Unity server instance without the 3d graphics?

Reading the forum and the documentation it´s not clear to me if there is a way to run a headless instance of a unit game scene. Some mention the "-batchmode" command line argument, some mention the "Run in Background" option. But I could not find any definitive answer.

So the question:

Is it possible to run an Unity game instance as a server, without the 3d Graphics and GUI, in a "headless" mode?

Main reasons for wanting this:

1) Spare server CPU, GPU and memory resources, thus allowing more server instances per machine and/or more players per server.
2) Have the game logic and physics replicated in a semi authoritative server.
3) Maybe be able to run the server inside an emulated/virtual environment in a Linux server.

Thanks in advance.

 

Im afraid not, nope.

However, there is some sort of a headless mode on mac...unsure about the details though )Maybe thats the batchmodeindeed). Plus, I would want my server to run on linux..or in the worst case windows.

Run in background would be required for servers, but is unrelated to headless mode.

 

That's lame.

Because it means:
* less clients per server.
or
* that I will have to code a server from scratch having to worry about physics and with how to run the server side game logic.

Thanks anyway.

 

Note that you *can* disable the rendering. Just turn off all cameras. You're still stuck with the application window though.

 

That could help.

On other hand, I figure that turning of the cameras will not prevent the render assets from being loaded.

 

Totally worthless at least for the only real hosting option, Windows
Still runs 50%-70% of a 3.2Ghz P4 with no single client connected and a totally empty scene (the network test loader with all gui removed and reduced to tps auth switching only) and camera disabled (whole object including cam component and listener)

Prepare to roll your own server solution with raknet and the unity packet ids mentioned in a different thread by zumwalt, if you want a dedicated server or to use Photon / Neutron / SmartFoxServer


As for the headless: thats only for the editor to run buildscripts, its no client option

 

Do Application.targetFramerate = 10 and it runs with pretty low CPU usage. Windows executable usually tries to run as many FPS as possible, so decreasing the draw calls doesn't really do much unless you limit the framerate.

Still not good for professional server, but better if you don't want to make your own from scratch.

 

Actually Unity games could once run headless, at least on the Mac (actually it should work right now but last time I tried it, I couldn't make it work). I hope that this will make it into current Unity builds some day soon - and hopefully also for Windows (since I'm not gonna rent Mac servers ;-) ).

You might want to vote for it:

http://feedback.unity3d.com/pages/15792-unity/suggestions/164004-networking-headless-server-support

(Aras also explains how to start a headless game server on Windows there, so you might give it a try ;-) ).

 

yeah vote my idea up! I need this too. I am using networking except for these issues. lol

 

I just voted for it!

We can't use unity without headless server for windows or linux.

 

I voted as well. This is really essential for any serious multiplayer effort.

 

http://forum.unity3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=24615

This feature will be in a future release of unity!
(But which one?)

 

I guess which one depends a little bit on how many votes it gets ;-)

http://feedback.unity3d.com/pages/15792-unity/suggestions/164004-networking-headless-server-support

I hope for 2.6 (and would *love* to get it in the next release) ;-)

 

i gave it 3 votes.
with the next release everything will be better :roll:

 

I know this thread is old, but I just found the answer now, maybe this will help someone else. Run your app with -batchmode -nographics

 

Thanks Scorch, I had the same issue, I will try that

 

I have found myself with the same need. I did discover SmartFoxServer, which supports up to 20 concurrent users with the free version of the latest release. The unlimited concurrent users license seems worth the money to me.

 

2014 now, and the link goes to 404. Is that issue solved yet? Links please.

 

Yay for thread necro!

There's information at https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/CommandLineArguments.html that is helpful, here. Check out the command-line parameter "-nographics". It would appear that we can totally write headless servers, there's just not enough pointers to the information so we can figure out how.

Posting this purely because this was one of the first google responses on the subject, so it deserves a refresh.

Oh, and some more words for search engines to key on: dedicated server, noGUI, no graphics initialization

 

To run as headless use command-line parameters "-batchmode -nographics", or with a Linux build you can just check the headless build check box on the build settings window.

When running headless you need to set Application.targetFrameRate to a sane value (60 for example), because the Update loop is no longer waiting for graphics work between frames to slow it down. If you don't you'll see your build run at 100% CPU usage as it runs through the Update loop as fast as possible, which could be hundreds or thousands of frames per second.

https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/Application-targetFrameRate.html