Hey! so I’m trying to make a multiplayer game for me and my friends, and I’ve been trying to find out how to implement online play in my project. But I have found only these complicated websites and stuff and then I find out they are only paid services and tbh I don’t wanna pay 10$ monthly Just to probs play once. And the only free ones I found are the built in LAN feature of Unreal. And some of my friends aren’t even in the same country or don’t want to unplug their pc’s/don’t have laptops to take to my place. So I don’t want to pay and I can’t use Lan.
SO I was wondering if there is any free alternatives for playing online with friends in my game, like Hamachi (Which I’ve tried and doesn’t work), A third party tool or plugin or a feature in UE4? Anything will be appreciated thank you
You don’t need a service like that in any way, you don’t have to use steam, epic or other, you can simply connect with IP addresses “Minecraft style”
You only need the services if you want to be able to send an invite or get a list of sessions, etc
Something like hamachi should have worked if multiplayer was setup correctly, as hamachi essentially puts you on the same LAN, you should be able to type in the IP provided and choose lan and it’ll find it
An option is also to run a listen server setup in unreal, where one of you guys host the session instead of a dedicated server which comes with a cost. If you just want to play with your friends in a build of the game you can always use this plugin (GitHub - mordentral/AdvancedSessionsPlugin: Advanced Sessions Plugin for UE4) to find each other over steam
Because, in the process of developing a Chat App you will grasp the concept of sending ‘messages’ from server to clients, single client with private message channels, creating group channels to send to specific groups of clients.
Sending Messages is at the core of Unrealengine’s Networking with Remote Procedural Calls but more so they are fundamental with any concept of communication. Messages can be anything from single to large sets of bits, bytes, integers, floats, words.
Messages can be:
An instruction to 'Spawn/Destroy/Orientate Actors
Change AI States to Guard/Patrol/Attack
Messages between internal subroutines/functions to process logic
Not with what you don’t have or cannot! You may come up with something entirely new and cool with some imagination. Tons of FREE Stuff on FAB to create cool game with.
If you can muster up some monies (which can be easier to do in some cases), I’d recommend purchasing a Game Template from the Marketplace.
Thats what I do to speed up learning and development.
I get it. You got inspired from playing AAA games. But the reality is, those games are developed by Teams of the Best in their field! Took me a long time to understand this. I’ve modified my game concept to fit what I have access to, not the other way around.
Today, I’m developing a Cool Game concept I would never had imagined when I started with UnrealEngine.
The other option is to join a Team developing a similar game or ...
join an Active Game Dev Community to discuss game dev and other possibilities. But note you are going to have to put in some work to learn and apply your new skills to game dev.
