koobas.hobune.stream
HTC Vive Networking - Photon or UNET
I am planning to create an HTC Vive multiplayer game where the headset and controller is tracked and relayed to all the clients. Could some one please highlight the pros and cons of using Photon vs Unity`s UNET framework for building the networking part?
For the most part, it's your own personal (or $$anonymous$$m) preference. UNET is very easy to get started with (since it's built-in to Unity), and the only difference in networking a VR game from a non-VR game is how you sync the players since you can't use pre-set animations as players can move their head/hands in any way.
But again, it's mostly your preference. The only big differences, from what I've seen, is how each library handles connections and the harder stuff. Passing data, on the other hand, works pretty much the same.
Thanks for the reply @crynryan
In terms of latency, which one would you recommend.
If you use direct connections (either everyone will have to connect by typing in IPs or you can use a matchmaking server and then switch to P2P after that) you'll have less latency if your player count is small, as in 2 or 3. But that's more for if you're making any sort of competitive game as you want to keep it as fair as possible. If you're making a small, low player count casual game you'd probably be better off not going with servers because that would just cost more (depending on how many people play) and people tend to not whine about lag in co-op games because you're not trying to kill someone with lag as well.
I'm not sure if Photon allows for direct connections, but I know UNET does. If both do allow for direct connection, then there would be no difference in the lag because once the data is sent the speed it travels isn't deter$$anonymous$$ed by the API you used.
Ultimately though, it's all dependent on your netcode. The smoother you can make the motion feel, even for a very laggy player, the better your game will handle lag. There will be lag no matter what, but it's about how you hide it.
