Loving the 2D Course so far, but I'm wondering:

[Diogo_Pires]

Hey Guys!

My name is Diogo and I have been a web developer / backend architect for 8 years now and I decided to join a little venture with a little group of mine to build a 2D game!

I’m currently taking the 2D Course but I’m wondering about 2 things:

Due to the nature of the course, I doubt that optimization will be deeply covered, we want to offer a lightweight game on all platforms, so this is a major topic, do you offer anything related to this?

The 2D Game we are planning to implement will rarely have a “true” multiplayer experience, it will be more of a shared world via an API ( similar to browser games like Travian or OGame) but we plan to eventually offer a true multiplayer experience in the format of a “1v1 turn-based battles” which will require us to synch things up.
From my research it seems that Unity already offers this, and you actually have a course for that, but there is also a mix of Unity + Photon that works on a peer-to-peerish fashion, what are your thoughts on this?

Sorry for the long post and great work!

[Nina]

Hi Diogo,

Welcome to our community!

@Diogo_Pires

Due to the nature of the course, I doubt that optimization will be deeply covered, we want to offer a lightweight game on all platforms, so this is a major topic, do you offer anything related to this?

Unforunately, we do not have any courses focusing on performance optimisation. However, I can recommend the Unity manual. The most important things can be found there. Once you are familiar with Unity and C#, it is not that difficult. There are just many, many details you have to take into consideration. Unity also has got free tutorials on their website. For example:

See here: https://learn.unity.com/course/performance-and-optimisation

It’s a good start.

@Diogo_Pires

From my research it seems that Unity already offers this, and you actually have a course for that, but there is also a mix of Unity + Photon that works on a peer-to-peerish fashion, what are your thoughts on this?

While we do have a Unity Multiplayer course, I’m not a teaching assistent there, and I’m not an expert in that field either, so I cannot answer any questions regarding multiplayer. Maybe @Marc_Carlyon can?

[Diogo_Pires]

Thank you so much @Nina, really clear and helpful explanation !

I will take a look at the performance and optimisation course after I’m done with the 2D one.

Let’s wait for Marc regarding the second question.

Please continue the amazing work ur doing!

[Marc_Carlyon]

Hi @Diogo_Pires,

Thanks for you interest in the Unity Multiplayer course.
We actually use the free version of Mirror which like Photon (Pun or Pun2) is based off the older Unet code which unity retired.
So its peer to peer connection but in the final lecture of the course we integrate steamworks so you can add the game to steam for testing and have friends join from the friends list using the same system

I believe in both cases in Mirror and PUN you need to pay if you are using it commericially and if you want more than 4 players to be able to connect. This i believe is also true for dedicated servers in both products

Hope this helps

[Diogo_Pires]

Hey Marc! Thank you for the detailed answer!

I have no problems in paying, I just want to understand what is the most friendly solution, do you think Mirror is preferable over Photon?

I will purchase the course regardless because I’m interested and if they are based off the same code the diferences can’t be that different, just curious why you opted for one instead of the other (since from my understanding, both Mirror and Photon are different from the server based Unity provides right?)

Thanks again for the amazing job!

[Marc_Carlyon]

Hi,

Sorry let me restate my last as i was incorrect in some places.

Pun and Mirror are different (I had to check my projects). With my memory refreshed.

Photon (PUN and PUN2)
Are based on small lobby games like 4 players or 8-16 death match
It has to do this via a photon server that listens and redirects the players which means extra software running in the background if you want a lan only in case on no internet.

Mirror
This is based of server and client authority which basically means it can be used for larger games and also its p2p connection

So a quick run down that i borrowed from a site (I will link as it mentions us as well!)

Pun2
Easy to use
Easy to setup
peer to peer after finding games through cloud
Chatrooms/lobby
Plenty of tutorials
Has Free version

Mirror
Larger scale connections
Larger scale projects
Maybe more prevention of cheaters?
Free

https://forum.unity.com/threads/mirror-vs-photon.792441/