multiplayer

[dark edge]

You still haven't said how you are launching the game

[eternal briar]

If I add a child actor component to another actor and I want the child actor to replicate, should the parent actor has to replicate? (I know that the parent actor has to replicate for a normal component to be considered for replication, was just confused because the child actor is, well, an actor)

[dark edge]

Just try it. Non replicated actor, with child actor component, which spawns a replicated actor.

[high current]

yeah that one obv works

[limber mortar]

I do have LOD set up, probably just incorrectly

[severe spear]

hey how's it going?
not super experienced with multiplayer. just wondering, if a fairly simple login system is enough to prevent people from playing our game online, without subscribing to Patreon?

[limber mortar]

I am re-examining that during my work too

[dark edge]

@limber mortar What does the material complexity view of your scene look like?

[high current]

standalone cooked build

we have the session wrapper which cant find sessions on two different machines but can if you do two instances on one machine

and then we tried the open levelname?listen

and open IP for the joiner

that did not take either

but ping ip in CMD works

soo my guess is ports

[real nimbus]

hi guys, i have question, whats best way to replicate changing skeletal mesh?

[twin sable]

Does anyone know how to get the steam overlay before packaging? You used to be able to run standalone and get it but it seemed they removed the ability. Even my standalone doesn't work until I've deployed it with steampipe

I was gonna use a virtual machine to test steam connection things but it seems like I'm going to have to package and upload the game before I can test things :/

[blissful dome]

I'm able to see the steam overlay before packaging when I right-click my .uproject file and use the "Launch Game" option

[twin sable]

hmmm thats weird then it doesnt for me. Does anyone know why the overlay might not show up. Steam also doesn't seem to think its running the game. I've set the app id in the ini file and it worked, including multiplayer when I deploy it to steam

ok nvm it seemed online subsystem steam had been disabled for some reason lol

thank god I didn't ship that build lol

[wind wedge]

Does anyone have a good understanding of what generates the IPNetDriver=#####?
I have seen many people using =0
Mine is always some long string of numbers depending on the build. However, if i edit ANY of the C-code, when i try to build again, the client and dedicated server end up with DIFFERENT IPNetDriver=####’s and become incompatible. (message: client is out of date).
Currently i am only able to launch a dedicated server built in blueprints only. I have to leave the code untouched so the netdrivers match.

This is mostly fine, blueprints can do almost anything, but there are a few things i would like to change in the code.

[meager spade]

you need to setup your custom build version

without it, everytime you change code, it will change the build id, and clients will not be able to connect, look at Network version override ue4 on Google

[rigid zinc]

GetCurrentPlayers for Steam Sessions always returns 1, even when multiple players are in the session, is it an expected behavior or a bug? How to get the number of players in a session?

[pallid canyon]

I would hazard a guess that you're getting current players on client side rather than on the server

[rigid zinc]

Yeah, on client side I'm doing:

And adding the results in a array, then I click on one of those to join it in a widget

So far it works, and allows me to join sessions, but I want to limit sessions to 2 players using the Get Current Players yet it does not work

[limber mortar]

I will look material complexity and get it posted 😄

[pallid canyon]

Is it multiple unique steam id's in the session? I know with Oculus subsystem it's only going to ever think there's one player if you're not testing with multiple different user logins

[limber mortar]

The fire looks good

[rigid zinc]

I'm using the Steam OnlineSubsystem, so each player have a different steam account (and id)

[snow seal]

Does anyone have experience or know if it is possible to change an already loaded level to a listen server and host a session without having to reload a new level? I've tried searching but every multiplayer tutorial is always - open session, set to listen, load level

[pallid canyon]

Server travel loads a new map and takes everyone with them, but sounds like you're trying to do something different

[snow seal]

Correct - A player is effectively playing in a single player mode, but has the option to open up the game to multiplayer as a listen server. I'd like to start a sessions and have other be able to load in without interrupting the original player's experience

[pallid canyon]

sounds like a lot of work with a transition map and melding it to make it seem like it never happens.
Or every player starts their own host session by default and then when others join they were already a listen server

would mean other players map travel still, but doesnt interrupt that host's session

[meager spade]

Yeah you want it to be listen by default. Then its just a matter of creating a session to allow others to join the game. Player is already setup to host.

It's super simple.

[snow seal]

Hmm that makes a lot of sense. I'm giving it a shot now - I did leave out that I'm trying to do it from the start menu where the player can make a lobby and players can join while they are still have full access to the start menu. I switched the start menu to listen by default so we shall see!

Although the same idea will be available mid-game. Thanks folks. I'll see if I can get it from here

[fallow quail]

Hello! Anyone here knows how to use the Update Session from Steam Advanced Sessions? Where should I call this function if I want to update the sessions current player number

[twin juniper]

Are these the only BP nodes available for session handling, or epic added more in the later releases

https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/ProgrammingAndScripting/Blueprints/UserGuide/OnlineNodes/index.html

[sinful egret]

Steam advanced sessions plugin opens more access through visual scripts

[woven sinew]

Why would my dedicated server's sessions work in DebugGame Editor mode but not when packaged ?

I mean I can't find the session from the client when the server is packaged

the only thing different in the log is the SteamNetDriver_xxxx where xxx is 0 when in debug game mode and a big number in packaged

[potent cradle]

From what I hear, the replication graph needs to have a dependant actor removed from it before it is destroyed, otherwise crash. Can I just bind a delegate to OnDestroyed and remove it when I get the event?
Or is that too late?

[chrome bay]

IIRC you won't get a crash but an actor dependant on a parent that isn't in the graph just won't replicate. It also silently fails if the parent isn't already in rep-graph which is kind of annoying, you have to code around that (I put them into a temporary list)

[potent cradle]

Aaah 🤔

Maybe outdated info that I heard

[chrome bay]

I don't think I've tried it tbh, I think in my cases the child actors always end up being removed anyway before the parent is destroyed

E.g, destroying an inventory prior to destroying the owner etc.

[potent cradle]

Oh, the way I understood it it was exactly that same thing you're sketching. A child being removed, not the parent

The example was a weapon pickup

If weapon is destroyed, and it has always relevant tied to the character that picked it up, that would crash?

[chrome bay]

Oh no that should be fine

[potent cradle]

Is it fine to update netculldistance on the repgraph's class info, at runtime?

[distant wave]

hey guys, is there a way to have a replicated rotator which updates every tick (player's head rotation) without it lagging the whole game?

[winged badger]

you replicate desired rotatoion

and have every machine just do its own interp towardds it

[distant wave]

oh, alright, I think that involves a multicast

[winged badger]

then you don't have to do it on tick

no, onrep

[distant wave]

oh yeah, that makes more sense

[winged badger]

unless they are shooting lasers out of their eyes

this will be accurate enough

[distant wave]

they aren't shooting lasers out their eyes =))))

[potent cradle]

What's the best way to grab the instance of a replicationdriver?

[soft jewel]

How can I keep the player state name through maps? Is there any other way to do it with replication? Thanks

[chrome bay]

The object name or the players' name?

Player name already comes accross with seamless travel IIRC. Object name you can't preserve

Even on seamless travel new actors are created

[soft jewel]

Player name which I am setting on a textbox on my menu

[chrome bay]

So long as you're calling SetPlayerName you should be fine

[soft jewel]

I have a custom player state with a name variable and I am setting this one with my textbox value, but from what I saw Player state gets destroyed when you load a map

So not sure how to do it

[chrome bay]

Oh, in that case then no

You can only preserve data when using seamless travel between maps

Then you can copy properties to the new player state by overriding CopyProperties

But you're probably just better off using the existing player name variable, instead of having two replicated strings.

[brazen sluice]

OK I have the weirdest issue...
After a minute of multiplayer gameplay, the server TAKES OVER the client, like hey im the captain now, and the client cant move anymore... Also isLocallyControlled suddenly returns true for server on the remote pawn, a literal hijack
No idea what's causing this, happens even if I do nothing

[soft jewel]

@chrome bay So should I activate seamless travel on my game mode?

[chrome bay]

check the docs

https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/InteractiveExperiences/Networking/Travelling/index.html

It requires some setup to use

[soft jewel]

Thanks for your help, will take a look at that

[brazen sluice]

Any function could cause a server to take over the blueprint actor's ownership? (If yes at least I know what I could be looking for)

[winged badger]

should probably clarify, but its SetOwner in any case

and it really doens't matter if its a blueprint or not

[brazen sluice]

Hmm removed all the setOwners I could find no difference unfortunately

LIterally even if I dont click any button it just does

Any other function I could look for? Couldnt find any "posses" either

[wind wedge]

Open the following: character bp, player controller bp, gamemode bp, and your HUD class

Check the code carefully, then begin placing debug (print string) nodes in key places

Try to find the point where controll is switching

On a side note - are any OTHER clients logging in while this is happening?

[brazen sluice]

No there's only the server and the client

[wind wedge]

Also - think about the timing, you said ‘after a minute’, is there anything on a 60-sec delay?

