Etherlinker for UE4 - interact with Ethereum blockchain from Unreal Engine 4

[Kelheor]

New update for UE 4.24 with solidity 0.5.0 support now available.

All built-in solidity contracts and Showcase level examples were updated.

If you're using the UE4 version below 4.24, download an example project for 4.24 and use the integration server from it. Also, copy content from EtherlinkerExampleProject\Content\IntegrationServer into your project.

Some important info:

• If in your custom contracts you're using solidity version higher than in demo contracts, then you need to update version of web3j libraries (web3j-maven-plugin and org.web3j.core) and the version number in "EtherlinkerExampleProject\Content\IntegrationServer\compileContracts.bat/sh"
• If in your custom contracts you're using open zeppelin contracts, make sure that they aren't duplicate existing demo contracts inside "EtherlinkerServer\Stratum\src\main\resources\solidity" (otherwise it's better to update them).

[Castle]

So I decided to better explain this with a video. And I will state it again, the best games in this space are low key, low risk hobby projects. If you go the big AAA route with a big budgets and shine a spotlight on yourself and force players to utilize centralized servers you will be sued into the ground and probably face all kinds of negative consequences. If the game fully follows regulations then it will turn most people off from wanting to play because they wont want to pay taxes for stuff they don't even actually own. Furthermore centralized games offer similar degree of ownership and avoid all of these negative aspects.

This is a super interesting topic but I seriously think most people who are just now getting involved are stepping into a complex situation they don't actually understand. Etherlinker is a great plugin and can be great for doing small projects or just getting ETH as a potential side payment method. Centralized servers and big budgets are a super bad idea regardless.

[Castle]

mate... Ethereum can handle 6 transactions / sec. maybe a bit more now.
A game networking replication runs at 30 updates per second, for X players and Y entities. You cant have multiplayer that doesnt run on dedicated servers that are "centralized"

HOWEVER I do see a great use of blockchain to store players and characters data in it. Though even for for inventory for a multiplayer game it would be too low throughput. maybe the core stats and status of the character. or the money count. But still.... there must be some server that can add or remove the money count based on in-game events.

Yep I am fully aware of the fact that the blockchain isn't fast enough for everything. That's why you make use of checksum hashes to make it very hard to hack the client with the ability to generate valid transactions. Its the only method you can do off chain actions without a need for a centralized server. Storing player data is an ok thing and you can use it for some stuff like that, but the dev here has already explained that etherlinker is not designed to store data on the ETH chain. Its only good for microtransactions or moving tokens around apparently.

Also, ETH 2.0 is proof of stake and will be able to handle thousands of TPS. EOS, TRX and STEEM among many other much faster coins.

QUOTE="AngeIV;n1673563"]Gaming and Blockchain are hard to combine. Most attempts are just greedy monetization.
Also I back you up on surveillance being a big issue novadays, but when it does to legal of money transfer and money laundering you're speaking with a person working for a regulated Malta based Cryptocurrency Exchange. We worked hard on getting our licence, and I iKNOW why it is needed and that unregulated exchanges do. Whom money is being laundered and what from and it sickens me.
Cryptrocurrency is NOT the tool of the devil to cheat on taxes, but it can be. Just like cash and banks. And it should and will be regulated.
Bitcoin is unstoppable in China and Europe. Crypto-future is a "when" instead of "if" dilemma.[/QUOTE]

In the context of gaming, nobody is going to play your game if they have to pay taxes for their pokemon pets or trading cards. Nobody is ever going to want to deal with that level of complexity to enjoy a video game. Period. They will continue playing centralized games rather than deal with that. That is 90% of your potential audience instantly lost the moment they have to write down exactly how many dudes they killed on the way to the level cap. Its not even fun at that point its work.

