UWorks (Steamworks C++/BP)

[vlad.serbanescu11]

Sorry for the delayed reply guys!

I've had the pleasure of chatting directly with [MENTION=4285]mordentral[/MENTION] and [MENTION=43786]Bioblaze[/MENTION] via Discord, but I'll still write the replies as it the information may be of interest to anyone.

If anyone else wishes to contact me directly, I will do my best to reply to PMs both on the forum and on Discord, where you can find me as "Vlad".

Very nice Plugin. Just had similar problems in the past months so this plugin comes quite handy for future projects.

How hard would it be to "switch" from your plugin to the default online subsystem if necessary? You are limited to Steam with this but in my case I would need to have one API for Steam as well as for Playstation Network. I think for steam I could use this plugin, but when packaging for Playstation I need to reimplement everything on that side. Or do you Plan to also Support PSN etc. In the future?

Also I would recommend a Code sample for Posting or Getting Player Stats to or from Steam. That was one of the Problems I encountered quite often with the default online subsystem. But as said, after figuring it out it provided me the ability to use one BP for PSN and Steam as well, so that would be nice.

Very cool plugin! (But scratching my head why Epic Games doesnt Do an Update for something that fundamental for Game Developers)

I actually had no idea UE4 had an OnlineSubsystemPSN. A minor reason for delaying this reply was due to the fact that I wanted to look into it a bit.

The short answer to your question is that it won't be too easy to switch from the OnlineSubsystem framework to the raw framework exposed by UWorks so your assumption was correct. Generally, if someone is just starting to implement online features, I wouldn't expect them to have any difficulty at all when working with UWorks vs. working with OnlineSubsystem's. It's only a slight difference in workflows. Unfortunately, your particular case is that you have already implemented online features. However, a few days ago, Mordentral was kind enough to suggest encapsulating UWorks in its own OnlineSubsystem (OnlineSubsystemUWorks maybe?). Neither I nor my friend thought of this and it's obvious that it's a great suggestion and, as such, we'll implement a separate module for it in the near future.

I don't have any plans regarding PSN in either way. The reason is simply that I'm not sure what I'm allowed to do and what not, from a legal perspective.

Lastly, Get/Set Player Stats demo it is then! We'll try to implement demos with nice, minimal-styled interfaces. Thanks!

[1] Download Mod Files for a Game, and Loading them.
[2] Loading Inventory & Displaying information
[3] Activating a Achievement, Showing Achievement Progress
[4] Getting Users Steam Name, SteamID, Steam64 ID
[5] Accepting your Client to Auto Connect to a Server via the connect://game/server Link

I can think of a handful more ;d if ya need.

So, once again, I enjoyed our conversation! And now, for the answers...

[1] - This is the only entry in your list which we wanted to sell as part of a separate bundle (which also includes the plugin itself, of course) for an extra 20-30E. We have several projects in mind which would make use of this plugin and these represent the main reason why we are willing to sell this plugin for a lower price than expected (the only "semi-similar" plugin that we know is available on the MP is ExtendedOnlineSubsystemFacebook, priced at 144E; UWorks has been submitted for 80E, based on the poll). However, if there are several requests for this, we'll consider offering it out-of-the-box!

[2] - Thanks again for your suggestions regarding this point! As mentioned in private, inventory is the only interface which we haven't tested at all. We'll change that!

[3] - Will do!

[4] - We're offering a library with utilities for our users to interact with various data from Steamworks, SteamIDs and GameIDs being among them. We don't expose 64-bit forms of SteamIDs or GameIDs. We do all the conversions in the back, in both ways (SteamID->Steam64 and Steam64->SteamID) so our customers don't have to! The demo for this library will surely be included out-of-the-box!

