Book Image

Multiplayer Game Development with Unreal Engine 5

By : Marco Secchi
Book Image

Multiplayer Game Development with Unreal Engine 5

By: Marco Secchi

Overview of this book

If you’re fascinated by the immersive gaming experiences that enable multiple users to engage in collaborative or competitive gameplay, this Unreal Engine 5 game development book is for you. In this book, you’ll learn the foundational principles behind multiplayer games. Starting with a sample project, you’ll learn how to set up a networked system and make it work. Once the prototype of the project is functional, you’ll start adding game logic, including obstacles and AI opponents, to heighten the challenges and engagement, offering a captivating experience for players. Next, you’ll learn how to debug and optimize the project, before finally deploying the game build and integrating it with cloud services such as the Epic Online Services system. By the end of this book, you’ll have the confidence to develop and manage multiplayer experiences using the Unreal Engine environment, taking your newfound programming skills in your upcoming projects.
Table of Contents (22 chapters)
1
Part 1:Introducing Multiplayer Games
5
Part 2:Networking and Multiplayer Games in Unreal Engine
10
Part 3:Improving Your Game
15
Part 4:Deploying Your Game Online

What this book covers

In Chapter 1, Getting Started with Multiplayer Game Development, you will be gently introduced to the world of multiplayer game development from a developer’s point of view.

In Chapter 2, Understanding Networking Basics, you will explore the basic concepts of network programming in order to get started with multiplayer development in Unreal Engine.

In Chapter 3, Testing the Multiplayer System with a Project Prototype, you will be guided through the creation of a simple multiplayer prototype, starting from a project template setup, to test some of the basic multiplayer features.

In Chapter 4, Setting Up Your First Multiplayer Environment, you’ll get the foundations to develop a multiplayer C++ project in Unreal Engine.

In Chapter 5, Managing Actors in a Multiplayer Environment, you’ll start creating a multiplayer character and get the basics on how to handle it in a multiplayer environment.

In Chapter 6, Replicating Properties Over the Network, you’ll learn how to handle properties in a multiplayer environment and synchronize them across clients.

In Chapter 7, Using Remote Procedure Calls (RPCs), you’ll start calling functions over a networked environment, from the server to clients and from a client to the server.

In Chapter 8, Introducing AI into a Multiplayer Environment, you’ll create an enemy character and add a simple AI to it in order to make it work in a multiplayer system.

In Chapter 9, Extending AI Behaviors, you will add more features to the AI to make it more engaging.

In Chapter 10, Enhancing the Player Experience, you will add more features to the game, such as animations and non-player characters.

In Chapter 11, Debugging a Multiplayer Game, you’ll learn the basic principles of debugging and profiling a networked game.

In Chapter 12, Managing Multiplayer Sessions, you’ll be introduced to game sessions and their peculiarities.

In Chapter 13, Handling Data During a Session, you’ll learn how to handle data during a multiplayer session.

In Chapter 14, Deploying Multiplayer Games, you’ll be introduced to the basics of building a dedicated server for a multiplayer game.

In Chapter 15, Adding Epic Online Services (EOS), you will get an overall introduction to the Epic Games Developer Portal and Epic Online Services, a powerful suite of services designed to help you create the most immersive online experiences possible.