[brazen sluice]

Hmm let me do a global search for delay

[wind wedge]

Most likely in one of the classes i mentioned above

[brazen sluice]

Im going to create a macro like name == "clientname" && isServer && isLocallyControlled, and place it everywhere to try to see which one logs first

But I'm afraid it wont do much if it's unreal itself doing this

for any reason

[wind wedge]

I know for my server, i have events on the character and HUD that wait a bit to begin. If theres a bug in one of those things wont break until the delay has occured.

Casting is a bit different on dedi server as well. There are basically 2 versions of your character: the real one (server), and the replicated one (client).
When you do anything that casts to the player’s version of their character - you want to use the ‘get owning char’, ‘get owning pawn’, ‘get owning controller’, etc

[brazen sluice]

could that cause the issue to getPawn rather than getOwningPawn ?

[wind wedge]

Absolutely

Generally the cast fails, but if it succeeds its not the object you intended to cast to

You can print string off if cast failed

[brazen sluice]

But I would have to do something weird with that object for it to cause the server to take over the actor

Like assigning some thing

[wind wedge]

Multiple issues can occur, the main one is the cast hits the fail branch i stead of the execution pin and whatever you were trying to do simply doesnt happen

The other thing, if you are referencing the server version of the player pawn, it will return server as its owner

A lot of these things become more visible when you start logging in multiple players. You see how things are trying to replicate

[brazen sluice]

Makes sense

Here's im just logging on tick

Imma try to disable features one by one til it stops happening

[wind wedge]

Another issue i have found that will do this is:
Broken logic loops, timer by (x), or event tick functions.
If the client gets overloaded trying to run a foul loop the server takes control and basically disconnects you, although you still see the game goingg on

[brazen sluice]

Ah really

[chrome bay]

Calling GetOwningPawn() from a widget btw is only ever going to return a local pawn.

[brazen sluice]

I did suspect soemthing like this was hapening

tbh

[chrome bay]

Widgets are "owned" by whichever controller has them on screen.

[wind wedge]

If you use a looped function (one that repeats or fires every x time) such as event tick!!! Make sure its correct and isnt trying to pass data it cannot access.

[brazen sluice]

So X fails on network disconnects client?

But would client still receive updates from the server? Because here it does

[wind wedge]

Its more as if the function or event is NOT “reliable”, and repeats the same garbage over and over - the server just ignores it

And yes, successive network fails are one of those things

i would check your casts first. Thats usually what happens to me

[brazen sluice]

Because I do have a TMap that is trying to replicate and the server is like nope, but I just couldnt find where it was from so I ignored it

OK I hope I am not being overly optimistic but it seems if I un-pin the character tick, I do not have the issue anymore

[wind wedge]

Anywhere you “get player controller”, use the “get owning controller” instead

[brazen sluice]

So at least I know where Im looking

[wind wedge]

That’d be a good place to look

[brazen sluice]

Yes that's better than "looking accross 20 BPs" 😂

[wind wedge]

Usually with dedi server, its only the replicated ones that will thorn you.

[brazen sluice]

Yeah I never use dedi server because the mob AI are broken on it

I suspect the nav mesh or some other thing not generating

[wind wedge]

Im not much help with ai, i use bp logic instead of blackboards.

Something about linear logic vs binary logic....

[brazen sluice]

Well AI work just AI movements, mobs just stay still that's why I was thihnking about navmesh

But I'm not worried because I'm goign to build my own navigation system later on

completly removing the Unreal one

So I wont look into fixing that

[wind wedge]

i dont have my navmesh bounded

Didnt want to sit here and make a million mavmesh bounding boxes across an open world, so the server generates nav everywhere.

[brazen sluice]

CAn you do that?

mine is just 1 million UU size

[wind wedge]

I havent tested it beyond the maxsize (my map exceeds this).
And theres a bit of a hiccup if you relocate or teleport the ai before it reaches its destination. The clear destination function is bugged.

[brazen sluice]

My main issue is perf wise, the world updates a lot, and everytime the navmesh is trying to synchronously adapt

Thta's why I'd rather skip the nav system and build my own that relies on data rather than mesh

Surely A* Wont be to hard to implement 😄

[wind wedge]

Like most things in the engine, theres several ways to approach this. Basically you’re looking at a combo of target points and locational logic.

Its a lot of work because you are basically replicating most of what the navmesh is there for

[brazen sluice]

Yes but the diff is that I already have a "grid" of points, since my map is fully procedural

And that grid is also way more accurate than the navmesh

So it doesnt make sense to compute it twice

All i need is to run A* in that grid

[wind wedge]

You will need logic to handle obstacles, changes in paths

[brazen sluice]

Sure true

Althought is that really managed by the nav mesh

I'm only going to rewrite Move To

[wind wedge]

Thats mostly what the navmesh does: draws a navigable path between 2 points

Yes move to should be fine, you cant use aimiveto though

The aimoveto requires the mesh

One app i used sort of how the player controls are set up, except instead of input it was event-triggered, and vectored towards the target points

This was done on the level bp, using the target points referenced from the world outliner

[brazen sluice]

Yeah that’s it my plan is, I have a grid of points, I run A* and move the pawn along the path

[wind wedge]

Yup. Maticulous, specially in large worlds, but doable

Problem is something in the way, the character hits it and runs in place

Im about to implement a new system on a live server this afternoon. I’ll let you know how it goes

I need ai animals to run around the world. So thats my task for the day

[brazen sluice]

good luck 😄

[brazen sluice]

Small price to pay 😄

[wind wedge]

Im ‘anti-blackboard’. It seems to be a limited tool.

This new system i found uses enums and events on the ai char to drive the logic, animations, sounds and everything i need.

[soft jewel]

I have seamless travel now, but can't figure out how to use the event copy properties to get the name on the player state

[brazen sluice]

OK I was being overly optimistic with the character tick.. it's just that when gravity is off, the problem does not occur.... which is kind of a weird observation

[wind wedge]

Gravity....... hmm check anim bp, calling a variable named “IsFalling?” (maybe something there)

[brazen sluice]

Ah true true

[soft jewel]

@wind wedge This one is to get the steam/pc name right? I am using a textbox on my game menu to set my name

[brazen sluice]

This is some interstellar shit

[wind wedge]

If unset this variable returns the device name (pc name). If set it should return what you set it to

[soft jewel]

How can I set it? I cant find any node to do that

[wind wedge]

Print string and see what it returns

Havent tried it but this may work for you

No never mind that doesnt work give me a sec

Ok come out of the getplayername node and call a “SetString (by ref)

Then pass your variable into the value

You probably want to make that authoritative or something

[soft jewel]

@wind wedge Can't find a set string node by ref, could you share a screenshot?

[wind wedge]

type set in the search, should be at the bottom

Make sure you drag off the return value

[soft jewel]

oh yes, thanks, will try it

[sullen kernel]

Is it common to have Actors with only data (no physical representation in the world)? It feels odd to "spawn" the actor when it doesn't have a physical existence in the world.

[wind wedge]

Yes that is quite common. Myself, i make them part of the scene because i like to be different.

For instance, my chat server is an actual computer server model in an office building

Usually they are ‘hidden in game’ or invisible

[sullen kernel]

Gotcha. Thanks. Because I need to replicate pointers to these data objects, and I think Actor is needed for that.

[wind wedge]

Actor/pawn/character all can do these things, or even simply a static/skel mesh.
The logic is mostly the same. Depends on what yur doing i suppose

[soft jewel]

I tried it, but I still get my pc name, doesnt seem to get updated

[chrome bay]

SetString by ref doesn't make sense there

[soft jewel]

@chrome bay do you know how should I update the copy properties?

[chrome bay]

Cast New Player State to your custom one, then set the value of the Player Name property to match your current one.

[winged badger]

for PlayerName this seems very wrong

i think Epic put in a function in GameMode to rename them

[chrome bay]

Yeah you really should just be using the built-in player name functionality for this.

And replicating FText is also not advisable

[wind wedge]

I actually collect their pc name as-is for my logs. Their “name” is a seperate variable for me

[sullen kernel]

What do you mean simply a static/skel mesh? I need clients to see when I change a skeletal mesh. But the skeletal mesh component doesn't replicate the changes when you call SetSkeletalMesh().

[brazen sluice]

Is it possibleof the network is too slow for a little while that the server just decides to take over the client and if yes how could I detect that?

[wind wedge]

I just meant generically, to have a ‘thing’ in the world to hold/manipulate data.
Yes if you want to change skelmesh (without destroying it and spawning a different one), then it needs to be in a container such as a pawn

@brazen sluice seems more likely to be a logic issue. When things like that happen to me its 90% an improper cast, 10% is broke my logic, either by error or forgot to plug a pin in (or plug it to the wrong thingg etc)

[brazen sluice]

I would normally agree, but literally nothing is happening when that occurs

no animation, no mob, no nothing

So I just cant find something that would cause this

[wind wedge]

you changed all of your casts to the owner casts?

