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07
Sep 10

We just released new Photon Client SDKs for DotNet, Unity 3d and Silverlight.

The new version is compatible with Unity iPhone 1.7, Unity 2 and Unity 3 (beta) and includes several internal improvements and some additional features.

Most importantly: any callback and state-change of the library is now done in the game-thread, within Service() (or more precisely in DispatchIncomingCommands()). This prevents common threading issues which could happen before. Now, you only have to make sure you use PhotonPeer from a single Thread to avoid issues.

Another important change is that you can now use either IPs or urls on any platform, to define the server-address. If an IP is spotted, there is of course no DNS lookup on connect.

With PhotonPeer.DisconnectTimeout, you can define the client-side timeout as millisecond value. This is an additional model to the definition of retries.

The DebugReturn callback now has a debug level parameter to give you more logging options and we introduced the enum StatusCode, which is used as PeerStatusCallback() parameter.

Check out the release_history.txt file for a complete list of changes.

Get the new version here.

19
Aug 10

We just released a new developer tutorial on our download page which extends Photon to buffer objects inside a room and update clients with their type, position and rotation.

This one is especially interesting for everyone using Unity3d as it’s client side is Unity-only. Of course you can learn a bit from it for any Photon-supported client type and server development.

More info and discussion:

Forum post: Tutorial: “NetSync Objects” for Unity

Download:

http://www.exitgames.com/Download/Photon “Netsync-Demo-for-Photon-v2-0-5.zip”

05
Aug 10

After the Photon 2 release, we got great feedback, tweaked our code a bit and added more documentation. Today, we want to give you all an update of Photon socket-server, the MMO Demo package and also a fix for Flash clients.

The MMO Demo v2.0.5 implements proposals that emerged in forum discussions with our growing community. If you haven’t yet, join the dialog with Exit Games and help us shape Photon. Some of the changes: You now have access to actor interest-areas and items. Vectors are serialized to float arrays for sending and Items now use ICoordinates in the constructor, which removes the need to use Vectors there.

The Photon Server SDK v2.0.5 now includes a 64bit build for WinXP and Win2003 servers. Photon Control now indicates when it’s busy (waiting for service start) and of course we updated the binaries of the MMO application (up to date with the MMO Demo source).

The Flash SDK v5.5.1 includes a crucial fix for the server timestamp, which did not show a valid value when the server’s time had an overflow.  Now it shows the approximated timestamp in all cases.

Download and start your network engine today!

28
Jul 10


(Click here to watch in HD directly on YouTube)

This video gives you a short introduction to the MMO Demo for the Photon socket-server. It shows how to merge the Unity Island Demo into our package, compile and start the windows client to create some simulated players before you finally visit the tropical island inside Unity. See how you move the simulated players around and how to modify the view distance.

You do need to have the Photon socket-server installed locally, of course. How to do this, our How to Install Photon video will show you – in even less time.

22
Jul 10

We really had a great time with all those release candidates recently but ultimately we all knew this was going to end sometime soon. This time is now.

After fixing all known issues, Photon v2 is finally declared stable!

As usual for releases after an extensive time with RCs, this has only a handful of changes: Creating operations became one step easier (no PopulateParameters anymore) and more verbose in case of errors (all get listed now, instead just the first one). There is more documentation (photon-getting-started.pdf, photon-configuration.pdf and in Lite code) and even PhotonControl got a few updates.

In the near future, we will lower the entry barriers and extend the current package.

Get Photon v2 now.

22
Jun 10

With RC4, Photon today takes a leap toward the v2.0 release. We streamlined the logic, cleaned up code and namespaces and tracked down all known issues from RC3.

Most notably we tackled the issue on some machines, where Photon ceased to send events from one player to any other after a few seconds, independent of the amount of data sent. This is fixed. Aside from this and some more, clients are now disconnected when their sendbuffer is full. This can be adjusted with the config settings to some degree but in general helps avoid bigger problems.

