multiplayer

[steel vault]

Again, take this with a grain of salt and rather just test a print there and see if player state is solid

[ember needle]

this would call it on all listening clients

and clients

[plucky acorn]

im having issues with making a local multiplayer game (keyboard&mouse + controllers) on both:

• despawning
• controller displacements
• lost focus on UI
  @ or DM me if you're interested.

[ember needle]

@steel vault thanks.

[steel vault]

Wait, aren’t we making this too complicated? You only need playerstate to be setup so why don’t you override player state and simply create a callback event that notifies the character. Also, I have exactly what you are trying to do in my project, but my voice chat doesnt work before I tried to set up the spacial voice like you are doing so nothing works for me yet.

[rocky totem]

any idea why i'm getting errors attempting to use compile with the import subsystem?
const UImportSubsystem* ImportSubsystem = GEngine->GetEngineSubsystem<UImportSubsystem>();

also is there any steps i actually need to register a factory for a custom file type i have the extension declared in get supported file extensions

but i just get the unrecognized extension errr

[ember needle]

@kindred widget just FYI here's the final setup, hopefully I haven't missed corner cases 🙂 again, thanks

[ember needle]

What do you mean with overriding Player State?

AFA callbacks there aren't any in BP, which is why I'm creating one

[kindred widget]

Nice. I'm semi happy I'm working in singleplayer for now. I love multiplayer design theory, but it's very nice for a first serious project after a year of learning to not have that added complication.

[ember needle]

lol I hear you

plus you can get all fancy with root animations

[ember needle]

well are you sure that your player state is ready? If not, you might stop there on why things are eventually not working

[steel vault]

Yea I’m thinking more C++ so maybe that’s why, but essentially you would still create a new BP based on PlayerState then assign that player state to your game mode and then bind to an event you broadcast to the character. Yea my stuff is in reset and i print if player state is valid and it always is. I am also creating voiptalker as a component on the character instead of creating it live like the tutorial so maybe that hurts me. Also, just setting up voice without VoipTalker doesn’t work for me. I get some error saying something else is already using my microphone.

The previous step of the tutorial has you setting up voice in the defaultengine.ini and my voice doesn’t seem to work with just that step

[ember needle]

i don't know what tutorial you're referring to 🙂

sorry

[steel vault]

https://couchlearn.com/positional-voice-chat-using-blueprints-in-ue4/

The first requirement link doesn’t seem to work for me. It just errors that my device is already in use

[hidden thorn]

I feel you, I might try and get into games but who knows, personally I would love to just be able to make enough out of something I build and not have to get a job (Everyone's dream most likely 😄 )

[toxic lion]

Still having trouble with this.
looking for suggestion
When a player picks up an item, I want to spawn it for everyone but themselves in the third person mesh arm socket
Trying to accomplish this via ListenServer

[ember needle]

why don't you just have the object replicated

and in onrep notify you attach the object to the socket on all clients.

[toxic lion]

let me give that a shot. not sure how I'll be able to skip the owner however

[kindred widget]

IsLocallyControlled

If you run that in the client's OnRep, it'll only return true for the owning client. So if you do IsLocallyControlled->Not->Branch, then attach on the true side, it'll only happen for other players than the person who picked it up.

[ember needle]

why do you want to skip the owner

[toxic lion]

because I don't want the owner to see the item
FPS style, so he shouldn't see the item spawned in on the third person mesh

[ember needle]

maybe the question is: why isn't this object everywhere in the first place

not sure i follow but it doesn't matter

you can also spawn it and hide it if player is locally controlled

[toxic lion]

if a player picks up an item, two should be spawned right?
One in the FPS arms that only the owner can see, and one in the third person mesh that all the other players can see

[twin juniper]

If It's Multiplayer You Want, Then I Recommend Epic Online Service's https://dev.epicgames.com/en-US/services

[toxic lion]

though, maybe not? am I able to just attach the item to different sockets depending if it's the owner, or other players?

[ember needle]

if it's not replicating position yes

[toxic lion]

really? that would actually solve my problems if I could go about it that way.

[ember needle]

though attachtocomponent might not work well if it's replicated

i remember having some issues but years ago, so not sure if that's still the case

[toxic lion]

i don't think I really need it to replicate position? it just would need to stay attached to the players sockets

[ember needle]

i would try it out simply at first

use the islocally controlled node to position on TPS and FPS and see what happens

[ember needle]

i would be interested to know if you try it out.

[kindred widget]

That's how I handle it in my survival coop project. It works fine from all I've seen. Just spawn the replicated item on the server. Set a replicated pointer to the replicated item in the character. Then when that pointer replicates, use it's OnRep to differentiate between if it's the owning client. If it's not the owning client, I attach it to the normal character Mesh. If it is the owning client, I attach it to the ArmsMesh that I created that follows the camera.

[rocky totem]

is there an easy way to split a tarray at a set index

[kindred widget]

Actually now that I think about it. You wouldn't even have to do that. Just attach it on the server to the main mesh and on replication, attach it only if it's the owning client to their arms mesh.

[toxic lion]

don't think I've implemented it right

[ember needle]

@kindred widget yes but when attaching you get issues.. I'm only running this on server and it gets set for all clients

so to @toxic lion 's point, if you need to attach a replicated object onto different parts locally you will have an issue

[ember needle]

your attachitemto socket custom event is not replicated

so: if your object is replicated it should work, otherwise not

[toxic lion]

oh yes sorry, i tried messing it to see if it could work either way

replicated on server shows the same

[ember needle]

anyway: if your object is replicated, attachtocomponent set on server is enough to set it on clients also

which is kind of the problem because then you need to create a second non replicate object

[toxic lion]

yeah, then i think i get into the territory of creating that second item

which I don't mind, but then I have issues with the server

if the server player picks up an object, and it should go in his 3rd person mesh, then he can't see it

or he always sees it, one of the two

[ember needle]

what I did is to have a replicated actor, which creates a second copy of itself upon begin play, but this time NOT replicated.

so basically weapon acrtor has FPWeapon actor as variable

weapon is replicated, while FPWeapon is not

not saying it's the best solution, but then I only hide the mesh that I don't need, while I can still use a single item in inventory

[toxic lion]

issue is I can't just hide a mesh though

it's a flashlight

I don't think I can hide the light being emitted

[ember needle]

of course

set hidden in game on a spotlight hides the light

[toxic lion]

ah, yes okay I understand what you mean.
sorry. i was refering to the 'owner only see' and 'owner no see'

okay

though not sure I follow how you are accomplishing it however. let me see if I can quickly go back to the dual approach and mess with the replication

nope. can't seem to wrap my head around this

I've been at this now on/off for ~20 hours

[kindred widget]

@toxic lion Let me set something up. Flashlight is still a separate actor spawned by the character, right?

[toxic lion]

yup!

it has a stuct on it with socket information, etc

[ember needle]

@toxic lion you do need a replicated actor though, for all the things like turn light on or shoot for a weapon, etc

@kindred widget i'm curious too on your solution

[toxic lion]

yeah it item base class BP_Item is set to replicates atm.

[kindred widget]

@toxic lion And to double check. You do not want the owning client to see it. You don't want it attached differently, or anything, just not seen by the owning client on their own character? Or do you want it attached differently on the owning client?

[toxic lion]

I don't want the owning client to see the third person version of the item (attached to their character mesh). I only want the owning client to see the item attached to their first person arms mesh

[kindred widget]

@toxic lion The simple replicated pointer seems to work fine from initial testing.

Flashlight I made is just this. Only setting I changed was to make it Replicated.

Did this in the character's beginplay.

Server only. That's behind a SwitchHasAuthority to only run on the server version of the character.

Then OnRep is just this.

Ends up on the foot for both third person meshes, but in the client it's in the hand.

Owning client^

[toxic lion]

@kindred widget man your example is so clean. thank so much. let me implement and see if I can get that barebones version working as well

[ember needle]

and this works? oh damn. i'm totally sure it didn't use to

i've got to ask though, how do you make in BP the GET node with is valid pins?

[kindred widget]

Right click it and convert to validated get.

[ember needle]

ha nice

[kindred widget]

Theoretically, the server shouldn't ever overwrite the client's version, because the server will do the same attachment. But the server's attachment replication that is probably sent at the same time as the replicated pointer get overwritten by the client's own setting.

[toxic lion]

omg it works

dude thank you both so much. man this was driving me crazy

[kindred widget]

Makes me wonder.

Come to think of it, I wonder how you'd handle that otherwise. I can't imagine a condition where this wouldn't work correctly, but if it didn't, I wonder how else you'd do it this easily.

[toxic lion]

the other solution I've seen is just have two BPs one for first person, and one for third person
in case you want FP item to be a higher detail or just want to set the mesh 'Owner No see' etc

[ember needle]

well i can tell you because i had to do it

[toxic lion]

I wanted to avoid that since I wanted to make a ton of props pickupable

[ember needle]

basically the replicated actor has a non-replicated copy of self, and you hide the one you don't need

the non-replicated gets attached to FPArms, the other to the mesh.

i'm gonna redo this part tomorrow, i'll ping you if it doesn't work 😄

[kindred widget]

I know ShooterGame has a setup for it and it's supposed to be production worthy. I might just download that later and skim through the C++ to see how they attach the weapon to different meshes.

[ember needle]

interesting

[potent cradle]

Growing grey hair trying to get the test project with origin rebasing working:
https://forums.unrealengine.com/community/work-in-progress/81424-pull-request-world-origin-shifting-in-mp

Anyone got this working perhaps? Beyond 14.6km, the actor that spawns next to you disappears.

Flipping "always relevant" to true, fixes it.

It's almost as if the net cull distance is being calculated from the origin or something.

Searching through the forums and this Discord regarding this feature is a rather tragic journey, loads of people with issues, little answers.

