Update high level multiplayer manual for Godot 4. #7675

Jordyfel · 2023-07-16T15:14:40Z

Updates the high level multiplayer manual for Godot 4.

I have used the class reference, blog posts and my experience as a user of the API to get the information. I expect to have missed some details as I don't know the internals of MultiplayerAPI.

AThousandShips · 2023-07-16T15:16:37Z

tutorials/networking/high_level_multiplayer.rst


-To create that object, it first has to be initialized as a server or client.
+Every node has a ``multiplayer`` property, which is a reference to a default ``MultiplayerAPI`` instance.


Misleading, unless defined for the sub-tree it defaults to the default one, but this implies it's always a default one

AThousandShips · 2023-07-16T15:18:23Z

tutorials/networking/high_level_multiplayer.rst

-    get_tree().network_peer = peer
+    # By default, these expressions are equivalent.
+    multiplayer
+    get_tree().get_multiplayer()


Again, only if none has been configured, this is going to confuse people

That's what I put the "by default" for, but I can see it not being clear enough. I'm open to suggestions for better language since I'm not too sure.

Why is this relevant? It's only true for a very specific case, so it's unhelpful information

I wanted to specifically mention that Node.multiplayer is a reference to a "global" object, and not one unique per node. I've seen people ask why you cannot set this property even though you can get it. When learning the API I was myself confused about why one can just get multiplayer from every node and receive the same object.

Then the correct code is get_tree().get_multiplayer(get_path())

Though this is already documented in Node

I find get_tree().get_multiplayer() to be overly verbose. get_multiplayer() works on its own and makes more sense in my opinion. This is important for a tutorial.
Edit: Sorry, just read that multiplayer also works. It's also a good solution. Makes sense with the rest of Godot syntax of offering direct access and get & setters.

Those are not equivalent, as is the entire point of this discussion here

Those are not equivalent, as is the entire point of this discussion here

I'm not saying that they are. I'm saying I'm not fond of using get_tree().get_multiplayer() for the reasons explained. If people really believe it's a must, I believe further explanation is necessary. Because otherwise, people will have the same doubts that we are having in this discussion.
Reasons to use get_tree().get_multiplayer() should be clear if used in my opinion.

I'm sorry your original comment made it seem that way based on the suggestion of replacing one with the other

I see, no worries. It was confusing, the way I put it. My fault as well.
Always please feel free to argue my posts. I'm new here, so I appreciate a lot the feedback. Hopefully I may contribute to the discussion.

tutorials/networking/high_level_multiplayer.rst

mhilbrunner · 2023-07-18T23:12:10Z

@Jordyfel Thanks for working on this, I've work in progress on expanding and reworking the networking sections, but as that turned out to take longer than anticipated I had planned to do a quicker update of the existing ones - so this is very welcome.

I'm currently building this page locally and will be reviewing it, thanks for contributing to Godot, especially to networking docs ❤️

mhilbrunner

Great work! I've finally found time to review this in depth. This is a great update to bring this page up to date for Godot 4.

I've found a few things, but these may as well be worth doing in followup PRs (by you, me or someone else):

The warning about the Android INTERNET permission was removed in this PR. Was that intentional?
Where it explains the signals, the signal names should probably be links to their class docs.
I think the flow of the page could be improved (that has nothing to do with this PR though, it was already the case before): It starts with a lot of very high level general networking talk, then gets nitty gritty, and kinda goes back and forth and thats hard to follow. We should probably split the general networking overview, security considerations, comparing Godot's networking technologies etc. from the actual "this is how you use MultiplayerAPI".

It also needs advanced tutorials for the synchronizer tech etc, but that too is out of scope for this PR, just adding context.

All in all, I'll likely merge this sooner rather than later and iterate based on it, as I have further changes in my own fork and will work on the above (further PRs are of course welcome!)

Because as of right now, the current state of the page is badly outdated, so I'm in favor of improving it and then improving it further, rather than spending more time before merging. :)

Jordyfel · 2023-07-28T19:41:28Z

I agree with everything you mentioned, this page probably has to be split/reorganized, though I'm not very confident in doing that since my networking knowledge is rather surface level. I just wanted to have all the basics in one place sooner rather than later because this API, more than most other, is a pain to figure out from the class reference as a new user (not so much the case for the scene replication nodes, which is why I didn't include them, though it would be better if they had tutorials as well).

