Create listen server without source code using blueprints for multiplayer?

Development Programming & Scripting Multiplayer & Networking
, , , , , ,
1

So I ask, is it possible to create a listen server using blueprints? Or maybe even a dedicated server with blue prints? Or either one or both in c++ without the source code?

I’ve been looking for a couple of weeks now on how to do this, and I cant seem to find a way to do it without using the source code. Maybe I’m wrong, but I haven’t stumbled across it. Can any of the above be done without the source code?

In another post I created:

The unreal engine source from github cant find visual studio.

So since I cant seem to get the engine source code to work atm, which was the only reason I wanted to even attempt using the engine source, was to make or learn how to make a packaged game that can connect to a server or host a game itself over LAN. Or figure out in some other way to create a packaged game that can allow you to play solo, or connect to, or host some instance of the game where if another person wanted to join said game, could. So in short a multiplayer game.

And since I’m asking about multiplayer games… What would be a way to create a turn based game such as lets say checkers? Where I as a player on client 1, could see all the pieces to the board, take my turn, move my piece on the board, then when my turn was over save the board as is and send it to a friend, client 2, so he could then take his turn and repeat. So like a words with friends, we each take a turn, send the updated variables back and forth. How would this be done? What would this sort of data swapping be referred as? Would the data need to be saved to a website, or a dedicated server? Could this be done on mobile sort of like text messaging? When my turn is complete, send the message to my friend through the game telling him, hey its your turn, and so on.

Oh and I know pretty much nothing about c++. :slight_smile: It’ll be a challenge, but maybe I’ll learn something.
Any suggestions, tips or points in the right direction would be appreciated.

Thanks!

~

2

Note that all builds except once that lack server code (“Client” build) as dedicated server mode which you start with -server option in command line, so you dont need to build deticated server to have dedicated server, i remember host providers placed full RTCW:ET (and pretty much all Q3 engine games) was placed on servers and they just run it in dedicated server mode. Other there is no dedicated server only binery, one of points of having access to source is to have ability to build software with custom configuration, having multiple binery builds with varius build configuation would take a lot of space.

You could ask someone to build your game for you or maybe use diffrent computer, or reinstall that broken VS somehow.

3

So if I understand you correctly, all builds, other than a client build, can be a dedicated server by just adding -server in the code? Is that in the source code or can that be applied in blueprints using an execute console command node?

So when I launch a non client game build it would become a dedicated server? Or is that considered a listening server?

As to asking someone to build the game for me, I’m just messing around with UE4. I find it entertaining to be able to make a game and mess with the blueprints to change how it works, plays etc. I’m not doing any of this to make money, more just as entertainment, and learning. I have been thinking of starting to learn c++ or maybe just enough of it to kind of have an idea what is going on in coding.

As for my issue with UE4 not finding VS, do you think it could be just a bad install of VS? I have uninstalled it and reinstalled a few times. But I did find a post on another site, or maybe here saying that uninstalling VS doesn’t really uninstall it completely and I may need to use a third party program to completely uninstall it. Then try and re-install VS again.

Anyways, thanks for replying and taking a moment to give me insight.

~

4

No, you start *.exe with -server option, for example:

UE4Game.exe MapName -server -log

-log will make a log window to open so you can see whats happening. In case of editor you also need ot enter project name and -game option so editor runs game from project insted of editor, here you have a doc about it:

Check register entries it asking for and check if it matches with VS location, try maybe one of those uninstall software that cleans installation complitly. You my also try “verify” your UE4 install in UE4 laucher

5

Thanks for taking a moment still to help me. But I’m still confused. Lol…

That link from the docs says, "Basic command lines (these commands use the editor and therefore don’t require cooked data): " It says it uses the Editor, This doesn’t work for a standalone .exe?

Also in that link it shows a type and command box that has a command for a listening server like:
UE4Editor.exe ProjectName MapName?Listen -game

So, if my project’s name was MyGame, when I start the .exe for my game (MyGame.exe, Level1 being my map) and it has fully loaded, do I press the ~ key to bring up the command box and type in :
MyGame Level1?Listen -game

If so, does that set that .exe as a listen server? So if I were to start a second .exe it would be able to connect to the first?

