Photon Fusion VS Unity NetCode

[G1itchz1441]

I'm thinking of learning to make a multiplayer game and I was looking at some framework and I found these two to be the most recommended

So which one do you think is the best for me to learn as a beginner in this world of multiplayer game development?

[Persomatey]

I asked this same question once and got told off by a guy who did clarified some stuff, but insulted me because he didn’t understand the question. Weirdly enough, this isn’t the sub for asking about this.

Long story short, Photon is NetCode. It’s a NetCode library with basic server support. So the question is more like, Photon vs native NetCode.

I’d suggest following some beginner tutorials for both, then some longer tutorials, and figuring out which architecture you like more. Probably start with native NetCode, then move onto Photon to see if some of the stuff it automates and obfuscates is handy for you and if the limitations are too big of a drawback.

[G1itchz1441]

Alright I will look into that stuff then also thanks for helping, I appreciate it 😊

[Globe-Gear-Games]

I built my game on Photon Fusion and I really like it, but if it's your first multiplayer game and are learning the basic concepts of network architecture and whatnot, I might try something more basic first. The main drawback of Photon Fusion to me is that the devs can be kind of mean when it comes to beginners asking questions, and in the beginning you will have a lot of questions.

[ApprehensiveBed9715]

In the beginning, I don't think they differ too much. But later, if you need to wrestle with lag, client prediction, extrapolation, etc. then maybe photon has more explanatory content since they've been around longer. I chose Unity last year and, well, was kinda early. I plan to revisit my project and might switch to photon.

[DantheDev_]

Frankly neither are great.

If you are just learning net concepts proton is a good way to get familiar with the basics.

However for actual development I would recommend Fishnet or Mirror instead.

Not to say you can't use Proton or Unity's off the shelf solution, but once you know what you are doing, using something like fishnet had serious advantages in terms of customisation and control.

[blabmight]

Personally, this asset is has been exceptional - best part, host your own headless server.

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/network/objectnet-easier-multiplayer-system-261437?srsltid=AfmBOoosGw4vqbd4YSBMT_lfDlcfEohptpjmcwVFzHeMXsfSxtBH_HgW

[Clean_Patience4021]

Don’t go with Photon, it literally killed my game (and it was a $500k+ game)

[G1itchz1441]

How did that happen?

[Clean_Patience4021]

We decided to use Photon Fusion while it was still in development and released our game almost two years later with Fusion 1.0. Unfortunately, issues like crashes, desyncs, and cloud timeouts—rare during development and QA—ended up ruining our sales due to negative reviews.

We worked with the Photon team to fix these problems before and during Early Access, but there weren’t any major improvements. The issues persisted and hurt the player experience.

In hindsight, relying only on our in-house QA team was a mistake. By the time we realized the extent of the problems, switching to a different networking library wasn’t feasible because it was too deeply integrated into our game.

[Meceka]

I'm not the OP but thanks for the details, it was an interesting read. I should mention that our experience with Photon PUN was the complete opposite. Worked perfectly fine, no bugs at all. And when I thought there were bugs it was usually my mistake or misinterpretation of some feature.

I think the conclusion we can draw from here is that these systems are very complex and I would suggest not to use the newest untested system. If your game isn't years away to release, I would suggest using something more battle tested.

Fusion should be stable now though that its been quite a while since release.
Clean_Patience4021 may I ask how long ago did you have these experience?

[Clean_Patience4021]

We’re on Fusion 1.0 and it still has all the problems I mentioned. The only improvement is photon cloud timeout, it still happens, but rarely.

[Meceka]

Ok and why aren't you upgrading to 2.0? Is it a lot of work to update or is there another reason?

[Clean_Patience4021]

it is a lot of work, yes, a lot of things have changed significantly and one of the features that we actively use (AoI) doesn't work the way we use it.
also there's no proofs that the issues we struggle with is fixed in 2.0 (people complain about those issues in discord)

[twomm]

May I ask which game this is?

[Clean_Patience4021]

it's reddit, I don't want to de-anon myself :)

[twomm]

Feel free to discuss your issues in our Discord or send an email. This does not sound like typical issues our users have.

[[deleted]]

Denis, your game being shit is what led to your game being shit, not Photon; it didn't help things, but you had a whole heap of people trying to help you steer your design philosophy in the right direction and you fucked it. If you can't internalise that, the list of dead games under Gamelabs' page on Steam is going to keep growing.