[kindred widget]

@ember needle @toxic lion So. Judging by the ShooterGame Example, what Epic does is.. If we stick with the Flashlight method, they'd create two flashlights mesh components. One for first person, one for third. The two of them are in the same actor just as different components, and basically get attached to the two different meshes in the character, and they use the visibility flags for OwnerNoSee, OnlyOwnerSee to differentiate what different clients see. Gonna try to make a simple blueprint example.

[toxic lion]

ahh I see.
now the problem I forsee is the lights themselves. I had the issue where even though I hid the skeletal mesh, the light was still visible such that I always saw two lights

and unfortunately the lights themselves don't have the OwnerNoSee and the OnlyOwnerSee properties

that and I wish there was an option to propegate that owner no see to all child components

[ember needle]

which is what i do basically...

but the question would be why.

is it for practical reason so that they just hide/show the relevant mesh instead of moving it, or is it because the attachactortocomponent can result in quirks

because i sure do remember positioning issues

also: if you use meshes then it gets really complicated for modular weapons, which is why i actually span a local actor copy under the actor self

[kindred widget]

My assumption would be because of my initial fear of what happens if the server attaches the component to something else? It should replicate to all clients, including the owner. Also possibly for things like LODs. Third person meshes are often less visibly appealing than a FPS version. Disabled effects, etc.

@toxic lion @ember needle So I managed to replicate it in bluepints. As Amaze was concerned about there was a bit of an issue with the light, but I managed to solve that with a beginplay check and it seems to be working correctly.

Attach function inside of the replicated actor, gets called only on the server version.

Flashlight being spawned in the Character's beginplay.

Fix for the lights in the flashlight's beginplay.

Flashlight component list too.

Basically as far as I can tell. It's just breaking apart the Flashlight actor to attach it to different parts of the Character. I've never considered breaking apart an actor like that, Definitely going to keep that in mind for other applications.

It also occurs to me that you could ditch one light an attach it to the right mesh on Beginplay too.

[ember needle]

So I have yet another alternative

instead of using two meshes

you can have a single mesh, and eventually all attached components as child of that single mesh

then, you can just attachcomponenttocomponent the weapon/flashlight mesh to the appropriate mesh of the character

depending on whether is locally controlled

[kindred widget]

True. Definitely an interesting experience.

[ember needle]

@kindred widget @toxic lion this is the alternative

this is my flashlight

so the actor is replicated

it gets spawned on server only

actor is attached (not necessary, but for practical reasons) and then component is attached to the appropriate mesh

quick result (the T-pose is the FPArms), the two on the right is the current locally controlled player, you see the flashlight on the t-pose for the right and on the mesh on the left (other player)

do you see any downsides to this?

[ember needle]

it’s weird that they do not attach the actor to the actor though

you would need that for net culling distance, and it’s definitely more practical as you can use GetWorldTransform on the weapon too

[hidden thorn]

if I want my game to multiple states just as InProgress, Ended, Voting, Paused etc and at each state I would do something like teleport all the players into a single spot for example.

Would I keep the current state in the GameMode ??

[kindred widget]

@hidden thorn Depends on what you need the state for? If clients need access to it, for opening widgets or something then probably Gamestate. If you're replicating that some other way, and handling everything related to it on the server, than probably GameMode.

[hidden thorn]

Yeah it would open some widgets from most likely some delegate calls, yeah I guess GameState it is then 😄

[gritty pelican]

how i can kick player in prelogin function inside gamemode?
for example i have function

void ACPP_ExtremeGameMode::PreLogin(const FString & Options, const FString & Address, const FUniqueNetIdRepl & UniqueId, FString & ErrorMessage)
{
}

Correctly?

void ACPP_ExtremeGameMode::PreLogin(const FString & Options, const FString & Address, const FUniqueNetIdRepl & UniqueId, FString & ErrorMessage)
{
    FString PlayFabId = UGameplayStatics::ParseOption(Options, "PlayFabId");
    if (PlayFabId.IsEmpty())
    {
        ErrorMessage = TEXT("Need to specify PlayFabId in options");
        return;
    }
}

[fossil spoke]

Simply setting the ErrorMessage will cause the Player to return to the DefaultMap.

Setting the ErrorMessage automatically fails the login process.

If you follow the chain of function calls back from PreLogin you will see that it ends up causing a Network/Travel error

Cant remember which

[gritty pelican]

do i need to call 'return' after ErrorMessage?

[fossil spoke]

Up to you. With your above code as it is, the return statement is unnecessary as you will simply return from scope anyway.

You might want to call Super as well...

[gritty pelican]

right?

void ACPP_ExtremeGameMode::PreLogin(const FString & Options, const FString & Address, const FUniqueNetIdRepl & UniqueId, FString & ErrorMessage)
{
    FString PlayFabId = UGameplayStatics::ParseOption(Options, "PlayFabId");
    if (PlayFabId.IsEmpty())
    {
        ErrorMessage = TEXT("Need to specify PlayFabId in options");
    }
    Super::PreLogin(Options, Address, UniqueId, ErrorMessage);
}

[fossil spoke]

No, usually call Super as the first statement.

Not the last.

Unless you know why you want to call Super later.

[gritty pelican]

I thought super would be called with empty error message

[fossil spoke]

Call Super first so that native code has the first opportunity to set the ErrorMessage if it fails.

Then your overridden function will set it if it fails.

[gritty pelican]

thanks

And if I have two values in options, how can I pass them to the controller?

[fossil spoke]

PreLogin is to early, the PlayerController hasnt been created yet. You probably want to override Login instead.

We do the same thing for GameLift as what your doing now.

Just instead of in PreLogin, we do it in Login as the PlayerController exists then.

[gritty pelican]

Can I set errorMessage in login function?

[fossil spoke]

Yes, it operates the same way as PreLogin

[gritty pelican]

If I set "ErrorMessage" value, will the player kick from the server? And how can I get this message already on the client after it is kicked

[fossil spoke]

Yes

You can access the message in the GameInstance

    UFUNCTION(BlueprintImplementableEvent, meta=(DisplayName = "NetworkError"))
    void HandleNetworkError(ENetworkFailure::Type FailureType, bool bIsServer);

    /** Opportunity for blueprints to handle travel errors. */
    UFUNCTION(BlueprintImplementableEvent, meta=(DisplayName = "TravelError"))
    void HandleTravelError(ETravelFailure::Type FailureType);```

These are called by the GameInstance when PreLogin/Login fails.

[gritty pelican]

thanks. This is what I needed

[fossil spoke]

Both PreLogin and Login are called from UWorld::NotifyControlMessage

(Login is actually called from SpawnPlayActor which is called in UWorld::NotifyControlMessage)

[gritty pelican]

Will this function return me ErrorMessage from Login?
https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/API/Runtime/Engine/Engine/UGameInstance/HandleGameNetControlMessage/index.html

[fossil spoke]

You could use that, its up to you, its an empty virtual function.

The MessageStr parameter may contain the Error.

[gritty pelican]

Okay, thanks

[fossil spoke]

Ive never actually used that function.

[gritty pelican]

i will try

How can I pass values to UPlayer* NewPlayer?

right?

if (ACPP_ExtremePlayerController * ExtremeControllerPtr = Cast<ACPP_ExtremePlayerController>(NewPlayer->GetPlayerController(GetWorld())))
{

}

or i need to call super first?

APlayerController* NewPlayerController = Super::Login(NewPlayer, InRemoteRole, Portal, Options, UniqueId, ErrorMessage);

if (ACPP_ExtremePlayerController * ExtremeControllerPtr = Cast<ACPP_ExtremePlayerController>(NewPlayerController))
{

}

[fossil spoke]

Super gives you the new PlayerController

It will be nullptr if there was an Error during Super::Login

[gritty pelican]

then first i need to check this?

APlayerController* NewPlayerController = Super::Login(NewPlayer, InRemoteRole, Portal, Options, UniqueId, ErrorMessage);
if (!IsValid(NewPlayerController))
{
    ErrorMessage = TEXT("NewPlayerController Invalid");
}

[fossil spoke]

You dont have to do that.

Super::Login will already set the ErrorMessage if it fails.

if (ACPP_ExtremePlayerController * ExtremeControllerPtr = Cast<ACPP_ExtremePlayerController>(NewPlayerController))
{

}```

This is fine

[gritty pelican]

okay, thanks

[fossil spoke]

Some reason i cant post our code lol

@gritty pelican This is our Login code to handle managing our GameLift PlayerSession IDs.

Basically same thing your doing with PlayFab by the looks of it.

[gritty pelican]

Yes, it's the same)

[summer tide]

How do you transfer players from lobby to gameplay level?

[winged badger]

seamless travel

[gritty pelican]

@summer tide

FString Port = FString::FromInt(Result.pfServerDetails->Ports[0].Num);
FString URL = Result.pfServerDetails->IPV4Address + ":" + Port + "?PlayFabId=" + PlayFabEntityKeyID;

GetWorld()->GetFirstPlayerController()->ClientTravel(URL, ETravelType::TRAVEL_Absolute, false);

example

[summer tide]

in BP

[winged badger]

same

steam sockets don't really work any other way

@summer tide

[gritty pelican]

ClientTrave ip:port

[winged badger]

you just need to enable seamless in deperating game mode

and execute console command

[summer tide]

Which game mode the lobby or gameplay game mode?

