Corona-cation (Day 16)

Figuring out networking


    Today I continue my search to find a way to make this game work over the internet. I started out trying to find a way to test the game when I was ready. I wanted to be able to do it all at my house, not having to rely on anyone else to test. But after looking around I couldn't find a way to do this. I wanted to be able to simulate an internet connected game over my own LAN but the only solutions I found were sketchy programs and complex router/modem crap that I didn't understand. For now I have to rely on the availability of my team to be able to test new prototypes. 
    Once I had that behind me I did some research into ports, public IP addresses, game sessions, and how exactly unreal handles all of it. I didn't find much that was helpful, but I did find this video from 2014 when the blueprint networking nodes were introduced. This made me give the blueprint approach one more look. It seems to work in every environment that I've tested so far, but then again I haven't tested the real thing yet across the internet so we'll see. If this works though, it will be so much easier than the IP connection system I was using before. 

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