation and GetBaseAimRotation. With those two alone you have all the info you need to do a simple trace query

I do something similar for my weapon inventories. I have a base 'Hardpoint Component' which is the container component, that has some overrideable functionality for getting the aim location from the owner. (So I have a HardpointComponent_Vehicle and a HardpointComponent_Character)

[kindred widget]

Hmm. I might need to make a child for the scan and such functionality. I don't think I want to implement that in stuff like crates, or maybe even AI.

[chrome bay]

Yeah exactly. It depends really, you don't have to add the scanning stuff the the component, you may want to do that separately through a more generic "interaction" system, but it depends on the game

[rose egret]

in dedicated server hum much memory a UStaticMeshComponent or components like that take ?
is it good practice to exclude render only components with '#if UE_SERVER' to save a little memory ?
given the assumption I have 5000 of them

[chrome bay]

Depends. If they are member properties you can't exclude them anyway

The Server will still load that stuff, because for example, you may need to get sockets etc etc.

[rose egret]

🤔

during my deep thinking I found its not important and I should not bother myself. my game level is big itself and there are > 50,000 StaticMeshActor by default.
seems there is no way to stop UE4 from draining memory.

🤔

[chrome bay]

Well the problem is you can't do that really. If the server needs to use that mesh in any capacity, it wouldn't be able to. A good example is if that static mesh has any collision for example.

[foggy hinge]

In open world games that I've made, we usually only load in relevant chunks of the map that players are in.

If you're making a game with a lot of players that they'll be distributed all over the place, I know what we've done is cooked the data for static meshes on servers to strip all of the data that isn't required for static meshes (all polygon data can be stripped for example, as long as you're not using per polygon collision)

[rose egret]

@foggy hinge
how did you do that ? changed source or ? Is there any special config or trick to tell the dedicated server to note cook complex collision ?
I need per poly collision only in clients.

[foggy hinge]

Ideally you'll want both the server and client to match collision wise.

[rose egret]

my LineTrace for bullets, pickups, and projectiles is done in client. server just verify them.

[foggy hinge]

Server can't verify those if the collision data is different.

[twin juniper]

Do i need the source code to compile a dedicated server?

[chrome bay]

Yeah

You can simulate a dedicated server in editor, but to build/package one you need to use a source build

[twin juniper]

Can i start using the retail version of the engine and then build the dedicated server from the source code version, or do i need to start the project from the source build

[chrome bay]

You can start from the launcher version sure

But for multiplayer, you should build and test often because the editor is rarely a good example of a real-world environment

[twin juniper]

Well i'm going to start from the source since i spent all night building it.

I'm mostly going to use non dedicated sessions

[meager spade]

all night to build it?

damn :/

[twin juniper]

Dunno why. I have an i7 6700k

[sturdy saddle]

How can I pause game for client??

Also how can I check if there is noone connected .... if game is singleplayer?

[warped stream]

Hi
I just came Back to Unreal from 4.19. Updated to 4.25
Did they remove the "Run dedicated Server" checkbox? How do I achieve something like that now?

You can simulate a dedicated server in editor, but to build/package one you need to use a source build
@chrome bay how, if I may ask?

[serene meadow]

there's a dropbox

that you can choose

[warped stream]

there's a dropbox
@serene meadow
Is it called "play as client now"?

So, it starts the "dedicated server" in the "background"?

But I can't see it in any matter right?

[serene meadow]

yes, all the players are clients in this mode

[warped stream]

Ahhh I see.

I have a slight picture of me being able to see the dedicated server open in 4.19

Thank you.

Is there any way to debug the dedicated server or viewing it's "world". Like a simulated dedicated server, a non headless one with graphics and stuff?

[serene meadow]

i'm gonna be honest with you, i don't have much experience on dedicated servers so in that i can't help you 😦

[warped stream]

That's fine. thanks.

[serene meadow]

you're welcome

[chrome bay]

Visual studio will debug all the instances simultaneously if they are sharing the same process (which is the default)

[pliant ember]

Doesn't the node "Has Authority" determine if you're server vs if you're a client?

[bitter oriole]

Pretty much yes

Though it's more of a "was created on this machine vs was replicated from the server" thing

[sly arch]

If I branch with the condition "is dedicated server" is that effificent or should i use has authority? because every time I use has authority, it thinks I am the authority.

It didn't do that with 4.23 and i just upgraded so is that new?

@bitter oriole

[bitter oriole]

I don't believe anything changed. HasAuthority tells you whether this instance of an actor was created on this machine, or elsewhere

Checking if you're on dedicated server would return different result for non-replicated actors, and if you're on listen server

[sly arch]

Maybe, It's just if I do a simple check with print strings it thinks i'm both. It'll load the authorly, then it will run client string after

[chrome bay]

HasAuthority() won't return true if you can call RPC's

It just means the actor was likely created by the Client.

[twin juniper]

When i start an offline standalone game, it automaticly starts a listengame lol

any idea why and how to turn that off?

[chrome bay]

Have ?listen in the command line?

It won't start as a listen server unless you tell it to somewhere

[twin juniper]

not that i know

[chrome bay]

Or you did something like open MyMapName?listen

[chrome bay]

Check Run Under One Process

[twin juniper]

nope, not opened a level or executed something

Check Run Under One Process
still the same 😦

[ember needle]

@chrome bay my bad, indeed. I was trying to give a (bad) example on how to use the remote switch. Gonna remove the comment before I confuse someone.

[chrome bay]

Doesn't look like it's starting a server just looks like it's not running in-editor.

How do you know it's running as a listen Server?

[twin juniper]

at the start it prints out a message which i have in the PostLogin

[chrome bay]

PostLogin will still be called in Standalone

It'll be the local players controller

[twin juniper]

Oh

so its like it should be, i just not knew that its still called

but why is "is Server" then true?

[chrome bay]

Ah.. that node is stupid

It just returns true if the net mode is not NM_Client

You'll be in NM_Standalone

[twin juniper]

so which node should i use to check if its the server?

[chrome bay]

Can you get the NetMode in blueprint?

Oh I guess you could use IsStandalone() instead

[twin juniper]

something of that?

[chrome bay]

Ahhh. The joys of multiplayer blueprint

[twin juniper]

otherwise i need to check if not isStandealone and also if isServer

[chrome bay]

Unfortunately it doesn't look as though NetMode is exposed to BP

The easiest way would be to make you own BP node

But otherwise, you'll just have to test IsStandalone && !IsServer

[twin juniper]

yea

that is working for me

Thx 🙂

[chrome bay]

(Y)

[ember needle]

Can someone tell me what Force Net Update do? Does it flush out all rep variables with changed values to all clients?

Why am I asking, you ask? Because I've got a repnotify variable health, and upon replication I show a killing animation if a player has been killed. So there always is a significant lag in comparison to RPC

[jolly siren]

It forces the server to check if the replicated properties have changed

[ember needle]

is it sane to do a force update if computed health on server == 0?

or should I have an RPC to kill a player

[twin juniper]

if i mark the "Launch seperate Server" and set the mode to "Play offline"
then it still auto connects to my server...

how to avoid that?

[jolly siren]

ForceNetUpdate only does something if the actor has a NetUpdateFrequency < server tick rate

[ember needle]

i see

would you normally add an RPC on top of the health repnotify variable when a player dies?

I compute all hit effects locally as well as on the server, which works fine if they are normal hits, but on a kill, I wait for that instruction to come from the server

[jolly siren]

yes, a rpc for death is normal

[ember needle]

so on a headshot for instance, there's a lag between the hit and the ragdoll which can be quite perceptible with the onrep var

[jolly siren]

For example, shootergame has BroadcastDeath multicast

[ember needle]

ok then, will use RPC for this instead of the onrep

which also makes sense for a JIP I guess

thank you ethan

[jolly siren]

JIP?

[ember needle]

sorry

Join In Progress

[jolly siren]

ahh

[ember needle]

when players join in the middle of a game

they would see all dead players die at the same time when joining a game, since health would be replicated and trigger the death ragdoll

with an RPC.. if they aren't there when a player dies, they wouldn't see it (which makes sense)

[jolly siren]

right

[twin juniper]

<@&213101288538374145> Did the "Auto Connect to Server" Checkbox was removed from UE4 settings? Cant find it and no one here has an idea about it. Would like to hear the alternative

[north stone]

yes, ask the moderators who are moderating this non-official community for free, thinking they work for epic

[twin juniper]

Oh, i thought so. sry 😦

[north stone]

please read the #old-rules before you make another mishap, it could get you banned.

