I am trying to find a server to use for the project I am working on. Being relatively new to Unity I am not sure what the best option is.
The first requirement that I plan to run this server in a Linux environment.
I am not currently decided on whether I will take an authoritative approach or a non-authoritative approach. But I am leaning towards authoritative as security will be an issue. So I supposed I will favor a server conducive to this method.
I plan on having each server instance, each running on a separate machine, handling at least a hundred users. But that is a tentative goal.
There seem to be a lot of options available and trying them all out is problematic, I was hoping to gain some insight from the people who have experience in using these options.
If you want to host it on linux then you won’t be able to use Unity’s built in Networking. You will need to use Photon, SmartFox, Lidgren, or any other Networking Library that will work with Unity.
I think you’re confusing what the master server does, and what dedicated server backends like SmartFox Server and Electro Server do.
The master server is just a place that stores the ip addresses of active servers of your game, hosted by players, so other players can pull a list of the active games that people are playing. It doesn’t actually compute any game logic or anything. You can host a master server on a linux rig. You can’t have 100 person games in this situation, because the players are actually the hosts, and you’re limited by the speed of their ISP.
Dedicated server backends like SmartFox and Electro Server use their own API’s to act as a dedicate server that can support hundreds of players, where the server is actually the “host” that manages game logic authoritatively.
PS: If your linux web server is a virtual hosting package, unless you have root/remote desktop access you probably can’t host a master server, because you need to compile the makefile in the os.
Ok, sorry, I should have narrowed my question. I know you may implement a Master Server even in PHP (there’s a GAE version somewhere in these forums). But what about the Facilitator to achieve NAT punch-through? I’m currently using Unity’s, but I would like to use my own server…
You could try so, problem is that the client code used by unity is not accessabled, but you might be able to get enough idea to do so basing on the regular RakNet 3.7 sources.
Unsure though if PHP is the way to go there, sounds more like a job for cgi - python - ruby on rails
