Unity Multiplayer Games

Alan R. Stagner

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781849692328
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Informatique
• Subtopic: Programmation de jeux

In Detail

Unity is a game development engine that is fully integrated with a complete set of intuitive tools and rapid workflows used to create interactive 3D content. Multiplayer games have long been a staple of video games, and online multiplayer games have seen an explosion in popularity in recent years. Unity provides a unique platform for independent developers to create the most in-demand multiplayer experiences, from relaxing social MMOs to adrenaline-pumping competitive shooters.

A practical guide to writing a variety of online multiplayer games with the Unity game engine, using a multitude of networking middleware from player-hosted games to standalone dedicated servers to cloud multiplayer technology. You can create a wide variety of online games with the Unity 4 as well as Unity 3 Engine.

You will learn all the skills needed to make any multiplayer game you can think of using this practical guide. We break down complex multiplayer games into basic components, for different kinds of games, whether they be large multi-user environments or small 8-player action games. You will get started by learning networking technologies for a variety of situations with a Pong game, and also host a game server and learn to connect to it.Then, we will show you how to structure your game logic to work in a multiplayer environment. We will cover how to implement client-side game logic for player-hosted games and server-side game logic for MMO-style games, as well as how to deal with network latency, unreliability, and security.

You will then gain an understanding of the Photon Server while creating a star collector game; and later, the Player.IO by creating a multiplayer RTS prototype game. You will also learn using PubNub with Unity by creating a chatbox application. Unity Multiplayer Games will help you learn how to use the most popular networking middleware available for Unity, from peer-oriented setups to dedicated server technology.

Approach

An easy-to-follow, tutorial manner that uses the learning-by-example approach.

Who this book is for

If you are a developer who wants to start making multiplayer games with the Unity game engine, this book is for you. This book assumes you have some basic experience with programming. No prior knowledge of the Unity IDE is required.

Unity Multiplayer Games

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Table of Contents

Unity Multiplayer Games

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewers

www.PacktPub.com

Support files, eBooks, discount offers, and more

Why Subscribe?

Free Access for Packt account holders

Preface

Unity IDE crash course

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the example code

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Unity Networking – The Pong Game

Introducing multiplayer games

Introducing UDP communication

Setting up the Master Server

NetworkViews and state serialization

Writing a custom state serializer

Using RPCs

Initializing a server

Connecting to a server

Connecting to the Master Server

Registering a server with the Master Server

Browsing available servers

Setting up a dedicated server model

Servers in Unity

Compiler directives

Setting up a server console without Pro

Loading networked levels

Creating a multiplayer Pong game

Preparing the Field

The Ball script

The Paddle script

Keeping score

Displaying the score to the player

Networking the game

Spawning paddles

The networked ball

Networked scorekeeping

The Connect screen

Summary

2. Photon Unity Networking – The Chat Client

Differences between PUN and Unity Networking

Setting up PUN with Photon Cloud

Using PhotonViews

Connecting to Photon and getting a list of rooms

Creating and joining rooms

Creating rooms

Joining rooms

Filtering results by user preference

Filtering arrays

Filtering and caching a room list

Automatic matchmaking

Finding friends

Syncing a level between players

Creating a chat client

The Connect screen

The Lobby screen

The chat room

Adding friends lists

Summary

3. Photon Server – Star Collector

Dedicated servers

Getting the Photon Server

Creating a server application

Creating a class library

Responding to operation requests

Deploying the server code

Connecting from Unity and passing messages

Creating a game logic class

Assigning player IDs

Building a star collector game

Preparing the class library

The Actor class

Sending an ID to a player

Keeping track of the game state

Spawning and picking up stars

Broadcasting events

Connecting from Unity

Creating/destroying actors

Controlling the player

Summary

4. Player.IO – Bot Wars

Player.IO versus the Photon Server

Getting and setting up a development server

Setting up the Unity client SDK

Connecting to Player.IO

Getting a list of rooms

Connecting to rooms

Creating rooms

Random matchmaking

Sending/receiving messages

Server-side code

Working with BigDB

Creating a simple RTS prototype

The server-side code

The client-side code

Summary

5. PubNub – The Global Chatbox

Overview of PubNub

Getting started

How PubNub works

Parsing JSON from PubNub

Building a PubNub interface

Creating a global chatbox application

Publishing chat messages

Displaying chat logs

Summary

6. Entity Interpolation and Prediction

Entity interpolation

The client-side prediction

Rigidbody simulation

Creating a networked object

Adding naive interpolation

Improving interpolation

Preparing for server authoritative movement

Implementing server authoritative movement

Notes on hacking

Summary

7. Server-side Hit Detection

Client-side versus server-side hit detection

Creating a testbed

Moving hit detection to the server

Entity rewinding

Summary

Index

Unity Multiplayer Games

Copyright © 2013 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: November 2013

Production Reference: 1201113

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

35 Livery Street

Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-84969-232-8

www.packtpub.com

Cover Image by Prashant Timappa Shetty (<[email protected]>)

Credits

Author

Alan R. Stagner

Reviewers

Clifford Champion

Fabio Ferrara

Sriram. A. S.

Acquisition Editor

Rubal Kaur

Lead Technical Editor

Madhuja Chaudhari

Technical Editors

Dipika Gaonkar

Mrunmayee Patil

Project Coordinator

Apeksha Chitnis

Proofreader

Linda Morris

Indexer

Hemangini Bari

Graphics

Abhinash Sahu

Production Coordinator

Alwin Roy

Cover Work

Alwin Roy

About the Author

Alan R. Stagner is an independent developer with a passion for Unity3D game development. He was introduced to programming by his father, he sought out different ways to create games in a variety of languages. Most recently, he found the Unity game engine and was instantly hooked, and discovered his love of multiplayer game development. He has also dabbled in database and server programming from time to time, mostly involving PHP and MySQL with recent forays into ASP.NET.

I'd like to thank my family and friends, of course—my father is the entire reason I'm a programmer and has helped me every step of the way. Everyone I know has been incredibly supportive. I'd like to thank the Unity community—without them I don't think I would know Unity like I do today. I'd also like to thank Unity for providing such an awesome platform and making it so easy for me to write my first multiplayer game.

About the Reviewers

Clifford Champion has a broad background in software engineering, with years of experience spanning 3D games and Internet applications, and more recently in machine learning. He holds a degree in Mathematics from UCLA. In the past, he has worked as an integration and support engineer at Havok, and also as a lead interactive media and Internet apps programmer at PlainJoe Studios.

Now, he works for zSpace (zspace.com), a hardware/software company creating highly immersive, interactive 3D displays for classrooms, industry, and entertainment. At zSpace, he is a member of the software platform team, helping to enable the holographic-like experience on a variety of game engines and platforms, including Unity. Clifford can be found on Twitter at @duckmaestro and welcomes any discussions.

Fabio Ferrara is a game developer. He is working for Chubby Pixel, an independent game studio based in Milan, which he founded in 2012. They work thoroughly to bring to the users the best possible gaming experience. He has also collaborated for the publication of other books such as Unity iOS Essentials, Packt Publishing.

Sriram. A. S. is a software developer who is currently living in Pune, India. He works primarily in C/C++ and Java. He has been working with Unity 3D from its very early versions; and has developed codes related to its integration with features such as augmented reality, and shared them on his tech blog (http://mypersonalsoft.blogspot.com).

In his spare time, he works on a few open source software. And he also likes to experiment with various other technologies and ideas, along with his team of code passionate friends—the "Hobby Coders" (http://hobbycoders.com).

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