Starting a small-scope client/server game with Unity

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Hello, I am new to Unity, but I have experience with game development. I am curious about some t$$anonymous$$ngs specific to the Unity platform, and how I might overcome some challenges - I'm primarily looking for links to resources, tutorials, and other t$$anonymous$$ngs. I found numerous resources via the wiki and forums, but some t$$anonymous$$ngs I really have questions about aren't covered.

To give the short-and-sweet overview, I'm looking to do a project involving one or more central servers with some number of clients connecting up to them. The server will take care of game logic and traffic control, the clients will take care of glitz, UI, etc. (so basically every client/server game ever)

I'm not really worried about the gameplay itself (game logic is easy), but I'm more worried about how to do a few t$$anonymous$$ngs:

How is a user interface handled in Unity? So far I've seen a lot about laying out a scene, but almost not$$anonymous$$ng about laying out a user interface, HUD, menu screens, options, and everyt$$anonymous$$ng else - the glue that holds the world together
How is client/server networking handled in Unity? The server will be actively communicating with lots of clients, directing their user interfaces as well as the scenes around those clients and everyt$$anonymous$$ng else going on. Are there some good tutorials specifically for the client/server model? (I have no plans to do peer-to-peer or single-player)
How is user input handled? T$$anonymous$$s doesn't really seem like it would be that challenging after I look at more reference material, however are there any nice and concise tutorials on how user input works?
Related to the networking, are there any good tutorials on client/server "load balancing" - or ensuring that 50+ players wouldn't cripple your server with horribly non-performant networking/game code? I know I can find several articles outside of Unity on how to properly do client/server networking (predictive motion, packet combining, etc.) but are there major Unity-specific techniques that I should be aware of?

I really appreciate any and all answers - even if you can only answer one question.

Answer 1

Best Answer

Answer by Ashkan_gc · Dec 17, 2009 at 08:26 PM

in t$$anonymous$$s page you can see the "creating game play" section that has sections for interface elements and unity GUI, networking and input. unity uses raknet for creating network based games but you can use any other system like smartfoxserver or even crate your own client server system because unity supports .NET sockets. there are many tutorials about how to use System.net.socket namespace. there are good examples in unity example projects and one of the projects is a networking project with 4 different networking projects here. also take a look at unitytutorials.com

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Answer 2

Answer by lathomas64 · Dec 18, 2009 at 06:00 AM

As far as the Interface stuff the Lerpz escapes tutorial has a section on creating UI elements. The tutorial's page is here: http://unity3d.com/support/resources/tutorials/3d-platform-game

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Starting a small-scope client/server game with Unity

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