What is Photon Server

My question is somewhat broad so let me try to explain. Basically, I have a custom server running and hosted by an external company(not photon). I however, am trying to find the best option to network my Real-time Racing game. I stumbled upon Photon Server, however the payment system of it confuses me. From what I read, Photon Server does not actually provide it's server, I thought of it as a system that allowed me to upload the exe and run that(the exe) off of a server already made(my external server). Do I have all of this confused? The reason the payment system is weird is, if it does not provide the servers then why would I want to pay for p/CC when I'm hosting the server myself and just looking for an API?

With that being said, assuming that some of it is wrong, what would be the best option to have networking in my game along with server side logic and authentication? Does photon provide something such as this? I'm trying to find a system with a one time payment of a premade API and can just use that on the server I am hosting and all of Photons plans seem to be a per CC payment.

I'm very new to all of this stuff so I wouldn't be surprised if most of the stuff I said was off or the terminology was weird, but I'm looking for guidance to the best option for me. Because of that, any help at all would be amazing. Thanks!

Comments

  • you have few options with photon:
    1. cloud - you need get appId, client lib and implement your game. no authorative logic on server side
    2. enterprise cloud - same as before but you may write your plugin. cloud will handle only your players
    3. self hosting - here you may do anything you want
  • So for self hosting, Photon does not provide anything? Are their any other solutions to what I'm asking for? Authoritative server with networking
  • hmm, i did not say that we do not privde anything

    you have almost everything what we have in cloud: match making, loadbalancing, plugins. but you may do with this anything you like. you may modify this sources to get exactly what you need, or you may start and write your app from scratch