[twin juniper]

i have read through them but unfortunately i have missed something

thought mainly because the discord is marked as "verified" by discord

@thin stratus Have you find out the new solution which replaces that setting? So your Compendium could be updated here

[rotund sapphire]

blu do you have single process mode enabled?

[twin juniper]

tested both

currently it is disabled

[rotund sapphire]

when you enable the option you can see the auto connect option. its invisible for non single process mode.

[twin juniper]

😮

no 😦

have enabled it but its still not there

i guess it was removed with 4.25

hmm whatever i did now...

[thin stratus]

Pretty sure it's not "removed"

[twin juniper]

its not auto connecting

[thin stratus]

Just handled differently

[twin juniper]

yea i guessed that

[thin stratus]

You have this drop down in the play settings

[twin juniper]

was the "Play Offline" mode there already?

[thin stratus]

There you can probably set it to Offline or Listen Server

[twin juniper]

Maybe handled it now in the "Play OFfline"?

[thin stratus]

Offline: Every Player is Standalone
ListenServer: One Player is Server, the rest are Clients
Client: All Players are Clients, connected to a DedicatedServer

Pretty straight forward I guess

[warped stream]

Are there any naming best practises?

[twin juniper]

So Offline is without auto connect, Client is with auto connect?

[thin stratus]

I just wrote what each is

[twin juniper]

Thx 🙂

[terse prawn]

I have a game state setup for my main play map (GS_Play). and another for a lobby map (GS_Lobby).
in GS_Play I have a custom Timer I made that the gamemode triggers. but this timer dosnt exist unless executed by the gamemode.
When I load the lobby Level (Has a difference gamemode and game state) It starts the time from the GS_Play
Why does it do this and how can I fix that?

[thin stratus]

Hm, it shouldn't do that. Can you check the Outliner to see if you really load GS_Play and its GameMode?

[terse prawn]

My apologies. It was user error. I had two instances of the game open for Multiplayer testing and one loaded the development level where that gamemode was being ran. thus printing it on the other PIE window's screen

When in reality the player in the lobby never really 'saw' the print string

[hybrid zodiac]

Hi everyone. I have a tricky to resolve issue with my multiplayer game. When clients connect to the server the cammera will briefly spawn at the world origin, which is usually under the map, before suddenly being corrected once the server has created the player controller and set its location. Does anyone know how I can change the default position of the camera before the player even has a controller created for them?

It is particularly bad for clients with a slow connection, they will sometimes spend several seconds staring at the underneath of the map before being moved to the correct place

[unkempt stump]

i'd be interested in this solution too

[warped stream]

How is that possible?

[bitter oriole]

Depends on the code

But according to the title bar you have three servers here

[warped stream]

Oh hell

I just picked multiple clients in there

That can't be possible. I must be missing osmething. How can i have 3 servers connected to each other lol

I remember that 5 years ago, that suff was easier 😦

[bitter oriole]

"play as client" is probably the issue, sounds like you want the default "play as listen server"

[warped stream]

Yeah I also tried that now. I think i just need a refreshment. I did a multiplayer game but that was too long ago. And 5 years of Unity clunked my head up.

Thanks anyway for your answer.
What I have for example, if i press E and do a "print string" it prints on all 3 clients.

I forgot about all the checks.
Something like "is owner" or "has authority". I also forgot what the authority part means.

Or is that a new feature? Idk.

I make "print string" and it prints Client 2: hello

[oak pond]

I think I asked before, but how do you replicate setrelativelocation? or rather what alternative could I use since it doesnt replicate by default

[warped stream]

So maybe that "print" gets "replicated" for debugging stuff to all clients. But I can't rememeber that this was a thing before

[bitter oriole]

https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/Gameplay/Networking/Blueprints/index.html#authority

[warped stream]

Thanks

Do strings now get printed on all clients ? Looks like it

[bitter oriole]

I don't believe so

[warped stream]

That might be the reason why it attaches "Client [idx]" to it

[normal jacinth]

Hi, I have a hopefully dumb question. I need a Client to check something from the Server, but when I run a 'Run on Server' function, I need it to return back to the Client without running on the Server

I tried ending it with a 'Run on Client' function but that does nothing

[warped stream]

I don't believe so
@bitter oriole I think I'm right.

I made sure it executes only on server. And it prints to all clients "Server: [my mesage here]" (Server spawned replicated object, so authority is server)

Hi, I have a hopefully dumb question. I need a Client to check something from the Server, but when I run a 'Run on Server' function, I need it to return back to the Client without running on the Server
If the client is owner you can run "replicate to owner" or so

Idk if unreal has that, if yes, idk if blueprints have that. But you might be able to RPC to a specific client id. If that doesn't work, you could pass an id or something like that to identify clients, and a client only reacts to that RPC if the ID matches

[oak pond]

so anyone know how to replicate relative location

or an alternative

[shy kelp]

can u replicate anim montages? no matter wut i do, it wont play on client?

[hybrid zodiac]

@shy kelp I don't think so, I use net multicasts to sync animations on client

For example, if I want a wave emote, I would use a server function to tell the server I want to wave, and then the server would call a net multicast. The net multicast function would then play the montage

[stoic acorn]

got a general 'best practices' question. When making a pickup system (think finding different values of treasure) Is it a good idea to make a parent class and create children of that class for each tier of treasure to spawn around a level?

[normal jacinth]

yes mmo

that gives you flexibility later

[stoic acorn]

alright thanks man. My thinking is along the right lines then

[normal jacinth]

i did it in my game and it's helped immensely, I only have one pickup class to edit and all the changes/fixes are propagated to dozens of different items

thanks for your help @warped stream but that doesn't seem to work; anything run on the server refuses to run on clients for some reason. I feel like I'm doing something silly here

[warped stream]

How do I check if I own an object, like, is owner thing?

thanks for your help @warped stream but that doesn't seem to work; anything run on the server refuses to run on clients for some reason. I feel like I'm doing something silly here
The server should be able to send an RPC that runs on the client normally

[stoic acorn]

Thanks DucatiSteve, appreciate the input. It's good to know that I'm not heading down the wrong rabbit hole

[hybrid zodiac]

@normal jacinth Make sure that the object you're calling the function on is set to replicate, ensure that the RPC is set to "reliable" if it's crucial it always triggers

[normal jacinth]

thanks @hybrid zodiac, it's being run on a player character so it's all replicated

and it's all reliable

[hybrid zodiac]

Ok, I think client functions only run on the owning client as well, so if it's an AI-controlled player character then you as an observer won't get the client command

Or if it's controlled by a different player

If you want something to happen for all observing players (and the controlling player) then you need to use a net multicast

[normal jacinth]

This is the blueprint from PlayerCharacter

the problem is if two people with a bit of lag try to pick up the same item at the same time, it messes up as they both think the item is free to pick up

so i need to check with the server if the item has been picked up first

but that function on the right only runs if you're the server; if you're a client it doesn't run at all. I've tried it as all the options (not replicated, run on client, etc)

[warped stream]

How can I check if I own something?

For example:
BeginPlay: Do something only if that is my pawn

Something like "Has Authority" but something like "is able to execute stuff on server on that pawn

[normal jacinth]

are you running from player controller? there's a function to get controlled pawns

[warped stream]

I wanted to creater something re-usable

Obviously this is true every time

[normal jacinth]

what are you trying to do exactly?

[warped stream]

I have 3 players. Each player has it's own character and every pawn of every other player exists on every other client.
So, 3 + 3 +3 = 9 characters if you sum all up. (BTW I use the controller)

So BeginPlay: gives me 9 mesages now.
I want to restrict "code" to "is current local player" thing.

So
Begin play -> (Some check) -> Here executes only if it is my pawn. = 3 strings. One per client.

I want to wrap it into a macro to use like "has authority".

The thing is, I want to check if it is my pawn I'm acting on, So I don't fiddle around with other player pawns

[normal jacinth]

is this local multiplayer?

