UNet, including Low-level API, now removed from Unity 2022.2. Find links to alternatives here.

Unity Engine
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Hello everyone,

Unity’s legacy netcode solution for Monobehaviours, UNet, was formally deprecated in August 2018. Last year, we posted about UNet’s planned removal from the Unity Editor and shared information related to our sunset plan for its legacy services (UNet Relay and UNet Matchmaker).

Now, we’d like to inform you that with the release of Unity 2022.2.0a5 on February 16th, 2022, UNet low-level API (LLAPI) has been removed from the editor for the upcoming Unity 2022.2 tech stream. This also means that UNet will not be included in the LTS version of the engine for 2022. You can still choose to use UNet LLAPI if you use Unity 2021.3 LTS. All our LTS releases come with a two-year support-lifecycle. Developers starting new projects can opt to use our new multiplayer libraries: Netcode for GameObjects and Netcode for Entities. We have a migration guide for UNet users wanting to convert to Netcode for GameObjects on our documentation site.

Legacy UNet services, though deprecated, will remain online and in maintenance-mode throughout the two-year, 2021.3 LTS support lifecycle (estimated to conclude around mid-year 2024). No immediate action is required of UNet Relay and UNet Matchmaker users today. However, we recommend that creators using legacy services begin the process of migrating to our new Unity Game Services in order to ensure your games are well supported moving forward. Unity will publish a migration guide as part of the upcoming Unity Gaming Services (UGS) launch that will inform users how to move from the legacy services to the live Multiplay, Relay, Matchmaker, and Lobby services.

For more information on these alternatives, please check out these links:

Netcode for GameObjects
Client-server network modeled netcode with no dependency on Unity’s Entity Component System (ECS)

Available as a supported pre-release package for 2020.3 LTS, 2021.3 LTS, and the latest tech stream. Netcode for GameObjects is open source and comes with an emphasized design for the creation of cooperative style games.

Netcode for Entities
Client-server network modeled netcode that leverages ECS

Available as an experimental package with 2020.3 LTS and Unity 2021 LTS. Designed to support medium to large scale competitive action games.

[Unity Transport (UTP)](http:// About Unity Transport | Unity Multiplayer Networking)
Netcode-agnostic transport layer library with end-to-end encryption

Available as a release package for 2020.3 LTS, Unity 2021 LTS and the 2022 Tech stream releases.

Unity Relay
Encryption supported Relay Service with consumption-modeled pricing

In Open Beta with a GA planned for June 2022. A migration guide will be available for users of UNet’s legacy relay service. Users may start using Relay on their own immediately.

Unity Lobby
Service to create, join, browse public and private lobbies

In Open Beta with a GA planned for June 2022. A migration guide will be available for users of UNet’s legacy lobby/matchmaking service. Users may start using Lobby on their own immediately

Multiplay & Unity Matchmaker
Dedicated Game Server hosting and Matchmaking service

  • Enterprise: Currently available, please contact us
  • Self-Serve: Multiplay Self-Serve and Matchmaker Self-Serve publicly available in June 2022.

We are very grateful for your feedback throughout the years since we first announced our intention to sunset UNet. Now, we’re excited to support you as you move onto our latest technologies. Users can learn first hand how our APIs for Netcode for GameObjects, Unity Transport, Relay, and Lobby work together by downloading and trying out our vertical-slice game sample, Boss Room. Should you have any questions or needs, please reach out to us through your Unity representative, on the UNet Forum, or real-time on our Unity Multiplayer Networking Discord server.

Thank you,
The Unity Multiplayer Teams

4 Likes
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In Version 2022 that could mean goodbye Mirror networking extensions of unet, WebGL/WebAssembly in LAN needs netcode muliplayer with priority. (Dual Duplex Channel TCP sockets and UDP quic/webrtc)

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Redirecting to latest version of com.unity.netcode seems broken

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Don’t forget to (finally) remove Unet from the docs that match this build. Currently it’s just a deprecation warning, which is fine for older versions but UNet is removed now.

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Thanks, @nick-vas and @hippocoder . We’ll be correcting these issues with broken links shortly. Apologies for the inconvenience and thank you for your posts!

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The link for Unity Transport (UTP) goes to a missing page at: https://docs-multiplayer.unity3d.com/transport/current/introduction

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Thank you, Andy. We’ve corrected the link. Should now be: https://docs-multiplayer.unity3d.com/transport/current/about

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I am working on a big project using UNET (LLAPI), the main reason I use it, is because it supports WebGL but also because it allows a low level access. I would like to ask a few questions @UnityGio

  1. Why doesn’t the new Unity Networking support WebGL, while the old one is supporting it? It is a step back, so there must be some reason behind it. Could you please tell me the reason (like maybe something stopped you from implementing the WebGL support in the new networking)? Or maybe the support was added?

  2. Is there any way to access the UNET source code or at least access the UNETManager object? This would allow me to do more things that I need.

  3. Do you know about any WebGL game that is using UNET? I would like to see any life example, as in 2018 I created such game and a bug in UNET destroyed the whole project. I contacted Unity about it and it is probably fixed now, but I am still afraid that I will encounter it or maybe some other one again. Seeing that someone was able to create a WebGL game using UNET would work as a proof that it is not the case.

Thank you very much for the answers.

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Even though I already have everything prepared in UNET i will try to prepare alternative version using Transport as I see that it offers similar low level access and supports WebGL now.

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The ‘migration guide for unet user’ link is broken. I now have to deal with this to keep local network games.