Unity Network or Photon Network?

Hi! I have a big question... Im doing a coop RPG project like Kingdom Hearts and and i do not know what network system is best for this project. Which is easier? What are the differences? The native network of unity have serious limitations?

Thnks to much

 

Whatever is easier for you to use. Frankly netcode is really hard, but some APIs are easier than the others. I'd suggest evaluate both, if you find unity network to be lagless enough (UN had problems with lags in the past, don't know how it is now) and easy, use it. If you experience extreme lags with UN and/or you find coding for Photon is easier for you, use Photon.

 

In UN when i move my player, the other player see my character with lagg... But im in local network...

 

BoltEngine is my vote. It can be a little daunting at first, but wow is it nice for so much networking stuff. If you're using multiple scenes, it will need some method to transfer data between scenes (unity networking, database, file, whatever) which in a few months may be included... but for the core networking portion... it's very, very good.

As for what is best? They'll all do the job in one way or another.
Which is easiest? uLink, Bolt, Photon all seemed easy to pick up. It's pretty relative.
Differences? Too many to list.
Limitations? Unity Networking, current state, is TCP only and very limited - which is why there are all these other networking solutions. Everything else seems to be pretty robust.

Price should be considered as well. Research it a bit. I spent a week just reading information before I settled on a network solution.

 

I would vote Photon over Unity Networking as I seen first hand the issues Unity Networking has. A friend was developing a game with Unity Networking and ran into tons of issues between lag, and connectivity issues. When he discovered Photon and started to code with it, he found it much easier to work with and experienced much less issues. I don't know the full technical details, but all I know I choose to go with Photon Cloud for my project, and so far I have yet to deal with any issues similar to what I saw in comparison to Unity Networking. Regardless which one you choose you still have to code properly to minimize lag or disconnects as that's the case with any Networking Solution.

 

whats with photon cloud .. and photon?

.. my opinion has been that i HATE those games that are "always online" .. or that, "require master server"

what happened to.. "hey dude whats your ip" .. - type in ip.

.. but i really dont know a whole lot about this stuff... just that, photon sounds like the kind of thing i DESPISE!!
.. but... like i said, i dont really know... ??

i had asked this before.. and they said you can use photon server then.. but then the license for that is expensive.. ($3000 ? )

now.. as a indie game dev, maybe photon cloud is good, just for ease.. but as a game player and critic.. i absolutely despise that stuff.. (mainly because, some games master server have been shut down and you can no longer play it multiplayer at all)

 

I'd rather wait for Unity's UNet which is coming sometime in 2015.

 

Will it be like mainsttream games? What I mean is, will you be able to just click join game from other side of the world and play, or does it still require knowing IP's and does have it bad NAT Punchthrough?

And most importantly, will it work with free? LOL.

 

It's been stated it will work with Free, be much more robust than current implementation, and just all around better. There are some good posts on it, do a search. You could wait, if able, and just work on other stuff until then; however, shoehorning networking in after-the-fact can be quite tedious... so I guess just plan for it.

 

I don't know anything about free/paid splits. Just buy pro and mortgage the house.

 

I actually find Networking easier than Single Player coding, at least the way Photon does everything.
I know that probably sounds strange, but it just seems easier for me LOL.

But glad it's going to be on free!

 

Do you have some insider info when this stuff will be available?

 

Last i checked I think all major multiplayer games on the market today operate with a Master Server. Any game I have ever seen with just Peer-to-Peer Networking which Requires IP, I don't think those games are even around anymore, or atleast no one plays the Multiplayer Version of the Game with that kind old Networking Solution. I'm not so sure why you hate it so much, it's today's standard in most Majory Multiplayer Games.

 

I know its pretty great. It's got some bright minds from the AAA gaming sector working on it. I really like it and feel that it's going to replace photon in the long term while being far easier to use. You can also opt for advanced or simple ways to use it. It was detailed on the Unity blog a while ago. I'm not at liberty to disclose what might still be an Alpha feature. I can only discuss what's on beta at the moment

 

http://blogs.unity3d.com/?s=unet

I only know what's on the blogs, but I still love me some Bolt Engine.

 

If you have experience with network programming and web servers use Unity Network or Raknet (I think that now is free since OculusVR buy it, but the old site keep the license prices that is a bit confusing), if not use a server service as Photon, some have free plans.

 

dead rising 2, i got into it late.. and i Really wanted to play coop with a friend, but at the time the master server was taken down and theres no way to play it coop... sure, they came out with sequels, but it made me mad, i dont want to give them anymore money lol

i guess its just im hating the way games have become, with DLC and microtransactions.. and like, console games requiring 2 consoles and 2 games (instead of splitscreen couch coop) .. and i have always hated steam, and always will (required patches... noooo!!)

i used to play games ALOOTTT back when, (diablo2, starcraft, cod2, etc) and then i kinda stopped for quite a few years, and then when i come back to play games alot.. they changed everything to be super lame.. like i spent 100s of hours making maps for cod.. and now, cod doesnt even have a map maker cause they want to sell DLC... (i miss the custom maps, some were waaay better than cod devs could even imagine to make)

 

I switched to Photon a while ago and it is remarkable! Super easy to use and to get up and running, and you can use the same code / logic for single/offline and multi-player/online without huge if blocks.

As long as there is no new Unity Networking I'd go with Photon anytime! They have a free tier and a nice one time pay package to up the tier to 100.

 

But phase two which includes authoritative server setup might not even come in the 5.X cycle...

 

If Unity says 2015 I would expect 2016. I mean 4.6 just came out and they said "definitely summer 2014" I remember. Get something else, that's too long to wait. Bolt is the best once it gets all the features. It's lacking some right now.