I found this great thread on unity forum at the top when I googled "game network middleware": https://forum.unity.com/threads/network-middleware-overview.73010/
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Hi guys.
I want to add multiplayer to my game and I'm kinda lost with all the options available.
I've already coded some in Unity, but I don't want reinvent the wheel here so I'm almost decided to switch to a middleware solution to reduce costs.
Problem is, I've found a lot of frameworks and all of them looks great and with similar descriptions.
It would take me a lot of time and energy to study the differences, and I was wondering if anyone with experience on the matter could share some light on the subject.
Pros and cons, recommended uses (like, which is better for action fps or rts), comparisons and past experiences would be great.
Middleware on top of my head:
SmartFoxServer: http://www.smartfoxserver.com/
Netdog: http://www.netdognetworks.com/
RakNet: http://www.jenkinssoftware.com/
Photon: http://photon.exitgames.com/
ElectroServer: http://www.electrotank.com/es5.html
Badumna: www.badumna.com
Thanks !
However it's from 2011 which is a lifetime in our world! I'd be interested to ask a similar question on widely used platforms/options at the other end of the decade - are all those listed still good options or have some disappeared or been replaced by new projects?
My interest is predominantly in browser-based games, and maybe mobile too, which might limit which are usable (i.e. I know SFS added APIs for loads of platforms but others might not). I'm _loosely_ talking about MMO type games but I'd say much lighter, most likely room-based rather than thousands of concurrent players all needing to interact. In an ideal world I would not use totally different languages for client and server as it means likely rewriting code, but this isn't an ideal world so I accept that might not be possible. I did wonder if modern engines like Unity which can "compile" C#/Java to JS might help here.
The thread was on the unity forum and some people suggested even in 2011 it had its own decent networking API so possibly in 2018 I could consider something like Unity with no external middleware at all (I ask as someone who hasn't used Unity), write server and client in C#, etc?
Thanks for your thoughts (I wasn't certain if this should be in this forum or the middleware one)
