koobas.hobune.stream
Master Server for MMO Unity Game
We have a few questions regarding setting up a web based master server for an MMO-style unity game that we are developing. As of now there are two builds from our game. There is a server build which does not include any of the models, textures, or memory intensive material that usually gives a game its large Hard Disk size. Then there is a client build which includes everything except for the server scripts. Our aim is to have it so that our players download the client (AKA the game) and log onto the server. We've tested both builds and they successfully interact with each other on LAN. With a current ownership of a domain that we'd like to place the server build on (we compiled it out to linux x86 which web servers can run), we are looking for web hosters that could run a linux x86 application (The Server Build) to communicate with the clients and host our game(A Master Server). MySQL would handle player accounts and world information.
Now for the questions:
Would such a system like this work or would we be better off using a proven system such as photon server?
Would unity be capable of communicating with the Unity linux server build located on the website/server?
Are there any complete different approaches to MMO networking that you would recommend? (If we would be better off changing our approach to a master server network system, we would want to do it ASAP)
Ive been actually working on something similar for almost half a year. While reading your question you mentioned that you have two builds, one for server and one for client. Does your server exist - lives in unity also or is it standalone application? If you want to create live in unity approach remember that when your server's gonna up you'd want 99.9% up time. Do you trust unity engine with 99.9% up time? I don't, plus there are multiple other problems and huge overhead just to do the simple things, without mentioning that unity is single threaded.
What comes to actual questions.
Yep, photon server or any server isn't really specific for anything. But for an actual mmo application, you want smart zoning and other stuff. By default, as far as i know, photon own quite simple type of grid logic.
The environment (language) you create you server application in matters more than os (if you write your application which can be run on different os of course). Any server is just an application which talks to each other over the net. Personally i have an mmo server written from scratch which is in development state. It lives on linux and is written in c# (recently migrated from java).
This is a very broad question and cannot be really answered in single unity answers answer (a book maybe lol). You should understand the philosophy of mmo games. But if id have to explain it in one sentence, id probably say "Never trust the user" or "Threat everyone as hackers".
The server was made in Unity but as a separate project file. Both projects are for the same game and both are written in C# with unity's $$anonymous$$onoDevelop.
While server up time is a very high priority, server errors and crashes are all part of the learning and development process. We plan on encountering such issues and when it occurs we'll try to fix the glitch ASAP to ensure that the error does not happen again. Until we do that, we would plan on having the server create and save an error report to assist in the fix and restart itself as quickly as possible. Eventually, the glitches and wrinkles would be ironed out.
Thank you for your response!. It was very helpful :)