[soft jewel]

@chrome bay I dont really get it, this is my custom player state, and then I get the player name inside my player and set it to my widget

[brazen sluice]

I didnt find a wrong cast, may be not looking for it the right way

[sullen kernel]

Well my character has a SkeletalMeshComponent. My player takes an action in the game and I want to change the skeletal mesh. So I made another Actor class to hold a USkeletalMesh* value and replicate the pointer to that class. When clients call OnRep_Pointer() they locally call SetSkeletalMesh() to change the skeletal mesh. So that was my question earlier about the actor. It mainly holds the new USkeletalMesh* value but needs to be replicated so clients know the mesh changed and to update their mesh locally. Does that make sense?

[winged badger]

using a separate actor in game for that? no

your character can hold another USkeletalMesh*

[wind wedge]

Why not just getowningpawn -> cast to playercharacter -> set skeletal mesh

The character is already replict

I have a switch-on-int, that holds 100 skel meshes, and the int controlled by 2 buttons (Inc/Dec), each leg of the switch sets the mesh and i can scroll through all 100 characters. But to donit this way and have all the animations etc, they all need to use the same skeleton and anim bp

[sullen kernel]

Well different items in the game have different skeletal mesh values. For example a modular character equipping a piece of armor on his torso. I have a separate skeletal mesh showing the armor on the character. So the skeletal mesh value depends on the item he is equipping. The player needs to know that the skeletal mesh changed and which new mesh to set it to. So I don't know if putting the USkeletalMesh* on the character will work.

[wind wedge]

Yes, it should and you dont need to rep or notify, because the character itself is already replicated

Just like changing clothes

Just add another mesh component to the character in each location you want a piece of armor/clothing. And they have to all “fit” in that exact spot without the need to adjust its location (or you need to work out those numbers and make each adjustment)

Usually you want to assign it a default value (basic armor class?) and can set to invisible if you want then make it appear when they ‘get their first armor’

[winged badger]

@sullen kernel you really want to keep the number of replicated Actors down as much as possible

takes a while for server to figure out what to replicate, more Actors, the worse it is

[sullen kernel]

So for the armor example. The character has a separate skeletal mesh component for his chest and it starts off as a naked chest. Then the player picks up an armor in the game and how do clients get notified to change their local skeletal mesh? Some variable needs to replicate on the character so the clients know to update thier skeletal mesh right?

Because calling SetSkeletalMesh() on the server won't replicate the changes to client

[wind wedge]

It should if you are replicating the character

For what you are doing you shouldn’t need to setbreplicates for each component

[winged badger]

Character has SkeletalMesh variable, Replicated + OnRep

it has SetSkeletalMesh function that sets the SkeletalMesh Variable, and also calls SetSkeletalMesh on its SkeletalMeshComponent

and it works

OnRep sets the SkeletalMesh on the Component

(by "has" i mean after you add them)

[wind wedge]

The default 3pbp char, you can swap the meshes out at runtime and everyone sees the changes.

[winged badger]

replicating the SkeletalMeshComponent is not advisable though

can create severe jitter combined with CMC

[wind wedge]

Theres only certain cases where you want to replicate each component explicitly (CHAOS destructor for instance), but for normal stuff, just replicating the character itself handles the rest for you

[brazen sluice]

OK SO it wasnt related to gravity, it's just that when you were too high up (cuz no gravity) level doesnt load actual meshes

(just empty sky )

[wind wedge]

@brazen sluice check your killz if you havent set that

[brazen sluice]

it is set

[wind wedge]

are you testing in PIE or building and pushing it to anlive server?

One thing you should get in the habit of when you test in PIE - when you hit play for the first time after making changes - close all client instances, but let the server load all the maps once. When its done close it then hit play again. This gets around a bug in the editor PIE. It becomes more and more necessary the larger your maps get.

If the PIE clients load faster than the server all sorts of bugs happen that have nothing to do with your code

[brazen sluice]

im testing in right click > launch game

never in PIE cuz it crashes when trying to open the map (never knew why)

(after I hit stop on another map than the inital main menu)

This is driving me nut, what is a god damn difference between me being 5km up the sky and being 1m up the sky

The only diff is im generating meshes

[wind wedge]

Are you on the ground up that high? Like a mountain?

[brazen sluice]

No no

both flying

• falling in place lol

[wind wedge]

So for 1 min you can move around

Then it steals it from you

[brazen sluice]

yep

or even if I stand still

more like 10-15 sec

[wind wedge]

how many event ticks are you using

[meager spade]

@wind wedge i was reading what you were saying about "swapping a mesh at runtime and all clients update"

that is not true.

[wind wedge]

Well it works fine on my server

[brazen sluice]

As in how many actors tick?

[wind wedge]

I mean as in how many eventtick functions are you calling

[meager spade]

let me test your theory in a fresh project

[brazen sluice]

OK Fun fact: retest with gravity off, actually still steals it... it just took longer tlast time and I thought it didnt do it

[brazen sluice]

Like.. main characters, spawned actors, the main level, etc?

Sorry not sure I understand the q.

[wind wedge]

@meager spade after logging in, i getowningpawn, cast to char, set mesh to (whatever). And it replicates to all the other players. Thats how i am setting their characters.

[meager spade]

but he was not asking that though

he was saying "Pickup a armor piece and change it on the player"

[wind wedge]

It is the same

Your character can have 30 meshes if you want

Which is why i suggested the switch, switch on type of armor, then set the mesh accordingly.

[meager spade]

http://thegames.dev/snaps/WkNpkRVAmN.mp4

so am i missing something?

[wind wedge]

Possibly, if you do something simple like swap the material of the UE4 mesh, does that also have this issue?

[meager spade]

It just feels like you gave erroneous information out, i have been doing UE4 multiplayer for 4 years, i know it would not work like you said, even changing materials is not "automatically" replicated.

[wind wedge]

Well i for sure do not have the “component replicates” checked on the skeletal mesh

[meager spade]

even if that was ticked, it would not change it

[wind wedge]

And that function is running on server and reliable

[meager spade]

Server RPC only tells the server to change it

[sullen kernel]

My understanding was that it worked that way for Static MeshComponent but not skeletal. Because if you look in code for static mesh, it is set to replicate already

[meager spade]

you still need to tell all clients, "look i have changed the mesh"

[wind wedge]

Yes if you only change it on the client the others wont see

[meager spade]

you should also never replicate the skeletalmesh component and any components attached to it on a Character, as it causes "jitter"

due to the way CMC interpolates the mesh during movement

[wind wedge]

Yes toi much traffic. Thats why i stay away from the chaos stuff on the chara

[meager spade]

its not traffic

also not related at all to chaos.

[winged badger]

its component replicating its position and overwriting the CMC interpolation

[wind wedge]

No but the new chaos stuff needs component replication to work

Is what i was saying

[meager spade]

where did you read that nonsense?

[wind wedge]

Ive tested the destructor, if component not set to replicate it only destroys the clients mesh

Like your dog

When everyone logs in inhave the same ue4 char like you have. Once they select a character, everyone sees them change.
I didnt touch the template char. Simply made a copy, assigned my custom skeleton and anim bp, and everything is done through a simple cast to char

If you set the mesh on the client, thats the same as going into your install and changing the jpg for your own. Its cosmetic to you only. Collision/physics/nav will all still be using the mesh assigned to the server’s version of your character.

Change THAT - and it replicates, because the character is replicating

Set to reliable, because if too many players are setting up their char (or changing armor/cmothes/weps) at the same time you dont want it to skip anyone.

You can do the same thing with a vehicle, have one vehicle and set whatever skel mesh to the vehicle in your inventory as you scroll through them, everyone sees your cars change when you click the button. (planes, boats, pets, whatever). I have only a handful of ‘things’, but an instance of that thing can be anything of that category.

The 3ptemplate examples are (for the most part) ready for networking as-is. If you need something specific, setting those up in the same way will work.

[meager spade]

@wind wedge i do not wish to argue, but if it works for you, great, and your lucky.

[wind wedge]

I cant see your code, but with the dog in your example, it looks like you are casting to the client instead of server when you set the mesh

In which case, nothing is replicated because the client is on the back end of the replicating process

I took the simple route to handle this: in my gamemode (which the clients never access) -> (IsServer?)->Branch. That way everything is the server when i run the event or function.

[meager spade]

you made false asumptions, and assume i know nothing about UE4 multiplayer.

[wind wedge]

But theres litterally a hundred ways to donthst

[meager spade]

that skeletal mesh was changed only ON the server

not on the client

[wind wedge]

Listen server works differently

[meager spade]

no it does not

[wind wedge]

You arent a real server

[meager spade]

so what am i then?

[wind wedge]

Your a client, serving

[meager spade]

so i am a server?

[wind wedge]

You have to repnotify or run standalone

Standalone the server repnotifies the clients

It will run a server in another window

Running byitself, both client instances should see the change

Where is this mesh variable set

[meager spade]

eh?

this sets the skeletal mesh on the skeletal mesh component.

