Question regarding rooms

Hey guys,

Quick question. I'm running through some concepts for an idea i'd like to persue. To cut a long story short, picture a universe where each solar system is an instance, or in our case a "room".

The question is, would it be possible for me to build a server client where the client creates all of the solar system instances as empty rooms where the other players join? I've had a hunt through the documentation and I can't find whether rooms automatically time out after a while or not? I also can't tell whether it's possible for one client to create multiple rooms without actually ever having the intention to join them?

Thanks in advance.

Comments

  • You can't create a number of rooms with any client and not join it. In Photon, the rule for rooms is: Each client is only in one and creating a room automatically enters it.
    But I don't think you have to do it this way.

    If you put the star map (solar systems) in your clients, each client can try to join (enter) a solar system (room). It that room does not exist, then create it. Done.
    No need for a second client creating all the systems.

    You can put the map on some server to have a easy update-route for your clients. So your players get a new map on start.
    You can limit the number of players per system shard (a.k.a. room), so if one system becomes immensely popular, you just open 2 instances.

    Do you want to generate the systems randomly (by name, e.g. or position as seed) or do you want to design your levels?
  • To complement on what Tobias has already said:
    If you want to show up a list of non-empty and empty solar systems that the player can join:
    Just take the list of existing rooms and add some more names to it for the empty systems: they simply only exist in that list that you show to the players, no need to have them open on the server. Now if the first player wants to join such a non-existing room from the list, just let it create that room himself, but let it look to the player, like he would just join it.
  • Hey guys,

    Thanks muchly for the replies.

    I feel a bit silly for asking the quesiton now. Admittedly, it had been a while since i'd done any server programming with Photon, I was having a bit of programmers block I think.

    I managed to put together a really solid system which makes it visually appear as if the player is seamlessly warping around the universe even though they are constantly jumping in/out of rooms/instances.

    I shall be looking forward to showcasing this project hopefully sometime soon, so keep your eyes peeled! XD