[winged badger]

departing, that would be lobby

[gritty pelican]

for steam you can use
ExecuteConsoleCommand```` and inside open serversteamid:port```

[winged badger]

in PB you won't have a fine control over seamless travel

but it will work

BP*

ServerTravel MapName?listen

in ezecute console command

it can also tolerate additional argument to override the GameMode set on play level

[quick flint]

Anyone here mind taking a look at some code i've been trying to get working all week

[summer tide]

I got the server travel console command inserted. How do I enable seemless in gamemode though

[winged badger]

you can paste it and see if you get any replies

there is a boolean for it on class defaults @summer tide

also @summer tide seamless travel will transfer clients to new level without reconnecting

so PostLogin and stuff won't get called

common execution path between hard and seamless travel is HandleStartingNewPlayer

where you can do whatever you would normally do in PostLogin just fine

[summer tide]

So do I have to spawn player manually or do I just set the player pawn in gameplay game mode

[winged badger]

HandleStartingNewPlayer by default will spawn the DefaultPawn

if you override it, you need to call the Parent function to get that default behavior

you can also override GameMode::ReadyToStartMatch

to return true when NumTravellingPlayers is 0 (if you're using GameMode, not GameModeBase)

which will delay Worlds on all machines calling BeginPlay on Actors until all players have finished travelling

something i highly recommend doing

[quick flint]

what do i do when im stuck and have no idea how to progress

and all the stuff ive tried has failed to work

[summer tide]

@winged badger My level won't load using servertravel

[winged badger]

pie?

[summer tide]

In Pie it won't load the gameplay level and if I launch game using right click. it won't join session and start game for server

[winged badger]

seamless travel doesnt work in pie

[rustic hound]

from what i recall, server travel doesnt work in pie either

you'll need to run in standalone mode

[summer tide]

I have seemless enable and using servertravel /game/level1?listen

[winged badger]

or even better package

it doesnt take a folder just level name

[rustic hound]

i'd say putting in the folder is fine, just to be safe

oh, misread that

it CAN take the folder name/directory as well

at least in 4.25

[winged badger]

just level name is sufficient, and simpler is better

[rustic hound]

fair point

on an entirely different note, could someone point me in the right direction on a game im working on atm?

its designed to be an online 4-player coop game with 1 of the players being the host/listen server

but im not sure which online service I could use to achieve that (that includes NAT punching)

I've done some research on Playfab, AWS, Photon, Epic Online Services and GameSparks but I'm still unsure which one caters better to my games design

[gritty pelican]

How does Spectator Pawn work?

Do I need to replicate it? ReplicateMovement

[fossil spoke]

@rustic hound Probably EOS would be best if you need crossplatform play and Steam is out of the question.

Steam would be ideal.

GameLift (AWS) isnt really meant for Listen Server hosting.

Not sure what Playfab or Photon offers.

GameSparks is pretty obsolete, its no longer being worked on as far as im aware.

[gritty pelican]

yes

@rustic hound PlayFab is perfect for you

They have a great matchmaking system. You can customize commands like
Team Murderer (MinPlayers = 1, MaxPlayers = 1)
Team Survivals (MinPlayers = 4, MaxPlayers = 4)

Also for p2p connections you can use PlayFab Party

You can also configure automatic server deployment

[rustic hound]

@fossil spoke i'd like to avoid steam as its a student game project, so I'd prefer not to throw in too much cash (if any at all) into this
i've been trying to implement EOS but i cant seem to wrap my head around it but I'll give it another try

@gritty pelican I read that PlayFab doesn't come with NAT punching. Is there anything I can implement alongside Playfab then to solve this?

[gritty pelican]

I do not know this

But you can use dedicated servers.

on PlayFab

The free plan will allow you to use 750 hours for free

[rustic hound]

750 hours should be more than enough for this one-time project hahaha

[gritty pelican]

It is very comfortable. There is also a free plugin in the marketplace, which contains all the functions

I think this is what you need

[fossil spoke]

Pretty sure its only $100USD to get a Steam game on Steam.

But i get your point

[rustic hound]

oh, I thought that setting up the Playfab servers was actually a very hard/detailed procedure

[fossil spoke]

He said Listen Server so i assumed that wasnt by choice.

Otherwise i would have suggested GameLift or PlayFab

[rustic hound]

I know it does seem cheap of me to not want to fork up the $100USD but since its a student project, there's a good chance I won't be working on this game soon afterwards

[gritty pelican]

But of course, steam is best for Listen servers.

[rustic hound]

I'm not too stuck with the Listen server thing.
was mainly going for that because I've built the game so far on a listen server design but if my options are that limited, I'm okay with changing things to work around a dedicated server design

[fossil spoke]

So your against simply making it a requirement to ensure ports are forwarded etc

If not you can just simply do direct IP connections

[rustic hound]

yeah

I did try that method but then I came across the whole firewall/NAT punch thing

and realized players generally wouldnt want to bother reconfiguring their routers/firewalls just to play a game

[fossil spoke]

But its a student project im sure you only need it to work when its being graded?

If its a MP/Coop game how are they meant to grade it without multiple people anyway.

[gritty pelican]

I can't understand how the Spectator pawn works. Do I need to create another controller for it? Do I need to replicate it? Do i need to change the spectator state on the server side or on the client side or multicast?

[rustic hound]

im not too sure how my lecturers plan to grade it but from what I heard, they're pretty lenient about it

however, I'd still rather try to make the game more easy to install & play for the players because I feel thats the proper way to go about it and it also provides for a better learning experience for myself

also, they do get other students from our degree to playtest our game

[rustic hound]

I think the Spectator is attached to a controller on spawn already

at least, when I run a game mode with "delayed start"/"start players as spectators", they'd instantly enter the level as spectator pawns

but thanks anyway, both of you for your responses
I've got a better grasp on my options now

[gritty pelican]

How i can specify options for test? PlayAsClient

[fossil spoke]

The Spectator Pawn isnt Replicated at all, its invisible therefore doesnt need to as its Client side only.

[gritty pelican]

Okay, but how i can set player as spectator? for example in GameMode login

[fossil spoke]

Pretty sure theres a function or setting for that

On the GameMode

[gritty pelican]

if (!bIsPlayer)
    {
        ExtremePlayerControllerPtr->PlayerState->bIsSpectator = true;
        ExtremePlayerControllerPtr->ChangeState(NAME_Spectating);
        return NewPlayerControllerPtr;
    }

or it will

ExtremePlayerControllerPtr->PlayerState->SetIsSpectator(true);
ExtremePlayerControllerPtr->PlayerState->SetIsOnlyASpectator(true);

okay, it work

[summer tide]

@winged badger So i customize the players in the lobby. Then would I be able to transfer them

[winged badger]

i do too

[gritty pelican]

how i can set max players for server?

i don't know, where is GameSession

[winged badger]

@summer tide i have a struct in playerstates

that i can instantiate the player pawns from, fully customized

i don't have same GameMode, Controller, or PlayerState types in lobby and ingame

i CopyProperties over that struct to IngamePlayerState

then instantiate and configure that character

with seamless travel, even if you are changing PS class between lobby/game

there is a point where both old and new PS exist at the same time

[summer tide]

@winged badger So I have SK meshes that I change in lobby before jumping in the game. So I guess I save the SK meshes in the lobby player state then after the game level is loaded I transfer the info

[winged badger]

PS has CopyProperties function available in BP

that gives you a pointer to both old and new PS at the same time

the data/playerstates will persist the level transition on server's instance

[summer tide]

Thanks

So I assume have to store all the SK meshes and their mats in a variable in player state. Is there a way to take whatever player meshes I have in the lobby then save the entire thing.

[winged badger]

make a struct

and a function to pull the data from lobby and populate it

as well as a function to pull the data from struct and apply it

you get an extra bonus in that 70% of the work for saving and loading setups is also done when you finish that

[summer tide]

@winged badger So In my lobby playe state I created a variable with hte custom struct type. Whenever I customize the player I update that variable. So from the In-Game player state I guess I use the EventCopyProperties then cast to the lobby playerstate to access the data.

[winged badger]

in this case

its better to have a base player state

with that struct

and copy properties

that both your lobby and ingame playerstates derive from

then you don't need to cast anything

and don't need to add the struct variable twice

and have a single place to copy properties

[summer tide]

Do I have to use replicated event in the PS

[vivid prawn]

Hi guys, what's the proper way of destroying session when leaving the game?
I'm using advanced session plugin, every time host leave the game, it freezes all the clients instead of destroying their session and bring them back to the menu

[summer tide]

@winged badger I did.
https://gyazo.com/034a0f59dbbfee5eac9f8f7c98bec01d

Would this work for all players? That's in-game player state

[winged badger]

not quite how copy properties is used

your PlayerState will survive level transition

your Character won't

so

when you hit a button to go to game level

you make sure your Lobby PlayerState has all the data correct

then when copy properties hits

you just (since Lobby and Game PS have the same base class with the data struct)

copy the data struct from old base PS to new base PS

and thats it

[summer tide]

Then apply the SK meshes in my player BP

[winged badger]

you can do that in HandleStartingNewPlayer

you have PC reference then

you can access your new PS

which will have all the data you need

Parent call will spawn the Pawn, then just apply the meshes

[summer tide]

HandleStartingNewPlayer in BP?

Also lol this doesn't make sense. when you said copy. https://gyazo.com/8e21f60bc4816a68348aeffe9a5db533

[winged badger]

not quiter

you set the SKMeshes varible on the new PS

not copy it into itself

[steep flame]

Is it possible to replicate variables inside an Animation Blueprint? I tried to replicate a variable to simulated proxies that triggers the death animation, but it doesn't work.

[winged badger]

no

well, technically yes, but i promise you you don't want to take that path

[steep flame]

okay, thank you Zlo

[summer tide]

@winged badger So what's in BP for HandleStartingNewPlayer?

[winged badger]

thats in gamemode

[vivid prawn]

okay when client leave, it's working fine

but when host leave, rest of clients are freezing

when host leave, Should I loop through all the controllers and ask them to leave? or there is a built in function for that?