I am no longer discussing this, but please, create a new project, and just set the skeletal mesh only on the server, and tell me if it works. If it does i will apologize for being wrong.

[wind wedge]

in the character bp? And how are you casting to the char?

I have it working already in a live server, thats why i suggested doing it that way

The server should be referencing the correct owner (not index 0), get the reference to your character, tell the server to set its mesh. Its pretty straight forward

[meager spade]

Very well, but remember giving bad information is worse than giving no information. There is no way simply setting a skeletal mesh on server only will replicate it to other clients. There is no way, its impossible. /** The skeletal mesh used by this component. */ UPROPERTY(EditAnywhere, BlueprintReadOnly, Category="Mesh") class USkeletalMesh* SkeletalMesh; is not replicated at all. Just making you aware, not being rude or obnoxious, or thinking i know it all.

Your game is likely using some other replication path or replicated property. That will be specific to your game and its structure.

[wind wedge]

When the mesh component is inherited by a replicated character (as the ue4 3pbp char is), you dont need to replicate the mesh. You just need to set the correct mesh - the one on the server.
[in the case of a client package running as listen server this is different - you have to repnotify to other clients]

[brazen sluice]

Seriously cant I just write a code like onTIck => client posses the pawn to make sure server isnt hijacking it 😭

There's just no logic, whatever I do

[meager spade]

@wind wedge again you are saying nonsense 😦

@brazen sluice what is the issue ? got lost in the above

[wind wedge]

@brazen sluice having too many event ticks (specially on the character , hud, etc) can cause you to lose control. I would try to limit the event tick, it runs 16-ish? Times per second? i dont use tick anywhere...

[meager spade]

You don't use tick anywhere? how does your player move? how does your game even function?

[brazen sluice]

After a few seconds (10-15secs) the server hijack the client's pawn, as if it was some locally controlled pawn. After that,

• the client can almost not move (the server is rolling baack the movement, but for some reason it still moves a little)
• isLocallyControlled suddenly returns true instead of false on server
• The client is still connected and still receives updates (like hey you got hit)

[meager spade]

@brazen sluice right... and what relevant information should we know?

don't forget we can not see your code or your game

[wind wedge]

@meager spade it all really depends in your approach to networking. 3pbp example is set up for the server-client model, not client-to-client. Doing it that way DOES require additional code to replicate. Because you are not truly “authoritative” as a client, but rather forcing your client to have authority over all others. It is really a different thing.

[brazen sluice]

Like a delay on the tick, but it still happens when I remove the ticking of my character and it's the only big one

[meager spade]

Again, also wrong 😦

[wind wedge]

It says this in the docs

[meager spade]

link me

[brazen sluice]

Well I tried disabling most thing with no success, the server has a secondary TCP IP socket on another port for streaming level but disabling it doesnt change result, and I could also remove the issue by disabling gravity (Being far from the ground is what is preventing the issue )

At least it SEEMS to prevent it

[wind wedge]

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

[brazen sluice]

As in ground is too far to load

[meager spade]

@wind wedge that is ambiguous, show me where you exactly heard that nonsense?

@brazen sluice so client looses control, his role changes, like he has been unpossessed?

[brazen sluice]

Yeah kinda except it's not really cause I can still do things

Like it's possessed by 2 people

[meager spade]

could that happen?

[brazen sluice]

It doesnt actually lose control from client perspective

[wind wedge]

UK - what happens when you repnotify that same evemt

[meager spade]

i know how to make it work, that is not the issue

the issue is with you saying you only have to set it on the server.

[wind wedge]

On a dedi server you dont need to do that

[meager spade]

Explain one thing to me: How does client know to change the skeletal mesh?

[wind wedge]

You can also run as standalone with 2 clients and see what i am telling you

[meager spade]

i did

[wind wedge]

Because the server replicates that just ad it does the movement. If you change the mesh on the client its post rep

[meager spade]

how does the server replicate it? Where?

[wind wedge]

If its cast properly the server will take care of everything for you

The ue4 cheracter bp, click on the root at the top, and it should come pre-set to replicate. I see yours already is because the other client seees the movement

[meager spade]

Look i am done, clearly you know more than me, and you are adamant i am wrong. I am seriously not going to be discussing this any further.

[brazen sluice]

CAn confirm isLocallyControlled does return true on both client and server

[wind wedge]

As it should

[meager spade]

why should it?

server does not have local control.

(unless its listen server)

[brazen sluice]

No server only returns true after 10sec

when the bug starts happening

Before that it's false

[meager spade]

it should be false on server, correct

[brazen sluice]

And nothing happens when the switch occurs, litereally not moving, everything is on hold

Tried disabling my RPCs, my ticks, etc... still happens

Unless I disable the whole world all together

[meager spade]

@brazen sluice you know how to use Data break points in VS?

[brazen sluice]

yeah

[wind wedge]

Thats deep, but i’ll give it a try:
So if you reference self and is locally controlled- this returns true. You have control over your character. If you reference the servers version of your character (on the server) islocally controlled is true because the server controls your charater (authoritatively) then updates your ‘true’ location to the client

[meager spade]

data breakpoint the role in AActor

@wind wedge again that is wrong.

[wind wedge]

Ok so why then are they both true

[meager spade]

cause he has a bug..

[wind wedge]

I get the same result

And i dontnhave that bug at the moment though i have from many reasons

[brazen sluice]

No but when the game "work" server is false, it only switches to true after ~15sec

[meager spade]

^

[brazen sluice]

I mean if it was normal it would be true from the start I aassume

[meager spade]

correct

[wind wedge]

Yes

Again referencing the char. Are you checking yours or the servers

[meager spade]

but its not normal for it to be "true"

[brazen sluice]

I mean that wouldnt make sense anyway, you need ONE THING to tell you whether or not smtg is remote

[meager spade]

Server should return false for Locally Controlled unless that pawn is a listen server

[wind wedge]

For each, respectively, it shoudl be true to their own self for the char they control

Referencing the client owned pawn yes

[brazen sluice]

Yes of course their own pawn return true

But the server start returning true for client controller

the one that's not local

the remote one

[wind wedge]

If the server has your player controller- again check where you ate casting to this

[meager spade]

@brazen sluice you need to find out why the server is returning true, and it does that via the PlayerController btw

{
    return ( Controller && Controller->IsLocalController() );
}```

[wind wedge]

Use get owning controller instead of get player controller

[meager spade]

{
    const ENetMode NetMode = GetNetMode();

    if (NetMode == NM_Standalone)
    {
        // Not networked.
        return true;
    }
    
    if (NetMode == NM_Client && GetLocalRole() == ROLE_AutonomousProxy)
    {
        // Networked client in control.
        return true;
    }

    if (GetRemoteRole() != ROLE_AutonomousProxy && GetLocalRole() == ROLE_Authority)
    {
        // Local authority in control.
        return true;
    }

    return false;
}```

if (NetMode == NM_Standalone) Standalone non networked, always locally controlled

if (NetMode == NM_Client && GetLocalRole() == ROLE_AutonomousProxy) this is a client, and the controllers local role is autonomous (normal client)

if (GetRemoteRole() != ROLE_AutonomousProxy && GetLocalRole() == ROLE_Authority) Listen server

so @brazen sluice somehow one of those gates is returning true

[wind wedge]

Yup thats one of the parts i was talking about ^^ see how the listen server is just a modified client?

[meager spade]

@wind wedge please don't push me. I have not spent 4 years working on an 8 player co-op game with no networking knowledge.

[wind wedge]

The actual server is headless, and doesnt have to ask itself wether or not it has authority. We have to adk IT

[brazen sluice]

But I'm never really casting the player controller, only once on show hide cursor and that one is fine it does not fail

[meager spade]

@brazen sluice need to know why server is returning true

your controller is likely doing something weird

[brazen sluice]

Yep let me take a look thanks

[wind wedge]

a bad cast to player character will also do this, because the controller is inherited

any of what i call ‘single player casts’, can break things in this way

[brazen sluice]

IsLocalController is virtual where can I find the implementation to put a breakpoint?

[wind wedge]

Hard to debug without seeing something, but it works at login, which tells me theres a loop, timer, tick event, ect. Possibly that clutters up after several iterations.

[winged badger]

to a hammer everything looks like a nail

[wind wedge]

Yes

Ive broken the engine in more ways than the internet covers

[brazen sluice]

Hm but I really cant find a broken cast, I've searched project-wise multiple times

Unless I'm missing an info

[winged badger]

broken cast would not result in your symptoms

so you can stop looking for it

[wind wedge]

Theres really only those few blueprints, i listed at the begining (and sometimes others you reference to them) that cause this

[winged badger]

for Client's pawn to return true to IsLocallyControlled on server

it has to be possessed by either AIController or listen server's PC

Cast has nothing to do with this whatsoever

[meager spade]

@wind wedge please stop with bad information, i understand you are only trying to help, but its really a hinderance.

