Im not sure I got what you mean here… I simply need server code to implement an authoritative server to block multiplayer cheating attempts.
Ok so you are not using it to avoid multiplayer cheating right?
@newlife If you are looking for a way to detect or block ppl who want to fly around, teleport or insta kill other players for example, that’s with you multiplayer server, Playfab dosen’t work that way.
In my case I don’t mind these kind of cheats at the moment.
Java and Javascript.
I guess the Google documentation is a good starting point.
Take a look at this link for example: https://developers.google.com/identity/sign-in/android/start-integrating
In particular the “Authenticate with a backend server” chapter is useful for the server-side part.
I think the need for authentication depends on your game requirements. In any case if your client is authenticated, you will probably need to identify the currently signed-in user on the server, so you know who is doing what, you can store data related to a given user, etc.
We don’t have other documents, because they are not needed. SmartFoxServer is a rock solid product on the market since 15 years ago and being kept up-to-date since then. So the concepts expressed in those documents are still perfectly valid, and where performance is discussed, you will probably get even better results with modern hardware.
We think those dates prove the stability and reliability of SmartFoxServer.
@MrsPiggy , @Rafael-cmk did you have ever considered Amazon gamelift or microsoft playfab?
They seem to offer both hosting and multiplayer server. What do you think?
I know very little about both, I get the gist of what they do and I think they’d be good if you don’t run a client-server solution. Or maybe if you run a very barebone solution that has limited features so you have to integrate those services for login, storage etc. Personally I don’t like having pieces of my game in multiple places unless you do everything with these services.
@newlife I do use Playfab, for login and purchase authetications.
Playfab is not exatly realtime, you make everything with http request and it takes a while, they offer multiplayer servers too but it’s basically Microsoft Azure instances, I prefer to use Amazon EC2.
Never used Amazon gamelift, from what I’ve seen it’s not a backend server, it’s a service that will start instances on demand, similar to Photon Cloud matchmaking. Correct me if I’m wrong.
@newlife Amazon service similar to Playfab is called GameSparks, I never used it but wish to, from what I’ve seen it works with websockets, so there is an actual login, in Playfab there is no login since it work with http request, to avoid 2 sessions at the same time you need to make your own custom server side code.
And talking about custom server side code, Playfab is just horrible to debug, Edit > Save > Pray. Now that I’m more experienced it’s not much of a problem but the learning process as hard.
GameSparks on the other hand has a cool debug system.
@Rafael-cmk can you actually implement some sort of authoritative server side code with these services?
I ask for stuff like leaderboards and similar. Since you can’t trust a client sending their score, you’ll need the server side to calculate the player score and save it. But if these services rely only on HTTP I don’t see how you can make a half-decent mp game, unless it’s slow and turn based.
@MrsPiggy It depends on the kind of game you are making.
Mine is a racing game, for leaderboards I need to either trust what the client is sending or only accept scores from my Photon Server instance wich is garantee to be safe.
These services are most useful for authetication and purchases validation, it’s also a cheap way to store the users data, I use Playfab for almost a year and just now I actually needed to pay something, because I need more inventory slots.
1 Like
I see, thanks. So your game logic runs on Photon and your login, leaderboards and general storage is on playfab?
@MrsPiggy Exactly.
1 Like
The Photon Cloud is managed for you. There are several tiers of the service. The Public Cloud (fully managed, lowest tier) does not allow custom code, as we can not sandbox it sufficiently to run this on shared machines. Tn the highest tier (Enterprise), the developer defines in which places he wants how many machines and custom code can be uploaded (deployment is done by our systems).
If you run your own Photon Server(s), you can host it on various services. In that case, a Master Server can distribute players to multiple attached Game Servers. This maps to a “region” in Photon Cloud. You’d have to make the clients aware of your Master Servers via some list, if you run servers in multiple regions. This part is not managed.
For the type of service Photon provides, our pricing is really not all that bad. Yes, there are entirely free options but each lacks some part of the puzzle, which means you may have some other type of effort.
You probably don’t have to buy two 500 CCU licenses if you wanted to run two versions of the server with half of the CCUs each. Running two versions in one process is often an option and in doubt, we could split the license for you.
Did you get in touch with us?
@tobiass Yeah, sorry about that, I found out I can actually run more than 1 instance in the same process, that’s great.
About the license price, would be great if I could at least buy a cheaper one with less ccu, I will send an email and check with you guys later about this.
Thank you for the response.
Anytime. Mail your use case and we’ll find a solution.
Happy coding!