Any plans for unity to upgrade the now opensource Raknet to version 4?/ NETWORKING WHAT? [Solved]

--So you do a search for Unity networking.

They say built in Unity Networking (Raknet 3.72 or so) is trash.

They say look at photon!

Photon looks like a hobby trap. Fine if you want to learn and use a system for 20 people, up that to anything public sized and your looking at thousands yearly even if you host it.​

They say look at uLink

uLink, hmmm at least they don't charge you up the wazu if you happen to be successful. They just charge $700 for a license, presumably on launch. So if I want to ever sell a copy I have to front $700.​

So I've got a broken tool, a tool that I can't go successful with, and a tool I can't be a beginner with.

Swap tools and you have to rewrite and re learn...

Is Unity going to upgrade Raknet in unity or, what are the options here because... this stinks?

 

Just found this blog post by unity <3 http://blogs.unity3d.com/2014/05/12/announcing-unet-new-unity-multiplayer-technology/
Ty unity, your ability to be working on what I desire as I start to desire it is what finally pulled me in. Please just don't try to tie me to a monthly fee for hosting unless I want it. That would be against your style of democratization of games and tools. (But, I see you've got an eye on that.)

Marked Solved

P.S. more specifics some can be found in http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/unet-new-unity-multiplayer-technology.245902/

 

Any multiplayer game hosting will either cost you or not be up to the task for thousands of players. As easy as that.
Making your players host? Fine for 1:1 games. Not cool for 4:4. If the host drops, 7 players are dropped with it, giving every player a bad feeling. Also, you never know who hosts where. Could be the old Android device someone uses isn't up for hosting 4 or 8 or more players.
You still need to host a Unity Master Server which won't be free.
Hosting Unity on some rented servers will cost you even more. Then you need bandwidth and CPU.

You will have to do the math to get the true cost/player and then decide. Just stating things are expensive won't get you anywhere. If you get your thousands of players, do you really do it just for the fun? Tell me you're not doing F2P these days...

 

Excellent points I forgot that while photon has ridiculously scaling prices for large scale projects (as I learned more about uLink) it operates only ever out of a unity client (from my brief encounters).

Depending on game type you could simply host a master server and register other servers (FPS style) or while Modern Warfare 2 did manage to run games entirely off player hosted matches they had more advanced networking at hand and the ability to transfer hosts if a host disconnected. (A feature I might add that is on the radar of the new Unity networking.)

Your right depending on project (unless I mistaken and all would be crazy difficult), some platforms and game structures could have more issues in large scale situations.

But your right. These muliplayer solutions are jerry rigged and would probably affect my design by forcing me to work with a compatible design rather than go with a preferred one. Which is why for serious multiplayer the new version is a relief given it pans out.

 

Since when?
With scale, price goes up, yes, but cost per CCU goes down. We do offer "Private Cloud" deals and the Photon Server license price is capped by an Enterprise Deal. These deals are not detailed in our normal price list but then again none of our current customers bought those without getting in touch first.

The new unet will definitely be a great option when it's coming. If you already know it's the best for you, then you might want to apply for beta access and provide feedback on scaling and performance.

 

You do make a good point. Its also worth pointing out that I've never had to run a large game network scheme so I don't know what CCU demands would typicality be or any spike demand info (sale for instance) and such.

Honestly I wanted to release some freeware title to get my feet wet in networking and I was just noting that any demand at say 150 (generous depending on platform and game type I know) would either incur me a $700 price tag in uLink or be capped at 20 players unless I started incurring a monthly fee (a daunting option for a learning project). Though your about one time $100 for 100 CCU is probably the right spot for that. If it grows beyond that its probably time to slap some monetisation on somewhere.

While I am more comfortable with non tethered solutions perhaps your prices are more reasonable than I considered.

 

Making a first multiplayer "learning" project really is hard. Almost all options have some obvious costs and then there is the fear for hidden costs and miscalculation.

The Photon Cloud $100 "subscription" is actually a one-time fee and if you need to raise the limits, you can anytime. This hopefully is a viable option for small / learning project.

When you do a learning project, you should not worry about thousands of CCU. A game usually needs a lot of attention to get beyond some hundred CCU. Not even everyone who gets your game will play all day.

When a title becomes a surprise success you can cap players, explain and improve the situation relatively quickly, I'd say.