[wind wedge]

Two conversations Zio

Azu is having a control issue, UK was controlling me trying to help someone set their mesh

[meager spade]

i was not controlling, i pointed out you gave bad information, just cause what you did worked in your game.

[wind wedge]

Actually if you had listened, what i gave him works in Steam, which dos NOT run as listen server

[meager spade]

again, nonsense information.

[winged badger]

even if you were correct, azukar started searching for Cast nodes because of what you typed

[wind wedge]

Best of luck Mr. 8yr.... i’ll probably have launched my 20th game by them

Zlo - he Should be checking that

[brazen sluice]

Remote role is always ROLE_Authority before & After the bug occurs

Shouldnt be, right?

[wind wedge]

Depends whats causing the bug

[winged badger]

@brazen sluice blueprints only, or c++ involved?

[brazen sluice]

C++ involved

[winged badger]

start DebugGameEditor target from VS

put a breakpoint in AController::SetPawn

see what hits

that function runs both on Server from Possess and on client from OnRep_Pawn

so it will hit for both Server (if listen) and client Pawns on both client and server

but as client doesn't have server's controller

[brazen sluice]

Where is this code Zlo? I can only find headers from the editor

[winged badger]

is it listen serveR?

void AController::SetPawn(APawn* InPawn)
{
    RemovePawnTickDependency(Pawn);

    Pawn = InPawn;
    Character = (Pawn ? Cast<ACharacter>(Pawn) : NULL);

    AttachToPawn(Pawn);

    AddPawnTickDependency(Pawn);
}

[brazen sluice]

Yes I dont know how to access AController.cpp, as in where is it

Never had to do so before

[winged badger]

type Controller.cpp in Solution explorer

or press Ctrl+T and type it there (faster)

https://gyazo.com/cdbd7a071a2477a23190f4144d482bbf

can do that too, from Ctrl+T

is it listen or dedicated server @brazen sluice ?

[brazen sluice]

listen

[brazen sluice]

This code is really odd :

if (GetRemoteRole() != ROLE_AutonomousProxy && GetLocalRole() == ROLE_Authority)
    {
        // Local authority in control.
        return true;
    }

I logged each value, local and remote, and they do not change on the server/client

[meager spade]

that means that controller is Server and has control

[night tartan]

I'm curious about PlayerState and its ownership...am I correct in understanding that a client cannot make a Server RPC call on the PlayerState due to lack of ownership?

[meager spade]

that code makes sense

[winged badger]

@night tartan it can

[meager spade]

it can make a server rpc

[winged badger]

and GetOwner returns a PlayerController

from PS

[night tartan]

okay I am getting a warning out about a lack of ownership

let me get the exact situation...

[brazen sluice]

What I meant is, it seems the "true" value is coming from somewhere else

[winged badger]

that is because you used BeginPlay or Tick to RPC

[brazen sluice]

Althought it's nether client or standalone

[night tartan]

no, I used an OnRep_Notify to call a Server function

is that illegal?

[meager spade]

onrep to call a server function?

not illegal, just weird

[winged badger]

but that also runs on all PlayerStates

[night tartan]

trying to send info to the GameMode

[winged badger]

including not your own

(from a perspective of single client)

[night tartan]

if a variable on the PlayerState changes, I'd like for it to get sent to the GameMode

[winged badger]

but if it changed via OnRep

[meager spade]

only server can change it tho

[winged badger]

server already has the information

so can just set it there without doing RPCs

@brazen sluice assuming you're testing with 2 Pawns

[night tartan]

I see, so I don't need to explicitly change the variable up on the server, a client, if they set a replicated variable, will get it up to the server?

[brazen sluice]

Yes the server player pawn and the client one

[meager spade]

no

[winged badger]

you're expecting SetPawn breakpoint to hit twice on server, and once on client

[brazen sluice]

I dont seem to find the file to set a breakpoint

[meager spade]

only server can change a replicated property in order for it to replicate

you have flawed logic

[night tartan]

I do, I know lol

[meager spade]

can you show us?

[winged badger]

@brazen sluice you have editor symbols for debugging?

[meager spade]

it looks like he does not have the engine headers

engine source code from the launcher*

[winged badger]

go to your laucher where you installed UE

[night tartan]

so, I have a struct that holds PlayerInfo on the PlayerState. I made a function for SetPlayerInfo() that calls a Server RPC to send and set the info serverside. Is that correct so far?

[winged badger]

and from dropdown/options, select editor symbols and install them

[brazen sluice]

yeah ok I dont have the source only the debugging symbols

make sense

let me install that

[winged badger]

that is fine

[meager spade]

@night tartan Player has the info, does a Server RPC with that info, Server sets the Property, then sets the info in the game mode

that is all that needs to happen

[night tartan]

okay thanks

[winged badger]

but you should (for now) limit yourself to calling that RPC from BeginPlay only if your GetOwner is valid

[night tartan]

why should I limit to BeginPlay?

[winged badger]

it gets called once, and for now, the timing is good enough

and your GetOwner being valid means you have a PlayerController locally

so its the PS from that client, which means it can RPC

[night tartan]

what about in situations of CopyProperties/OverrideWith

[winged badger]

thats related to seamless travel mostly

[night tartan]

right

[winged badger]

if you're doing seamless

[meager spade]

though i dislike having RPC's on the PlayerState, personally i like to keep all RPC's on the controller for that stuff :D, i am just weird

[winged badger]

your info should had been set on lobby map

and would had persisted, so there would be no need to send it again after seamless

[night tartan]

gotcha

thank you

[winged badger]

yes, yes you are 😛

[night tartan]

I'm trying to not have everything in the PlayerController lol

I see that a ton on Udemy and YouTube, and it's bugging me

[meager spade]

RPC's (client/server) make a lot of sense in the controller tho

[night tartan]

I have "control" stuff there, and yes, it has a ton of RPCs

[winged badger]

Kaos and i are actually on the same team and there are plenty of RPCs in PlayerStates 😄

[night tartan]

but I'm trying to have specifics more spread out

[meager spade]

there is, does not mean i like it 😄

[night tartan]

thanks so much guys, this is my first dive into networking and while I've successfully gotten the actual Steam Subsystems/NULL to work and connect, the flow of game start is a huge swamp

[winged badger]

if you haven't already

there is a network compendium, top pinned message on the channel

[brazen sluice]

OK I have instlalled it, but VS Still doesnt find it

[night tartan]

yes, I have that open haha

[winged badger]

read it @night tartan

k

[meager spade]

@brazen sluice going to need to generate project files

[winged badger]

@brazen sluice might need to restart VS

[brazen sluice]

Done already ^^

[winged badger]

and that

[night tartan]

I read it and refer to it constantly, and remind myself of things I forget over and over haha

[brazen sluice]

I stopped re-generated and satarted

But tbf this guy doesnt even find Controller.h even tho it's literally opened

So probably search is just broken

[meager spade]

possibly

[winged badger]

try symbol search (Ctrl + T)

instead of solution explorer

like in screenshot above

[brazen sluice]

what's the folder path to the source ?

That'd be faster prob

(CTRL + T does nt do anthing for me, is it a VS code shortcut?)

[winged badger]

ugh

VS code

😦

[brazen sluice]

Im using VS, just asking if CTRL +T is VS code

not the other way around lol

[winged badger]

no, its VS

[brazen sluice]

OK May be I downloaded VS retard edition

[winged badger]

and i never changed that shortcut

[brazen sluice]

Because I dont have it ^^

OK i found it in the explorer and openeed it, placed a breakpoint let see

[winged badger]

you expect 2 hits on server

1 on client

first 2 will be server side

if it hits the 2nd time on client

then something is possessing your client Pawn

and you described the symptoms correctly

[brazen sluice]

OK I dont have the symbols for 4.26 only 4.25 that's why it wasnt finding it

nice only 30gb to wait for ;__;

Is there a way for me to log the Net Mode ? Based on the code insde the controller, if the Role didnt change it must be the net mode ?

Otherwise the return would still be false

This is how desperate i am 😭

hope the 30g will come quick

Actually I could also debug the function by pasting it in my own code and calling my own

[meager spade]

@brazen sluice its not 30gb btw, its 30gb unpacked, but its way smaller than that for download

[brazen sluice]

Hmm so if I copy the function content to my own code, and log it

It does not switch

..

so the code executed is not that one it seems

[night tartan]

Got another quick question, is "GetUniqueId()" a reasonable way to differentiate unique players? Or is there a better method? Since I've made my own struct of PlayerInfo I need some decent and useful property to compare for overloading == so I can use things like Remove or Find on arrays of the struct

"...could be different on the client vs the server, so it’s not a good candidate for identifying objects if you need these values to be the same across all machines."

Answered my own question...hmm

APlayerState.PlayerId <---- this is a good one?

