Introducing the Unreal Engine multiplayer system

As we already saw in the previous sections, in a networked system, it is essential to consider what data is sent and how it is sent, as this can drastically influence the performance and overall experience of the game.

Unreal Engine features a powerful networking framework, which is used in some of the most popular online games in the world. This section provides an overview of the concepts that power the Unreal Engine multiplayer framework, as well as their usage in multiplayer gameplay.

Network modes and server types

In Unreal Engine, a computer’s relationship to a multiplayer session is referred to as a network mode. An Unreal game can be set as one of the following network modes:

• Client: In this mode, the computer will act as a client, connecting to a server in a network multiplayer session.
• Standalone: This mode is strictly used for non-networked games (single players or local multiplayer) and will not...