QUOTE="AngeIV;n1673563"]A only real crypto-based game in existence is crypto-kittens. And its a money-grab web-based cat breeding simulation. instead of actual game. And still - all value lies in the kittens distinguished and exotic graphic features. And those features are just hard links to assets in blockchain. And those graphic assets are not binary state kept there.. they are on a server that can be turned off. Or it can be swapped for porn for all we know out of a sudden and lose all value.[/QUOTE]

Incorrect, you need to be doing your research, there are various games most of which are card games or JRPGs. Gods unchained, Steem monsters, EOS Knights Axi Infinity... The space is constantly growing. But like I already stated, the ones that use centralized servers are not going to survive, nobody is going to play a game where they get a massive bill from the government because they played it. You either go decentralized like the medium dictates or you get crushed by those who do.

This space fundamentally requires decentralization. If you do not understand this then get out of this space because you are about to get rekt hard. The idea that you "Own your items" is a lie and decentralized infrastructure can only be taken advantage of with decentralized mediums. That means decentralized games or bust. If you sit anywhere in between on this you are massively hurting your chances long term and probably risking massive fines and potentially jail time.

The only games I can ever see working in this space are going to be low key indie games with anon devs. Gambling dapps and maybe the occasional strategy or turned based JRPG. Anything else is massively risky. I am having a super hard time seeing blockchain gaming going mainstream. Its not worth doing with a oldschool mindset.

[AngeIV]

Smart contracts don't require you to have open source code and nobody can see the code either. Nobody can steal your stuff in this kind of environment.
Centralized servers means that you have a single point of attack. So when FBI/CIA agents bust down your door because some butt hurt bureaucrat made online monopoly money illegal you can let me know how it was such a good idea to take advantage of that immutable decentralized transaction service like ETH using your centralized servers. So much for those centralized servers eh, also welcome to being in jail for not having a money transferring license or whatever weird potential **** that might come down the line.

Honestly, when it comes to building in this space it makes far more sense to keep the games fully on chain and be anonymous if possible. This goes double depending on if you live in a country where the government is highly likely to try and tame the beast. Trumps lapdog Mnuchin made it very clear he does not want people even talking about bitcoin in the next 5 years.

A crypto based game with centralized servers is like a horse and carriage running with a diesel engine that can explode at any moment.

mate... Ethereum can handle 6 transactions / sec. maybe a bit more now.
A game networking replication runs at 30 updates per second, for X players and Y entities. You cant have multiplayer that doesnt run on dedicated servers that are "centralized"

HOWEVER I do see a great use of blockchain to store players and characters data in it. Though even for for inventory for a multiplayer game it would be too low thruput. maybe the core stats and status of the character. or the money count. But still.... there must be some server that can add or remove the money count based on in-game events.

Gaming and Blockchain are hard to combine. Most attempts are just greedy monetization.
Also I back you up on surveillance being a big issue novadays, but when it does to legal of money transfer and money laundering you're speaking with a person working for a regulated Malta based Cryptocurrency Exchange. We worked hard on getting our licence, and I iKNOW why it is needed and that unregulated exchanges do. Whom money is being laundered and what from and it sickens me.
Cryptrocurrency is NOT the tool of the devil to cheat on taxes, but it can be. Just like cash and banks. And it should and will be regulated.
Bitcoin is unstoppable in China and Europe. Crypto-future is a "when" instead of "if" dilemma.

A only real crypto-based game in existence is crypto-kittens. And its a money-grab web-based cat breeding simulation. instead of actual game. And still - all value lies in the kittens distinguished and exotic graphic features. And those features are just hard links to assets in blockchain. And those graphic assets are not binary state kept there.. they are on a server that can be turned off. Or it can be swapped for porn for all we know out of a sudden and lose all value.

[Castle]

Weeeeeeeelllll....
If you don't like your code to be public so someone could you know..steal your stuff.
Also for most games you can run your own copy of dedicated server so what do you mean by centrailized? you mean the AAA "LIVE SERVICE" ******** games?

Smart contracts don't require you to have open source code and nobody can see the code either. Nobody can steal your stuff in this kind of environment.
Centralized servers means that you have a single point of attack. So when FBI/CIA agents bust down your door because some butt hurt bureaucrat made online monopoly money illegal you can let me know how it was such a good idea to take advantage of that immutable decentralized transaction service like ETH using your centralized servers. So much for those centralized servers eh, also welcome to being in jail for not having a money transferring license or whatever weird potential **** that might come down the line.

