Networking Licensing for End Users

Unity Engine
1

Hello,

After some time exploring the options, I decided to switch my project over to Unity 3D (it was in the very beginning anyway). And I would like some help with all the networking options we have.

My desire is:

  1. Have an authoritative server
  2. Run it from a headless unity client (yes, requires Unity Pro)
  3. Allow my users to setup heir own servers

I think the trickiest requirement is the third one. Although many networking solutions provide a free licensing options, I would not like to forcibly limit my users on the number of connected players to their servers and to have to go and request a free license, and update it when their servers change IPs, etc.

So, unless I am missing something, I have two options at the moment, make the networking using Unity’s built-in networking system or using Lidgren.
I took a look at Server Comparison Spreadsheet (which was posted to another thread) and that’s the conclusion I have arrived.
Anyone knows about any other Unity integrated networking solution that would allow me to grant my users the right to run their own servers with minimum bureaucracy?

Thank you,
Corintho

2

your desires basically point towards unity networking itself + an own hosted masterserver - nat facilitator - connection tester

the only other networking that you could even use alternatively to that is lidgren, the rest are central server architectures where the whole traffic goes through the server which with user hosted servers might or might not be an option depending on how much users you expect to host etc

3

Yeah,

I am thinking of using a master server only for authentication purposes, and letting the users get along with their own servers, but each user server is going to be central to that game. It will be just like making a LAN game server, but allowing people to connect through internet. They will have their own authoritative servers, and they will be required to handle all the traffic from clients, so I want that the concurrent users limit remain bound to server processing power / networking latency.

PS: Its amazing how fast you answer questions on the forums. :slight_smile:

4

The unity master server has nothing to do with authentifcation, you can’t even do that.
Its purpose is game listing and offering the possibility of nat punchthrough at all :smile:

5

I am obviously missing something here, or using the wrong terms for things. :slight_smile:
What I meant is that I intend to have a central server only to handle authentication, and not even have the NAT punch through for the moment. Whoever desire to have a server running, would be required to at least know their router stuff to get it working (although this may change in the future).
So this central server would be totally customized and the clients would talk to it before trying to join a game. And the end-user servers would also connect to it to validate new clients logins.