Third-Person Template (Unreal Engine)

This guide will walk you through creating and deploying a multiplayer game with Unreal Engine.

This guide was written using Unreal Engine 5.1.1. This process is similar if using Unreal Engine 4. If you’re using a different version of Unreal Engine and need help, don’t hesitate to reach out.

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Overview

Unreal Engine provides fantastic multiplayer capabilities out of the box. We’ll be using Unreal’s built-in networking to build a server-authoritative multiplayer game on top of Rivet.

Running an Unreal game on Rivet requires building a standalone client and a dedicated server.

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Step 1: Prepare Unreal Engine

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Download the Unreal Engine cross-compilation toolchain

Download here

• Make sure you download the version corresponding to your Unreal version
• You may have to restart

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Install Visual Studio prerequisites

See official guide

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Download the Unreal Engine source code

See official guide

• Join GitHub team
• Clone UnrealEngine repo

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Build the Unreal Engine editor

See official guide

1. Install Visual Studio prerequisites
   • TODO: See Setting Up Visual Studio > C++ Tools
2. .\Setup.bat
3. .\GenerateProjectFiles.bat
   • You’ll see a warning: Some Platforms were skipped due to invalid SDK setup:
   • Make sure that Linux is not listed here. If so, then step 1 was not done correctly.
4. Open UE5.sln
5. Wait for Indexing folder UnrealEngine to finish
   • You can see this by clicking the messae tab in the bottom left
6. Set Solution Configuration to Development Editor
7. Set Solution Platform to Win64
8. Right click UE5 target in right sidebar and click Build
   • Takes 10-40 minutes depending on your hardware
9. Right click on UE5 in the sidebar and click Debug > Start New Instance
10. Unreal Engine is built to at UnrealEngine\Engine\Binaries\Win64\UnrealEditor
    • Create a shortcut somewhere for quick access in the future

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Step 2: Setup the Unreal Engine project

We’ll be using the third-person template from Unreal Engine since all of the components come with networking out of the box. These steps also apply to any other networked Unreal Engine game.

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Create third person template (or bring your project)

Use the C++ version. While Rivet also works with Blueprints, we haven’t put together a guide for that yet.

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Test locally

1. Configure PIE networking configuration
2. Run the project
3. Check that you can see your players running around

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Build Linux server

See official guide

• You may need to restart Unreal after building the client and server to show new targets
• May need to run Tools > Refresh Visual Studio Project after building client and server

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Step 3: Setup Rivet project

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Install Rivet CLI

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Initiate project

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Step 4: Integrate with Rivet

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Add project dependencies

Update Source/MyProject/MyProject.Build.cs to add "Http", "Json" and "JsonUtilities" to PublicDependencyModuleNames. For example:

using UnrealBuildTool;

public class MyProject : ModuleRules
{
	public MyProject(ReadOnlyTargetRules Target) : base(Target)
	{
		PCHUsage = PCHUsageMode.UseExplicitOrSharedPCHs;

		PublicDependencyModuleNames.AddRange(new string[] { "Core", "CoreUObject", "Engine", "InputCore", "HeadMountedDisplay", "EnhancedInput", "Json", "JsonUtilities" });
	}
}

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Copy Rivet module

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Add token to config

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Build connection UI

• Create menu scene
• Set menu scene game mode to GameModeBase

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Build connection code

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Test locally

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Configure testing

• Level Editor > Play

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Step 5: Publish

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Write server Dockerfile

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Build server

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Build client

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Deploy

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More information

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Ways of running your game

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Useful commands

Commands can be ran by pressing `.

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Actor roles & authority when running on Rivet

TODO

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Open Level URL format

TODO

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Unreal Engine dedicated server ports

TODO

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Testing multiple devices on LAN

TODO

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Using Test on Device

TODO

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Helpful resources

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Server mechanics

• Travelling in multiplayer

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Multiplayer overview

• Multiplayer replication overview
• eXi Network Compendium
• Networking overview
• Multiplayer programming quickstart

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Troubleshooting

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Port 7777 already taken for development

netstat -aon | findstr "7777"

taskkill /F /PID MY_PID_HERE

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Empty level/no lighting when running with 2+ clients in PIE

This issue can be mitigated by running separate processes when testing your game:

1. Navigate to Editor Settings > Play
2. Set Multiplayer Options > Run Under One Process to false

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Standalone client automatically goes to the wrong map

1. Navigate to Editor Settings > Play
2. Clear the field Server > Server Map Name Override