I have succeeded in making my game fully playable in a local area network setting. Now I’d like to do the same thing except over the internet with non local players. A few questions…
-Is it possible to test if my game is working online from a single IP and computer (beyond editor simulations and LAN play tests) or do I inherently need a second computer and IP address to test whether connectivity will succeed or not?
-Do I require something like Steam or Amazon to act as a sort of middle man to get online play working or is correct port settings/engine settings enough to get non local connectivity functioning?
-Generally speaking if LAN play is working well, how close is the next milestone of getting connectivity working over the internet (one player acting as both a server and a client while the others connect as clients).
Thanks that is a helpful article. I am gauging whether I am going to need to get a second computer and internet connection to verify a successful connection between two players over the internet or if I can somehow test online connectivity without doing that. The server/client replication programming works with the dedicated server simulation in the editor and LAN. Now I need to actually connect two players over the net.
If it works over LAN using dedicated server (after packaging) it should function the same online. The thing you’ll need to worry about how much stuff is being sent over the pipes but otherwise you should be fine. If you weren’t testing with a packaged standalone dedicated server then there are a range of things that may not work correctly and will likely be a bit of a headache to straighten out.
Connectivity online is very straightforward. Follow **this guide **and you’ll be away laughing. The settings in this guide only go up to 4.18 but they’re still exactly the same for 4.19 and 4.20. You can use steam but it’s tricky and you need a computer that will run the dedicated server alone as steam doesn’t allow multiple accounts on one computer.
If the workload is light you should have no problem running your dedicated server and connecting as a client on the same computer using 127.0.0.1 and have others connect to your IP address (make sure your ports are correctly forwarded)
If you weren’t testing with a packaged standalone dedicated server then there are a range of things that may not work correctly and will likely be a bit of a headache to straighten out.