[brazen sluice]

bool APlayerController::IsLocalController() const
{
    // Never local on dedicated server. IsServerOnly() is checked at compile time and optimized out appropriately.
    if (FPlatformProperties::IsServerOnly())
    {
        checkSlow(!bIsLocalPlayerController);
        return false;
    }
    
    // Fast path if we have this bool set.
    if (bIsLocalPlayerController)
    {
        return true;
    }

    ENetMode NetMode = GetNetMode();
    if (NetMode == NM_DedicatedServer)
    {
        // This is still checked for the PIE case, which would not be caught in the IsServerOnly() check above.
        checkSlow(!bIsLocalPlayerController);
        return false;
    }

    if (NetMode == NM_Client || NetMode == NM_Standalone)
    {
        // Clients or Standalone only receive their own PC. We are not ROLE_AutonomousProxy until after PostInitializeComponents so we can't check that.
        bIsLocalPlayerController = true;
        return true;
    }

    return bIsLocalPlayerController;
}

So either NetMode becomes Client on server for a pawn or bIsLocalPlayerController is set somewhere, but a search throught the code find nowhere where this would be set

(DL is 50%)

[winged badger]

NetMode is a propertly of UNetDriver

it never changes once set

[brazen sluice]

bIsLocalPlayerController doesnt change either

But somehow the result of that function does 😄

[winged badger]

but you're interested in Pawn

not the controller

[brazen sluice]

What do you mean

[winged badger]

that is a Controller functions

[brazen sluice]

yes

[winged badger]

you are more interested is your Pawn IsLocallyControlled

[meager spade]

pawn asks the controller tho @winged badger

[brazen sluice]

But that's the function that makes isLocallyControlled return true if I'm not mistaken

[winged badger]

yeah, but the theory was that the Pawn is no longer possessed

[meager spade]

but its returning true on both client and server

[brazen sluice]

I mean tbh it sounds like the server is re-possessing the pawn with a new player controller that is local, while the client is still possessing with its own controller

[meager spade]

for the same (supposedly) pawn

[brazen sluice]

Without notifying the client it did that

I dont know if that sounds plausible or what

[meager spade]

i have never experienced that

in 3+ years

this is 100 percent down to your game code somewhere

[winged badger]

not even vorixo's little experiment came close to that level of breaking stuff

[signal lance]

when a new controller is possessing a pawn the old owning controller gets automatically cleared and told to unpossess 🤔

[winged badger]

yeah, but someone is missing engine symbols

[signal lance]

unless... give me a sec

[brazen sluice]

Almost there sorry for delay 😄

[meager spade]

as it happens consistently

10-15 seconds into the game

makes me think some timer is running or some event happens, that does something with a controller/pawn

too early for a GC cycle

and actors don't just get gc'd

[signal lance]

Rider taking its sweet time to open 🕐

[runic sable]

Can anyone give me some advice I have a minimap and it works fine with single player but in multiplayer the map only moves with one character. https://youtu.be/0zZ2ypxs6NE

[brazen sluice]

I have the symbols ! Ready to debug the woooorld

[signal lance]

what you describing sounds like you are somehow possessing it locally on the client and when the server possess it the server is not aware that the client has possession and it can't properly clear it
But for that you would have to explicitly set bCanPossessWithoutAuthority on the controller otherwise it will only ever run on the server

[meager spade]

@brazen sluice one thing, are you aware of any timers in your game that do anything with the controller/pawn?

as you say its consistently 10-15 seconds in

[signal lance]

^

[meager spade]

any actor that can spawn/anything you can think off?

[signal lance]

could see with the debugger where the calls are coming from

[brazen sluice]

I could think of some but I disabled them all, things like mob spawning and what not

My computer just froze, had to hard reset lol, running the game twice is just a chore

2nd try

SetPawn is not called when the value turns true @winged badger

[sullen kernel]

hey @winged badger going back to what you suggested earlier, replicating the USkeletalMesh* on the character for changing clothing/armor on the modular character. If my armor has stats like durability that has to show on the player UI, then that data has to stay with the armor in case the player drops it or gives it to another player. Maybe in that case it would make sense to stick with an Actor class for the armor then? Even though we should be minimizing the number of actors replicated, the armor itself has instance-specific data like durability.

[brazen sluice]

But it is called when client disconnect

[meager spade]

yeah that is normal

@brazen sluice you know how to use data breakpoint right

[brazen sluice]

I mean if server assumed pawn was local it wouldnt bother doing that would it

[meager spade]

start the game, and data breakpoint Role and RemoteRole in AActor

[brazen sluice]

I need a watcher in the profiler right ?

If not then no I dont 😄

Ahhh just googled it ok got it

[signal lance]

right click on the breakpoint and it should allow you to add a condition in both rider and VS

[brazen sluice]

But btw the value of the role doesnt change

I logged it before

[meager spade]

ah you checked

ok

[brazen sluice]

Yeap with a log

both remote and local

[meager spade]

can you show the log line

for IsLocallyControlled you are doing?

in your character c++, on tick, put this: UE_LOG(LogTemp, Warning, TEXT("%s : Role: %d, NetMode: %d, IsLocallyControlled: %d"), *GetNameSafe(this), (uint8)GetLocalRole(), (uint8)GetNetMode(), IsLocallyControlled());

[brazen sluice]

I was using BP so I dont have to recompile on every change to the logging

My Character is BP

[meager spade]

put that log above i said, and pastebin me the result

[brazen sluice]

only the rest of the project is C++

[meager spade]

mm

c++ player controller?

[brazen sluice]

I can put it in a static library and call it

no Controller is BP too

[meager spade]

put that into a library then

and call it on tick on player, but you will have to pass in the pawn

and call those functions on the pawn

[brazen sluice]

Yep

[meager spade]

if you had c++ tick, we could have done a nice way for you to get a callstack

when IsLocallyControlled returned true on the server

[brazen sluice]

it doesnt have GetNameSafe replced by GetName

Well I mean my callstack would have been my tick anyway

no?

[meager spade]

yeah but its possible we could have to something, doubt it tho

anyway GetNameSafe is a global lol

UE_LOG(LogTemp, Warning, TEXT("%s : Role: %d, NetMode: %d, IsLocallyControlled: %d"), *GetNameSafe(Pawn), (uint8)Pawn->GetLocalRole(), (uint8)Pawn->GetNetMode(), Pawn->IsLocallyControlled()); does not matter tho 😄

[brazen sluice]

Ah my bad

[meager spade]

?

[brazen sluice]

This is the result of the log

And bIsLocalPlayerController is true when i go down the stack

im setting a break on it

[meager spade]

i wanted it to print the entire log

not skip stuff

and for you to pastebin it

anyway

role and net mode does not change

oh

we didnt do remote role

UE_LOG(LogTemp, Warning, TEXT("%s : Role: %d, Remote: %d NetMode: %d, IsLocallyControlled: %d"), *GetNameSafe(Pawn), (uint8)Pawn->GetLocalRole(), (uint8)Pawn->GetRemoteRole(), (uint8)Pawn->GetNetMode(), Pawn->IsLocallyControlled());

[brazen sluice]

Ahhh

one sec posting the whole log

https://pastebin.com/0k4RHFaY

Line 1451 is the switch

You see a whole lot of errors about UI because isLocallyControlled returns true and it tries to access the UI which obv doesnt exist

(also sorry for the crap about the BP_Pickup_C needs fixing later )

Adding the remote now

[meager spade]

ok

[night tartan]

variables in GameMode don't need to be replicated because that's only a server entity, yeah?

[meager spade]

yes

@brazen sluice i see something interesting

in your logs

[brazen sluice]

Ah yeah?

[meager spade]

open that pastebin

[brazen sluice]

Is it the apparel stuff because if yes ima kill myself

[meager spade]

and go to line 1426

[brazen sluice]

okay

[meager spade]

2 lines above the locally controlled is fine

[night tartan]

I'm curious about a bug I can't solve...I'm trying to print an array length, and I'm getting a bizarrely huge value:
Warning: ConnectedPlayersInfo Array Length: 1429610152

[meager spade]

then your character ends up with issues

then it returns 1 on the server

[brazen sluice]

Yes that's because I'm logging the line AFTER the refresh UI function

[night tartan]

UE_LOG(LogTemp, Warning, TEXT("ConnectedPlayersInfo Array Length: %i"), *FString::FromInt(ConnectedPlayersInfo.Num()))

Is there something wrong about this line of code I'm missing? I've printed array lengths before. This is new to me.

[brazen sluice]

So you see the first broken UI error before the first broken isLocallyblabla broken log

[meager spade]

but the locally controlled is correct

up until the UI errors

then its changed

[dark edge]

Does anybody here have any good resources on how to set up a game using sessions that is completely agnostic to the back end? Anyone here done cross-platform?

[meager spade]

like the same frame

[brazen sluice]

Well I should log BEFORE refreshing the UI see if that's still the case

Because it could just be the order of execution

[meager spade]

something happens on that frame

that breaks kit

it*

[brazen sluice]

Tick() {
refreshUI(); // already broken but not logged, will throw since UI is not there
log(isLocallyControlled) // only here log broken bool first time
}

You see what I mean?