[winged badger]

just open start level

and destroy session in its beginplay

[summer tide]

Like this?

https://gyazo.com/b3eac95fcfe0f8936e9d7da7193b9cb8

[vivid prawn]

@winged badger but I am destroying session, also if i don't direct the players to main menu level, how game know where players have to go when session is ended

[winged badger]

you have to call the parent function for HandleStartingNewPlayer first @summer tide

or you won't have the pawn

unreal knows how to "gracefully" exit to main menu (default starting level) if connection to host is lost

@vivid prawn

[summer tide]

What parent function? I don't see one

That's in my in-game- game mode

[winged badger]

right click the node

the event

add call to parent function

handle starting new player has a default c++ implementation

when you override it you are replacing that implementation

unless you add a parent call

and that implementation is what spawns your pawn

[summer tide]

I see
https://gyazo.com/03bc27388ca50fbd83ec1835deaf11e4

[winged badger]

yeah, that might work

odds are you have a few bugs in it

[steel fractal]

Quick question, what’s easier to replicate, the 1st person template or the 3rd person for an fps

Rn I’m doing true first person but I’m curious if it’s easier to just go regular first person and add legs

[vivid prawn]

FPS = First Person Shooter

if you want to make shooter type of game, in both cases you have write the same structure, the different between 1st person and 3rd person is the Camera

[vivid prawn]

I'm about to pull my hair!! why when host left the session, rest of players are not leaving the session!! does anyone can help me with this?

[signal lance]

They should leave after some time, if I remember correctly it takes like 20 seconds

This is so the clients don't get disconnected instantly if they have packet loss for example or the server froze temporarily and it's not responding

Btw the clients leaving might not work in editor but I'm not sure about that

[vivid prawn]

@signal lance is there any specific place that i can set the period? I actually didn't wait that long, let me try

nope, they are still freezing

it's very strange, the character and movement etc all freezing, but the UI still clickable

[chrome bay]

Well they would freeze because they're no longer getting packets from the Server, so that makes sense

But yeah there is a brief timeout

[vivid prawn]

@chrome bay i see... how do you setup a proper destroy session? do i have to destroy controller one by one when host is leaving? or there is a specific setting that i need to set so it can manage the destroy session automatically?

even when i try to destroy session for each controller it return "failed"

[chrome bay]

If your listen server is closing down the game then yeah you should at least try to notify the clients through gamecode first, telling them to go back to the menu or something

[vivid prawn]

specially when i'm running it in gamemode

[chrome bay]

How do you mean destroy a session for each controller?

Sessions are local

players/machines manage their own sessions locally

[vivid prawn]

oh wow... okay!! i thought they all connected to one session

[chrome bay]

Well they do in a sense, but a "session" is just an abstract thing

But the session you are in etc. is something the local machine controls - so servers shouldn't be telling clients to destroy their sessions

BTW ShooterGame, assuming you are using C++, has a full source code example of session management

[vivid prawn]

i see... okay, I'm using Blueprint now, but let me look it up, is the UnrealTournament from EpicGames github package?

oh this one

okay, thanks for the info

[chrome bay]

prepare to be mind blown

it's old as hell

but it's by far the most comprehensive multiplayer sample

I don't know why Epic don't put attention on it anymore

Especially considering almost every sample released since has precisely zero multiplayer support.

Even Action RPG, which was a let down tbh. The community has done a better job there

[vivid prawn]

i see... I have no idea

@chrome bay also another question, when i'm running Session Fronted i'm getting all these errors

it like right away the moment i start host the game

and i'm using Advanced Sessions Plugin to host

[chrome bay]

Can't really help there tbh, it's going wrong somewhere I guess

It's worth pointing out that testing multiplayer only in editor is pretty fruitless

[hidden thorn]

@vivid prawn Can you link me the Shooter Game project as I can't find it on the market place.

[chrome bay]

There's no substitute for getting two physical machines to connect to each other

It's on the Learn tab @hidden thorn

[hidden thorn]

Thanks

[vivid prawn]

i see... i wont get all those errors when client host the game but they appear the moment server host or join an existing server

even though all of them hosting LAN

but thanks again for information

@hidden thorn yeah, it's in Learn tab
https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/Resources/SampleGames/ShooterGame/index.html

[rocky night]

Hi which serversystem Pavlov VR uses? Listen Server or only Dedicated Server?

[bitter oriole]

You should ask them

But the game lists "Dedicated Servers" on their Steam page

So unless they're lying about it, that's what they use, I guess

[rocky night]

Okay i wondered about how the matchmaking works

[chrome bay]

That's a question only they can answer I suspect

[potent cradle]

Hey Jambax/Stranger, I broke my head yesterday trying to sort out an issue with replication range & distance from origin. Have any of you had issues with actors disappearing when further away than 14.7KM from the world origin? That is to say, the player that spawns next to you disappears, as if the server decides it's not relevant for replication. Collision still works though, server seems to be perfectly aware of it.

Figured if anyone knows, one of you two might

( Setting the actor to always replicate works fixes it, but that's a bit dirty 😄 )

[chrome bay]

Yeah that's not a bug it's intentional 😄

Oh sorry, you say world origin?

[potent cradle]

Yes sir

[chrome bay]

In that case no, not unless the players' controller or viewpoint is also at the world origin

[potent cradle]

(it's not the bounds issue)

[chrome bay]

The server uses the player controllers view location to determine what is/isn't relevant to them

So I suspect it's at origin on the Server even if not on the Client

[potent cradle]

I was going through this test project here: https://forums.unrealengine.com/community/work-in-progress/81424-pull-request-world-origin-shifting-in-mp

And I can confirm also in my own project, if I go farther than 14.7KM, say 16KM from origin, weird stuff starts happening like I described.

(I simply spawned 16KM from origin with 2 players while running PIE dedicated, and had the same issue)

[chrome bay]

I mean 16KM is very far

The max world size in UE is 20KM IIRC

[potent cradle]

Then I wouldn't get a collision correct from the server when I walk into the invisible actor, which does happen. Right?

[chrome bay]

No you would, everything is always relevant on the Server

So if you walk into something that isn't visible client side, the client essentially mispredicted the movement so will snap back

[potent cradle]

But if it's at the origin on the server, then how come I get a collision 16KM away from the origin?

[potent cradle]

Right, that's precisely my point 🤔

The fact that I get a collision means the actor isn't at the origin, it's right next to me, also 16KM away, where it's invisible

[chrome bay]

So if it's invisible, then for whatever reason the Server thinks it's not relevant to your client

Which leads me to think that the server is not aware of where your clients' actual camera view location is

You linked the origin rebasing thread - so are you using WOR for the clients?

[potent cradle]

Right, this is an interesting point 🤔

[potent cradle]

I turned on the multiplayer origin rebase tickbox in the project settings, and turned it off in the world settings

There's other people in that thread too though, seems to be a common issue

I had a friend of mine try as well, he had the same problem

https://answers.unrealengine.com/questions/664133/clients-net-cull-distance-doesnt-seem-to-take-orig.html

We find issues like this all over the web, but no solutions

It's rather quaint

[winged badger]

    /** If PlayerCamera.bUseClientSideCameraUpdates is set, client will replicate camera positions to the server. */
    // @TODO - combine pitch/yaw into one int, maybe also send location compressed
    UFUNCTION(unreliable, server, WithValidation)
    void ServerUpdateCamera(FVector_NetQuantize CamLoc, int32 CamPitchAndYaw);

[potent cradle]

Oh dear lord

[winged badger]

this is how server decides where you are in the world

[potent cradle]

So it's not being replicated rn?

[winged badger]

it is under the hood

i will point out that the location vector is compressed

player controller calls this on its own

[potent cradle]

I wonder if something is going wrong there

[chrome bay]

It's also worth pointing out that using WOR in multiplayer is massively more complicated than ticking a box 😄

[winged badger]

oh, it calls that from UpdateCamera, so on Tick

thats efficient 😄

[chrome bay]

that function is satan

(there's a bool to disable it btw)

[winged badger]

funny thing

[chrome bay]

Is your player controller at world origin?

[potent cradle]

It should follow me, no?

Does it not?

[winged badger]

when we had camera attached to a Pawn attached to our Player

[chrome bay]

By default no IIRC

[winged badger]

ServerUpdateCamera didn't happen

[potent cradle]

Oh lord

[winged badger]

because its optimized

so it updates only if you gave it manual inputs, doing RMB to move to loc doesn't count

[chrome bay]

Come to think of it we do have that disabled in HLL so why does our game work 😄

[potent cradle]

Strange, I can't find that in the class defaults, maybe C++ only?

[winged badger]

you bypassed distance based relevancy alltogether?

[potent cradle]

Hmm 🤔

[chrome bay]

bAttachToPawn = true; in PlayerController... maybe that's why we're ok

[potent cradle]

I tried making it always relevant, that does fix it

[chrome bay]

yeah at least you know it's a relevancy thing then

[potent cradle]

Holy shit

[chrome bay]

The bUseClientSideCameraUpdates is a member of PlayerCameraManager btw

[winged badger]

ours only updates position once per second, no matter what happens

[chrome bay]

But yeah we have it off

[potent cradle]

Hmm, sadly attach to pawn doesn't seem to fix it

Lemme try the camera manager now

[winged badger]

not only that, but we also mangle the location

as camera can split from pawn

we cap the location we send to server to within 6k units from the pawn

😄

[potent cradle]

Hmmm

Starting to get close to being SOL lol, was already on

[potent cradle]

For optimisation?

[chrome bay]

to smash them hackers I bet 😄

good idea too

It looks to me like ServerUpdateCamera isn't implemented 100% correctly to deal with WOR

They're rebasing the received location server-side... which makes no sense

[winged badger]

its RTS controls, single unit

so it can go 6k out, with relevancy that gives you ability to spot something 21k out

[chrome bay]

Oh wait NVM, they do rebase to zero before sending

[winged badger]

while keeping your own pawns surroundings relevant

[potent cradle]

Knowing that, can you see a fix for it? I also wonder why you didn't have the issue in HLL 🤔 Maybe the map is smaller?

[chrome bay]

Ignore that, I forgot to look at the call site, but it looks ok

[potent cradle]

Oh 🤔

[chrome bay]

The other question ofc - if you disable WOR, does the issue go away?