[warped stream]

No online

[normal jacinth]

sorry I don't understand why you have 9 character with 3 players

[warped stream]

3 on each client

If you and me start a coop game, the total amount of characters is 4 (not 4 in-game, but like they exist in "real life" 4 times)

Which means. If every character, on every machine prints a messsage. You get 2 messages (2 on your machine) and i get 2 (2 on my machine). That means 4 messages.

[normal jacinth]

right. but isn't your player controller assuming control of a pawn?

[warped stream]

But I want to only get 2 messages totally.

First message is on your screen from YOUR owning character, and one mine

[normal jacinth]

Like this?

[warped stream]

right. but isn't your player controller assuming control of a pawn?
I use the default one. It looks like it doesn't let input actions through. So If I press Space, it only jumps for my character.
However, the begin event stuff (which makes sense) does that

Like this?
I already saw that. But what about the index

If that is always 0 for the own player then it works

[normal jacinth]

player controller is only seen locally, and by the server

[warped stream]

OH

[normal jacinth]

so it should be 0

[warped stream]

So it must be 0

You are a genius

[normal jacinth]

yeah

lol not really, let me find you a link that has helped me a lot

[warped stream]

I googled so much around.

But i never tried that player index thing out lol

[normal jacinth]

http://cedric-neukirchen.net/Downloads/Compendium/UE4_Network_Compendium_by_Cedric_eXi_Neukirchen.pdf

that will tell you a lot about the different classes

it explained to me why so much of what I was doing didn't work

[warped stream]

Nice thanks

[normal jacinth]

This is the really useful bit

[warped stream]

I forgot so much. Damn. I start to remember stuff

I know that diagram it's pretty old

I know the overall concept and what parts I need. It's just me not knowing how to get what I need using the engine

[normal jacinth]

GameInstance is the useful one it misses out; seen only by the client, and it persists across map travel

[solid hawk]

i'm trying to make a online kart game, i have never worked with networking before, i'm having a couple of issues, the server player moves just fine but the client player won't move, if i press the acceleration button it won't move but it goes a bit forward and if i jump it jumps a bit and imediatly goes back to the ground

the other issue is that the UI is swapped

server player speed is showing on the client window and the same to the client

[torpid nymph]

NetworkFailure: OutdatedClient unreal
I'm getting this trying to connect (directip) to a server. the app is supposed to work for windows and mac so I have to build in two different machines, which I guess is what's causing this problem, is there a way for me to say to him to ignore this outdated client error?

[copper grove]

i have a widget component with a text box in the the widget... ive setup a variable called text that gets set from the umg widget to the widget component actor, and its set as a rep notify, the rep notify function then sets the text back to what it is on the umg widget itself (but theoretically it should do it on all connected clients...)

but it doesnt

[indigo viper]

hey guys, has anyone come across this weird error ? FindPlayerStart: PATHS NOT DEFINED or NO PLAYERSTART with positive rating ?

I have no idea of where it could come from

[stoic acorn]

@indigo viper did you create any overrides perchance?

[shy kelp]

i have been trying to network dropping a sword and i am losing my mind from all the bugs, plz tell me there is a better way.https://blueprintue.com/blueprint/bcf1-a55/ both events are run on server

also thank u @hybrid zodiac, your advice from b4 worked for montages

[indigo viper]

@stoic acorn yep, I select a PlayerStart depending on the color of the local player's team

The error appears randomly by the way

[hybrid zodiac]

@shy kelp Glad I could help 🙂

[plush wave]

Where does ISteamUser reside?

[stoic acorn]

@indigo viper What does your Find Player Start override Graph look like?

[stoic acorn]

With a pickup system, would you put the overlap logic on the character or the pickup?

[fossil spoke]

@plush wave ISteamUser is part of the Steamworks SDK

The same for all the other Steam platform feature interfaces.

[exotic axle]

Quick question, I'm trying to get GameState on a client and it's returning null. How are you supposed to access data on GameState from a client?

[fossil spoke]

You maybe accessing it to early, the GameState is a replicated actor, which means it wont be created until its state is pulled down from the Servers version of the GameState.

[exotic axle]

Gotcha

Hm I put in a 5s delay and it's still null. Does delay in the BP main event loop prevent replication?

[fossil spoke]

Can you post your code?

You maybe trying to cast it to something that it isnt.

Therefore it will always be null.

[exotic axle]

I put a breakpoint on the foreach loop and it gives me null on the output node of the "get game state" block

[fossil spoke]

Are you sure that Cast isnt failing?

Convert it to a unpure cast.

See if it fails.

[exotic axle]

Just tried that as I saw your previous message, still fails hmm

HAH what a fail on my part

Just noticed my output log
LogGameState: Error: Mixing AGameState with AGameModeBase is not compatible. Change AGameModeBase subclass (LobbyGameMode_C) to derive from AGameMode, or make both derive from Base

So I guess my problem was my game mode was subclassing GameModeBase and my game state was subclassing GameState. I changed my game state to subclass GameStateBase and problem solved.

[fossil spoke]

Yep

[exotic axle]

Thanks for the inspiration I've been on this problem all morning.

Went to take a screenshot, then thought, wait a second maybe I should post my logs too, and then bam, red text in there.

Another question: Looks like my code wouldn't work without a quick delay because as you said, the replication isn't done at the start. Is there a way to wait for it to be replicated (some kind of On Game State created event or something) or do I need to roll my own timer to constantly check?

[plush wave]

Didn't realize I needed Steamworks. Thought the Steam Subsystem would be enough. Thanks!

[median elbow]

so i've upgraded to the latest version of unreal engine, 4.25, from 4.22, and now my online subsystem steam is telling me "STEAM: Steam API is Disabled!"

a couple weeks ago i came across a post somewhere that something had changed related to this and broke it and there was a new way to do things or something, can't find it though

[plush wave]

How does one use FOnEncryptedAppTicketResponseDelegate? I get a error: '__Internal_AddDynamic': is not a member of 'TBaseDelegate<void,bool,int>

[fossil spoke]

Its most likely not a dynamic delegate.

Use .AddUObject or something

[lost inlet]

if it's multicast

if it's not you'll just pass FDelegateType::CreateUObject (if callback is on a UObject)

[plush wave]

What about BindUFunction?

Or do they do the same thing?

[lost inlet]

pretty sure with that one you pass an FName to the name of a function

with non-dynamic delegates, the callback function doesn't even need to be UFUNCTION()

[plush wave]

Right, but functionally they are the same?

Ah ok

How do I actually get the steam subsystem?

^This can't be right lol

[lost inlet]

you don't use UObject casts

use static_cast

and in the ::Get() you should really be explicit in putting steam there

and this->?

[plush wave]

this-> is fine from what I know

[lost inlet]

yeah it is but pretty unsightly

[radiant heron]

I got some questions about hosting servers and I don't know if this is the right place to ask

[plush wave]

This look more correct?

[lost inlet]

yes

[radiant heron]

anyway, does unreal need a good pc to host servers

[plush wave]

Thanks!

[lost inlet]

@radiant heron that's a very broad question, the answer is "depends"

it's more on the game than the engine

[radiant heron]

What if it is the simple fps template

What if it's the FPS template (just an example)?

the basic one

unreal provides

[lost inlet]

then probably not

also depends on max players

[radiant heron]

yeah

what if I'm aiming for 20

what would the pc need? more ram, more cpus..?

or both

[lost inlet]

this is a very game specific question

[radiant heron]

i told you the fps template

[lost inlet]

yes because i've benchmarked the FPS template

you need to run it, if it struggles use the profiler to find out why

it's up to your project to define what your min spec is for client and server

[radiant heron]

Ok, I thought it was engine dependant

dependent*

Thanks for the explanation

[plush wave]

@lost inlet with that cast using FOnlineSubsystemSteam, how would I know if it succeeded or not?

[lost inlet]

it's a static cast, it's doesn't fail

if the pointer's null then the OSS isn't loaded

[plush wave]

Ah, right

[lost inlet]

or doesn't exist

[plush wave]

Gotcha

[ivory lintel]

I getting some trouble with my HitReg...i'm trying to get targets making a trace callable by one anim notify to the server side but, sometimes get target and sometime not...maybe tick rate on server or animation don't run on server

any project or actor setting to fix this???

if anyone can help...I'm grateful since now...

the anom notify run of client side and call a RPC to my server on the actor component

I feel that sometimes the collision doesn't happen as it should

[unkempt stump]

does anyone have an issue with UMG running code for client 1 on client 2?

what am i doing wrong that the code is being ran as another client?