Honestly, when it comes to building in this space it makes far more sense to keep the games fully on chain and be anonymous if possible. This goes double depending on if you live in a country where the government is highly likely to try and tame the beast. Trumps lapdog Mnuchin made it very clear he does not want people even talking about bitcoin in the next 5 years.

A crypto based game with centralized servers is like a horse and carriage running with a diesel engine that can explode at any moment.

[AngeIV]

The worst offenders right now are the ones who think a blockchain game should ever make use of centralized servers. I think people will eventually learn the dozen or so reasons why that is a bad idea.

Weeeeeeeelllll....
If you don't like your code to be public so someone could you know..steal your stuff.
Also for most games you can run your own copy of dedicated server so what do you mean by centrailized? you mean the AAA "LIVE SERVICE" ******** games?

[Castle]

Everyone is building the Oasis from ready player one in VR + blockchain... None of them really have a plan ~_~

Will this plugin support Ethereum 2.0 ?

The worst offenders right now are the ones who think a blockchain game should ever make use of centralized servers. I think people will eventually learn the dozen or so reasons why that is a bad idea.

[AngeIV]

You have no idea how many of my problems you solved with this plugin A big thank You! And its good to know it will be further developed.

[Kelheor]

Everyone is building the Oasis from ready player one in VR + blockchain... None of them really have a plan ~_~

Will this plugin support Ethereum 2.0 ?

I will try to add support for it when it will be available and as soon as all required libs(like web3j) and services/apps (infura/geth/parity) will start to support it.

[AngeIV]

Everyone is building the Oasis from ready player one in VR + blockchain... None of them really have a plan ~_~

Will this plugin support Ethereum 2.0 ?

[Castle]

Meanwhile, the plugin has been downloaded around 11 thousand times via UE4 Marketplace since publishing. However, I guess only a very small amount of those people will try to use it somehow (rough estimation, based on the fact that only 6 people rated this project).

Kind of reminds me of the crypto market as a whole. The potential to use this kind of stuff is great but very few will ever actually do it.
I will though, my goal is to get absolute baseline support in place so I can move on from there. NEOS online is a VR game that does literally everything I wanted all at once and supports ETH now too which is kinda insane.

Apparently the steem blockchain responds to JSON commands without any need for crypto implementation too...
Slowly but surely people are coming around.

[Kelheor]

Meanwhile, the plugin has been downloaded around 11 thousand times via UE4 Marketplace since publishing. However, I guess only a very small amount of those people will try to use it somehow (rough estimation, based on the fact that only 6 people rated this project).

[Castle]

It's possible (you don't need any specific values, just add wallet address to the game owners array in smart contract after buying)

Hmm, what about just searching all previous transactions and confirming that one exists with the following memo sending X amount to a specific wallet? If I have to manage an array like you say then that would mean having to have some kind of server right? Or do you mean an array that is on chain? The DRM can be used where in a multiplayer game everyone's client checks everyone elses client to see if its legit. Thus everyone playing would need to have hacked clients to play.

I wonder what kind of publicity something like this might get. I have a couple projects right now that I can consider doing this with.

[Kelheor]

How tough would it be to use this just as a form of DRM? Basically, you have to provide a wallet that has purchased the game otherwise the game remains locked. I am talking dirt simple implementation. I suspect this might still be harder to do than it sounds because the smart contract will have no way to know the correct value needed to purchase the game...

It's possible (you don't need any specific values, just add wallet address to the game owners array in smart contract after buying), but I guess it's still will be hackable because if the player has access to the PC memory, where the game is located, he could change everything if he has enough skill (for example, simply ignore your DRM checks). Another solution is to make a multiplayer game, where the only server has the authority to do everything, including DRM checks. Even then, I guess it could be possible to hack some parts of your game (otherwise there wouldn't be any cheaters in multiplayer games).

[Castle]

How tough would it be to use this just as a form of DRM? Basically, you have to provide a wallet that has purchased the game otherwise the game remains locked. I am talking dirt simple implementation. I suspect this might still be harder to do than it sounds because the smart contract will have no way to know the correct value needed to purchase the game...