Also new is that the MMO Demo has become it’s own package. We hope it’s easier when server- and client-source for this complex application are in just one package. The Photon Server SDK only includes the compiled MMO Demo to run it by default and upcoming client SDKs won’t include MMO clients (but still do).

As we are getting closer to a v2.0 release (without the RC ending), we added documentation. If you used RC3 before this, make sure to check the upgrade guide in the SDK.

Get the RC4 packages here

22
Apr 10

The main feature of the new iPhone and iPad SDK is the split between Photon and Neutron. Anything related to Neutron was removed and you get an improved, streamlined API.

This release was tested against the iPad simulator, so you can be sure it is compatible. Demos that explicitly use the iPad are still in production.

We wanted to get this out to you, even though the documentation is missing. Expect an update soon.

Download here.

22
Apr 10

A new Photon Server SDK is up. It’s called version 2 RC2 and aside from many smaller improvements and fixes it got a few noteworthy additions.

We added a Dashboard to Photon, so you can check vital stats right from a browser. The Dashboard is a service which runs separately and fetches messages sent by Photon and compiles those into graph images. The Photon Control has options to install, start and stop the service and opens the page. The Dashboard requires MS PGM (make sure to install MS “Message Queue” support with Broadcasting) to run. We will add guides and manuals to the Developer Network soon and extend the Dashboard over the next releases.

The MMO  Sample got an initial documentation. Check out the PDF in: src-server\MMOSample\doc\.

Included in the SDK: a new Trial license. You’ve got 30 days to check out the “Unlimited License” for Photon. Make sure to get the new license files for Photon v2 after that time.

Download here.

ExitGames-Photon-Server-SDK_v2-0-0-RC2.zip
08
Apr 10

Somehow, a whole month passed since the last update. How did this happen?

After the GDC, our team did a lot of work on the server side. We finalized a Lobby application/sample and wrapped up the latest MMO Sample as well. All this made it into new Release Candidate SDKs for Photon today.

On the server side, the basic “Lite Application” is now extended by the the “Lite Lobby” application. The lobby is a new class of room that provides a list of running games and does not send join/leave events. The new LiteLobbyGame can optionally be attached to a lobby to provide it’s player count. This shows how to use Lite as basis and extend it with your own features.

The “MMO Application” is radically different from “Lite” and shows how you could use the messaging we use in Photon to build flexible and scalable interest management.

On the client side (v5.7.1 RC2), the DotNet SDK got the most samples. The Lite Lobby Demo monitors the lobby while each client can switch rooms on demand. The MMO Demo lets you simulate multiple clients in one app, which move around (r follow your mouse) and update their field of view.

Only the MMO Demo made it also into the Unity3d SDK. To see how we handle lobbies, please check the DotNet SDK.

There are lots of other changes behind the scenes and we got more performance out of the Photon Core as well. The server SDK RC1 is not supporting XP as server OS for that reason. Let us know if you need an XP version.

Get the SDKs here.

09
Mar 10

My last 2 weeks have been filled with refactoring, cleanup, splitting and documenting. The goal: liberate the Photon DotNet client libraries from Neutron and make them their own master. The result is cleaner and more up to date.

Goodbye “NPeer” and welcome “PhotonPeer”. In fact: also welcome “LitePeer”! It implements our default application’s operations and we will give out it’s source, so you can see how you could do all this yourself.

The single interface method for operation- and status-callbacks is split into two more specific calls: “OperationResult” and “PeerStatusCallback”.

If needed, you can convert your Hashtables to strings now with the SupportClass.HashtableToString method.

Many of the “loose” constant values are now arranged into enums. As easy to use but you can print out a values name and get a better impression of what’s going on. In the interface, we still use the base types int and byte, so you can use your own, extended enums as well.

The documentation is also re-done: the complete project reference is started from scratch. Most of the overview topics are refined. Of course we’re never happy with the current state.

There are many smaller changes as well. Still, it should be no real issue to update your projects. If you’re starting with Photon and DotNet clients just now: use the RC1 SDKs.

Give it a try!

PS: Unity iPhone developers: the sample requires v1.6.

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