Server Size Limits

Unity Engine
1

Short post, and newbie questions…but,

I’m just curious…when everyone refers to the amount of players a networked Unity game could handle (or when talking about any game for that matter) is this based upon certain nuances in the code that would make it difficult for a very large multi-player game?

OR

Is this based upon the ability of the server itself (not the ‘game server’)?

2

The choice in the maximum number of players is influenced by some of the following criteria:

  • how many players the game client can render at once ont he screen (client resources usage)
  • the resources necessary to simulate X amount of players on the server: How much stress does it put on the server? How much physical memory does each player take up?
  • The network bandwidth necessary for each player to enjoy a smooth experience. Server bandwidth isn’t an infinite resource, and it costs money.
  • Gameplay considerations: do you really want 256 players shooting at each other in a small room?

The limits don’t come from the code, they mostly come from resource usage limitations (I listed some of them above). If you want to have a fully reactive game with 256 players in the same room, you’re going to need to make some sacrifices on a number of areas (features, rendering quality) and risk increasing the complexity of your software in order to implement the necessary optimizations to pull it off.

Does this answer your question?

3

Yep. Thanks much Spk :smile: