MMO Comm with Unity 3D
So I’ve spent the last five or six months building a basic level in Unity 3D for Android. The code is ugly, but I can move around the level and interact with critters. With that basic knowledge in my cap I plan on expanding the prototype to extend it to an MMO environment. I’ve checked into various platforms and have settled on testing two (for now). One is Player.IO (http://playerio.com/) and the other is SmartFoxServer2X (http://www.smartfoxserver.com/). My goal is to abstract the communication layer out so that I can make the push the server details down to a class that “simply” gets swapped out. Easier said than done, but this is the route I’m going to look at.
At first glance Player.IO looks a bit more promising with its list of features: BigDB, PayVault, etc.. These features are absent on SmartFoxServer2X. Following their online instructions for installation of the SDK and Development Server it is obvious that they haven’t been updated in sometime. Their zipped package comes with an already built server (contrary to the online instructions stating you have to build it in MS Visual C# studio). They do provide a Unity example which I plan to look at immediately and see how easy (or difficult) it is to utilize this product. One upside is that they host the server-side code and provide a free/development access level that isn’t too shabby for testing with a broader user-base.
SmartFoxServer2X is a decent server that I’ve previously played with. They provide good Unity 3D support with examples and documentation. The server-side needs Java-based development if one wishes to extend the server to handle things other than just a pass-through of messages. The other nice thing is that this server can run locally on an intranet so different clients can connect for testing. However, hosting the server requires the team to install it elsewhere in a cloud such as Amazon or one of SmartFoxServer’s preferred cloud providers. These preferred providers have turn-key solutions that appear to make deployment straightforward.
More later as I start exploring this new prototype.
Cheers!
Jim in the Matrix 