Sorry, for being a little slow at this. :slight_smile:

~

6

hi nihilwolf.
what you can do is watching these videos here :- YouTube
you ll find lots of usefull things about doing what you want with the listen server.
and you can download my project here :
[FREE] Blueprints multiplayer replicated bonus spawn system - Community Content, Tools and Tutorials - Unreal Engine Forums
there s a create / join session system in the player controller blueprint (orange comments in the left part of it). it s a pretty simple system, without error handling, made for testing my system only, but it may help you.
finaly, on epi launcher’s LEARN tab, you can find a project called multiplayer shootout containing lots of stuff for replication a session management.
hope it helps !

7

expose Thanks for your comment.

I did check out your example project, and when I tried it out as a build project running 2 standalone versions of it, they were able to connect over LAN and play together on the same computer. Which I thought was really weird, since in fact your session handling is super easy.

The project I was making had pretty much the same exact blueprint nodes working other than I had it all working with a HUD to click on buttons to handle sessions vs pressing a button. So I changed all my nodes to exactly how you had done in your example. I still could not get 2 build standalones to connect over my LAN.

After looking over every minute detail of all the blueprints in your project, I could find nothing that would make my build work any differnt than yours. So, I looked into the folder of your project that I downloaded, and saw a few extra .ini files. Again, I’m no c++ programmer, but looking in those, i didnt see anything calling for anything network related. Well other than, [OnlineSubsystem]
DefaultPlatformService=Null

I looked into the folder where I built your project, in that folder,C:\Unreal Engine Projects\multispawn\Packaged\WindowsNoEditor\Engine\Binaries\Win64, there was an extra .exe named UE4Game.exe. I didn’t have that in the folder where I built my multiplayer example.

Since I was having trouble getting the source engine working, which btw has now been solved, I was really puzzled as to how your build project ran a LAN but mine wouldnt. Especially since I just changed all my session handling to mimic what you had done.

So… I moved my project to where unreal engines default projects were, “C:\Users\Desktop\Documents\Unreal Projects”, rebuilt the project and I’ll be darned, my project was able to connect to or host over LAN. Im not sure why just moving the project to the default location made it worked, but whatever… contine in next post…

8

ah so sorry about this. i forgot a pretty important thing here… you have to enable the online subsystem in your projects Defaultengine.ini. for this, just add those lines (any where you want)

[OnlineSubsystem] DefaultPlatformService=Null

i’m really sorry i forgot this. :frowning: it should work now :slight_smile:

9

Now just as I made this move and my project was able to build out and work, good ole came through with my problem on getting the source code to work. So I don’t think that had anything to do with me being unable to connect over LAN, but maybe? If not that, then why did making the move to the folder allow it to work? Because after the move, and building my project I had that UE4Game.exe also. Lol, all this headache just because I wasn’t saving or building out projects in a default folder. /shrug

Also this little sample project I made, wasn’t the only one I had tried to connect over LAN. I couldn’t get the multiplayer shootout example from epic to work either. Nor the third person example when I tried that. So I don’t think it had anything to do with how my nodes in my blueprints were setup. Since I tried this over 3 projects and like I said, matched yours node for node.

So either it was something to do with moving my project to a different folder, something changed while I was getting the engine source to work, or some other thing happened during this adventure.

Anyways, thanks for the suggestions and tips, I’m still puzzled as to what, where or how my project built out to work over LAN. But… she did.

Thanks for the help!

~

10

Lol one more reply… I should note the reason I made the move in the first place…

After downloading expose’s project, since I believe it was his whole project, it loaded up in the editor as such, the size of the folder was only around 100mb after extracting. Where my project was like 4gigs? So with the smaller size and the extra UE4Game.exe, for whatever reason, made me think to look in the default folder where the editor saved projects. There I noticed some of the sample projects I had made way back when I originally started messing with UE4, and their file sizes were also a whole lot smaller, I made the move.

Thanks again,

~

11

Thanks for mentioning this, but I had already added that to my .ini.

~

12

I had already add that to my file. But thanks for mentioning it!

~