Multiplayer crate and hosting recommendation

[gaunt mango]

With the next jam drawing closer I'm getting an itch to finally make a multiplayer game so I was wondering what's a simple-ish crate to help with that and where to host either the host server or a matchmaking server. I'm a cheapskate and it would be just for testing and the jam so a free option would be nice.

As for the crate I've started looking into ~~bevy_quinnet ~~ (no WASM) but I'm definitely open to suggestions. WASM support is a must and I'd like to make smt. fairly simple, not action-based to get my feet wet.
I was also considering 'matchbox' with 'GGRS' (thanks to @misty ridge for the lovely tutorials), but setting up the rollback seemed more-involved than going th server/client route.

Ah, bevy_quinnet doesn't support WASM, my bad.

[misty ridge]

I mean, it depends on where you want to put your efforts. If you do a syncing-based thing, you have to deal with some entities being "behind" or out of sync, which can also be a pain, while on rollback you have to put the effort into staying deterministic in your systems, and stay clear of events for gameplay code.

And also what kind of latency you can accept and how many players you want to support

[gaunt mango]

Pretty sure I'll try to make smt. for 1 or 2 players. Even 2 is stretching it for jams anyway.

I'll avoid collisions/physics if I can help it, so latency should not be not critical I think.

[misty ridge]

fwiw @rare mortar is experimenting with setting up matchbox for a client-server architecture with direct connections, though, where one of the browsers is the host. Not sure if it will be ready in time or not, though.

[gaunt mango]

I definitely wouldn't mind that approach. Without latency issues I don't think host advantage matters that much.

[gaunt mango]

I'll go thru the rest of yr posts (so far I've only read the first Extreme bevy one) and maybe I'll decide for p2p after all.

Any suggestions where to host a matchbox server. I guess anything that can host rust apps would do since it's just for the initial 'handshake', right?

[misty ridge]

Yeah, though I'm considering providing a use-at-your-own risk instance for people to use during the jam

as long as you namespace your room with something specific to your game, it should be fine

[rare mortar]

There’s a lot of work to be done for ergonomic client/server architecture in matchbox and it starts with making it easier to support through the signaling server. I have a draft of that PR up now. I also have a server/client example I set up that works with current edition but I have to be honest: I’m not willing to consult right now, you’d have to figure out my code.

[misty ridge]

if you want to host yourself. I have friend who is really happy with https://ionos.com ($2 per month).

It could also be anywhere that supports docker

[quiet flax]

I do web deployment professionally https://jordanslt.com/?mtm_campaign=bevy_help and I intend to provide free hosting during the jam, let me know if I can help make this happen :-)

[misty ridge]

Short story is you need to run matchbox_server from docker hub and ideally set up a reverse proxy for https support.

It would literally take me 5 minutes to set up, but I'm a bit reluctant about having people depending on it/keeping maintaining it in the future

[gaunt mango]

thx, will check that out

[gaunt mango]

neat, I just wanna get my feet wet this time round, so I'll probably wait till the PR is merged

[gaunt mango]

Using matchbox to setup a webrtc socket and than using Naia could work, right?

[quiet flax]

That is true. I can provide HTTPs and reverse proxy no problem. But I can't guarantee long term maintenance without having to charge.