[potent cradle]

AFAIK not, but lemme try

[chrome bay]

WOR is impossible to use in multiplayer without using CPP

Since none of the rebasing functionality is exposed

So everytime you send a vector to the server or something, it's in client space

[potent cradle]

Same issue

[potent cradle]

Oh 🤔

[winged badger]

side question

what are you doing 17km from origin?

and why

[chrome bay]

Oh NVM, they do apparently expose the rebasing functions in BP

Yeah that too 😄

World Limit is 20K

[winged badger]

is 800 km^2 not enough?

[potent cradle]

Would be nice to be able to fit within a 32x32km space, even if not all of it is playable/loadable. But just being able to be far away from the origin would help.

[chrome bay]

Problem you have is the Server is always going to be restricted to the world limit anyway

WOR in multiplayer is only useful if you're on a dedicated server, and the clients have visual issues

[potent cradle]

What kind of issues will I still face?

(I use dedicated servers indeed)

[chrome bay]

Well the Server is always operating in zero-origin space

[potent cradle]

Right, so accuracy issues would happen too far away?

[chrome bay]

yeah definitely

[potent cradle]

How bad would that be? It seems hard to get a definitive answer on this

Some games seem to have rather big worlds, like ARK

[chrome bay]

It's hard to give one to be honest, I mean I find physics objects basically unusable around 4-5k from origin

And well, I've seen the ARK modkit

I will say no more

[potent cradle]

Oh I don't really use much physics, that could be a trade off

But something that would be fixed with world origin rebasing, no?

Am I seeing that wrong? Doesn't that fall under client visual issues? As physics aren't replicated anyway

The update call seems to happen 🤔

[chrome bay]

Well an object that replicates physics may well be replicated (e.g vehicle)

character movement might be okay, but I would still expect more corrections once you get far enough from the origin just because of small floating point errors building up

[potent cradle]

Hmmm, right. I should keep that in mind and test as well, though from what the demo project seemed to show, that wasn't much of an issue

The CMC that is, I didn't try a vehicle

The only issue that seems to be screwing with me right now is the relevancy thing

[chrome bay]

tbh the only reason we used it is because our animations started to jitter at the edges of the map

Though on reflection, I wish we'd figured that out instead cus WOR has been a thorn in my side forever

[potent cradle]

I'm getting scared

😄

[rich ridge]

How does server knows the player's view.. does server use Camera manager?

[chrome bay]

I think it's based on the ViewTarget of the player too, I can't quite remember

[rich ridge]

I have checked that this ACameraActor exists on server too.

But I later I moved my logic to GAS Target datw

So I couldn't debug more

[winged badger]

its the last position RPCed by the ServerUpdateCamera

from the PlayerController

its also your location for distance based relevancy

[rich ridge]

Does this have any network bandwidth issues.. why asking because it's disabled by default?

[winged badger]

i haven't noticed any

we staggered ours to send an update only once every second

as we only need that for relevancy location

[rich ridge]

Hmmm

Is it possible to batch custom RPC with existing system RPCs??

[winged badger]

its not easy

without editing the engine

[rich ridge]

Ohh

[potent cradle]

Is it though? I added a screenie, the update seems to happen, but pawns still disappear 🤔

Here's a recording of the position that's being RPC'ed by 2 pawns, situated next to each other

Seems like those two should be in relevancy range

Yet, they do not seem to be, once you move far enough away from origin, evident by the fact that the player that spawned next to you disappears

[meager fable]

Sup guys, I'm having 2 problems with my multiplayer game, the first is that clients movement is terribly laggy and gets corrected very often(doesn't happen with the servers movement on the client side) and the other is with an actor i launch with the code on the picture. The actor gets it's location constantly corrected. I'm thinking this could be caused by bad code optimization. The movement part probably is but I'm wondering why would the fireball get its location corrected if it's launched with the same velocity on both the client and the server? Also how do I check if my networking code is badly optimised?

[bitter oriole]

Both issues come from the client and server having different behaviour

There's nothing to work on for the first one but the second problem described in the pic is clear, you're using physics @meager fable

UE4 physics aren't deterministic and will never work well in multiplayer

Not until Chaos is really production-ready and if it really is deterlinistic and rollback-friendly

[meager fable]

Is there a way to achieve a simillar effect that will work in multiplayer?

[kindred widget]

I always did things like a fireball with ProjectileMovementComponents. Spawn it on the server with a start location, desired velocity direction and let it go. You can correct it a little bit with some replicated vectors if the clients are largely out of sync, but in the end nothing really fixes bad lag.

[bitter oriole]

Stuff like projectle movement if it's a projectile thing

General physics isn't possible

[meager fable]

okay I'll try working with projectile movement component

my pawn movements are currently bein calculated and if checked in the controller class(not my code don't blame me for a bad placement) and added via addMovementInput node

and it uses character movement component

there are a few RPC's running on tick but none are reliable

but there is a lot of other code in ticks and I'm using a listen server now

[thorny summit]

Hello, I have literally just joined this Discord so apologies if this is in the wrong place, although from what i read this seems to be the right place to post this. I’ll keep it brief. I’m looking for a tutorial or someone who can help me to use a phone as a controller within UE4. I want to be clear however, the important note is that I don’t want the phone to be used as the main screen, it is to be a separate display only used to control the main screen.

At the moment all I want to do is press a single button on the phone to make a cube move forward slowly, then press another button to make it stop. The next step if this is possible, is to have more than one phone controlling the same cube.

Thanks in advance to anyone who replies!

(To be honest it surprises me that this doesn’t seem to be an option for people who don’t want to buy a controller or have broken them and need a temporary replacement, but I suppose companies want to sell controllers, lol)

[rich ridge]

@thorny summit do you want this feature imolemeted in editor?

[thorny summit]

Sorry i'm new to UE4, what do you mean?

[rich ridge]

Editor mean unreal engine in edit mode.

[thorny summit]

Oh, yes 🙂

[rich ridge]

So you want this feature to be used for level editing?

[thorny summit]

Ooooh, sorry, now i understand. No, this is to control a character within a game

[rich ridge]

So you want to use Android or iOS as controller for game

[thorny summit]

Yes 🙂

[rich ridge]

There is no straight forward way to do.

This is more of a device driver problem.

[kindred widget]

@thorny summit Instead of looking for a UE4 solution, I'd probably search for how to connect a phone to a PC to use as a gamepad for normal game usage. Then figure out how UE4 handles normal gamepad input.

[rich ridge]

Engine already has device driver .. you may want to write interface

[thorny summit]

That would be fine if i just wanted a normal controller, but i want to design a unique interface

[rich ridge]

You need to understand the protocols of these controllers

And I guess they follow a common standard including PS 4 or xbox

If you could make a device driver interface following those standards.. then your android controller will work with any game , any engine , etc

[thorny summit]

Could i have custom buttons?

Or would i have to stick to a gamepad map?

[rich ridge]

You can have , but needs game to do integration around it

Need to develop plugin for each engine

But developing device driver is very tough

[thorny summit]

Hmm. Starting to sound way out of my league

[rich ridge]

And that too you want wifi based device driver

I think you should find a guy who is kernel developer and he can best answer it..
I have very little experience with kernel development

So I can't tell in depth

[thorny summit]

You've been very helpful regardless, thanks! 🙂

I shall go looking for a kernel developer then, lol

[rich ridge]

Welcome

[bitter oriole]

@thorny summit The reasons developers don't do this are many :

• You likely want a unique application for each game, which means an entirely new development in a different language, different platforms to ship on, on mobile stores that typically take weeks to review a single update
• Connectivity is hard - USB, Bluetooth, Wifi ? None of these are technically easy to support on the game side
• Do people really want it ? Most PC gamers are fine with a mouse and keyboard as a temporary replacement, if they really need to play right now and not wait for a few days to replace it

[rich ridge]

@thorny summit https://developer.android.com/things/sdk/drivers/input

Have a look at this doc by Google for development of device drivers

Android already has HID

@bitter oriole regarding the connectivity, it's entirely handles by OS and device drivers.. game client is not worried about handling the controllers.. the game client only worries for source of input and not it's implementation and handling right?

[bitter oriole]

We're talking about creating a custom Android app to serve as a controller to a PC game

Nothing about this is even vaguely OS related

[rich ridge]

In that case he needs to define interface which the client needs to integrate

And this approach is not agnostic

[bitter oriole]

He needs a simple UDP socket sending input commands from the client app, which the game acting as a server would read

No driver, kernel, anything OS level needed

[rich ridge]

Even I was thinking the same

[bitter oriole]

It's just incredibly painful to do because of the reasons I outlined

[thorny summit]

I'm taking a look online at various options and it does seem like Unity can do it quite easily. I may have to switch engines but i always try to explore all possible options 🙂

Thank you anyway for your help, i appreciate the input and it gives me things to think about. This is for my final year university course, so hopefully i can find a fairly easy way to do this, but if not i will just have to pursue a different idea 😅

[empty axle]

The fairly easy way is the way that Stranger suggested with the UDP approach

[bitter oriole]

Doing it as a demo without production constraints is easy enough

I suspect building an Android app with five buttons, a background and a socket is a day's work

Building a full game around it takes a lot more work than will generally makes sense imho

[empty axle]

there is also a plugin for that but I have no idea how robust it is
https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/remote-control-android-and-ios

[cosmic marlin]

How to create a multiplayer structure for a mobile game in which player joins the game using a code given by the host?

For instance

[bitter oriole]

You would use your own matchmaking servers where the host tells your master server "I'm A737B and here's my IP", clients connect to the MS asking where A737B is, MS telsl them IP, client use "open <ip>"

[rich ridge]

@cosmic marlin this is something your OSS should provide.. so choose your OSS accordingly

EOS do provide attribute based matchmaking and searching

You can look at that for sure

But it lacks Android support for now.. they have promised to release for Android , when no one knows

[cosmic marlin]

You mean Online Subsystem, right?

[rich ridge]

Yes

[gritty pelican]

I am trying to set additional values for a lobby member (steam). Am I doing it right?