[lost inlet]

i think you'll have to be more specific on the issue

[unkempt stump]

hmm

my UI widget has a test button on it; when you click on it it should echo "Hello". I start the multiplayer game as 2 clients and press the button on Client 1. It says "Client 1: Hello" in both. Next I click the button in client 2 - it says "Client 1: Hello" in both. Why doesn't it say "Client 2: Hello"?

[thin stratus]

So you only have a PrintString right after the button event?

[unkempt stump]

yea

i htink i found something

nvm, still can' tseem to figure it out

[kindred widget]

@unkempt stump I'm not entirely certain of this, but I've been led to believe that UI should never have any form of rpc coding. UI should be used to interact with actors and make them call server RPCs. It kind of goes along with the same ideology of general UI use. Use UI to call functions inside of actors to make them do things and get information from actors to display.

[unkempt stump]

that's what I am aware too. I'm not understanding why my button click is misfiring as it appears from another client.

i have no net code involved in my clicks

[hoary lark]

disable "Run under one process"

try again

[unkempt stump]

trying that

doesn't seem to help...

[kindred widget]

I doubt it's that. I use the same setting, and my widgets don't call prints from other clients.

[hoary lark]

it didn't affect anything at all?

[unkempt stump]

other than make my computer load, nope

haha

[kindred widget]

Just to follow up on what Cedric asked. You literally just have a print node connected to like a button click?

[hoary lark]

definitely missing some info since i don't even think it's possible to call RPCs from widget code

[unkempt stump]

hmm lemme see if i can show it

[kindred widget]

WindowKey+Shift+S helps to take much easier screengrabs.

[unkempt stump]

was gonna try and see if screen recording works on this computer with all these processes running

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cb3UqgDuUNE @small solar @hoary lark

same results if i put the print right after the click handle event

maybe i should try a new project and see if i can replicate it

[kindred widget]

@unkempt stump I think we're having a bit of a disconnect. Do you mean that the GetPlayerControllerID is returning 1 no matter where you run it?

[thin stratus]

Multiple things to adjust before further testing:

This should be "GetOwningPlayer" or whatever the node is, to properly refer to the owner of this widget.

This should be "GetControlledPawn" and you are missing the "Self" connection on the GetPlayerControllerID" node.

"GetControlledPawn" and I'm not too sure about having the HUD live in your PlayerCharacter. Either way, make sure you are only spawning it once and not multiple times. Where are you creating these widgets?

[unkempt stump]

the widget is created in my hud class

[thin stratus]

You can access your HUD class from within the PlayerController

No need to get it from your Character

[unkempt stump]

yep

not sure any of these issues will have impact on the fact that it prints "Client 1" regardless of where i clicked the button tho

[dusky edge]

Hi, hope its the right section, but is there an up to date (4.23+) example/tutorial out there to figure out how to create/implement a dedicated server ? with google i found only outdated things from 2016, on yt the same. The ue4 documentation seems also lacking of this topic.

[thin stratus]

Not sure. The Wiki should have one I guess.

Despite that, the steps are relatively straight forward:

1. Download UE4 Source Version of your Engine Version.
2. Follow the installation steps of it.
3. Create a YourProjectServer.Target.cs file for your Server build in your Source Folder.
4. Build the Server.

Now step 3 is a bit annoying without docs, but even the Outdate 2016 docs should at least have something to get you going.

[unkempt stump]

I can't seem to cast the HUD from the player controller to my own class...

[dusky edge]

ok thank you @thin stratus , its hard to find the entry point to learn how to do it 🙂 So im a bit lost atm 😉

[thin stratus]

@unkempt stump "HUD" is an actual UE4 class name. Are you referring to some custom class you made instead?

[dusky edge]

if anybody else looking for that topic, epic seems to have it in the new wiki https://www.ue4community.wiki/Dedicated_Server_Guide_(Windows) , for Linux it isnt not in.

[thin stratus]

That's not Epic's wiki though, but yeah

[dusky edge]

uh, sry your right

anyway its the old 4.18. ok i will try this one

[unkempt stump]

sorry was messed up in the context menu, casted it

[unkempt stump]

hmm looks to be purely a cosmic issue with the string printer

using the Get Player Controller (0) returns the correct player as I am printing out it's player Id from the player state

guess I can carry on with what i was trying to do before

thanks guys!

[hoary lark]

You should really listen to exi though, there's a way to do things that works 99% of the time and a way that works 100% of the time

The get player controller by index functions are really for local couch multiplayer

[random nymph]

For some reason I can't get the StatsInterface from OSS

    IOnlineSubsystem* OnlineSubsystem = IOnlineSubsystem::Get(FName("Steam"));
        auto stats = OnlineSubsystem->GetStatsInterface();

OnlineSubsystem is valid but stats not

[soft shell]

Is it possible to disconnect from a session, and reconnect (i.e. store some information to allow for quick reconnection without "finding sessions"?) - or what's the correct action when you need to disconnect, modify something, and reconnect to same server?

[thin stratus]

Well you can save the SessionResult in your GameInstance and rejoin it directly.

[random nymph]

Someone here succesfully using the StatInterface?

[thin stratus]

Steam doesn't implement the StatsInterface

@random nymph

[random nymph]

Oh

[thin stratus]

https://github.com/EpicGames/UnrealEngine/blob/release/Engine/Plugins/Online/OnlineSubsystemSteam/Source/Private/OnlineSubsystemSteam.cpp#L359

[random nymph]

Any advice where to research how to implement steam stats?

[thin stratus]

https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/achievements

[random nymph]

Okay, thanks

[rain coral]

Hey, got an issue with clientside prediction. An action (shooting) is called with a Reliable server command, and I'm using CMC for movement. While the predicted shot is spawned at the correct spot, the replicated shot is behind not just in time, but in position. The video shows the predicted shot and the replicated shot:

My only explanation is that the 'shoot' command goes to the server faster than the 'move' command, and comes back faster so that it doesn't correspond to where you were in the past, on the client, when you made the shot... but I've had similar results when trying to send the shoot command through the compressed flags in CMC.

So I fear that since the shot is always 'behind' when you're moving, the predicted shot will always need to be corrected and look weird ;/
Ideas?

[chrome bay]

The issue is that CMC doesn't send movement updates every frame, it compresses them together and sends in batches, so while your shoot RPC might arrive, the server might not get a CMC update until some time later

This is why usually you would send the origin and direction of the shot in the shoot RPC

Also even if you forced CMC to send an update in the same frame, you don't know which order the server will process them in

[rain coral]

So I tried to include the shoot input in the compressed flags so that it's in time with CMC, but I seem to remember having the same problem. In addition, the input seemed to be dropped occasionally when doing it that way.
If I was to do it with a reliable command, which of the movement functions would the best for sending it?

Sending the origin and direction sounds hard to deal with to prevent cheating

[chrome bay]

None of the movement functions are reliable, they are all unreliable by design

All you do to prevent cheating is check whether the character is reasonably close to the shoot origin / direction

[rain coral]

Hmm yeah, that might be the way to go, if all the others are unreliable and cannot guarantee the input to arrive 🤔

Unless I can somehow know at which point it attempts to send an unreliable movement command, and then send a reliable one at the same time? Just to get them 'in time'

[chrome bay]

Well you can hook into CallServerMove() in character movement, but again that's not called until CMC decides to send a movement update - so it won't be the same time you make the shot.

But you also still can't guarantee what order the server will process those RPC's in, if it processes the shot first, then the character won't be in the right place.

[rain coral]

I see. So on one hand I'd have to choose between risking delaying the shot with 0.x seconds (and uncertainty in the processing order), and on the other hand I risk making it look kind of weird for a listen server, as the shot would be ahead of their gun

[chrome bay]

Basically if you rely on Character Movement at all to determine the shot location and direction, it will rarely end up where the shooter thinks it did

We send shot origin and direction and an ID with every individual shot (and all reliable.. FML)

And that's a 100-player game

[rain coral]

I see. Do you have an issue where the shot appears to be ahead of the other clients' movement? That's kind of what I'm fearing will happen if we process the shot command before the move command

[chrome bay]

Nah we use dedicated servers so it's not an issue there, but if it's any consolation shooter game does the same thing and that supports listen servers.

