MultiplayerSample Project

A simple third-person multiplayer sample for O3DE.

NOTE: For Linux, see the Linux specific setup in README_LINUX.

Download and Install

This repository uses Git LFS for storing large binary files. You will need to create a Github personal access token to authenticate with the LFS service.

Create a Git Personal Access Token

You will need your personal access token credentials to authenticate when you clone the repository.

Create a personal access token with the 'repo' scope.

(Recommended) Verify you have a credential manager installed to store your credentials

Recent versions of Git install a credential manager to store your credentials so you don't have to put in the credentials for every request. It is highly recommended you check that you have a credential manager installed and configured

Step 1. Clone the repository

You can clone the project to any folder locally, including inside the engine folder. If you clone the project inside an existing Git repository (e.g. o3de) you should add the project folder to the Git exclude file for the existing repository.

Option #1 (Recommended) - cloning into a folder outside the engine repository folder

# clone the project into a folder outside your engine repository folder
> git clone https://github.com/o3de/o3de-multiplayersample.git
Cloning into 'o3de-multiplayersample'...

Option #2 - cloning into the engine repository folder

# clone the project into a folder named 'o3de-multiplayersample' in your existing engine repository folder
> git clone https://github.com/o3de/o3de-multiplayersample.git c:/path/to/o3de/o3de-multiplayersample
Cloning into 'o3de-multiplayersample'...

# modify the local engine git exclude file to ignore the project folder
> echo o3de-multiplayersample > c:/path/to/o3de/.git/info/exclude

If you have a Git credential helper configured, you should not be prompted for your credentials anymore.

Step 2. Register the engine and project

# register the engine (only need to do this once)
> c:/path/to/o3de/scripts/o3de register --this-engine

# register the project
> c:/path/to/o3de/scripts/o3de register -p c:/path/to/o3de-multiplayersample

Step 3. Configure and build

Option #1 (Recommended) - Project-centric approach

This option will output all the project binaries in the project's build folder e.g. c:/path/to/o3de-multiplayersample/build

# example configure command
> cmake -S c:/path/to/o3de-multiplayersample -B c:/path/to/o3de-multiplayersample/build/windows_vs2019 -G "Visual Studio 16" -DLY_3RDPARTY_PATH="c:/3rdparty"

# example build command
> cmake --build c:/path/to/o3de-multiplayersample/build/windows_vs2019 --target Editor MultiplayerSample.GameLauncher MultiplayerSample.ServerLauncher --config profile -- /m /nologo

Option #2 - Engine-centric approach to building a project

This option will output all the project and engine binaries in the engine's build folder e.g. c:/path/to/o3de/build

# example configure command
> cmake -S c:/path/to/o3de -B c:/path/to/o3de/build/windows_vs2019 -G "Visual Studio 16" -DLY_3RDPARTY_PATH="c:/3rdparty" -DLY_PROJECTS="c:/path/to/o3de-multiplayersample"

# example build command
> cmake --build c:/path/to/o3de/build/windows_vs2019 --target Editor MultiplayerSample.GameLauncher MultiplayerSample.ServerLauncher --config profile -- /m /nologo

Step 4. Setup Client and Server

Under project root, there should be 2 files: launch_client.cfg and launch_server.cfg. File launch_client.cfg should contain:

connect

File launch_server.cfg should contain:

host
LoadLevel Levels/SampleBase/SampleBase.spawnable

Running the Server

A server can be run as follows

MultiplayerSample.ServerLauncher.exe --console-command-file=launch_server.cfg 

Notice the launch_server.cfg is passed into the commandline. Any file passed into the console-command-file argument will be used when starting up the application. For convenience you can run launch_server.cmd (Windows) or launch_server.sh (Unix) directly.

(Optional) Running the Server Headless

If you do not need to see rendered output on your servers, you can reduce resource usage by using the null renderer.

Note: Parameters to use null renderer must be passed on the command line as the console-command-file is parsed after rendering is configured.

MultiplayerSample.ServerLauncher.exe --console-command-file=launch_server.cfg -rhi=null -NullRenderer

Running the Server in the Editor

By default, launching a local server from the editor during Play Mode is enabled. To disable this behavior, update the editorsv_enabled value in the editor.cfg file to false.

Refer to the O3DE document Test Multiplayer Games in the O3DE Editor for the complete list of console variables (cvar) which support play in the editor with servers.

Running the Client

A client can be run with:

MultiplayerSample.GameLauncher.exe --console-command-file=launch_client.cfg

This will connect a client to the local server and start a multiplayer session. For convenience you can run launch_client.cmd (Windows) or launch_client.sh (Unix) directly.

Debugging in Visual Studio

When debugging MultiplayerSample.GameLauncher and MultiplayerSample.ServerLauncher from Visual Studio it's helpful to automatically host and connect; thereby avoiding having to open the console (~) once the application opens and explicitly executing the 'host' and 'loadlevel' command on server, or the 'connect' command on client. For convenience, Gem/Code/CMakeLists.txt defines ADDITIONAL_VS_DEBUGGER_COMMAND_ARGUMENTS which allows Visual Studio to automatically populate the debugger with command arguments. By default, launch_client.cfg is used when debugging the GameLauncher and launch_server.cfg is used when debugging the ServerLauncher.

More Information

• O3DE Networking
• Multiplayer Tutorials

License

For terms please see the LICENSE*.TXT file at the root of this distribution.