[5] - This is also definitely going to be there out-of-the-box (maybe not exactly when the plugin hits the marketplace, but very soon after; a minimal UI might be required). In the demo, this is where I start talking about server registration: https://youtu.be/uGPoHWtcWiU?t=482 . Earlier, I had shown how to grab an individual server's IP:GamePort. The simplest way to achieve connection is simply to combine the two using "open IP:Port". Indeed, as discussed, I agree there are ways to further simplify and improve this process, but I don't have my mind set on any simplification in particular at the moment, apart from the encapsulation within the OnlineSubsystem framework.

Whenever you're ready, hit me with more I'd like this plugin to offer between 5 and 10 short and sweet demos straight out-of-the-box.

Thanks dude!

+1 for this being needed, current implementation is stale, feature incomplete, buggy, and not directly fixable in binary forms of the engine.


Although I already spoke with you about how it would slot into a subsystem more cleanly in engine and hope to see that in the future.

+1 to your +1 for encapsulating this inside its own OnlineSubsystem. Thanks once again for the eye-opening chat and suggestion! We've discussed this and definitely going to take a shot at it in the near future!

For me, the most annoying thing about the current implementation of Steamworks, via OnlineSubsystemSteam, was the difficulty in creating a simple dedicated server. The absence and/or bugs of several social features come on a very close second. That's why the 2 were our starting points for this plugin.

[mordentral]

+1 for this being needed, current implementation is stale, feature incomplete, buggy, and not directly fixable in binary forms of the engine.


Although I already spoke with you about how it would slot into a subsystem more cleanly in engine and hope to see that in the future.

[Kris]

[Bioblaze]

Can I buy this? I wanna Test a System with steam inventory.
Please contact me would love to chat.

[Bioblaze]

Download Mod Files for a Game, and Loading them.
Loading Inventory & Displaying information
Activating a Achievement, Showing Achievement Progress
Getting Users Steam Name, SteamID, Steam64 ID
Accepting your Client to Auto Connect to a Server via the connect://game/server Link

I can think of a handful more ;d if ya need.

[Stormtiger]

Very nice Plugin. Just had similar problems in the past months so this plugin comes quite handy for future projects.

How hard would it be to "switch" from your plugin to the default online subsystem if necessary? You are limited to Steam with this but in my case I would need to have one API for Steam as well as for Playstation Network. I think for steam I could use this plugin, but when packaging for Playstation I need to reimplement everything on that side. Or do you Plan to also Support PSN etc. In the future?

Also I would recommend a Code sample for Posting or Getting Player Stats to or from Steam. That was one of the Problems I encountered quite often with the default online subsystem. But as said, after figuring it out it provided me the ability to use one BP for PSN and Steam as well, so that would be nice.

Very cool plugin! (But scratching my head why Epic Games doesnt Do an Update for something that fundamental for Game Developers)

[vlad.serbanescu11]

We'd like to see what kind of demos would people want out-of-the-box.

What Steamworks feature do you wish to see implemented in an example?

Let us know and we'll see what we can do!

[vlad.serbanescu11]

UWorks Demo is up !

Features demonstrated:

- Intercepting Steam chat in your UE project
- Browsing for Steam servers
- Registering your UE project as a Steam server

Reviews would be much appreciated! Enjoy!

[Kris]

Looks like an awesome product and a great help to many people trying to get the most out of Steam!

Thanks!

[vlad.serbanescu11]

Does this plugin offer steam authentication for blueprint?

Theoretically, yes. At the moment, it's one of the less tested features, but I see no reason why it wouldn't work, as long as you know what you're doing. We won't be able to provide a sample for this out-of-the-box so you'd either have to wait a bit or rely on the official documentation once the plugin is released.

[OverRated_AU]

Does this plugin offer steam authentication for blueprint?

[Pepeeee]

Sounds amazing. Don't make it too cheap. Properly working functionality and strong support is so much more important for this kind of stuff than saving a few bucks.

[apoisonedgift]

Looks/sounds awesome Can't wait to take this for a spin!

[vlad.serbanescu11]

Marketplace


Welcome to the support thread for the UWorks plugin!