But could also be a symptom so let me just put the log at the begning of the log to see which one it is

[meager spade]

i mean look here

the first 2 lines are the previous frame

[brazen sluice]

yes

[meager spade]

then next frame, the server is correct

now

these errors appear

and look at the last line

this is client on the server

[brazen sluice]

Yes

[meager spade]

it returns true for IsLocallyControlled

[brazen sluice]

Yes

[meager spade]

that is the same frame all these errors happen

you tried to access UI on the server so maybe that can give you a clue where to start looking?

[potent cradle]

This is like a riveting murder story 🍿

[brazen sluice]

Yes I do that because isLocallyControlled returns true,
What I meant is isLocallyControlled breaks the UI not the other way around, I just happen to refresh the UI before doing the logging so it appears in that order in the log, but if I invert the two, then the log looks different :

[meager spade]

we need to catch that frame

something happens in it

[signal lance]

feels like I'm watching the the docking scene from interstellar 😆

[brazen sluice]

😭

[meager spade]

shoosh

intense debugging going on here

wait

hmm

[brazen sluice]

The worst part is that the solution is probably going to be SO anti-climatic

like "yeah man you just forgot to untick the "break my game" button in the config"

[potent cradle]

At least I'll get to feel better that today it wasn't me 😛

Consider it a community service...

[brazen sluice]

Can calling GetPawn on the server do that

(if that looks like desperate shots in the dark, it's because those are desperate shots in the dark)

[meager spade]

no

[dark edge]

@brazen sluice is this still the mysterious case of the unpossessed pawn?

[brazen sluice]

yep

:

THis novel is getting famous

[meager spade]

your roles look suspect to me

[dark edge]

Just making sure you've tried breakpoint on OnPossess right? Is it being possessed by something or just unpossessed?

[brazen sluice]

Oh yeah sorry the log with the remote one sec

[meager spade]

i mean

these are roles in our listen server game

for server and 1 client

[brazen sluice]

I was gonna say where the fuck is HeroCharacter coming from xD

Well you also have Role is 3 for both pawn on server

So it's the same here

[meager spade]

which is why i wanted you to print that log

and not skip anything

[rain ledge]

hi, i have a problem with listenserver, that if he not looking to the player the dmg dont count, so i try to check alwayrelevant and try to overrider IsNetRelevantFor so it give always true back for my maincharacterbase oder enemybase but it doesnt help, my problem look like this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKZUvO6iR0U) and my override try is to see in the image, is it possible to give the listen server player a 360° view or somthing like this ?

[meager spade]

can you do that and pastebin

[peak star]

@vestal tulip Unreal is built around the idea that the Server's world and the statebof things in it are the source of truth for everyone else, on things that are replicated.

[meager spade]

i want client and server printing that log

[brazen sluice]

AH

Hmm im not sure if I can do that let me try

[meager spade]

why?

[brazen sluice]

Cuz PIE on two instances is broken sometime

crashes

[meager spade]

mine does not crash with 2 instances..

[peak star]

@vestal tulip there is a way to make things client-authoritative instead but it is not mecessarily any easier to design and program it.

[brazen sluice]

Yeah i just have non thread safe code going on and something is not meant to be run twice but that's what Unreal does when launching 2 instances

I guess

[meager spade]

@rain ledge the issue you have is your ASC lives on the player

it should be on the playerstate as that is always relevant.

or make your character always relevant.

[peak star]

@vestal tulip so if you want to do an instant hit line trace then you can choose whether to have the client do the trace and tell the server the enemy was hit, or you can have the client tell the server to do the trace.

You will get a different result during laggy conditions with each. The second way is more responsive to the player but allows cheating.

[meager spade]

or i completely missed the issue 😄

[vestal tulip]

@peak star thats what I thought, but cheating is not something Im concerned for this project.

so Id rather go for the most optimal sollution, to minimise data transfers

[meager spade]

@vestal tulip just have the client send the hit data to the server and let the server process it

Fortnite does it for 100 players every bullet is a RPC.

client gets responsiveness and it works

[dark edge]

Premature optimization is the root of all evils

[vestal tulip]

@meager spade What about having the game be online between PC and Mobile, would this be too much for a mobile phone to be the host in this case ?

[dark edge]

If you were concerned about performance above all else, you would have a hand built engine using ECS, not this object-oriented spaghetti s*** show

And your development time will be about 10x

[meager spade]

@vestal tulip Fortnite do that 😄

you send a reduced packet size

the smaller the data you need to send the better

[vestal tulip]

@meager spade Does fortnite have local multiplayer on mobile ?

[meager spade]

either way you need a rpc at some point.

[brazen sluice]

https://pastebin.com/JhkSmBm1

[meager spade]

local multiplayer?

[brazen sluice]

Line 3728

[rain ledge]

that was what i try to do, i checket the AlwaysRelevant to true for the character and enemies, but nothing change, at first i think its gas, but i found it crazy that it works if the listenserver look .. so i try to found a way that is it relevant even if the server dont look, but im a newby in multiplayerprogramming things

[vestal tulip]

What Im wondering in this case is not just minimising data transfers but data processing too

[brazen sluice]

I dont see the client logging tho is that normal

Might have forgotten a condition..

[vestal tulip]

because of the nature of my game having like 100+ projectiles at the same time + multiple players and traces ... etc

[dark edge]

@vestal tulip well, the minimal set of data about a shot is where the shot started, and in what direction it went. Or the minimal set of data about a hit is what got hit, and by what.

[brazen sluice]

double checking

Yeah im stupid my bad

[kindred widget]

@vestal tulip Compression generally means extra processing. What do you mean by "Local" multiplayer though? Same device, or Lan? Cause Local multiplayer on mobile sounds odd.

[vestal tulip]

@dark edge What about having a timeline running, which scale the projectile overtime

@kindred widget I intend to do both

@kindred widget Think like Terraria, you can play it on local multiplayer over wifi

[dark edge]

@vestal tulip If you really want to be a speed freak about it, have projectiles just be structs in an array and have a subsystem update the all at once. Firing a projectile is just adding/activating one in the array.

[vestal tulip]

@twin juniper Yep

[kindred widget]

Like, two people playing on one phone? O.o Cause that's what Local Multiplayer means in Unreal. Like two people playing split screen Halo on a console.

[vestal tulip]

@kindred widget no xD, That would be possible only on PC/Consoles, when it comes to single screen multiplayer, but its each player on a mobile device over wifi

[brazen sluice]

I was assuming this starts a server and a client is it wrong?

[vestal tulip]

@twin juniper Not possible for my case

[kindred widget]

Definitely. He just mentioned a mass of projectiles. I was trying to imagine what kind of game that was with two people on the same phone. 😄

[vestal tulip]

@kindred widget That would be pure chaos xD

@twin juniper I managed to do It on mobile, and its pretty smooth, but its only single player for now

I was wondering how I would aproach multiplayer

[kindred widget]

Projectiles aren't that nice for multiplayer in general most times.

[vestal tulip]

In my case, the game is not competitive so it dosent matter if the player can cheat

@twin juniper what do you mean by RPC im pretty new to replication

[peak star]

Remore procedure call. It is when you in blueprint call a Server event

Or when the server does a multicast or client specific call

@twin juniper I often use Repnotify to have data changes trigger actions though

[vestal tulip]

Im watching right now this playlist so I can understand whats ahead of me : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEojA3VBXG8&list=PLemTaQ_N519DocM4AqiK08GfsUSnxRPdv

[peak star]

I would use an RPC for spawning projectile though.

[vestal tulip]

@peak star so its on the server side then

then I assume i should use multicast to let the other clients know

@twin juniper thats what i need cause I have like a timeline that change the projectile velocity overtime

there are too much variables on the projectile movement alone that I need to replicate its movement everytime

[kindred widget]

If you don't care about cheating, you'll find it really easy to just let the client shooting do the logic for hit detection and only spawn a visual effect on other clients. This will make it feel nice for the person shooting. Server can also do some checks when clients say they hit something to stave off a bit of cheating.

Projectile speed matters too. Faster projectiles should be converted to traces with a visual effect instead of spawned as actual projectiles. Slower ones can use a PMC somewhat okay.

Reason being is that faster projectiles can literally spawn, live, and die, by the time the server manages to replicate to a client. So no sounds or visuals get played.

[vestal tulip]

Yh, I can imagine that, but ill need to try it out myself to see the speed limit iguess

The only issure im facing right now is to figure out what to change about the overall game architecture to support multiplayer properly, like for example how i should isolate the various managers for either local or remote operations, like setting current animation or figure out if the actor got hit or not

I cannot start doing changes right away but I intend to do so eventually, the issue is the more features I add without knowing how I should make them to support multiplayer the harder it gets later on, and I cant Implement multiplayer right now to avoid over complicating things up early (the game is pretty complex already)

I guess ill have to work on a small project to figure things out

[kindred widget]

If the object is meant only for local use, it doesn't need to replicate. HUD is a great native example of that. It's meant to manage the player's UI stuff. It's completely non replicated. If at any point you think that the server will need to update an object, it needs to be replicated. Of course clients can do things locally on these replicated actors or objects all they want, but anything replicated will overwrite local settings.

