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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!

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.

19
Jul 10


(Click on the video to watch in HD directly on YouTube)

Here is another tutorial video. It shows how easy it is to get the Photon socket-server SDK for Unity 3D running. Just download it from our website, unzip the files, edit the Unity Scene file (to change the server to your local IP) and it runs. And all it takes is just about 2 minutes. You do need to have the Photon Server installed locally, of course. How to do this, our How to Install Photon video will show you – in even less time.

16
Jul 10


(Click on the video to watch in HD directly on YouTube)

Downloading, installing and starting Photon is a matter of just a few minutes as you can see in this clip.
You will see, first steps are incredibly easy and will take only about two minutes to run your own socket-server!

Many more videos are to follow – in the meantime, don’t hesitate to let us know what you think.

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

08
Jun 10

We are super proud that Photon was chosen by Bigpoint and the game’s developer Schell Games, a US-based studio led by renowned game designer and author Jesse Schell, to power the network features of The Mummy.

The Mummy Online - Powered by Exit Games Photon

Large scale MMOs like The Mummy Online which is based on the famous film franchise and published by the browser-games giant are what Photon is made for. As the game will be developed with Unity technology we are more then happy that Photon once more is chosen for a Unity-based game. This again proves that Photon and Unity is an ideal combination especially when it comes to huge MMO projects and real-time games.

We will work on a mini-interview with Schell and the reasons why they have chosen Photon to power The Mummy Online and will publish it here in our blog.

Stay tuned :)

08
Jun 10

We uploaded a new 2.0 release candidate: RC3. We are getting close to release. As always check the release_history_*.txt files for the details.

In a nutshell this release brings:

  • Advanced timeout handling in TCP and UDP and configurable timeouts
  • Convenient “Open Logs” in the tray application PhotonControl which opens the log files  immediately
  • Several enhancements in Performance Counter handling
  • Photon Applications can now use app.config files as provided by Visual Studio. Add your own settings as shown in Lite.sln
  • Several performance enhancements

Download here.

31
May 10

Congrats to the guys at CMUNE - their growth rate in the past weeks is just crazy. In just 8 week they went from 200,000 to over 500,000 monthly active users.

We are pretty proud as well because Paradise Paintball is powered by Photon. Keep up the good work.

10th of April
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