FString PlayFabId = UGameplayStatics::ParseOption(Message, "PlayFabId");
if (!PlayFabId.IsEmpty())
{
    const char * Key = "PlayFabId";
    const char * Value = TCHAR_TO_ANSI(*PlayFabId);

    SteamMatchmaking()->SetLobbyMemberData(Data->m_ulSteamIDUser, Key, Value);
}

[plush wave]

Can a listen server pause a network game?

[gritty pelican]

If I am not mistaken, this is in GameMode or GameState @plush wave

There you can set pause rules

[plush wave]

Hmm

So if the host pauses the game, it would pause for everyone?

[gritty pelican]

https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/API/Runtime/Engine/GameFramework/AGameModeBase/index.html

Check functions and variables here @plush wave

[plush wave]

Hmm ok thanks for the reference

Looks like SetPause() is maybe the function to use

Wonder if it is already implemented for the network

[tawny talon]

Hi nice people, I've encounter a problem relating to listen server, thank you in advance! My problem is that my blueprint that derived from player controller can't get the game mode. I believe (still a new comer to Unreal, this might be wrong) that player controller is on both server and client end, so that it should be able to access the game mode which is server only, am I right?

when I run the game, and set the playmode(players to be 2 and listen server), the server windows can successfully get the gamemode yet the client end can't (the get gamemode node is in playercontroller blueprint). Is it normal, or I just didn't do some settings?

[orchid pollen]

@tawny talon you may wanna give this a look:
http://cedric-neukirchen.net/Downloads/Compendium/UE4_Network_Compendium_by_Cedric_eXi_Neukirchen.pdf

[tawny talon]

thanks!

[orchid pollen]

but i would recommend going over the document just, super helpful if you wanna know whats actually happening

not sure how outdated it is at this point though, but most of it would still be applicable i imagine

[hidden thorn]

Just wondering is it possible to join a steam session via the console??

[lofty lark]

Has anyone worked on replicating physics with a physics handle? I have characters picking up props, just wanted some advice on how to go about doing this

[hidden thorn]

Simply replicate the position of the object

and do all the physics handle locally

[bitter oriole]

@lofty lark You can't really replicate physics

You can simulate physics on server and smooth the replicated state (transform + velocities) on clients

But then it won't be interactive

Epic are making their own physics engine for that purpose (Chaos), 4.26 release might start some progress on that front

Ask on #legacy-physics if you want some more up to date feedback

[lofty lark]

What do you mean by smooth the replicated state?

[bitter oriole]

Interpolate on tick between replication events of the server-computed physics state

[lofty lark]

With a client side simulation?

[bitter oriole]

There will be no client side simulation

Like I said, in UE4 right now, multiplayer physics means server does physics, client see a delayed non-interactive reproduction

Assuming you program that yourself

Hence my initial comment that you can't really replicate physics

[lofty lark]

Physics isn't disabled for clients in my testing

[bitter oriole]

It should be

[lofty lark]

If I call a function within a character, is there a way to tell if that character is owned by the player on that client?

[tawny talon]

This is kinda weird, that shooter game get the game mode from the player controller. yet in the chart, the player controller can't talk to game mode

[lofty lark]

I guess it should be disabled if you are doing server side sim. I'd like to have client side sim. Wondering if I could disable the physics on the prop for all clients except the owning one. I'm not creating a competitive game so I don't think I need to worry about cheating.

[bitter oriole]

UE4 does not have deterministic physics so client and server simulations will diverge, wildly, immediately

[lofty lark]

I would disable server side sim too if the client owns the prop

[bitter oriole]

You'll then end up with different collision for players, which means players will become non-deterministic too

aka teleporting all around

[lofty lark]

I mean disable physics for the prop only

[bitter oriole]

As long as you never create conditions where collision is different between clients it'll be fine

Just be aware of what happens if you run physics concurrently

[unkempt tiger]

Speaking of physics, did anyone try and go for the smoothed-simulation-less reproduction for clients method with their own custom solutions? Interested in how many props you managed to squeeze in

[kindred widget]

@tawny talon The content example you're looking at probably gets game mode from the Server version of the PlayerController. It's not about the class, it's about which machine that class is running on.

[tawny talon]

so say I want the player to click a button on widget(that linked to the client player controller), and fire the event to the server end on game mode, to create the character, this is not possible?

[kindred widget]

@tawny talon For example. When you create a game as a ListenServer with two players, there are not two player controllers, there is three. One on the client, Two on the server. One on the server and one one the client belong to the client. This is the 'same' actor on two different machines that is 'owned' by the client.

It's entirely possible. Your PlayerController should have an event in it that is a ServerRPC. You widget should GetPlayerController0, which will return the only player controller that is on that client. Cast that to your custom player controller type and call the server RPC. This uses the client version of that controller actor, to get to the server version of that controller actor. Now that you're on the server version, you can contact the GameMode.

[tawny talon]

oh got it!

this is the missing step!

I need to use the client playercontroller to get the server player controller first, then call the game mode from the server player controller, correct?

[kindred widget]

Correct. I'm going to add an extra event as a step just to showcase really quick.

[tawny talon]

Thank you so much!

[kindred widget]

If this is your button click. This gets ran on the client the widget is on.

Er. Forgot a step.

[tawny talon]

this make sense, but my getgamemode is null

[kindred widget]

That.

See the ServerRPC difference between the top and bottom red events?

[tawny talon]

yes

the second one is on server

which means the local one is on local client

but the get game mode, if I understand it correctly, can't get the game mode from client end?

[kindred widget]

Sort of. The non marked one can run on the server too. It just means that it won't RPC to another machine.

[tawny talon]

which means that the top green 'isValid' is always going to be false?

oh i got it

which is the expected behaviour

thanks!

[kindred widget]

As long as it is ran from a client window. That same print would print true if ran on the Listenserver's window.

Where as the second print would be true no matter what because it's on the server. Unless you somehow deleted your GameMode, which is.. unadvisable.

[tawny talon]

thank you, this makes so much sense!

[kindred widget]

You'll pick up networking pretty quick. It's fairly easy once you get the basic understanding of RPC vs Replication.

[tawny talon]

then just a quick question. since the event 'begin play' doesn't have the setting for server/client, it means it can only run on the default end, which is client/listen server? (depending on which window it is)

[kindred widget]

It is called on every version of the actor. It is called once per actor per machine.

So. Three players means nine characters. Three characters on each machine, and three beginplay calls per machine with a total of nine beginplay calls.

[tawny talon]

make sense

thanks! I'll take a deeper look at my problem now, hopefully this time I can fix it!

[kindred widget]

@nocturne iron I'd probably pose that in CPP. Dudes there are pretty good with that stuff.

[tawny talon]

@kindred widget It works! Thank you very much!

OMG this is so clear now

[kindred widget]

Haha. I remember that feeling.

@tawny talon But yeah. Now that you get that. In short there are two native AActor classes that deal with network stuff that are different. First you just ran into, is GameMode. This is the server's decision making station that does not exist on any clients.

The other is the Player Controller. This class exists only on the server and the owning client. Thus client 2 cannot get a hold of client 3's controller without going through the server. So if there are three players on a listenserver setup, there's five controllers. One for the listenserver, and two more on the server for the clients, and then one controller on each of the clients.

Everything else by default is fairly normally replicated. One on the server, and one on each client.

This is also a good time to point out client owning connections. You cannot RPC from any actor that a client does not own. You can only set ownership on the Server. By default for each client this is their Controller and their possessed Pawn. But if you spawn a replicated actor on the server, and set a client's server version of their controller or Pawn as the owner, that client can then RPC through that new actor.

[tawny talon]

Oh got it, so after the setting on server, the client synced and then be able to rpc through the new actor?

Wait a minute. The process is that on the blueprint there should be a server code that set the settings, then the client can use the new setting to communicate

Is it right?

[kindred widget]

How do you mean with the client can use the new setting to communicate?

[tawny talon]

That's a very good question that I'm not quite familiar right now. I'm not exactly clear on the communication yet thus why I used this ambiguous word setting, though this would be the general process, am I right?

[kindred widget]

Basically to give a client ownership of an actor and to allow that actor to communicate from the client to the server version of itself, you just have to set it's AActor* Owner variable on the server.

[tawny talon]

Got it

And by default that owner is the player controller, right?

Emmm I feel that I'd better read the pdf manual first to have a better understanding before I throw more questions

Now I'm confused simply because I don't know what to ask XD

[kindred widget]

Well, default is that there is no Owner. You can set it to whatever you like. But to RPC, an actor must have it's Owner variable set to be either the local PlayerController, or an actor that's own Owner is the player controller, or some chain linking back to the player controller.

[tawny talon]

Got it

Player controller is kinda like the ultimate interface to rpc from client to server, right?

And vice versa

[kindred widget]

Imagine something like this. Client controller asks it's server version to spawn a gun for it to use.

Of course you'd also probably want to set some replicated pointers to access it from the client and all, but if the client can get access to that replicated gun, it can now call RPCs from it, while no other client can.

[tawny talon]

This example make perfect sense!

Thank you very much!

[kindred widget]

Basically speaking, your PlayerController is your client's gateway to the server. Clients cannot do anything with other clients at all. The one and only thing a client can do is a ServerRPC.

Servers do things like ClientRPC to contact the client that owns an actor, or Multicasts for doing something once on all clients, or the absolute most important thing, which is replication. Setting replicated variables on the server for replication back to clients.

[tawny talon]

ahhhh

[kindred widget]

The chart halfway down in this can clarify that a bit better.
https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/Gameplay/Networking/Actors/RPCs/index.html

[tawny talon]

so the damage, etc, should all happen on server end. Make perfect sense now!

[unkempt tiger]

Anyone got an idea what a mismatch read error is?