I didn't notice the android permission warning, will put it back as it was.
I noticed a lot of class/method names could use links to the class reference, I just hadn't figured out how to do it when I was writing. Will try to get it done soon, or if you decide to merge before that, in a separate PR.

FrederickKDP · 2023-07-29T20:31:51Z

I agree with everything you mentioned, this page probably has to be split/reorganized, though I'm not very confident in doing that since my networking knowledge is rather surface level. I just wanted to have all the basics in one place sooner rather than later because this API, more than most other, is a pain to figure out from the class reference as a new user (not so much the case for the scene replication nodes, which is why I didn't include them, though it would be better if they had tutorials as well).

I didn't notice the android permission warning, will put it back as it was. I noticed a lot of class/method names could use links to the class reference, I just hadn't figured out how to do it when I was writing. Will try to get it done soon, or if you decide to merge before that, in a separate PR.

Agreed. I was myself in this situation. It's very painful to figure it out as a novice.
I would argue that a point to have here is how in-depth should this page be. Is it for novices, or for pros. If is for newcomers, how pros will find clarification? If it tries to be for both, how to explain that without overly complicate for newbies?

mhilbrunner · 2023-07-30T02:50:51Z

Merged! Thanks and congrats @Jordyfel, this is amazing, doubly so for a first contribution :)

I would argue that a point to have here is how in-depth should this page be

Absolutely. We strive to keep things as welcoming as reasonably possible, but we absolutely do not try to teach people game development (or network engineering), that is way out of scope of the docs and our resources. The Godot docs are meant to be a technical manual for this specific game engine; creating in-depth networking/multiplayer tutorials is work for the greater community, we can only hope to manage to document the tech. (And even with that we really need help, as this PR shows! :))

Jordyfel · 2023-09-05T21:12:37Z

Other issues I found which can seemingly also be closed by this: #5754, #7142. @mhilbrunner

Some guy on reddit complained that the issue he was tracking wasn't closed.

mhilbrunner · 2023-09-06T19:59:29Z

Thanks for the ping, I closed those issues now :)

AThousandShips requested a review from Faless July 16, 2023 15:15

AThousandShips added enhancement area:manual Issues and PRs related to the Manual/Tutorials section of the documentation labels Jul 16, 2023

AThousandShips reviewed Jul 16, 2023

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Faless requested a review from mhilbrunner July 16, 2023 23:59

mhilbrunner approved these changes Jul 28, 2023

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Update high level multiplayer manual for Godot 4.

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AThousandShips mentioned this pull request Jul 29, 2023

Update high_level_multiplayer.rst #7748

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mhilbrunner merged commit 0bf5bfe into godotengine:master Jul 30, 2023

mhilbrunner added cherrypick:4.0 cherrypick:4.1 labels Jul 30, 2023

Jordyfel deleted the patch-1 branch July 30, 2023 08:52

mhilbrunner added a commit that referenced this pull request Aug 1, 2023

Merge pull request #7675 from Jordyfel/patch-1

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mhilbrunner removed the cherrypick:4.0 label Aug 1, 2023

mhilbrunner added a commit that referenced this pull request Aug 1, 2023

Merge pull request #7675 from Jordyfel/patch-1

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mhilbrunner removed the cherrypick:4.1 label Aug 1, 2023

This was referenced Aug 13, 2023

Change NetworkedMultiplayerENet to ENetMultiplayerPeer in high_level_… #7403

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Update high_level_multiplayer.rst #7407

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This was referenced Sep 6, 2023

Update High-level multiplayer documentation for Godot 4.0 #5754

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Hi. I'm going nuts trying to find the right documentation for high level multiplayer for godot 4. #7142

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mhilbrunner removed the request for review from Faless September 6, 2023 19:59

Piralein mentioned this pull request Jul 12, 2024

fix: validate with is_network_master is correct form. #3790

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tetrapod00 mentioned this pull request Dec 7, 2024

Documentation pages to add or update for Godot 4.0 #5121

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		To create that object, it first has to be initialized as a server or client.
		Every node has a ``multiplayer`` property, which is a reference to a default ``MultiplayerAPI`` instance.

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Update high level multiplayer manual for Godot 4. #7675

Update high level multiplayer manual for Godot 4. #7675

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Jordyfel commented Jul 16, 2023

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