But on the flipside, it also doesn't do predicted projectiles

Unreal Tournament uses the character movement to infer projectile direction/location - but it only works for their very specific setup

[rain coral]

I see. I think I'm gonna try to trust the client within a threshold on this then, and see if it looks acceptable to the other clients. A listen server has such an advantage either way that I'm willing to accept a discrepancy from their view

[warped stream]

If i replicate an object ref, and modifie a property of it, for example disabling physics, does this replicate to clients?

Or is replication ownly for setting the variables value

[chrome bay]

Depends if the object itself replicates, and if the property you're changing also replicates.

Replicating a reference to an object is not the same as replicating the object itself.

[warped stream]

I see. Thanks

[marble imp]

Keep getting this error when im trying to start AWS with turn on my computer to create a pixel streaming service

Im not sure if its related, but when i start the program (with run commands proper) it doesnt show a streamer connected on the cirrus console when i start the application, and i cant connect to my public IP with has been port forwarded on the correct ports.

[marble imp]

Now im able to get into the Ip adress where it says start game, but when im starting the application, i cant get a streamer connected

In logg it does say "[2020.05.19-11.47.59:549][ 0]LogPixelStreamingSS: Connecting to SS ws://1xx.xx.xxx.12:8888"
But does not have any other messages than this

[soft shell]

Can you have a player disconnect (by choice) from a playing level and continue on as single player? I tried "Destroy Session" (on the client using the Get Player Controller ID = 0) but it seems not to disconnect..

[rose egret]

will client and muticast RPCs work even if actor replication is paused by AActor::IsReplicationPausedForConnection ?

[median elbow]

has there been a change since ue 4.21 that might cause "STEAM: Steam API disabled!"?

[bitter oriole]

No

[median elbow]

i have the steamworks sdk, i've enabled the plugin, added all the stuff the documentation says to the defaultengine.ini

[bitter oriole]

Are you in editor ?

[median elbow]

the only difference is i upgraded. i'm getting it in both running stand alone and launching it. even after packaging it and running it

i know it doesn't work in PIE

which is fine, but the stand alone isn't working either

i saw in the ue 4.25 they made some changes for better online subsystem integration, i'm wondering if that had anything to do with it

i've copied the dll's that are needed, basically everything i did before that worked in 4.21

i had an issue before because steam was running as administrator but ue wasn't, but thats not the case now since i fixed that a while ago

[bitter oriole]

No need to copy anything

[median elbow]

when running as standalone, where are the dll's loaded from?

[bitter oriole]

As of 4.25 you need no copying of anything (neither did previous versions)

[median elbow]

ah nice, ok, so maybe thats old documentation

[bitter oriole]

The doc is plain wrong for launcher builds of UE4

[median elbow]

haha, i've noticed quite a few of the related documentation is definitely out of date and wrong, so took a while the first time to get it running

one guy mentioned to add it as a non steam game to steam, but i'm certain we don't have to do that, i didn't do that before to get this working

i can't be 100% positive, i have been working on other parts of the game for a while now, but i think the only thing that has changed since when it was working until now is that i've upgraded to 4.25 (building source)

[jolly siren]

There is a bug in standalone https://issues.unrealengine.com/issue/UE-92985

[bitter oriole]

If you're on a source it's a different business

[median elbow]

interesting

let me try running the packaged game again, i tried it yesterday but i've been playing around with things now

[bitter oriole]

Basically the source doc is for updating the Steam SDK in source too

[jolly siren]

And packaged linux dedicated servers don't work for me either. Although Epic noted that they do if you generate steamclient.so on a linux computer, even though that's what I did. Waiting to hear back from them on my bug report about how they generated it. https://issues.unrealengine.com/issue/UE-93277

[median elbow]

so maybe i did something wrong yesterday

give me a couple minutes to try running the packaged game, i'll post back, thanks guys

[unique basalt]

Hi guys, i have a question: does unreal basic movement replication provides simple cheat protection? Is client sending his transform after he made the move, or does he only send a data that server need to simulate the move and then send results to the client?

[median elbow]

client sends the movement to the server

server updates the player position and does validation and collision and stuff, then sends position back in intervals

client simulates the position until it gets the real position back from teh server

[unique basalt]

Okay, so it does provide simple protection

Thanks

[median elbow]

yup~

i was looking at the source of the online subsystem steam plugin, and it basically creates a new instance of FOnlineSubsystemSteam, then checks "IsEnabled", which is returning false

its a little difficult to figure out exactly where values are getting set and stuff because of all the macros and my lack of knowledge of the codebase, but i'm going to try to dig in a little further and see how that function is deciding its not enabled

ah man, @jolly siren @bitter oriole you guys were right, there's a bug in the standalone. i'm able to use steam api with the packaged game

well i guess i'm assuming its a bug, it doesn't work in standalone

[jolly siren]

yes, I've linked the bug report

[median elbow]

i'm going to look through the code to see if i can figure out whats going on there

i saw that, i was just confirming i guess, haha

shoot, thats kind of unfortunate though, i don't want to package the game every time i need to test the steam api, bummer

[jolly siren]

There is a workaround for 4.25 not loading the Steam OSS when testing in Standalone.

Remove the -MultiprocessOSS argument from the CommandLine in PlayLevelNewProcess.cpp line 101

CommandLine += FString::Printf(TEXT("GameUserSettingsINI=\"%s\" -MultiprocessSaveConfig "), *GameUserSettingsOverride); /*-MultiprocessOSS*/

@median elbow ^

[median elbow]

thats great! thanks @jolly siren ! i've gotta compile it now, but thanks for the work around

[jolly siren]

no problem 🙂

[median elbow]

interesting, so steam is just simply disabled with that command line arg

haha, i'm glad i'm running the source

[jolly siren]

That is correct

[serene meadow]

so you need to build the engine from source to make steam overlay work in 4.25?

[jolly siren]

Currently in-editor, yes

[bitter oriole]

Right-clicking the uproject and clicking Launch works fine though

[jolly siren]

Until https://issues.unrealengine.com/issue/UE-92985 is fixed

I'm more concerned about https://issues.unrealengine.com/issue/UE-93277 right now though

[tranquil thunder]

Hey guys, I have a quick question. Is Epic Online Services a replacement for the Online Subsystem?
I have recently started learning how to do Multiplayer in Cpp with the Subsystem, and I was wondering if I'm basically learning this for nothing now that the Epic Online Services have released?

[split gust]

I doubt it

[bitter oriole]

EOS will be one online susbsytem

But the OSS API should work pretty much the same as Steam's OSS

The actual multiplayer code is unrelated

[tranquil thunder]

Great! glad to hear that

[marble imp]

So now ive got a streamer connected, but he cant accualty get stream from the running application to the pixel stream, only local users, othervise the cirrus client (AWS with turn) stops working

[warped stream]

Hey. For authority things. "has authority" for pawns controlled by players. Who has authority over them? Only the server or server+owner (client who controlls it)?

[hoary lark]

The server has "authority" over everything. Clients can have "ownership" of things though, e.g. their controller and pawn

[warped stream]

So, a client has never auth?

Because my print string triggers on all clients

[bitter oriole]

Client can definitely have authority

[warped stream]

Like. On all players on each client. So 3 clients = 12 messages

[bitter oriole]

On non-replicated objects created locally

[warped stream]

Ah I see.

Ah yes I forgot that.

[hoary lark]

Darn technicalities

[warped stream]

OHHHHH

If i use a child blueprint thing. That thing spawns a the given blueprint right?

So server spawns the pawns, which works, and clients evalute the child actor thing, and spawn that child actor client side

Thats why every client has authority over every players child-actor because they spawn it, is that correct?

that must explain it

Is there a way to "include" another component in unreal? But not like a child actor thing, something that has to be spawned?

I want to get all the logic that has to be together into another blueprint. I tried a component, but a component doesn't have a transform and I attach stuff to that component

And I don't want to have to call that component and set a scene parent for attaching objects.

