What is Unity Multiplayer?
Unity Multiplayer is a feature set built into the Unity game engine to enable developers to create multiplayer games. It provides the necessary frameworks, scripts, and network infrastructure so developers don't have to code complex multiplayer systems from scratch.
Some key capabilities and components of Unity Multiplayer include:
- Network Manager - This acts as the hub for configuring and managing multiplayer games. It handles matchmaking, managing player connections, spawning networked game objects, and more.
- Network Identity - Components that allow game objects like players, NPCs, powerups etc. to be spawned and synchronized across networked instances of a scene.
- Network Transform - Synchronizes position, rotation and scale of objects across networked instances.
- Networked Physics - SYNCs rigidbodies and colliders.
- Match Maker - Automates connecting players together into multiplayer matches based on rules and parameters.
- NAT Punchthrough - Enables connectivity for games played peer-to-peer across routers and firewalls.
- Relay Server - Fallback server to enable connectivity when direct peer-to-peer connections are not possible.
- VoIP Support - Built in APIs for in-game voice chat.
- Security - Protection against hacking and cheating.
Overall, Unity Multiplayer handles most of the complex low-level networking tasks like lag compensation, data transmission, and replication management so developers can focus on the gameplay and user experience of their multiplayer titles.