Sockets!

[Enzi]

Dear Unity team!

No direct socket access
Due to security implications, JavaScript code does not have direct access to IP Sockets to implement network connectivity. As a result, the .NET networking classes (ie, everything in the System.Net namespace, particularly System.Net.Sockets) are non-functional in WebGL. The same applies to Unity’s UnityEngine.Network* classes, which are not available when building for WebGL.

If you need to use Networking in WebGL, you currently have the options to use the WWW class in Unity, or to implement your networking using WebSockets or WebRTC in JavaScript.

This is not acceptable. For everyone who uses Sockets in games that are complete or in development it means a massive rewrite of the networking code. Also I don’t want to be confronted with mandatory 3rd party modules, be it WebSockets or WebRTC. Then there’s the problem of another language, not everyone is familiar with JS. And maintenance of the code base. Suddenly you have 2 for networking.

So please, think about your stance on sockets or at least keep these things in mind to make our life easier:

• add a fallback in some way
• add a WebSocket class
• scrap WebGL and make a PPAPI webplayer

[jonas-echterhoff_1]

This is not so much about “our stance on sockets”, but about the possibilities the browser vendors supply. To them, giving direct access to Sockets is a major security issue, which they will never allow. This is not going to change.

If you want a WebSocket class, you can just use this one - no need to deal with JS yourself: Unity Asset Store - The Best Assets for Game Making

As for making a PPAPI web player: This has been discussed many times, and won’t happen. PPAPI is not inherently more secure then NPAPI, and I don’t expect that Google will keep this avenue open for longer then they have to.