Advanced Sessions Plugin

[Asterriaa]

AdvancedSessions doesn't work with 4.19, But Epic Games create, find, join session works.

[mordentral]

AdvancedSessions doesn't work with 4.19, But Epic Games create, find, join session works.

Yes it does, check your log and that you are matching filters

[mordentral]

Added automatically generated documentation links in the OP. (Kantan Doc Gen), similar to what I keep up for my VR plugin.

Automatically Generated Documentation (Kantan Doc Gen)

AdvancedSessions

AdvancedSteamSessions

[westcut]

I added it and made the server with a server name but i am not getting the name back

[Boowman]

I am working on a project for uni and I am making a multiplayer game and I came across this and I am wondering, what is the difference between "Advanced Sessions" vs "Normal Sessions" (The ones provided by the engine). I am just talking about the sessions and not steam sessions as I can see what I get with that.

[mordentral]

I am working on a project for uni and I am making a multiplayer game and I came across this and I am wondering, what is the difference between "Advanced Sessions" vs "Normal Sessions" (The ones provided by the engine). I am just talking about the sessions and not steam sessions as I can see what I get with that.

On the back end there is no difference, they use the same interface in the engine. Advanced sessions just lets you use MORE of that interface in BP since a lot of its features are locked into c++ currently.

IE: custom settings for server searches, they already exist in engine and I just opened their use up to BP, same with advanced voice manipulation, friends lists, and pretty much all of the other features.

[Parvan]

Hi mordentral, thanks again for the work you have put into this plugin, i was wondering if theres any way you could work in an way so steam sessions pings don't always read 9999 ? cheers.

I saw your post and decided to go ahead and add pings to Cardinal Menu. You can check out the method I used if you'd like. Cardinal Menu is getting really cluttered, though. (Like most BP projects haha) Also, I just ported it over from the primary project. So there may be bugs from that process that I haven't discovered yet.

Basically, it's just PingPlugin and VaRest. The server's external IP is fetched on server launch via VaRest and https://api.ipify.org?format=json, then it's added as an extra setting on a session property. Each client side server listing then fetches an IP over PingPlugin. If a host's router / firewall doesn't respond to an ICMP Pings, the listing is marked with a ? mark. (Some people disable ICMP responses to try and hide from bots.)

The major drawback is that PingPlugin is no longer supported by the original author. The one packaged with Cardinal Menu works with 4.19. (I have versions that work with previous versions of the engine if you need them.) I've been keeping it going since 4.15 but there might reach a day where fixing a problem with PingPlugin is beyond my capabilities. I didn't write the plugin.

I was waiting for Epic to include listen server pings, but it looks like that may not happen. I'm guessing maybe it's on purpose to slow the asset flip folks. They can't provide too many things working right out of the box, right?

VaRest, on the other hand, is very well supported. Just like this plugin. Thanks mordentral!

[Visnarel]

I've been trying to pass a friend avatar around my lobby and found that the avatar doesn't want to be passed up to the server in multiplayer, it seems to work fine everywhere else on the client, but if I try to read the avatar from the server, or if I try to pass the texture2d up to the server through a run on server, it turns into a white box... is it just not possible to do?

[mordentral]

I've been trying to pass a friend avatar around my lobby and found that the avatar doesn't want to be passed up to the server in multiplayer, it seems to work fine everywhere else on the client, but if I try to read the avatar from the server, or if I try to pass the texture2d up to the server through a run on server, it turns into a white box... is it just not possible to do?

you can read the avatar if you properly query their steam friends information first, you can't replicate textures nativly in the engine though, no.

In this case there is no need to replicate it anyway though, since you can query and load it on the server itself.

[Visnarel]

Ok, I tried that... I was passing the player controller references into the avatar on the server, but it always fails... is there a trick to that?

[mordentral]

Ok, I tried that... I was passing the player controller references into the avatar on the server, but it always fails... is there a trick to that?

Get the unique ID from the player state array for the player.

