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Is Unity Multiplayer HLAPI production ready? Bueller?

Discussion in 'Multiplayer' started by p87, Jul 12, 2017.

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Is Unity Multiplayer HLAPI production ready?

Poll closed Aug 12, 2017.
  1. YES

    2 vote(s)
    50.0%
  2. NO

    2 vote(s)
    50.0%
  1. p87

    p87

    Joined:
    Jun 6, 2013
    Posts:
    318
    I'm coming back to unity after not using it for well over a year. I was hoping that UNET would be improved... it does not seem like anything has changed o_O

    I see a lot of complaints and grievances with the HLAPI, and it does not appear as if unity staff are acknowledging (nonetheless responding to) much of the feedback.

    Has anyone successfully used unity multiplayer HLAPI for a production game? :eek: I wanted to use it for prototyping... I would appreciate any opinions on unity multiplayer, I don't want to waste my time with it if it's not ready for production. Thanks
     
    Last edited: Jul 12, 2017
  2. xVergilx

    xVergilx

    Joined:
    Dec 22, 2014
    Posts:
    3,296
    Just. Don't. If you can - stick to LLAPI, or other plugins - Photon, Forge. They're in great shape, have great support and up-to-date manuals.

    I'm working with HLAPI for a quite some time now, and it's just not good enough. Random bugs, glitches still occur, and it's getting more and more absurd time goes. Plus - limitation applied to the way things organized, bad design decisions etc.

    I'd say with each iteration of Unity it goes even worse.
     
    p87 likes this.
  3. TwoTen

    TwoTen

    Joined:
    May 25, 2016
    Posts:
    1,168
    Our title is using the HLAPI. We find it ready to be used and finalized enough for us to work with.
    The time we spend on working around the minor HLAPI issues doesn't overweigh the speed at we can develop with the HLAPI.
     
    p87 likes this.
  4. robochase

    robochase

    Joined:
    Mar 1, 2014
    Posts:
    244
    my game is getting close to done. i hacked the HLAPI code a bit to use steam's p2p layer instead of the LLAPI.

    my only real gripes about the HLAPI are unity's relay servers, and that it really only provides a server-client relationship out of the box. for some fast paced games & online interactions, a peer to peer mesh will simply be faster - it would be nice to see this as an option in the HLAPI.

    beyond that, i'd say it's pretty much production ready. you might need to dive into the library to fix things once in a while, but this is something programmers should be comfortable with doing anyways. i'm grateful that they chose to make their API open source because it gives us all tons of control over our projects' fate.
     
    thegreatzebadiah and p87 like this.
  5. p87

    p87

    Joined:
    Jun 6, 2013
    Posts:
    318
    thanks for the input. After reading lots of complaints on the forums, this is the way I'm leaning. I agree that there are some constraints and bad design decisions, especially related to the networking components... have to put all networkbehaviours on the root of a game object, etc.

    that's funny, because I had a project I started over a year ago and it was working OK with the HLAPI - but now I can't get the NetworkTransform to look smooth, at all. Tried messing with all the settings, update rate, different sync modes, etc - it is extremely laggy and I remember it working better before.

    Yesterday I also went and did both of the tutorials that unity has available for unity multiplayer, and my network transforms are not behaving correctly there either. I did both the text tutorials, and the video 'christmas fragmas' one or whatever. Something seems broke - Extremely laggy movement on the network transform. It replicates rotation and commands work properly, but the transform replication is not working properly. I tried messing with all the settings on the network transform but I'm pretty sure something has broke within unity. It was easy to figure out before.
     
    Last edited: Jul 12, 2017
  6. p87

    p87

    Joined:
    Jun 6, 2013
    Posts:
    318
    hey @TwoTen , may i ask what kind of game you are developing? how many players are you supporting per room, etc? Have you tried any other networking options/assets?
     
  7. TwoTen

    TwoTen

    Joined:
    May 25, 2016
    Posts:
    1,168
    About 30-80 players per server. Dedicated only
     
  8. Deleted User

    Deleted User

    Guest

    here's an example of smooth movement synchronization on HLAPI with interpolation, https://wobesdev.wordpress.com/2016/09/09/networking-on-unity5/
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 5, 2018
    Youdaman likes this.
  9. robochase

    robochase

    Joined:
    Mar 1, 2014
    Posts:
    244
    Wobes beat me to it. the NetworkTransform component isn't great.

    i found it ok for a rough pass. like slap a networktransform on a new feature just to get some basic synchronization going when you're in a rush. but ultimately, you'll probably want to write your own sync code - it's not hard btw, and you'll appreciate the flexibility.
     
  10. Deleted User

    Deleted User

    Guest

    Yeah, but still, HLAPI gives you a NetworkServer and NetworkClient, just grab it and write something on top of it instead of using components out of a box like NetworkTransform.