I always thought unreal (server-listener) concept was:
I am Host, I start the server, and that’s it, my Pawn spawns and Controller. Im in the game/level running around.
So right now 1 Server exists, 0 Client(s).
A Client joins my Server, spawning them a Pawn and Controller.
So now there’s 1 Server, and 1 Client.
They’re running around, and some bits are (to keep things simple) happening on my Server and replicated back to them etc…
The bit where I’m slightly confused is, do I as the host/Server also spawn a Client that connects to my Server - thus I’m also having my Pawn replicated from server back to my client?
In the Listen Server model, the host is a client and the server at the same time. When you as a player host a match in this model, you create and run the server on your machine, but you still connect to it as a “client”. Rather than thinking about servers and clients, think about them as different Worlds (or instances of the game running on different machines). There’s a World with authority (the host’s machine aka the server), and Worlds without them (remote machines). I guess the logic is: Why start a headless server and then connect to it immediately, when these two steps can be combined?
Ok, so this is why in the docs picture it has 3 displays, 1 for server, 1 for server-client, and 1 for client?
When I start a Server and join as a “client”, and someone else joins as a “client” , over the net, are those kind of… different client types?
No, I don’t understand why they have 3 screenshots there, it’s very confusing. All clients are the same, but they can either have authority over something or not. I suggest you check out the Unreal Engine 4 Networking Compendium.
@STRiFE.x ah yeah I’m comfortable-ish with clients owning things.
But was confused by the diagram with 3 screens. This is why I was asking if the host has the server and has it’s “own” client which they play through in the server
It doesnt seem like they do, just seems the player is playing the game with their instance set as server, and it broadcasts back out
This is not exactly 100% correct – the client is not a separate process from the server when used as a listen server, and as such, there can be some subtle differences between how you write certain code. Sometimes you have to distinguish between network client, network dedicated server, and listen server.
no, i don’t have any examples, as i haven’t written anything using that in about a decade now.
Cheers guys for all the info. So @UnrealEnterprise you say “Since a listen-server’s client…”, so does that mean a Listen-Server does have it’s own client? And like @eblade said, the difference is quite subtle and it’s not the same as a Network Client?
This kind of makese the most sense to me, I think…
I start a server game, I connect to it as a local client, internally… or something? Based on examples above, that would be my Network Client (server client) ?