While I write this, I thinkg a scene-component subclass should work.

[unkempt dock]

is there a article on how to set up a dedicated server for multiplayer

[tranquil thunder]

there are components with transforms 🙂

[warped stream]

Yes I already found out thanks.

Is that thing I wrote about the authority thing true?

[tranquil thunder]

I only just recently started learning MP myself, so unfortunately I cant really say yes or no, but I think so

[warped stream]

Thanks

If you need any help, hit me up

[tranquil thunder]

Thanks! much appreciated 🙂

[foggy hinge]

@unkempt dock https://allarsblog.com/tag/dedicated-servers/ I think this still holds true.

[unkempt dock]

ok thx

[rose egret]

whats wrong with that. my onrep never get called.
UPROPERTY(EditDefaultsOnly, Replicated=OnRep_FirstHitPack) FDezHitPack FirstHitPack;

[chrome bay]

Did you add the property to GetLifetimeReplicatedProps()?

And is the property actually different to the clients value when it's received?

By default the OnRep is only called when the property changes from it's current value.

[rose egret]

yea I added it to GetLifetimeReplicatedProps like other

owg. no way. wasn't it ReplicatedUsing ?

[chrome bay]

Ohhh

Yeah that's it

Surprised UHT compiled that

[rose egret]

😂

[warped stream]

Any reason why I can't use my macro library "object" in a Scene component?
I can use my anctor one in an actor
And since the Family is
Object -> component -> Scene component
I should be able to, but it doesn't show up

[chrome bay]

Should be able to use it AFAIK

May need to show some specifics here though

Also is this MP-related?

[unkempt stump]

has anyone used multiplayer LAN over something like Hamachi or Zerotier when testing development builds with friends?

[warped stream]

Also is this MP-related?
Fixed it, restarted unreal.
It was a mistake posting it here, but since its a multiplayer project and a replicated class, we can argue a "yes" out of that 😄

[rose egret]

how do we implement FPS spectator ? is there any article , sample, .. ?

[grave ermine]

Any idea why I can map travel with a client in standalone game, but not pie?

LogNet: Error: UEngine::BroadcastNetworkFailure: FailureType = FailureReceived, ErrorString = Host closed the connection., Driver = GameNetDriver IpNetDriver_6
LogNet: Warning: Network Failure: GameNetDriver[FailureReceived]: Host closed the connection.
LogNet: NetworkFailure: FailureReceived, Error: 'Host closed the connection.'
LogBlueprintUserMessages: [BP_P14_GameInstance_C_4] Client 0: : Failure Received
LogScript: Warning: Script Msg: DestroySession - Invalid player state

[thin stratus]

Map travel with a client?

If you are connected to a server you can only travel with the host via ServerTravel command. If a client travels they will open the new map disconnected

@grave ermine

[sweet robin]

I followed the following link for starting to learn MP. I followed it to a T but am running into a weird issue where all of my clients are also printing server debug messages. I'm not sure how they could all think they have authority?

https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/Gameplay/Networking/QuickStart/index.html

[unkempt tiger]

So I was (and still am) looking for ways to implement snapshot interpolation for networked physics simulation

I read quite a bit about replication and RPCs

My problem is, standard variable replication and RPC functions seem to be the only form of networking tools UE4 provides me with

And none of those are fit for sending an entire snapshot of a physics simulation across from the server to the client

I was hoping for the ability to send out an array, or a list, or some other data structure

Can RPCs do this? Can they accept an array as their argument? I haven't yet tried but it seems like a definite no from the reading I've done

And if they can't, what other tools do I have available? Do I serialize an array with JSON and send the string?

Do I write my own custom net code using some lower functionality tools that weren't discussed in the documentation?

I would love for some guidance

[stoic acorn]

Is the GameState the best place to hold all the treasure items and inventory that each player holds?

[unkempt tiger]

why not player state?

[violet isle]

would do either player state or make an inventory component for each player on their pawn

[stoic acorn]

I need to be able to keep a list of how many of each type of treasure each player has collected, and when they die to spawn pickups for other players to hoover up

when the game is won by either side to show all the scores in a match table

[violet isle]

typically if you have something that exists per player that you want to get replicated out, then its a good idea to throw it on the player state

[stoic acorn]

ok thanks. so all inventory items to be stored on the player state then. I'm kind of struggling to understand where best to put things but it's baby steps. I have all my pickup treasure ready to be stored somewhere before destroying the pickup actor on overlap

one more question before I dive back in.. What's the best format to store inventory things?

[violet isle]

depends how your inventory works. you could do simple uobjects if you dont need them to be actors?

[stoic acorn]

The treasure will be the match winning items but I'll also have pickup powers and weapons

Some of the player abilities will be in the form of a weapon (visible and physical thing they will hold)

Some will just be an effect when used

[violet isle]

probably gonna want those weapons to be actors that get stored on the player

things like powers can probably be UObjcts since they don't really need to have a presence in the world

[stoic acorn]

Would you use an enumerator or some other way to house them?

I need to learn about UObjects

[violet isle]

yeah you would probably have a tarray on the invetory

at that point it'd be good to have an inventory component on the player since a lot of these weapons and such will be physically stored on the actual pawn

[unkempt tiger]

can a tarray be networked?

[violet isle]

yes a tarray can be replicated

[unkempt tiger]

does it have some size limit? can I use RPCs to replicate a tarray?

[stoic acorn]

Alright, thanks for the help guys.

[violet isle]

I would not recommend using rpcs to replicate a tarray

Unless ur calling that RPC very often, RPCs should be used for one off events such as Vfx or SFX

replicated variables are good for representing STATE

[unkempt tiger]

I want to replicate the array about 60 times a second

or 30 times a second

and I want to be able to run my own logic for whenever the tarray arrives at the client etc

does this^ mean it's okay to use an RPC if its 30 times a second?

or is it the other way around? :P

[north olive]

Having a REAL fun time using a MovementComponent and AddMovementInput(Direction, Val);. It is all herky-jerky

[unkempt tiger]

ya

do u mean

rubber banding / jittering /hitching / general shittyness that makes you want to internally die?

[violet isle]

@unkempt tiger you probably'shouldn't be sending an array via RPC 60 times a second. if you're sending smth 60 times a second, ur probably updating it often cuz its part of the games state. if its part of the games state, it should probably be a replicated variable

[unkempt tiger]

its a physical simulation

data is rigid body positions/orientations

one array to include the snapshot of all of them

so its not part of the games state

so what should I use in your opinion?

[north olive]

@unkempt tiger yeah, jittering and general shittiness. I notice their "shooter game" example has the same bad jitter. What is the solution there? Not use the MovementComponent and do it myself?

[violet isle]

what it sounds like ur talking about is the "state" of ur physics simulation"positions, orientations, etc" so i would recommend using a replicated variable

[unkempt tiger]

yes @north olive, as much as it's troubling, or use the movement component but write better interpolation

@violet isle thanks for the reply, I am indeed talking about the state of my physics simulation

Would using a replicated variable allow me to run my own* client logic whenever I get a new packet?

[violet isle]

yes, that kind of function is called an OnRep

it gets called everytime the variable is chagned on the server

[unkempt tiger]

and the array size can vary dynamically?

[violet isle]

yes, ue4 TArrays can do that

[unkempt tiger]

oh my

[violet isle]

warning, doing a lot of this manually might come at a cost as you usually wanna minimize how much data ur replicating

[unkempt tiger]

yeah

thats another concern of mine!

Here's the thing: I want to send delta packets based on previously ACK'd packets (that is ACK'd by the client)

This means every client may get a different packet

from my understanding, just replicating the array would mean I dont have precise control of what gets sent to who

Said array would include data of each physical actor

What if client A already has physical actor 1 in sync, but client B does not? Then I'd like to send physical actor 1 to client B but not to client A

[north olive]

If I had a complex physics simulation I would want to be broadcasting movement/attack actions to the server, and have the server apply those.

