Geiodo

As it turns out, my new master server probably won’t work.

Firewalls, and other bad networking conditions will likely be an issue. Combining my master server with Unity’s NAT facilitator (AKA Cool thingymabob for getting past firewalls, and such) will be impractical.

However, there is hope.

After talking with some people very well studied in the subject (Not Unity specific, but good enough to understand how the Unity Master Server works) I have found how what could be wrong with the Master Server.

First of all Unity’s Unity’s master server system is designed to run on a dedicated server. Dedicated servers can only handle so much traffic; Likewise too much traffic = super unreliable networking.

Unity’s hosted Master Server, is not intended for complete reliability, likewise it’s probably not using a super high capacity dedicated server – one capable of properly handling all of the traffic coming to it.

THis also explains why Dime Rocket has stopped working lately. A while ago, I came across a post by Aubrey, giving a link to Dime Rocket. It worked for a while (Thanks, Aubrey!), but then started to decline.

My guess is that the DimeRocket master server was well within it’s range – but then, it’s link got posted, and many needed developers – such as I – started using it. This probably gave the server more traffic than it could handle, and… Poof – buggy master server.

Now, there is hope for Space… Some time, may be never, maybe even in six months, I may be able to host a Cloud dedicated server. The advantages of this are: It’s a dedicated server – Unity appropriate – and it is Cloud; Cloud environments share the same data amongst multiple computers. Many sytems simply split one computer into quite a few, and give the data to one slice.

Cloud + Dedicated Server = Reliable master server.

No promises, though!

For now, however, I plan to migrate back to the Dime Rocket server, or find something better, and less known – at least until a long term solution is found.

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