hi guys i have been struggling for a while setting up and succesfully connecting to a dedicated server. it took me a long time to get a good fast workflow that actually worked.
i have completly rewritten the wiki guide on the unreal wiki with full instructions for anyone interested in how to do it and when i get time will make a follow up video tutorial as well.
https://wiki.unrealengine.com/Dedicated_Server_Guide_(Windows_%26_Linux)
thanks enigma
the guide was not well written but it was correct i hope u didnt change too much.
looks **** awesome with the pics… it took me a long time aswell to get the workflow running
i wonder why u didnt stick with the project launcher way for creating the server stuff
i also think the old wiki entry suggested that you chose the method yourself and linked to the ue4 github repo readme… i think downloading as zip is really bad
Same… took quite a bit of playing around…finally got it…but that Wiki entry should make life easier for others. Great job!
teak
Not sure if you could do this, but you should consider moving to the tutorial forum near the bottom of the page…
teak
The guide was well written and the original authors did a great job but I encountered several problems when following it and had spoken to many others that had used the guide themselves and were also struggling with getting it to work or we’re confused with some of the steps.
Not to mention just look at the hundreds of answerhub threads still about people having trouble with dedicated servers.
So I felt it would help to update the guide . Also a lot of the guide links to other wiki entries or external pages which slows you down as you jump around . with my guide it is literally step by step . You start at the top follow it sequentially and by time you get to the bottom it will be working . Or depending on what you have already you can click on the links and just jump to what ever section you need.
Also I added in a lot of extra detail such as fixing the swarm lighting error , how to setup the project actually inside the editor, how to use local ip and real ip, port forwarding, hosting on virtual machine. How to setup blueprints and maps properly . How to make sure the map data is saved correctly as it changed from version 14+ . The serverTarget.cs code is also different now than the one previously linked to .
When I have time I will also be adding in more stuff like how to host multiple maps/ server instances and get players to Join them . Similar to how a mmo server infrastructure is set up.
And will also be doing a complete video tutorial for those that find following written guides harder
I also organised and neatend up the menu and put everything into its own sections to make it clearer and easier to read
Also as I said before following the original wiki the process was quite slow . With my way of doing it I can literally go from not even having the engine installed to having a fully working setup in only a few hours depending on build times.
I will also be providing 2 complete project games , one for each new engine version, completely set up with a dedicated server connection already working so players still struggling can just simply download the projects and use them as a starting base project for their own games
If people are unhappy with the new guide they are completely free to edit it and rewrite it or if they prefer to follow the old guide they can simply go to the page history and still access the old guide
“wonder why u didnt stick with the project launcher way for creating the server stuff”
Not sure what you mean by this can you explain and I will answer
“also think the old wiki entry suggested that you chose the method yourself and linked to the ue4 github repo readme… i think downloading as zip is really bad”
If you read my guide I said that downloading by zip is my own personal preference , I said you can clone the repo , download as zip do whatever you prefer . How you get the files is not important. Why is downloading as zip bad
Whoops yeah it was late last night didn’t think about that. I think a forum moderator will have to move it. Thanks
I am thankful that the UE4 community makes guides like this, to save us other devs alot of time figuring out stuff. 
But i really wonder, why is there no official documentation about dedicated server builds from Epic? and why is this still so “semi hard” to achive today? Needing custom source code build from git, copying exe files to packaged folder and such, seem very, how should i put it, hacky somehow. If we can build c++ project for pure client/listen servers, would it be logical to have a dedicated server build automatically from binary build in the launcher that is. I am just sincerely curious how come dedicated server build is this way.
Yeah this is my only major gripe with this engine . The documentation is rarely kept up to date and is severly lacking in a lot of areas or its there but doesn’t go into enough specific detail to be helpful
especially on the c++ side of things which I think is most likely a result of how fast they bring out engine updates
It wold probably be a full time job just trying to keep up with it all
The amount of time i update and then a specific bit of code no longer works because the syntax or something has changed and yet the changes havnt been updated in the api so you end up trawling pages and pages of forum posts or answer hub pages to find out why
Great work is this still working with 4.17?
Hello. No the guide is currently wrong for versions 4.16 and 4.17 . I finally have some free time so I am updating the guide this weekend so it will work for the new engine releases as well as fixing some errors that have been pointed out
Hi, I’ve been trying to follow the 4.16+ guidelines, wasn’t working, and just noticed you hoped to update them this weekend. That sounds great, happy to test it out and provide feedback.
yeah i had messed up the 4.16 part. it is all now working and i have added in the 4.17 part. i have also began recording the video tutorials as well.
if you come across any more errors or problems let me know and ill correct them again thanks.
Hi
Question about (switch unreal engine versions). Am just wondering If can go back with an official version after I make the server build and pack everything. The reason why is because am working with others peoples with git and my friends are using the official build. In our case it is 4.17.1. The source that I get from Epic Github is 4.17.2. So can I go back from an official build? And I assume that when am ready to pack, am switching for the source version! Tks!
Hello yes that’s correct . You can easily switch back and fourth between launcher version and source built by regenerating the project files and share with friends. Although if you make any c++ functionality it may cause problems for those not using the source version as they won’t have the vs source files . But if you are just using source for a bp project and just building the server part only then this wont be a problem.
EniGmaa- I’m trying to make multiple dedicated servers in order to have individual maps that players can visit without trying to make a massive world (say, loaded when a player clicks open a door). I intend to shuffle player/game data between them with VaRest/Django/MariaDB/a RESTful interface. Do I need to make an individual UE4 project for each of these dedicated servers (which are essentially only different maps)? If so, do I do that and simply ignore all of the client.exe’s that I will be building for each map/server? What’s the best way to handle the enterprise of building, say, a dozen dedicated servers?
No blueprint dedicated server setup
Hello no you only need the one project . What you do is make several maps and each map will be a new dedicated server instance . Then in game if you want to travel so on open door to a new map you simply call open level and pass in the new maps ip and port number .
I have been so busy lately but I will try and update the wiki with more information on joining other levels
I havnt tried changing game modes within a dedicated server at runtime . My gut feeling is this wouldn’t work at least without a server restsrt and the only solution would be to have multiple maps with different port numbers that have the different game modes already set up and just switch/travel between them as needed .
Havnt tried this either I set all my options actually on the executable . It might be possible to send the options either in the name or the options section of the open level node but again havnt done this as I havnt needed to.
If you can explain a bit better what it is your trying to do I might be able to assist further .
EniGmaa, to avoid polluting this thread further, I have moved this discussion to this thread: Forum: Multiple Dedicated Server Management. I have written a better description of what I’m doing and what I’ve discovered so far (along with useful links I am tracking). Help me there?
Hey EniGmaa, I recently followed your wiki on how to set up a dedicated server for unreal engine (It’s great btw). Everything seems to be working fine functionally, however, I’m using a custom version of a pawn I’ve created for VR and when I connect to the server with two different computers the clients aren’t able to see each other (visually). I’ve been scouring the internet looking for information about this problem to no resolve. I have already tried and tested things like “Only owner see” and making sure that the pawn actor is set to replicate as well as the Vive controller mesh components and the headset mesh component. Essentially I just want to make sure that all client meshes are visible to every client so they can see each other moving around in the game.
You happen to have any idea what I might be doing wrong here? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I’m using a source engine version of 4.18