Unreal Networking [ We are doomed to setup,manage and host on our own server]

General Feedback & Requests
1

If we use Unreal Networking,AFAIK we need to setup,manage and host the game on our own game server.
not a problem if we’re just playtesting it.
for an indie developer if i want to create an FPS multiplayer which can be played globally with low pings,usually we would use photon cloud which manages servers for us,but the problem is we cannot use Unreal networking there.(we can also use AWS -Fortnite and league of legends uses it)

so my question is - is there any solution to this problem ? me being an indie developer doesnt have so much money to setup servers globally and also managing it requires extra cost.
as we see in Unity we have photon unity networking which is great for indie devs,can i expect Epic games to come up with a solution so that we can host games on cloud easily like on AWS/photon cloud.(never dared to switch to Unity coz the UI sucks…no hard feelings for Unity devs,but i hate Unity :stuck_out_tongue: ) :smiley:
thanks :slight_smile:

2

I think you should turn this question to the Photon guys…

3

Here is the Unreal Engine SDK for Photon Realtime. And here is a thread that might be helpful. :slight_smile:

4

Also I actually just check the prices yesterday:
Exit Games’ price model

It seems to be a fair price model they have.

5

I just recently integrated Photon into our project. While you don’t get to use UE4’s own replication system, you are overall getting a much easier experience. Some basic C++ knowledge is all you need to get going (I myself just studied learncpp.com for a little more than a week; my advantage though was already being proficient with Blueprints, as they essentially are just C++ scripting), and you simply don’t have to worry about server side at all.

First, make sure you get an AppID from Photon’s site.

Then, completely ignore all their SDK stuff! Not kidding! Everything you need is already in their demo!

Download the Photon demo for UE4:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/184217/ExitGames/UE4/PhotonDemoParticle-UE45.zip

Study their system, make changes of your own, play around with things like custom replication.

For getting it into your project, the easiest way is to copy all the code into your project and create a similar setup (like the PhotonLBClient BP created from the PhotonLBClient C++ actor class, creating similar classes with the “Add Code to Project” option in UE4 like BaseView, LoadBalancingListener, import.h, etc.), then start tailoring things to your needs and stripping out unnecessary code.

An quick but comprehensive example for adding the demo features to your project would be:

  • Look at the file paths in the project files for the demo. You’ll notice an extra directory in the Source folder, called Photon. Simply copy+paste that Photon folder into the Source folder of your project.
  • Edit the [project].build.cs file of your project to include the code from the demo’s [project].build.cs. This code is responsible for your project including all the Photon static library content. Obviously (or maybe not obviously if you are new to C++), only copy the extra content from the demo that has to do with linking in the Photon libraries; in other words, compare the two build.cs files and don’t copy anything that is already in your own project.
  • Create all C++ classes that you see in the demo (LoadBalancingListener, DemoConstants, PhotonLBClient [make this one an actor], BaseView) and copy all code over to them, paying attention to .h and .cpp (don’t mix em up!).
  • In the demo project Source files, there is an import.h (or something like that) file that won’t show up in VS. Make a new class, like ImportPhoton, and copy the contents of import.h (again, it’s something like that) into your new ImportPhoton.h.
  • In LoadBalancingListener.h, make sure to do an include for ImportPhoton.h (#include “ImportPhoton.h”), and make sure the only includes are for that and BaseView.h. Comment out any other includes beyond those two. The lovely people at ExitGames already left a comment there about how LoadBalancingListener is the only include point for the Photon static libraries. The code you copied into your ImportPhoton.h will handle that when you do the include.
  • In UE4, make a BP from the PhotonLBClient C++ actor. Now your Photon features can be handled all through a single BP! Since you copied the code from the demo into your PhotonLBClient C++ actor, you will have some features ready to go. You’ll want to copy+paste your Photon AppID into the corresponding box in the Details pane of the BP. Now you have permission to connect to Photon.

You’re good to go! Fix any errors that could come from not copying things correctly. You might also have to fix some weird stuff having to with DemoConstants.

The main thing here is that you get everything going, and THEN start stripping features left over from the demo and integrating your own custom features based on what’s there. I’ve only just started customizing these features and creating new functions of my own that utilize Photon (making everything Blueprintable, of course! Blueprints are the way to go any time you have the option, imho), so I’m no expert, but I can already tell it is QUITE easy to use and that the server works beautifully. It’s a truly front-end experience for online multiplayer, which is fantastic for indie groups like us who don’t have the resources to develop our own networking.

6

cool thanks :slight_smile: hell yeah xD

7

You can simulate latency and packet loss locally in UE4, you don’t necessarily need to host it on a server somewhere far away to test it. (If that’s what you’re trying to emulate).

8

or you could always get Comcast to host it :stuck_out_tongue: hehe