You want to not send a ton of data over the wire

[unkempt tiger]

If I replicate the entire array, I'm sending unneeded data

honkycat in my case the server is the one running the simulation and networking snapshots to the client

just sending actions is not feasible, since that assumes the simulation is deterministic, while it is not

[north olive]

I know it took the Neartherrealms team like a year to do rollback/snapshotting, it is nontrivial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jb0FOcImdg&list=PL2e4mYbwSTbaw1l65rE0Gv6_B9ctOzYyW&index=52&t=0s @unkempt tiger

[wet cliff]

I have a question, which seems to follow from your current debate.

I'm working on the replication of a ball in a non-gravity level (the ball comes out of a player-controlled pitcher).

I'm trying a lot of solutions to make the ball be in the same place in the server and the client (it's a listening server and a connected client, in 1v1, so no possibility to play in the past)

The most effective solution seems to me to be a bullet with physics and motion replication activated. But I can't figure out if motion replication natively corrects the ping difference. And if it does, how can I change its parameters? (Extrapolation, ping limit etc)

Thank you in advance, I've been struggling for many months on this subject.

I have already try custom implémentation of projectil movement component with lerp and server calculation of speed and ping to adjust position of ball client side, but i try again physic and movement replication and it looks like more acurate. So i dont know how make a choice between thèse two methods

[cloud ledge]

First, make sure you understand that it's impossible to fully correct for ping issues because of inherent cause-and-effect relativity

Because two players are separated by ping, there is an inherent conflict of information that you must always keep in mind

You have basically two directions to move in to try and alleviate these effects

1. Correct position, incorrect trajectories (extrapolation and correction for ping)
2. Incorrect position, correct trajectories (the most common direction, where you verify any sort of events and collisions against the past state of the world)

E.g. in source engine, when you shoot a gun, the trace ray of the gun is fired against the state of the world as must have been seen by the player (by the servers estimate) when he fired the gun

Not when the message arrived to server

I'm not 100% sure what your situation is yet. It's possible to create a hybrid approach of the two, but the relativity prohibits violation of cause and effect

Be it in the real physics world or in the more abstract space of networked computers

For competitive games, you probably want 2

Because then it represents movement of players correctly (even if they aren't perfectly matching on the screen - everyones screen is slightly different and everyone sees an image of the world that is lagging behind)

When you fire at the player, you send a timestamp to the server and the server must roll back all player positions to verify your shot - I don't think this is implemented in stock UE4, but I might be wrong

In our game, we use approach 1, we extrapolate data from server to try and push objects together to ensure that all players see them in roughly same positions (but the movement of objects will be different on each monitor, at different rate and with different smoothness)

Just random thoughts for you, sorry if it's not really an answer 😄

[twin juniper]

i have a quation i want to use 2d render componenet but the 2d render component should be only visible for the player who uses it for example a sniper scope or a camera

how would i make that ?

[wet cliff]

This answer is wonderful and compiles all the answers I've seen about the topic on the forums. I thank you very much for it. I think I have correctly understood the theory but I don't know how to make the choice for my game.

It's a 1v1 in VR (great similarity with sparc vr) but you don't catch the ball by hand, but with a gun that allows you to throw the ball back (you're in a closed enclosure, there are bounces and powers that can modify the behavior of the ball, add contact surfaces etc).

I think the most optimal solution would be to have a dedicated server and have players play in the past so that they can compare their moves etc. I think that the most optimal solution would be to have a dedicated server and have players play in the past so that they can compare their moves etc. I think that the most optimal solution would be to have a dedicated server and have players play in the past so that they can compare their moves etc.

But right now I'm on an archi listen server, which also plays so I can't give the server that advantage. I would like the client to be able to replicate the position of the ball and its velocity when the server gives it a network tick, and in the meantime the client simulates the trajectory on its own.

I think my movement replication does this but I'm not sure. In use it seems pretty good, because when I tried to implement my own version I realized that I had to manage the lag due to the lag and make the ball lerper every time there is a deviation and it quickly becomes complicated. I'm looking for a solution to make a viable under 70 ms

The first solution you describe will fit well i guess for my game, since i am ok with some prediction and correction when client is too much différents from server. I saw in Project settings of ue4, "physic error correction" par with ping, extrapolation, error tolérance etc. Are thèse settings related to movement replication ?

[cloud ledge]

You have two processes that you must resolve

(assuming server-authority gameplay)

1. Server-side behaviors (it's what you already listed)

2. Client-side behaviors - what player sees on screen must feel as consistent and as correct as possible

This will involve some fakery, because server cannot get the perfect idea of clients state. There will be some discrepancy between what player sees himself doing and what's actually happening

In source engine, this is resolved by buffering networked data and effectively rendering the game world 1-2 frames behind what's simulated

That lets you definitely accumulate enough data from server to create reasonable trajectories of movement

For guns, source engine renders the gun fire the way client sees it

But the view angles are transmitted precisely onto the server, there is still some residual error, but the serverside calculation has to trust player on where his view is looking

So the server trusts client in view angles, but does not trust client in XYZ positions

[wet cliff]

Thank you for all those thoughts. I'll read them again tomorrow, but I think I understand the concept. I don't really feel lost reading you.

I'm just wondering what ue4 out of the box is doing with movement replication,... It's information I can't find (I only work in blueprint at the moment) I guess I should study the C++ code of the function to find out more. But I'm surprised to find no reliable documentation about it.

[stoic acorn]

I have two teams, one of the teams I want to be able to pass through certain walls and locked doors. The other team should be blocked by walls in the usual manner. I can't even think how I should go about starting to create a level with that kind of system. Anyone got any good ideas?

[violet isle]

the easiest way i think of doing this is having two collision profiles, one for each team.

and then based on the player's teamid, set the collision profile on their character capsule on match start

if u havent checked out the team system yet, i would take a look at IGenericTeamAgentInterface and its implementation in AAIController

[random nymph]

Can I send vanilla c++ classes with rpcs?

[thin stratus]

Don't think so

[random nymph]

Okay yeah, makes sense

[exotic axle]

I have 2 sublevels of my one big map, each with its own Game Mode. When I called Load Stream Level from one of the sublevels to another, for some reason, the BeginPlay on the Game Mode of the other sublevel doesn't execute at all.

I also couldn't put this logic on the level blueprint itself because that doesn't do server logic, so basically the only way I can think of around this is to stuff all of it on an actor on the old sublevel?

[chrome bay]

You can only ever have one gamemode, and the one that matters is in the persistent level.

aka the "master" level.

If you need some additional server logic attached to a level you'll have to move it outside of a gamemode, and into some actor you can spawn server-side and control from there.

[exotic axle]

I see thanks

[cosmic marlin]

i have packaged my game . which port should i make sure are open when if i want people to connect through my ip?

[warped stream]

So the server trusts client in view angles, but does not trust client in XYZ positions
@cloud ledge thats why spinbots Work :D

[chrome bay]

The trick is to trust them within a tolerance

[wet cliff]

Hello, i come with a screen to illustrate today :

Does anyone have information about these settings ?

I feel like no one in the entire global internet has ever talked about those settings.

[random nymph]

Anyone here using steam stats? 🤔

[chrome bay]

yas

[random nymph]

I'm having problem updating user stats

int oldValue;
        SteamGameServerStats()->GetUserStat(userSteamID, std::string(TCHAR_TO_UTF8(*statName)).c_str(), &oldValue);

        UE_LOG(LogTemp, Warning, TEXT("Stat old value %d"), oldValue);

        int newValue = oldValue + changeAmount;

        UE_LOG(LogTemp, Warning, TEXT("Stat new value %d"), newValue);

        SteamGameServerStats()->SetUserStat(userSteamID, std::string(TCHAR_TO_UTF8(*statName)).c_str(), newValue);


        if (SteamGameServerStats()->StoreUserStats(userSteamID))
        {
            UE_LOG(LogTemp, Warning, TEXT("New user stat stored"));
        }
        else
        {
            UE_LOG(LogTemp, Warning, TEXT("Failed to store user stat"));
        }

The log "New user stat stored" is getting called. But the value doesn't update. That code is called on the server and SteamGameServer() return a valid value

And the GetUserStat returns a correct value

[chrome bay]

Welcome to my world. So what I found is that the steam stats system is extremely unreliable, it will often just "forget" values you told it to write previously. We had this bug for months, and the only solution we found was to keep our own copy of backup values in case 'GetUserStat()' returns a lower one than something we wrote previously.

