Photon or Smartfox? Which is better?

Question

I've seen questions about these before, but they were all a few years ago and I know both programs/services have probably received updates within that timeframe. I'm wondering as of now which service/program should I go for for networking? Price is a major issue for me right now so it all depends on the price to CCU ratio as well. It's going to be for an MMO. The game is surrounded around roleplaying, but it's nothing like standard MMORPGs these days. It's more focused around animals and such. I became interested in Photon because it appears that no server-side coding is needed unlike SmartFox which requires Java. Seems like I could get up and running faster with Photon. However, the game will be have to be able to run smoothly with a lot of users in a single area or room. So, which would overall be better?

Answer 1

Alright have a serious question for you and please don't take this as me being a jerk. I am actually trying to help you but I need to know one thing. Have you done any work with networking before? If not I suggest forget about starting a project focused on MMO mechanics. I only say this because there is more than meets the eye with networking games especially when it comes to MMOs.

Now if you do have experience please ignore the above statement, it is made for anyone else that stumbles upon this post that might not have any experience in creating an MMO or networking in that matter.

If you are creating an MMO based game forget about using PUN...completely. Now for Photon server it is possible and there is a great guy out there (http://www.cjrgaming.com/) that has made a tutorial series to create an MMO and more using both SmartFox2X and Photon Server. Both are great tools but are targeted at different backgrounds... If you have experience (even a little) with Java go with Smartfox... it will save you lots of time and has great documentation. If you are completely new I would go with Photon server and just in case you decide MMO is too huge for you it will be easy to drop to PUN and gain some experience making basic networking applications.

Now CJR Gaming does offer letting you buy the framework for $100 or so but if you are serious on learning the concepts I would save your money and watch the tutorials from the start and take notes. Before watching the videos make sure that you understand the concepts of C# and not just Unity's version, but creating C# scripts and .NET.

One thing that I found helpful was watching his videos and every so often trying to figure out the next step before you watch the next video, you will be surprised how much you can put together on your own.

This will keep you busy for awhile and if you have questions(or anyone that reads this) please don't hesitate to email (jrkruse@bananaclipstudio.com) me and I will be glad to help you find your path to learning how to make your networking games.

I hope that you find this a bit helpful and best of luck :)

Photon or Smartfox? Which is better?

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