Setting up a Multiplayer Project from

Scratch
This document describes steps to setup a new multiplayer project from nothing using the new
networking system. This step-by-step process is generic, but can be customized for many types of
multiplayer games once it is started.

To get started, create a new empty 3D Unity project.

NetworkManager Setup
The first step is to create a NetworkManager in the project:

 Add a new empty game object, from the menu Game Object -> Create Empty.
 Find the newly created object in the Hierarchy View and select it
 Rename the object to “NetworkManager” from the right-click context menu or by clicking on the
object’s name and typing.
 In the inspector window for the object click the Add Component button
 Find the component Network -> NetworkManager and add it to the object. This component manages
the network state of the game.

 Find the component Network -> NetworkManagerHUD and add it to the object. This component
supplies a simple user interface in your game for controlling the network state.

For more details, see Using the NetworkManager.

 Setup the Player Prefab
The next step is to setup the Unity Prefab that represents the player in the game. The network
system instantiates an object for each player from the player prefab. In this example, the player will
be a simple cube.

 Create a new Cube from the menu Game Object -> 3D Object -> Cube

 Find the cube in the Hierarchy view and select it

 Rename the object to “PlayerCube”
 In the inspector window for the object click the Add Component button
 Add the component Network -> NetworkIdentity to the object. This component is used to identify the
object between the server and clients.

 Set the “Local Player Authority” checkbox on the NetworkIdentity to true. This will allow the client to
control the movement of the player object

 Create a prefab from the player cube object by dragging it into the Assets window. This will create a
prefab called “PlayerCube”
 Delete the PlayerCube object from the scene - we don’t need it now that we have a prefab
See Player Objects.

Register the Player Prefab

Once the player prefab is created, it must be registered with the network system.

 Find the NetworkManager object ain the Heirarchy View and select it
 Open the “Spawn Info” foldout of the inspector for the NetworkManager
 Find the “Player Prefab” slot
 Drag the PlayerCube prefab into the “Player Prefab” slot
 Now is a good time to save the project for the first time. From the menu File -> Save Project, save
the project. This will prompt for saving the current scene. Lets call this scene the “offline” scene.

Player Movement (Single Player Version)

The first piece of functionality the game will have is to move the player. This will first be done without
any networking, so it will only work in a single-player mode.

 Find the PlayerCube prefab in the Asset view.

 Click the Add Component button and choose “New Script”
 Enter the name “PlayerMove” for the new script name. A new script will be created.
 Open this new script in an editor (such as Visual Studio) by double clicking it
 Add this simple movement code to the script:

using UnityEngine;

public class PlayerMove : MonoBehaviour

void Update()

var x = Input.GetAxis("Horizontal")*0.1f;

var z = Input.GetAxis("Vertical")*0.1f;
 transform.Translate(x, 0, z);

This hooks up the cube to be controlled by the arrow keys or a controller pad.

Test Player Movement on the Host

Save the project again. Enter play mode in the editor by clicking the play button. You should see the
NetworkManagerHUD default user interface:

Press “Host” to start the game as the host of the game. This will cause a player object to be created,
and the menu will change.

Pressing the arrow keys should make the player cube object move around.

Exit play mode by pressing the stop button.

Test Player Movement for a Client

 Use the menu File -> Build Settings to open the Build Settings dialog.
 Add the current scene to the build by pressing the “Add Open Scenes” button
 Create a build by pressing the “Build and Run” button. This will prompt for a name for the
executable, enter a name such as “networkTest”
 A stand-alone player wil launch, and show a resolution choice dialogue.
 Choose the “windowed” checkbox and a lower resolution such as 640x480
 The stand-alone player will start and show the NetworkManager HUD.
 Choose “Host” from the menu to start as a host. A player cube should be created
 Press the arrow keys to move the player cube around a little
 Switch back to the editor and close the Build Settings dialog.
 Enter play mode with the play button
 From the NetworkManagerHUD user interace, choose “LAN Client” to connect to the host as a client
 There should be two cubes, one for the player on the host and one for the player for this client
 Press the arrow keys to move the cube around
 Both cube currently move! This is because the movement script is not yet network-aware.
Multiple Players
 Close the stand-alone player
 Exit play mode in the editor
 Open the PlayerMove script.
 Update the script to only move the local player
 Add “using UnityEngine.Netwrking”
 Change “MonoBehaviour” to “NetworkBehaviour”
 Add a check fot “isLocalPlayer” in the Update function

using UnityEngine;

using UnityEngine.Networking;

public class PlayerMove : NetworkBehaviour

void Update()

if (!isLocalPlayer)

return;

var x = Input.GetAxis("Horizontal")*0.1f;

var z = Input.GetAxis("Vertical")*0.1f;

transform.Translate(x, 0, z);

 Find the PlayerCube prefab in the Asset View and select

 Click the “Add Component” button and add the Networking -> NetworkTransform component. This
component makes the object sychronize its position across the network.
 Save the Project again
Test Multiplayer Movement
 Build&Run the standalone player again and start as host
 Enter play mode in the editor and connect as a client
 The player objects should now move independently of each other, and only be controlled by the local
player on their client.
Identify Your Player
The cubes in the game are currently all white, so the player cannot tell which one is their cube. The
cube of the local player should be red.