So as far as Managers go, I'd wager the majority of them should be replicated. Manager generally is something that controls the state of things. Server has the real state of things, so you'll want to make sure that clients fall in line.

UI is a rare exception to that. Since UI doesn't replicate and only displays the local state of everything. So it's manager doesn't need to be replicated.

[vestal tulip]

I'll watch some tutorials to get more in depth, I hope I'm just over reacting over the changes I think I'll have to do, thanks the help !

[brazen sluice]

omg I THINK I HAVE DONE IT

FINALLY

[meager spade]

what was it

[brazen sluice]

i DONT KNOW

[meager spade]

:/

[brazen sluice]

OK not fair I kinda have an idea

But in a nutshell

nothing we could have found with a stacktrace

I was basically calling player->GetComponents<UCameraComponent>(CameraComps); on the client and server

but on a thread

and for some reason

that produces black magic

removed it (wanted to move it to main thread but on the main thread it always return empty even on local pawns...)

And now it's not breaking anymore

the vooodoo is gone

[meager spade]

well

accessing gameobjects from another thread, you could have blocked something crucial

what that is i do not know

[brazen sluice]

Exactly

Hence my answer

[meager spade]

but it could be enough to confuse the entire system

[brazen sluice]

I do not know what it was

just knew I fucked that part up

I know I shouldnt access UObject on thread but I have so much code I sometime forget some function is not executed on main thread ^^'

Also that used to be server-only where it was not breaking, only when I called it on the client it did

Server was happy all along

That's why I did not realise right away

oh my.. and I thought I was done debugging this kind of hardcore issue after I closed the ticket about world gen

11h with a half an hour break, not bad

Im going to drink now

xD

[brazen sluice]

Btw was so exhausted forgot to thanks you @meager spade so thanks!! 😄

[timid moss]

doe anyone know what server console argument I can pass in to specify the map to startup on?

[hollow eagle]

https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/ProductionPipelines/CommandLineArguments/#urlparameters

[ivory lintel]

Hey guys
How do I can create a session in a dedicated server before any client can connect???

[distant wave]

What is a simulated and an autonomous actor?

[chrome bay]

https://answers.unrealengine.com/questions/897406/autonomous-proxy-meaning.html

[distant wave]

I also read on the UDK docs that "When the actor's RemoteRole is set to ROLE_AutonomousProxy, it appears to be a Simulated Proxy for everyone but the owner of the actor."

so basically autonomous = unpredictable and simulated = predictable

right?

but then COND_SkipOwner isn't kinda the same as COND_SimulatedOnly?

because if a replicated variable is sent only to simulated actors, it should be sent to everyone except the player, right? because the player itself is autonomous

[winged badger]

autonomous = yours (from client perspective)

[gloomy tiger]

Hey guys. Question.

IsServer stopped "working" suddenly. I mean, probably I've done something but can't record what exactly.

Pretty much it is now returning false when previously it was returning true.

I'm running the game as ListenServer, and it displays the message Server: false when I Print the return of IsServer

Any clues?

[chrome bay]

When you say running it as listen server, how are you setting that?

Is this in or outside of editor?

[twin juniper]

I'd like to change clothes and morphs on my characters, that other players might not have(clothes can come in as DLCs). If I use a RepNotify or an RPC, would other players be able to see my clothes? If not, how can I share assets in multiplayer sessions?

[winged badger]

you need to package them

regardless of DLC

[twin juniper]

they are separate pak files

[winged badger]

that is a problem

since you are not going to be sending SkinnedMesh assets over the network

[twin juniper]

how'd you go about it?

[winged badger]

i'd update the original game with the assets and lock them programmatically

so they can't choose them, but can still see others that have the DLC using them

[twin juniper]

and delete it after the session?

[chrome bay]

you don't delete anything

[winged badger]

no

put the assets in original game's .pak

just prevent players from using them if they don't have the DLC

their game will still be able to display other players that have the DLC properly

[twin juniper]

gotcha

[chrome bay]

OT: I remember years ago when Xbox started introducing this sort of thing, players would complain that "it's already on the disk so what am I paying for" when buying skins etc 😄

[twin juniper]

Is there a way without sharing the dlc?

[chrome bay]

nope

Outside of downloading all of that DLC content everytime you join a session, which would be horrible to manage.

[twin juniper]

thx

[chrome bay]

In our game we have it setup so that the user requests cosmetic items, tells the server, server checks if they are allowed to use them, and if not sets them to default and replicates that - otherwise sets them to what they requested.

On Steam at least, you can check whether a player has given DLC keys via the entitlements interface

Some cheater might be able to hack it so that they use whatever they want locally, but remote users are never going to see it, so it's kind of pointless

[twin juniper]

makes sense

[distant wave]

remember when I asked how to replicate a variable that updates on tick without lagging the whole game and you said I should use rep notify? well, it was a good idea except that I can't rotate my player's head inside the On Rep, I do it in the animation blueprint based on that replicated variable so I can't really use rep notify in this case

[winged badger]

ofc you can

TryGetPawn->Cast->DesiredRotation

and animate towards it

or interpolate it in Character BP then pull the current rotation from Anim BP

[distant wave]

Wait, so I need 2 variables?

[winged badger]

anim BP always needs to have its own

so it can run animations off thread and remain thread safe

[distant wave]

yes, I know, so I have a replicated variable in the player which represents the control rotation yaw and another variable in the anim bp which is set to the one in the player

and interplorates to it in the anim bp

my question was: if the variable in the player is rep notify: what should I do inside the On Rep function

it's pretty hard to explain, idk if u understand what I am saying

[terse iris]

Hey there! is there any way to debug further problems with Join Session/Find Session node?

It seems to be not working and the only log i'm getting is a warning that says:
Warning: Script Msg: FindSessions - Invalid player state

any ideas how can i further dive into it? I've also added logs to the game instance with the network/travel error and prints from the blueprint system but that also gives out nothing.

[young thunder]

Hey, I got a problem with replicating velocity and transform on dedicated server. It works fine for listen server, but the velocity / transform on the dedicated server always defaults to the servers default velocity / transform. It’s for a grenade throw with projectile movement btw. Any tips?

[rain ledge]

i solved my problem from yesterday, so the bone position dont refresh on tick, so a klick on mesh and switch from always tick pose to &refresh bones solved it for me

[bronze summit]

Hey, I want to keep all player characters on disconnect so when they reconnect I can just make the player reposes the initial character. Now when the player disconnects the character is destroyed. Is there a simple method to prevent this from happening or should I just create a copy of the class and its components?

[winged badger]

i just stash the data i need to recreate their character in the struct in their PlayerState

during APlayerState::OnDeactivated() override

then respawn the Character

even if you keep the Character, you'll need the PlayerState to recognize it during HandleStartingNewPlayer

to repossess it

(when a player disconnects the PlayerState goes into InactivePlayerStates array for 5 minutes by default, if he reconnects with same net ID, which in our case is SteamID, engine will recognize it and replace the PS PlayerController spawned during its PostInitializeComponents() with the one you had previously)

[bronze summit]

Ah so I should handle this from the PlayerState?

Because I had this in mind

Which adds a pointer to map on server to recognize based on uniqueid

[winged badger]

engine already has the mechanism

[bronze summit]

Thanks for the heads up, ill look into playerstates. UE4 has such a big infrastructure that i sometimes don't know where to implement it...

[normal violet]

hmm talking about PlayerState, I noticed it updates only once per second (which I get because of the ping which changes often). But I want my HUD to update my score instantly instead of having to wait for max 1 sec after i kill someone (it just feels wrong :P). Should I just repNotify my score then so it get's updated when it's called? Or is there a better way to show my current score on my HUD (actually just a widget ;)). Setting the PlayerState net update frequency to 100 solves the problem, but feels like a really wrong workaround for the problem 😉

[bronze summit]

Is your client damage predicted?

or in some way it has instant feedback on the score

[normal violet]

No, i'm just using the event anydamage on the pawn (Blueprints btw)

And handle the damage / health in there

Like this

[bronze summit]

This damage function is in the playerstate?

[normal violet]

No it's on the pawn

The score is in the playerstate as a custom variable

Which is getting set in the Update Score

Like this. (it's still a bit overcomplicated because of a mistake made earlier ;))

[dark edge]

That's sort of all screwed up.

You are checking if it is the server, then you are calling a run-on server event, which makes zero sense. What you should do, is when damage is implemented, check if it's the server. If it is, then do everything after the damage

[normal violet]

Ye I removed the whole rpc stuff

[dark edge]

So client side, whatever happens, damage is never applied. Server side, it checks, yep it's the server, then it does it's thing

[normal violet]

It;s like this now

[dark edge]

Then all you have to do is replicate the score variable

[normal violet]

It's always called on the server since it's only called from within event anydamage