[Visnarel]

So everything else in steam is working perfectly, but when I try to get the avatar from the game state I get

[2018.04.11-04.20.38:040][430]LogBlueprintUserMessages: [lobbyGameState_C_0] Failed to get avatar on server
[2018.04.11-04.20.40:070][491]AdvancedSteamFriendsLog: Warning: STEAM Couldn't be verified as initialized

I'm trying to send the avatar to all of the connected clients, so they get a nice image in their lobbies. I'm guessing from what you said, that it's not really possible, unless they get it from their own friends list?

But thank you so very very much for writing this it's really making a huge help for small teams

[mordentral]

So everything else in steam is working perfectly, but when I try to get the avatar from the game state I get

[2018.04.11-04.20.38:040][430]LogBlueprintUserMessages: [lobbyGameState_C_0] Failed to get avatar on server
[2018.04.11-04.20.40:070][491]AdvancedSteamFriendsLog: Warning: STEAM Couldn't be verified as initialized

I'm trying to send the avatar to all of the connected clients, so they get a nice image in their lobbies. I'm guessing from what you said, that it's not really possible, unless they get it from their own friends list?

But thank you so very very much for writing this it's really making a huge help for small teams

No you can get it, you can load a clients information with Request Steam Friend Info

https://mordentral.bitbucket.io/Adva...riendInfo.html


Then you can check back on the status of the avatar later for when it has been loaded and use it.

[VaultedSky]

Hey there mordentral! First of all, wanted to say thank you for making such an excellent plugin. Very useful for the programming-challenged folks like me.

Everything has been working great in 4.18 but recently I have been running into an issue with Blueprint Nativization. Unsure if you have tested your plugin with it at all but I am suspecting it is causing my builds to fail when I have blueprint nativization activated.

Here is the ending of my UAT log, I can attach the full thing if you would like...

