Feasable to host "small" LAN sessions?

xadhoom
edited December 2010 in Photon Server
Hi,

We consider moving from Unity3D´s network approach to Photon. If I understand correctly the Photon server is designed as a stand-alone application which runs on Windows systems only, right?

Based on the descriptions the clients can be used on very different platforms, though. I´ve read about clients for Windows, Android, IPhone. Is there Linux support available as well?

Since we currently focus on small group sessions (one server up to fifteen clients) we are wondering how this fits with the Photon design idea. If I understand correctly from forum answers its feasable to use Photon as dedicated server and use a authoritative client (which act as simulation server). Does it make sense (is it feasable) to use Photon in a LAN environment?

xad

Comments

  • If I understand correctly the Photon server is designed as a stand-alone application which runs on Windows systems only, right?
    Correct.
    Is there Linux support available as well?
    Here are the platforms we currently support. No Linux yet - but we are working with INTEL to build a Meego port - which should cover Linux as well.

    Photon-Android_v5-1-0_SDK.zip
    Photon-DotNetSL_v6-0-0_SDK.zip
    Photon-DotNet_v6-0-0_SDK.zip
    Photon-Flash-v5-5-1_SDK.zip
    Photon-iPhone_v6-2-0_SDK.zip
    Photon-Unity3D_v6-0-0_SDK.zip
    Photon-Win32_v6-2-0_SDK.zip
    Since we currently focus on small group sessions (one server up to fifteen clients) we are wondering how this fits with the Photon design idea.
    Could you give some more info what you are trying to build. You can use the "lite" framework as a basis and create a room all peers/clients/players connect. This room serves as a communication hub.
    If I understand correctly from forum answers its feasable to use Photon as dedicated server and use a authoritative client (which act as simulation server).
    Sure - you still would use the room as a communication hub, but one client would take the master role and take decisions. You have to think about a failover if this client drops out
    Does it make sense (is it feasable) to use Photon in a LAN environment?
    Sure, why not?

    Chris
  • Hi Chris,

    Thank you for your clear feedback.
    Since we currently focus on small group sessions (one server up to fifteen clients) we are wondering how this fits with the Photon design idea.
    Could you give some more info what you are trying to build. You can use the "lite" framework as a basis and create a room all peers/clients/players connect. This room serves as a communication hub.
    From your replies I see that there are not practical limitations using the Photon server so far. I´m going to take a look into the "lite" framework. Thank you for pointing at it.

    The user experience we are looking for is the possiblity to start a server session of our application where other clients can join to (sounds and is actually a very simple setup network wise). Since the Photon server is designed as stand alone application is it feasable (and recommended) to manage the server (including start/stop) from within our application? The user should not bother himself with a separat server application.

    Mirko