 Open the PlayerMove script

 Add an implementation of the OnStartLocalPlayer function to change the player’s color.
public override void OnStartLocalPlayer()

GetComponent<MeshRenderer>().material.color = Color.red;

This function is only called on the local player on their client. This will make that player see their
cube as red. This is a good place to do initialization that is only for the local player, such as
configuring cameras and input.

 Build and run the game

 The cube controlled by the local player should now be red, while the others are still white.
 Shooting Bullets (Not Networked)
A common feature in multiplayer games is to have players fire bullets. This section adds non-
networked bullets to the example. Networking for bullets is added in the next section.

 Create a sphere game object

 rename the sphere object to “Bullet”

 change scale of the bullet from 1.0 to 0.2
 make a prefab of the bullet
 delete the bullet object from the scene
 add a Rigidbody component to the bullet

 Set the “Use Gravity” checkbox on the rigidbody to false

 Update the PlayerMove script to fire bullets:
 add public bullet prefab
 add input handling in Update() function
using UnityEngine;

using UnityEngine.Networking;

public class PlayerMove : NetworkBehaviour

public GameObject bulletPrefab;

public override void OnStartLocalPlayer()

GetComponent<MeshRenderer>().material.color = Color.red;
 }

void Update()

if (!isLocalPlayer)

return;

var x = Input.GetAxis("Horizontal")*0.1f;

var z = Input.GetAxis("Vertical")*0.1f;

transform.Translate(x, 0, z);

if (Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.Space))

// create the bullet from the bullet prefab

var bullet = (GameObject)Instantiate(

bulletPrefab,

transform.position - transform.forward,

Quaternion.identity);

// make the bullet move away in front of the player

bullet.GetComponent<Rigidbody>().velocity = -transform.forward*4;

// make bullet disappear after 2 seconds

Destroy(bullet, 2.0f);

 save the script and return to the editor

 select the PlayerCube prefab and find the PlayerMove component
 Find the bulletPrefab slot on the component
 drag the bullet prefab into the bulletPrefab slot

 Make a build a start the player as the host

 enter play mode in the editor and connect as a client
 Pressing the space bar should cause a bullet to be created and fired from the player
 The bullet is not fired on other clients, only the one where the space bar was pressed.
Shooting Bullets with Networking
This section adds networking to the bullets in the example.

 Add NetworkIdentity to the bullet prefab

 Add NetworkTransform component to the bullet prefab
 set the send rate to zero on the NetworkTransform

 select the NetworkManager and open “Spawn Info”

 add a spawn prefab
 drag bulletPrefab into spawn prefab slot
 update the PlayerMove script to network the bullet:
 Add [Command] CmdFire()
 use Network.Spawn() on bullet object
using UnityEngine;

using UnityEngine.Networking;

public class PlayerMove : NetworkBehaviour

public GameObject bulletPrefab;

public override void OnStartLocalPlayer()

GetComponent<MeshRenderer>().material.color = Color.red;

[Command]

void CmdFire()

// create the bullet object locally

 var bullet = (GameObject)Instantiate(

bulletPrefab,

transform.position - transform.forward,

Quaternion.identity);

bullet.GetComponent<Rigidbody>().velocity = -transform.forward*4;

// spawn the bullet on the clients

NetworkServer.Spawn(bullet);

// when the bullet is destroyed on the server it wil automaticaly be destroyd on clients

Destroy(bullet, 2.0f);

void Update()

if (!isLocalPlayer)

return;

var x = Input.GetAxis("Horizontal")*0.1f;

var z = Input.GetAxis("Vertical")*0.1f;

transform.Translate(x, 0, z);

if (Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.Space))

// Command function is called on the client, but invoked on the server

CmdFire();

}
 }

This code uses a [Command] to fire the bullet on the server. For more information see Networked
Actions.

 Make a build a start the player as the host

 enter play mode in the editor and connect as a client
 Pressing the space bar should make bullet fire for the correct player (only) on all clients
Bullet Collisions
This adds a collision handler so that bullets will disappear when they hit a player cube object.

 Find the bullet prefab and select it

 Choose the Add Component button and add a new script
 Call the new script “Bullet”
 Open the new script and add the collision handler that destroys the bullet when it hits a player
using UnityEngine;

public class Bullet : MonoBehaviour

void OnCollisionEnter(Collision collision)

var hit = collision.gameObject;

var hitPlayer = hit.GetComponent<PlayerMove>();

if (hitPlayer != null)

Destroy(gameObject);

Now when a bullet hits a player it will be destroyed. When the bullet on the server is destroyed,
because it was spawned, it will be destroyed on clients too.

