UDK Online Games

[JasonX]

This might be a stupid question, but... are online games possible with UDK out-of-the-box, or this functionality has been removed?

[immortius]

Online games are possible. There is no built-in server browser though.

[Phopojijo]

Direct IP and LAN are possible... but Epic's not going to pay for your master server list... so if you want a server browser -- roll your own and get your own master server.

[JasonX]

How can we create a server browser without source?

[jonfriesen]

How can we create a server browser without source?

check out raknet. They have a good indie developer clause

[JasonX]

Then we have to create our own RakNet wrapper to Unreal Engine? Bah, maybe we're better off with Unity!

[Hboybowen]

Then we have to create our own RakNet wrapper to Unreal Engine? Bah, maybe we're better off with Unity!

I hope when you say "we're" you mean yourself its not a hard problem to solve.. I choice UDK over Unity because its easier for me to creat great quality games that rival many big budget titles. Unity is for casual devs looking to do more experimental type titles.

[immortius]

Then we have to create our own RakNet wrapper to Unreal Engine? Bah, maybe we're better off with Unity!

No, you don't have to do anything like that.

You would create the master server as a stand alone console application (or windows service or linux daemon or whatever). Raknet is one possible thing you can use for this, although it is not necessary.

On the UDK side you can use the TCPLink class to register servers and to query it, then display the results to the UI (also created with UnrealScript and the UIScene Editor).

[Bunnykinx]

lol... he thinks the server browser is the problem... from what i know its harder to write "network friendly" code then it is to get a server browser working.

Im pretty sure i saw a vid of someone that has already got a server browser working.

[ShawnBaxe]

Then we have to create our own RakNet wrapper to Unreal Engine? Bah, maybe we're better off with Unity!

Game development requires some effort - of course you want to get things done - that's fine. But game development would be boring and less rewarding, if you only had to put some models together and click a 'create'-button
Btw. Unity's free edition lacks some basic stuff (e.g. shadows). And that's something you cannot simply add by writing a custom library.

[Phopojijo]

Then we have to create our own RakNet wrapper to Unreal Engine? Bah, maybe we're better off with Unity!

That's in no way harder than just about anything else involved in making a decent game.

[immortius]

Not something you really need to worry about until you have a decent game either, except to know that it is possible. It's likely someone will make a generic server browser system in the meantime.

[LordsWarrior]

Is there any information for what is needed in a dedicated server, or hwat one are currently available out there?

IN terms of direct connect LAN, this is available now right? Is ther information about how to setup classes to pass info to each other etc.
If I just extned from UT classes I would imagine most of this works stright away right..so what concole commands would I be looking for to get this owkring for a few PCS

thanks heaps

-LW

[elmuerte]

lol... he thinks the server browser is the problem... from what i know its harder to write "network friendly" code then it is to get a server browser working.

I could write a master+server browser in a day using only the UDK. It won't be pretty, but it would work well enough for a small game. (although it might be better not to use the UDK as the actual master server, but a simple webserver and some scripting in php/perl/python/ruby/...)
So yes, you're right, the server browser functionality isn't a major issue when creating a game.
If your game is going to have 1000+ concurrent users you might want to look into 3rd party masterserver functionality.

[JasonX]

I chose UDK for it's obvious out-of-the-box networking capabilities, not because of the rendering power of Unreal Engine. We could write our own networking system for Unity using Raknet, but we didn't wanted to spend time and money with such a difficult task as networking.

Please, don't start the old "making games is not what you think" discussion. We know that because we make them. We also know that out-of-the-box solutions allows us to wrap the game up as soon as possible and get the money flowing, so we can pay the studio rent, for example. Financial pressure, my friends, is a pain in the ***.