ProcessResult.StdErr:   [88/90] Link UE4-AdvancedSteamSessions-Win64-Shipping.lib
ProcessResult.StdErr:   ERROR: UBT ERROR: Failed to produce item: C:\AN-Game\Intermediate\Plugins\NativizedAssets\Windows\Game\Binaries\Win64\UE4-NativizedAssets-Win64-Shipping.lib
ProcessResult.StdErr:   Total build time: 1168.80 seconds (Local executor: 0.00 seconds)
CommandUtils.Run: Took 1169.2838711s to run UnrealBuildTool.exe, ExitCode=5
ExceptionUtils.PrintExceptionInfo: ==============================================================================
ExceptionUtils.PrintExceptionInfo: ERROR: Command failed (Result:5): W:\Games_W\UE4_418\UE_4.18\Engine\Binaries\DotNET\UnrealBuildTool.exe ActNatural Win64 Shipping -Project=C:\AN-Game\ActNatural.uproject  C:\AN-Game\ActNatural.uproject -NoUBTMakefiles  -remoteini="C:\AN-Game" -skipdeploy -noxge -NoHotReload -ignorejunk. See logfile for details: 'UnrealBuildTool-2018.04.11-21.54.35.txt' 
ExceptionUtils.PrintExceptionInfo:        (see C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Roaming\Unreal Engine\AutomationTool\Logs\W+Games_W+UE4_418+UE_4.18\UAT_Log.txt for full exception trace)
ExceptionUtils.PrintExceptionInfo: 
ExceptionUtils.PrintExceptionInfo: CommandFailedException: Command failed (Result:5): W:\Games_W\UE4_418\UE_4.18\Engine\Binaries\DotNET\UnrealBuildTool.exe ActNatural Win64 Shipping -Project=C:\AN-Game\ActNatural.uproject  C:\AN-Game\ActNatural.uproject -NoUBTMakefiles  -remoteini="C:\AN-Game" -skipdeploy -noxge -NoHotReload -ignorejunk. See logfile for details: 'UnrealBuildTool-2018.04.11-21.54.35.txt' 
ExceptionUtils.PrintExceptionInfo:    at AutomationTool.CommandUtils.RunAndLog(String App, String CommandLine, String Logfile, Int32 MaxSuccessCode, String Input, ERunOptions Options, Dictionary`2 EnvVars, SpewFilterCallbackType SpewFilterCallback)
ExceptionUtils.PrintExceptionInfo:    at AutomationTool.CommandUtils.RunAndLog(CommandEnvironment Env, String App, String CommandLine, String LogName, Int32 MaxSuccessCode, String Input, ERunOptions Options, Dictionary`2 EnvVars, SpewFilterCallbackType SpewFilterCallback)
ExceptionUtils.PrintExceptionInfo:    at AutomationTool.CommandUtils.RunUBT(CommandEnvironment Env, String UBTExecutable, String CommandLine, String LogName, Dictionary`2 EnvVars)
ExceptionUtils.PrintExceptionInfo:    at AutomationTool.CommandUtils.RunUBT(CommandEnvironment Env, String UBTExecutable, FileReference Project, String Target, String Platform, String Config, String AdditionalArgs, String LogName, Dictionary`2 EnvVars)
ExceptionUtils.PrintExceptionInfo:    at AutomationTool.UE4Build.BuildWithUBT(String TargetName, UnrealTargetPlatform TargetPlatform, String Config, FileReference UprojectPath, Boolean ForceMonolithic, Boolean ForceNonUnity, Boolean ForceDebugInfo, Boolean ForceFlushMac, Boolean DisableXGE, String InAddArgs, Boolean ForceUnity, Dictionary`2 EnvVars)
ExceptionUtils.PrintExceptionInfo:    at AutomationTool.UE4Build.Build(BuildAgenda Agenda, Nullable`1 InDeleteBuildProducts, Boolean InUpdateVersionFiles, Boolean InForceNoXGE, Boolean InUseParallelExecutor, Boolean InForceNonUnity, Boolean InForceUnity, Boolean InShowProgress, Dictionary`2 PlatformEnvVars, Nullable`1 InChangelistNumberOverride, Dictionary`2 InTargetToManifest)
ExceptionUtils.PrintExceptionInfo:    at Project.Build(BuildCommand Command, ProjectParams Params, Int32 WorkingCL, ProjectBuildTargets TargetMask)
ExceptionUtils.PrintExceptionInfo:    at BuildCookRun.DoBuildCookRun(ProjectParams Params)
ExceptionUtils.PrintExceptionInfo:    at BuildCookRun.ExecuteBuild()
ExceptionUtils.PrintExceptionInfo:    at AutomationTool.BuildCommand.Execute()
ExceptionUtils.PrintExceptionInfo:    at AutomationTool.Automation.Execute(List`1 CommandsToExecute, Dictionary`2 Commands)
ExceptionUtils.PrintExceptionInfo:    at AutomationTool.Automation.Process(String[] Arguments)
ExceptionUtils.PrintExceptionInfo:    at AutomationTool.Program.MainProc(Object Param)
ExceptionUtils.PrintExceptionInfo:    at AutomationTool.InternalUtils.RunSingleInstance(Func`2 Main, Object Param)
ExceptionUtils.PrintExceptionInfo:    at AutomationTool.Program.Main()
ExceptionUtils.PrintExceptionInfo: ==============================================================================
Program.Main: AutomationTool exiting with ExitCode=5 (5)

The game builds and works fine with blueprint nativization disabled. I get pretty much the same error with nativization set to inclusive or exclusive (and only selecting my tick-heavy bps). Build configuration set to Development or Shipping does not seem to make a difference.

Any ideas what may help?

Thank you.

[mordentral]

Hey there mordentral! First of all, wanted to say thank you for making such an excellent plugin. Very useful for the programming-challenged folks like me.

Everything has been working great in 4.18 but recently I have been running into an issue with Blueprint Nativization. Unsure if you have tested your plugin with it at all but I am suspecting it is causing my builds to fail when I have blueprint nativization activated.

Here is the ending of my UAT log, I can attach the full thing if you would like...

The game builds and works fine with blueprint nativization disabled. I get pretty much the same error with nativization set to inclusive or exclusive (and only selecting my tick-heavy bps). Build configuration set to Development or Shipping does not seem to make a difference.

Any ideas what may help?

Thank you.

Would need the rest of that log to know if it is running into an issue with the plugin or not, that doesn't actually display the reasons for failure. I'll note that nativization is notoriously bad with plugins in general, my other plugin I have been waiting for a back end fix to the engine for it to be nativized for 3 engine versions now.

Although, I never had an issue with Advanced Sessions and nativization, it has always worked well.