BOLT Engine questions

Hello everybody,
First, sorry if I didn't put my message on the good forum section !
I'm interested in using photon BOLT or any other service but I'm not familiar with the technical terms used in the service description....

Here is what I want to do :
Create a multiplayer game where 1 player host a game on its own computer, and others join it.
When a player want to host, he just have to connect to a lobby to show that he is hosting a game, after that, other players on the lobby can search for a host and join with multiple options like friends only, password, etc...

What I need : A lobby service which will do the firewall hole punching to avoid the need of port forwarding for the host and to find a game easily for other players.

About BOLT :
Can it be a lobby service only ?
If yes, does the CCU counted will only be players searching for a game and the players hosting only before the game start ?

Thanks in advance for the response,

Clément.

Comments

  • Hello @Clement ,

    We are glad that you are interested in Photon Bolt.
    Can it be a lobby service only ?

    Bolt has included a NAT Punchthrough implementation, so your players can connect directly whenever it's possible, but also fallback to a relayed connection if that fails using our Photon Cloud infra.
    If yes, does the CCU counted will only be players searching for a game and the players hosting only before the game start ?

    There is no differentiation between running or not running the "game", if you are connected to the Photon Cloud, hosting or searching for a session, the peer already counts towards the CCU.
    Think that way, if you are using Photon as a matchmaking system, you need to access the information about the rooms in the lobby as a client, or you need to request the creation of a new room as a server, doing this you must be connected to the cloud service, hence, counting as a CCU.

    You can read more about this topic here: https://doc.photonengine.com/en-us/bolt/current/in-depth/photon-cloud

    --
    Ramon Melo
    Photon Bolt Team
  • Clement
    Clement
    edited October 2020
    Hello @Ramon,

    Thank you for the explanation. I'm still a little lost about your explanation :
    "Bolt has included a NAT Punchthrough implementation, so your players can connect directly whenever it's possible"
    What I want to know is, if players can connect directly to the host and the game start successfully, will the players still count in the CCU ?

    "but also fallback to a relayed connection if that fails using our Photon Cloud infra."
    I suppose that in this case, each player playing in this relayed game will be counted in the CCU.
    Do the NAT Punchthrough fails often by the way ?

    The truth is we want to develop a game and are already starting to think about it's price. If not really cheap, it should be free. We don't expect a lot a players to try our game so the free version of photon Bolt should be sufficient for us at first but in the case the game start being popular, even if a lot of player pay for the game, we may not be able to cope with the CCU price compared to the number of player. That's why we just want something to link player together, not to host any games at all. If the game start being famous, we will most likely use the 95$ for 5 years formula if Bolt can work like we want it to. Like that we will have a 100 people lobby, which will be sufficient if it's only to find/host a game.

    Thanks in advance,

    Clément.
  • Hello @Clement ,
    What I want to know is, if players can connect directly to the host and the game start successfully, will the players still count in the CCU ?

    Yes.
    When using Bolt Free, the connection with the Photon Cloud is mandatory.
    I suppose that in this case, each player playing in this relayed game will be counted in the CCU.

    Yes.
    Do the NAT Punchthrough fails often by the way ?

    This entirely depends on the network your peers are using, the success rate should be around 90%, this is the same rate as any other solution that performs the same procedure.
    You can increase the chance by hosting your server on services with solid public IP, like Gameye, AWS, PlayFab, for example.

    --
    Ramon Melo
    Photon Bolt Team
  • Hello Ramon,

    Thank you for your explanation, it's more clear now !
    It seems BOLT PRO permits connection without the photon cloud when we are in direct connection. It could be what we need then. Where is the pricing for this solution ? Because I only found the photon cloud pricing as of now...

    Thanks,

    Clément.
  • Hello @Clement ,

    Send us an email so we can share further information:
    developer@photonengine.com
    

    --
    Ramon Melo
    Photon Bolt Team