Error        LogNet               ReceivedRPC: ReceivePropertiesForRPC - Mismatch read. Function: Client_ReceiveSnapshot, Object: PhysicsPropSnapshotChannel /Game/Levels/UEDPIE_0_Test_Room.Test_Room:PersistentLevel.PhysicsPropSnapshotChannel_0

As soon as that happens the entire game's networking basically ceases to work

Is it possible that I return true / set bOutSuccess to true on some net serializer while it should have been false?

[kindred widget]

Not finding much on that. Old forum posts that lead no where.

[meager spade]

if that property when serializing/unserializing when being sent, ends up wrong (ie not expected) you will get that

[winged badger]

best guess is

you did a custom NetSerlalize and its broken on either Loading, Saving, or both

and if both, not in the exact same way

[blissful remnant]

Hey, is it normal that the player pawn isn't getting deleted when its owner player disconnects if I use APawn instead of ACharacter as the DefaultPawnClass?? I'm working on a lobby, so I'm just using a simple Pawn instead of a Character. (I've overrided nothing in the Pawn class) 🧐

Oh my god, just as I posted this as a cry for help, I realized that I didn't call Super for the pawn's BeginPlay...

[unkempt tiger]

What is the purpose of returning a boolean in NetSerialize? What should determine if true or false is returned?

[signal lance]

true if it was handled successfully

[unkempt tiger]

Mhmm that's sensible

Is it interpreted as a hint on when to ignore a segment of a packet or something?

And in this case why not just return bOutSuccess?

[unkempt tiger]

Anyone got an idea how this guy is doing seemingly hundreds of replicated physical cubes and here UE4 can barely do 20 replicated physical props before networking dies? https://youtu.be/jYBzS6NKANY?t=149

(dont play with sound)

I'm kind of stumped by this, is it just because he's got deterministic physics or something?

There isn't any direct input being applied here, so you could say that apart of the cubes spawning themselves the simulation isn't interactive

Or, is it just that UE4 is really constrained next to some of Unity's networking solutions?

Like what are we missing, lol

[kindred widget]

To be fair. That doesn't even look that crazy. It's only like a few dozen things moving at once. You can get the same kind of feel in Unreal by replicating a struct that is Location, Rotation, LinearVelocity, and AngularVelocity nearly on tick from the server, and letting the client also simulate a little, then only replicating that on the condition that it's moving. The moving condition would keep your network from overflowing, and there is some movement math that your client can do with replicated values to correct their own object nearly into place without it seeming jumpy.

[unkempt tiger]

I've never seen anyone do this in UE4, if its more than 20 props it's either extrapolated meaning lots of visible jitter when a new state arrives (which that Unity video doesn't have), or interpolated, meaning there is a significant delay (which also wasn't there in the video)

His client's visuals were 100% jitter free, the physical movements looked convincing without any weird shifting

and also, you could see other old cubes moving when newer cubes collided with them, so its probably more than several dozen

[kindred widget]

@unkempt tiger That's before any form of optimization. It's easily possible. If I spent a week or so on it, I could probably trim down an insane amount of bandwidth and cpu power.

I thought it looked fairly decent, considering it was thrown together in a half hour.

[unkempt tiger]

@kindred widget woah, that does look good, I'm pleasantly surprised!

how did you go about implementing this?

also, was this captured with network emulation?

It'd be really awesome if you could share your implementation/approach, I would love to study it

[kindred widget]

All that particular test was, was what I mentioned before. Just a struct of data gotten from the server and set to be replicated, and a tick function running to interp the client version from their current values towards the replicated value. It keeps the client from snapping too much. Of course I'd expect a lagging client to sway a little. But without deterministic physics, you can't really do much else. Setting them like this allows the client to simulate between the replicated frames on it's own, but also remain close enough to server to be similar. This wouldn't hold up against gameplay standards without a lot of optimization, but it's far from unachievable.

struct FPhysicsData
{
    GENERATED_BODY();
    FPhysicsData() {}
public:

    UPROPERTY(EditAnywhere, BlueprintReadWrite)
        FVector Location;
    UPROPERTY(EditAnywhere, BlueprintReadWrite)
        FRotator Rotation;
    UPROPERTY(EditAnywhere, BlueprintReadWrite)
        FVector LinearVelocity;
    UPROPERTY(EditAnywhere, BlueprintReadWrite)
        FVector AngularVelocity;
};```

Replicated data I was using to interp.

[unkempt tiger]

I see! How are you interpolating it in the tick function?

Are you timing the interpolation in any special way?

[kindred widget]

Turned on network emulation and set it on "bad" profile. Pretty similar results with slight lag.

Server replication

Same tick function for the client's interping.

Actor set to replicate, single static mesh cube as the root, spawned on server.

Cube set to simulate physics.

[unkempt tiger]

I have to say, the simplicity here is really refreshing, I think I over-complicated my own solution to oblivion compared to yours

The idea of setting the replicated state as a separate variable and then interpolating to that in a tick function

Now that's epic

a needed reminder I've got a lot to learn, thanks for the lesson dude

[kindred widget]

Haha. I know how that feels. I started learning coding and game development last November.

[unkempt tiger]

Welp

Implemented this approach in C++ and shot a couple of projectiles in a 50 ms net emulated in-editor game, the results weren't really what I was hoping for https://gfycat.com/UnconsciousSnivelingAmericanwirehair

[fossil spoke]

@unkempt tiger Are you using the ProjectileMovementComponent?

[unkempt tiger]

I am not, I'm doing what @kindred widget suggested above

I'm only testing this implementation as gun projectiles, but they should be normal physical objects in the world in the actual game

[fossil spoke]

You could cut down the bandwidth requirements by using quantized vectors instead of normal ones

[unkempt tiger]

Gonna do that now

I feel like UE4 is throttling the bandwidth to extreme levels

Maybe because I'm doing it in editor?

[kindred widget]

@unkempt tiger The default bandwidth is 10,000 bits per second or about 1250 bytes. So like 312 vectors, assuming zero overhead. Realistically probably more like 200-250 vectors per second). I'd point out that that is only about a fifth of what an old dial up connection is capable of. With what I was doing above, you're not going to get too many replicated objects before it dies. Without optimization, if you assume each actor takes up 4x4bytesx30UpdatesASecondx8ForBits, that's 3,840 bits per second per actor. Default settings are going to choke up fast.

Add these lines to the end of your project's DefaultEngine.ini. It'll bump up the 10,000 limit to a megabit. With the same numbers, that two and a half objects goes to over two hundred objects.

ConfiguredInternetSpeed=1000000
ConfiguredLanSpeed=1000000

[/Script/OnlineSubsystemUtils.IpNetDriver]
MaxClientRate=1000000
MaxInternetClientRate=1000000```

I'm not sure how good the quantized stuff is. But I'm sure you could trim a lot of the use down too. I mean the rotations can be turned into one or two bytes. You don't need a full float for that. 256 or 65,536 angles would be more than sufficient for most rotator updates. Compressing each float in a rotator down to one or two bytes. Haven't looked at the values much on the velocities. It's possible that the location could be somehow localized to it's spawning point with some smaller numbers too. So that could cut down quite a bit.

[earnest moss]

Is there a way to have clients on separate maps? I've got multiple planet maps and I want players to be able to traverse the universe independently instead of travelling in a group. Similar to how minecraft has an overworld and a nether running at the same time.
Currently its a group vote to travel to a new map.

[kindred widget]

@earnest moss Are your worlds small enough to consider level streaming them into the same map?

[earnest moss]

Potentially, but I was rather hoping there was a better solution than laying them all out on the same worldspace

20*20km means laying them all out, and lets say my maps are around 5x5km, I'd have a total of 16 maps.

Doable

[kindred widget]

Generally speaking, the server can only have one persistent map open at a time. If you want multiple worlds, you'll have to either consider some form of third party connection between two different servers, or do something like ARK did and open two server instances on the same machine that use the same savepaths, and let one server write data to the other server's savegame files to 'transfer' the player's data from one map to another, and then connect that client to the new server it just wrote it's data to.

[earnest moss]

Thats cool, are there any write-ups on how they managed it

This is most appreciated by the way. I'm here looking for leads on how this gets done and that sounds perfect.

[kindred widget]

Not a clue. I only know vaguely how it's managed because I've played it with my wife and have dealt with the hassle of setting it up. They didn't really implement it that fluidly. All I know is that you start two different dedicated server applications on the same machine, each one opens a different persistent map, and when you use the server transfer UI, it writes that character's data into a save file. Likely with account connectors somehow. Basically the same thing as saving a character on a single server and respawning it when you log back in, except one server writes the data into another server's save file.

Alternatively. I imagine you could just make one major save file for both, maybe. Let the servers save their own other stuff in their own save files, but have a "Hub" file where players can always pick their characters from based on account connections.

[earnest moss]

It's given me a lot to think about.

Most appreciated

[unkempt tiger]

@kindred widget Oh damn https://gfycat.com/FrayedMetallicBream

(right is client)

That increase is insane... I I've been told about before but.. I'm not sure why I never got around to setting it

[kindred widget]

Haha. I struggled with that when I was trying to replicate tree locations for lumberable trees. I do it in pretty much any multiplayer project I start now. I think I've settled on the fact that if I ever did make a multiplayer game, I'd assume they would have a network from the last decade. Still surprising that setting is so low by default. I definitely get why it's there, just not why it's so low.

Couldn't fathom why a whole 2,000 vectors was taking seconds to be updated on a client while testing in editor.

[unkempt tiger]

Dude, same, I felt like I'm back at 1998

Like

[winged badger]

editor has a lot of overhead

[unkempt tiger]

I was borderline losing sanity over trying to figure out how other games manage their networking

@winged badger what do you mean?

[winged badger]

i mean you editor is running, its running several instances of the game

and uncooked content to boot

[unkempt tiger]

Oh, right

[winged badger]

our procedural generation workd like crap if we start MP PIE

[unkempt tiger]

So networking is even worse

[winged badger]

on a deployed build (as long as nobody decides to play on old laptop) we have 33k Actors procedurally spawned and networked in 12 or so seconds

for 8 players

[kindred widget]

Still faster than Ark's default non modded loading screen.