BTW, stats writing is asynchronous

So doing this on gamethread isn't safe

Epic has an existing system for interfacing with steam stats IIRC, through the leaderboards / achievements interface.

Also, if the stat is an "Official Game Server" stat in the Steam Backend, then the stat will fail to write unless you whitelist the Server IP addresses in the Backend too.

[random nymph]

It is not set as official game server, just a GS. I had it first as client and changing the stat value worked perfectly by client but can't get it working with dedicated server

[chrome bay]

Server stats are just a pain. The worst part is because steam has no "stat delta" functionality you end up in situations where servers are writing over each other.

We always do a refresh before writing anything to make sure that GetUserStat() retrieves the most up-to-date value possible.

[random nymph]

Do you know if being able to set the stat on server requires that there is a steam session/steam server setted up and the player is accepted to that session because currently we aren't using steam networking?

[chrome bay]

The player you are writing the stats for has to be authenticated in the servers steam session yes

Servers aren't allowed to write stats for players unless they are in the session, it will just silently fail.

[random nymph]

Well that must be it then

Damn making multiplayer games is hard 😄

[chrome bay]

Yeah. You definitely want to be using the OSS. We extended it to add a 'GetUserStatsInterface()' (before Epic added one anyway in 4.24) and created out own version for Steam, because it was so damn unreliable.

Client stats are usually ok, but server/official server stats are an endless nightmare.

[random nymph]

Yeah. Well we are using the steam OSS, but not steam net driver.

[chrome bay]

Oh in which case I'm not certain then, there is a callback for when stat writing fails IIRC

[random nymph]

And we are using 4.24, but the GetUserStatsInterface returns nothing 🤔

[chrome bay]

Yeah they haven't implemented one for Steam themselves

AFAIK

[random nymph]

Ah

[lost inlet]

we forked the official steam OSS plugin due to lacking features

one of the first things we did was remove the steam net driver as a default

since it wasn't as easy to remove that previously

[unkempt stump]

hey all, does the server not replicate animation movement for sockets that holds collisions? I have a collision box attached to a socket and I noticed that A) the socket motion may not being replicated on the server B) the collisions happen on the client(s) but not the server when I print out on overlapping

I wonder if the server is playing the animation, but it seems like it is because i get the anim notifies

[winged badger]

dedicated server?

it doesn't update skeletons by default

its somewhere i think in physics settings

[unkempt stump]

oh

that may answer all my problems

[kindred widget]

That's a complicated question. If I'm understanding correctly, you shouldn't really be replicating animation movement in the first place. It's a cosmetic thing. The player inputs a command to move forward, the server moves the actor and then replicates back to the client that the actor is moving and for it to do the same. The client then uses stuff like the actor's velocity to play animations locally.

[unkempt stump]

Zlo do you know where the setting is?

[warped stream]

Hi. How do I return ownership back to the server?

[unkempt stump]

@kindred widget I have a collision box attached to a skeleton socket to update it's location via animation of the skeleton. How am I supposed to have that collisions box's position updated on the server if I can't use animations?

[unkempt stump]

Looks like i needed: VisibilityBasedAnimTickOption

thanks @winged badger for pointing me to the direction I needed!

was a major help in understanding some technical details

found this if anyone is interested: https://forums.unrealengine.com/development-discussion/blueprint-visual-scripting/1509027-get-socket-location-not-working-on-dedicated-server

don't have one. What I did was create an actor that was replicated and owned by the server. When it spawned enemies based on my options, it would spawn for everyone. I then placed this actor where ever I wanted enemies to spawn and I set up their config as I deemed good

[hearty atlas]

The ShooterGame sample may have something?

[unkempt stump]

think it would be different for spawning player locations (just make some points in the make to use as teleportation spawns)

[hearty atlas]

Does something already exist to guarantee random numbers generated on the client will match for the dedicated server or do I need to implement it myself? Example, adding a small random angle to a weapon firing so client and server results match.

[unkempt stump]

good question @hearty atlas lemme know if you find the answer please 🙂

(you could just replicated it from the server preditively)

[hearty atlas]

That's what I have done before, had a prebuilt table and would keep the cursors in sync with prediction. It only would get out of position if they had a lot of packet loss, and their gameplay already sucks if that occurs.

[unkempt stump]

lol

[orchid pollen]

are multicast events affected by net relevancy, for example if a character is so far away that its no longer relevant will it still receive multicast replicated events from the server?

[safe spade]

Not sure if this is entirely on-topic so if not apologies and I can delete. For development testing of dedicated server multiplayer-over-internet, where do you guys host that? Any free or cheap places to do that for <$10/mo or something? Even a few hours a month right now is enough really.

[bitter oriole]

A random VPS might work fine

[heady scarab]

What is the best way to send client state from an owner to the server? Is there a lighter method than reliable server RPC?

[bitter oriole]

No

[unkempt tiger]

Hey guys, is there anyone here who is experienced with Generalized Subobject Replication who can maybe answer a few questions? I am looking for some guidance / tips to see if this will be useful for the kind of system I want to implement

[uncut pier]

Hi. I'm in the process of deciding between using Unity or UE4. I want to make a multiplayer game, and I know that UE4 has a lot of built-in multiplayer functionality. As far as I understand the default character controller is using client side prediction and is server authoritative, which is great. My question is if there are any other features for lag compensation built in to UE4? Like hit detection using snapshots?

[bitter oriole]

Nope

[unkempt tiger]

u gotta sacrifice your body and soul and implement all that yourself

[uncut pier]

I'm not sure if you are serious or not. Would implementing it be very game dependant? So much that it can't be put into the engine level?

[unkempt tiger]

we are

[uncut pier]

I would just assume that a lot of FPS games could benefit from the same system, but I guess not.

[unkempt tiger]

ue4 is bare bones af

[hearty atlas]

I've done it twice in simpler engines. It's a fairly simple if you have the right data.

it would get expensive with unreal depending on how you are handling hit detection though

[unkempt tiger]

which simpler engines antihax?

[uncut pier]

Expensive as in cost to implement, or cost to execute on server?

[hearty atlas]

Quakeish era and Torque3D

execute on the server, moving all the actors back to the bone each trace.

[bitter oriole]

It's definitely possible in UE4, but the physics engine doesn't support rewinding or simulating without changing the scene, so you have to work around that

[chrome bay]

Just built a lag compensation system. It's an adventure, but it's definitely very game-specific

[uncut pier]

Unity has no standardized way to do multiplayer, so I would have to rely on some third party framework, but I guess what I saw as a big advantage for UE4 isn't that big of an advantage. There is still a lot of work to be done.

[unkempt tiger]

god

[fossil spoke]

Does ShooterGame do lag compensation?

[unkempt tiger]

why didnt ue4 just make snapshot based networking easier

[chrome bay]

UE4's multiplayer tools / framework are leagues ahead of anything else IMO

[fossil spoke]

I cant remember

[chrome bay]

It doesn't no

[bitter oriole]

Shooter is quite barebones

[chrome bay]

Just a simple bounding box check

[fossil spoke]

Its been years since ive opened ShooterGame lol

Do they still update it?

[chrome bay]

They do but only for major engine features ( like rep graph )

[uncut pier]

No, I just read on their GitHub that it is dead

[fossil spoke]

Ah yeah fair enough

[chrome bay]

ShooterGame is updated @uncut pier

It's an epic sample

[fossil spoke]

They might update it again when Push Model comes out?

[chrome bay]

Literally a complete FPS shooter

[uncut pier]

Oh, sorry, I am thinking of Unity's project which is called something similar.

[unkempt tiger]

wats that about a complete FPS shooteR? link pls0x

[chrome bay]

Oh right, no we're talking about Epics sample project 'ShooterGame'

[uncut pier]

@chrome bay So you are saying they already have rewinding there, for example?

[chrome bay]

No

They have a basic bounding-box check for hitscan weapons.

[unkempt tiger]

is it an axis aligned box around the player? or a box for every limb?

[chrome bay]

around player

per-limb isn't really possible

You have to trust client to some extent

[unkempt tiger]

OOF valve did it D:

[hearty atlas]

I must have broken it, i was getting per limb.

[chrome bay]

Server and client animation will never be in sync

[hearty atlas]

😄