Networking: Shed some light on this for me

anonymous_user_af3bcfeb1 · January 31, 2021, 6:53pm

Hi ,

First off, not sure what you mean by client vs listen. There is no such thing as client, its either listen or dedicated.

As for the two models, a listen server means the player who makes a game is also the server. The visuals and networking are part of the same app. A dedicated server is built from source, yes, because it is stripped down to just server logic - no visuals, think minecraft servers.

In either model there is a host and then the connecting clients.

Both models run the same logic for session hosting. The difference is how checks are made for the host. A dedicated server does not have a player because it is dedicated to processing network activity.

Nor exactly. If a client wants to become a server they leave thier current session to host thier own. There can only be one game instance and that belongs to the host’s machine.

In your example, it reminds me of the demons souls model where you can “host” invasions. However all players are always connected to the game’s servers (unless hollow ofc). In this case, the client is telling the server to allow other clients to connect with them. In demons souls, only while human are you online to the game’s servers and this is the only time you see player ghosts running around and can be invaded. You are simply telling the dedicated server to allow others to connect to you when you go human - you become a “host”, but are not in charge of the server.

To your example, going p2p means its “unranked” because the server that would keep track of stats is non-existent. The host of this unranked server could use all the same game logic except for what the dedicated server holds. Getting back to demons souls, if a client hosts an unranked session, they will have thier character avatar with all thier equipment, but anyone connecting would not because a dedicated server would bring those stats over. In that sense, connecting clients would have to be defined because thier stats don’t come over (health, gear, gender, etc).

Using a listen server is much easier to test. You don’t need to recompile and launch a new dedicated server and then launch your client each time you want to test. Instead you make the build and launch a listen server to be one in the same. IIRC you can’t connect to dedicated servers from PIE since its about accessing the desired subsystem, though I’ve read Unreal has been working on thier own in the past (not sure how far akong that is, I use steam).

WOW! Thank you so much for the info! Ill need to read and reread to digest this. Thanks!