[winged badger]

we do spawn the level from a seed on each machine separately and network it after the fact

[rose egret]

how do I version my releases ? is there any MACRO config ... ?

looking for an standard way

[kindred widget]

I do feel like that limiter setting should be in the editor though. It's kind of left in the background and not really mentioned that often. I only ran into it by luck on a four some year old forum post after a while of searching. I mean it's not really protecting anyone to keep it hidden, anyone dumb enough to try and publish a game that needs a 100Mb/s speed really isn't going to be that successful to begin with.

[winged badger]

think its defaultengine thing

[unkempt tiger]

@kindred widget By the way, I found that by adding the location and rotation differences to the new velocity targets during ticking, jitters in between interpolations (you know, the ones that happen because when the prop is further from the target the interpolation effect is bigger) are practically gone

Although with the new bandwidth limit, that will probably never really be an issue lol

[winged badger]

is sceptical about the idea your packets are limited by bandwidth

[kindred widget]

How do you mean, Zlo?

[winged badger]

in my experience, more Actors being evaluated for replication then can be replicated in a Tick is cause for most network issues

server can't spend any amount of time figuring out what it should replicate and to whom

bandwidth is by default set fairly ridiculously low

and can be increased, as long as your target audience doesn't still use dial-up

[kindred widget]

Right, like with the ini settings up above.

[winged badger]

yeah

we noticed improvements by allowing more bandwidth only after we curbed the number of considered Actors by 60-70%

and it wasn't much of an improvement

[kindred widget]

In @unkempt tiger's case, or the case of interping an object like that from network data, it's mostly just about the replication bandwidth for testing. He ticked one of my pet peeves with the original video though. The Unity being able to do something Unreal can't. Haha.

[winged badger]

unreal doesn't have deterministic physics

[unkempt tiger]

;)

[winged badger]

replicate identical scenario to start with, with all the forces and intertias matching

and you won't get the same result

[unkempt tiger]

I just know I'm gonna be sleeping better from this day on

[winged badger]

well, rumor mill has it that chaos physics is deterministic

[unkempt tiger]

Finally the idea i've got doesn't feel like that big of a stretch

[unkempt tiger]

I am indeed looking forward to seeing what Chaos will be like

With the simplicity of the new solution, I wouldn't feel so bad scratching it for a replacement

[tawny mason]

Hi guys, do you know if it's at all possible to have some sort of loading screen while joining a listen server? (sorry for interrupting your ongoing discussion)

[winged badger]

yeah

slap it from GI when you start transition

have arriving HUD remove it on BeginPlay

[kindred widget]

I know the current system can to it to... but I want Choas just for destroying things so very easily.

[winged badger]

as one of the simplest approaches

[tawny mason]

But does that mean seamless travel has to be on?

[winged badger]

no

[tawny mason]

It's my understanding the world gets destroyed when joining a networked session

[winged badger]

your LocalPlayer, GameInstance and Viewport remain the same

[tawny mason]

Oh

[winged badger]

World, sure

[tawny mason]

The viewport too

[winged badger]

it belongs to local player 😛

[tawny mason]

That's what I was missing

Ty I will give it a shot

[wide stream]

Has anyone tried to package Epic's ShooterGame as dedicated server and actually succeeded? By "succeeded" I mean did you manage to join the dedicated server. In my case the engine isn't even callingAGameSession::RegisterServer even though I packaged the server according to this guide.
https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/Gameplay/Networking/HowTo/DedicatedServers/index.html

[grizzled stirrup]

Any reason why GetMesh()->SetWorldScale3D(FVector(FMath::RandRange(EnemyScaleMin, EnemyScaleMax))); doesn't replicate to clients?

It's only being called on the server and as far as I can see, RelativeScale3D is replicated

[winged badger]

replicating scale by default inside transform would be pretty inefficient for most games/use-cases

you rarely want to replicate the scale

[grizzled stirrup]

Say you want to randomize the scale of an enemy when spawning on the server

Should I just do a multicast RPC instead?

[winged badger]

its not hard to manually replicate it

[grizzled stirrup]

It seems to be replicated already

At least OnRep in SceneComponent.h

[winged badger]

its part of the FTransform

but i'd just put FVector EnemyScale and OnRep it

multicast not great with relevancy

[grizzled stirrup]

Ok will do that thanks

Will InitialOnly be enough?

since it happens at begin play

[winged badger]

doesn't really matter if you're not changing it

[grizzled stirrup]

Or will it need to be replicated normally for clients to get it

I'm always unsure if clients get InitialOnly properties

If you change them

On begin play (on the server)

If it's fully reliable for them to get it even in laggy conditions then I'll set it to that

[winged badger]

they'll arrive with the bunch that spwans the client then

so its as reliable as it gets

[grizzled stirrup]

But as you said since I'm not changing it maybe it's fine to be a normal replicated property

[winged badger]

only case where it fails is where actor itself fails to spawn

[grizzled stirrup]

Never changed = no bandwidth used

I'm just a bit confused why it doesn't work as OnRep_Transform() does appear to be replicated

Stuff like hiding and showing actors works automatically without making another onrep, was just making sure that I'm not making a redundant extra replicated property

[winged badger]

i suspect that is one of ninja optimizations unreal does

[grizzled stirrup]

Yep you are likely right

Thanks!

[meager spade]

@grizzled stirrup if you spawn it deffered

then iirc the transform will rep initially just fine

think there is caveats to the transform

(maybe Replicate Movement has to be true) ? i dunno will need to take a look again

[wheat magnet]

does anyone uses photon multiplayer with unreal engine

[hidden thorn]

Is there a reason to use it?

[toxic lion]

I'm having some trouble passing the character class to the widget

After the player is spawned, it appears that the Controller class loses reference to the variable 'PlayerCharacter'

[hidden thorn]

Pass the character through the event as a parameter

[toxic lion]

ah good point. let me give it a shot.
For future reference though, should I be worried that the controller class loses the reference?

[hidden thorn]

I've never head of the controller loosing reference to be honest, that seems like an odd behaviour

[toxic lion]

unfortunately passing the character through the parameter didn't seem to work. I may not have things set up correctly then

This is the GameMode events

and the GM class defaults

as well as the world settings

[twin juniper]

@toxic lion Does the Display Hud event happen after spawn player event?

nvm saw it

[hidden thorn]

I am unsure as I never had to spawn it myself, but also what you can try and do is add a delay before spawning the widget see if its a simple case of not being available yet.

[toxic lion]

yeah. I have some text that appearsthat is constant "UI DISPLAYED", and a random number generator to test to see if each ui is unique

the name of the player is supposed to be displayed as well, but it appears it only works for the server

yeah evey with delays everywhere I can think, it doesn't work corectly

even with extremely long delays

[hidden thorn]

Do you need the SwitchAuthority as the HUD should be local, doesn't that check if you're the server?

[toxic lion]

darn. didn't work. unfortunately same behaviour

It's mostly there because I tried various things/ways of getting it to work

[kindred widget]

What are you trying to have happen?

[toxic lion]

spawn the players when the game starts with UI (this works atm, but the following doesn't)
But I'm also trying to pass in my character (BP_Player) information into the HUD
This is in an attempt to display information about the player, such as health, weight, etc

[kindred widget]

You can do this easily one of two ways. But both are done on the owning client with no networking involved.

[hidden thorn]

Why not just grab the PlayerController from within the Widget and do all the stuff from there, this way you don't need to pass it the Character

[kindred widget]

First is have a class like HUD tick and update whether the local player character is valid, if it is, and it wasn't before, add the widget and start checking for when it's not valid to remove it. Alternatively, the event driven way is to add the widget on the character's beginplay, and then remove it on EventEndPlay. Both should be behind IsLocallyControlled

For example, a great way to do this might be...

[toxic lion]

@kindred widget second option seems easier, last time I did that all widgets overlapped on each other, but i didn't add the IsLocallyControlled. let me give it a shot

@hidden thorn This just returns nothing for everyone but the server

[kindred widget]

@toxic lion

[toxic lion]

and GetPlayerController only gets whatever the player index it specified. i have to manually specify what index I want. for some reason I don't understand, 0 is not the local player

[kindred widget]

0 is always the local player if you're using a Listenserver.

[hidden thorn]

You will prob have to spawn it as @kindred widget suggested via BeginPlay, also GetPlayerController[0] will always be the local player which is what you are after as the HUD is not replicated

[toxic lion]

with it set to 0 it returns this

[kindred widget]

But where are you calling that from?

[toxic lion]

and set to 1 it returns

from the widget like Boowman suggested (i think)?

[hidden thorn]

Are you spawning in BeginPlay from the Character?

[kindred widget]

Okay. All GetPlayerController/Pawn/Character with index 0 does is get the first player controller in the list of controllers that exist on a machine. If you call this on a listenserver, it will be the listenserver's player controller. If you call this on any client, it will return that client's controller. If you do this on a dedicated server, it will return the first to connect client's server version of their controller.

[toxic lion]

okay. I got to make a note of that since I keep running into that issue. thank you for the eli5

[kindred widget]

People will tell you to avoid it, and for networking stuff you probably should, but if you use it correctly, it's perfectly usable for UI or local client only stuff in a networked game.

[hidden thorn]

Why would you avoid using it?? If its used to actually grab the local player from that specific machine isn't it reasonable to use it?

[toxic lion]

oh I see your Strategy class is actually a HUD class. I was trying to stay away from those since the compendium stated that widgest replaced HUD most of the time

[kindred widget]

You should avoid using it when dealing with things often involving RPCs or Replication. There's probably a better way. But avoiding it for local client only stuff is just shooting yourself in the foot.

Lolol

I love that rumor, that HUD is deprecated.

[hidden thorn]

What would be the alternative if not that?