Player State (Non-Networked Health)

 A common feature related to bullets is that the player has “health” that starts at a full value and then
is reduced when the player takes damage from a bullet hitting them. This section adds non-
networked health to the player.

 Select the PlayerMove prefab

 Choose the Add Component button and add a new script
 call the script “Combat”
 open the Combat script, add the health variables and TakeDamage function
using UnityEngine;

public class Combat : MonoBehaviour

public const int maxHealth = 100;

public int health = maxHealth;

public void TakeDamage(int amount)

health -= amount;

if (health <= 0)

health = 0;

Debug.Log("Dead!");

The bullet script needs to be updated to call the TakeDamage function on a hit. * Open the bullet
script * in the collision handler function get the Combat component and call TakeDamage on it:

using UnityEngine;

public class Bullet : MonoBehaviour

{

void OnCollisionEnter(Collision collision)

var hit = collision.gameObject;

var hitPlayer = hit.GetComponent<PlayerMove>();

if (hitPlayer != null)

var combat = hit.GetComponent<Combat>();

combat.TakeDamage(10);

Destroy(gameObject);

This will make health on the player go down when hit by a bullet. But you cannot see this happening
in the game. We need to add a simple health bar. * Select the PlayerCube prefab * Choose the Add
Component button and add a new script called HealthBar * open the HealthBar script * this is a lot of
code that uses the old GUI system. This is not very relevant for networking so we’ll just use it without
explaination for now.

using UnityEngine;

using System.Collections;

public class HealthBar : MonoBehaviour

GUIStyle healthStyle;

GUIStyle backStyle;

Combat combat;

void Awake()

{
 combat = GetComponent<Combat>();

void OnGUI()

InitStyles();

// Draw a Health Bar

Vector3 pos = Camera.main.WorldToScreenPoint(transform.position);

// draw health bar background

GUI.color = Color.grey;

GUI.backgroundColor = Color.grey;

GUI.Box(new Rect(pos.x-26, Screen.height - pos.y + 20, Combat.maxHealth/2, 7), ".", backStyle);

// draw health bar amount

GUI.color = Color.green;

GUI.backgroundColor = Color.green;

GUI.Box(new Rect(pos.x-25, Screen.height - pos.y + 21, combat.health/2, 5), ".", healthStyle);

void InitStyles()

if( healthStyle == null )

healthStyle = new GUIStyle( GUI.skin.box );

healthStyle.normal.background = MakeTex( 2, 2, new Color( 0f, 1f, 0f, 1.0f ) );

}
 if( backStyle == null )

backStyle = new GUIStyle( GUI.skin.box );

backStyle.normal.background = MakeTex( 2, 2, new Color( 0f, 0f, 0f, 1.0f ) );

Texture2D MakeTex( int width, int height, Color col )

Color[] pix = new Color[width * height];

for( int i = 0; i < pix.Length; ++i )

pix[ i ] = col;

Texture2D result = new Texture2D( width, height );

result.SetPixels( pix );

result.Apply();

return result;

 Save the project

 Build and Run the game and see health bar on the player
 If a player shoots another player now, the health goes down on that particular client, but not on other
clients.
Player State (Networked Health)
Health is being applied everywhere now. It should only be applied on the server and the changes
replicated to clients.

 Open the Combat scripts

 Change script to be a NetworkBehaviour
 Make health a [SyncVar] TODO: make a link to SyncVar page
 Add isServer check to TakeDamage, so it will only be applied on the servr
using UnityEngine;

using UnityEngine.Networking;

public class Combat : NetworkBehaviour

public const int maxHealth = 100;

[SyncVar]

public int health = maxHealth;

public void TakeDamage(int amount)

if (!isServer)

return;

health -= amount;

if (health <= 0)

health = 0;

Debug.Log("Dead!");

Death and Respawning

In this example, nothing currently happens when the health of a player reaches zero. To make it
more of a game, when health reaches zero, the player should be teleported back to the starting
location with full health.
 open the Combat script
 Add a [ClientRpc] function to respawn the player object. For more information see Networked
Actions.
 call the respawn function on the server when health reaches zero
using UnityEngine;

using UnityEngine.Networking;

public class Combat : NetworkBehaviour

public const int maxHealth = 100;

[SyncVar]

public int health = maxHealth;

public void TakeDamage(int amount)

if (!isServer)

return;

health -= amount;

if (health <= 0)

health = maxHealth;

// called on the server, will be invoked on the clients

RpcRespawn();

[ClientRpc]
 void RpcRespawn()

if (isLocalPlayer)

// move back to zero location

transform.position = Vector3.zero;

Because in this game, the client controls the position of the player object, the server tells the client to
move the player object to the start position. If the server just set the player’s position to the start
position, it would be overridden by the client, since the client has authority.

 Build and run the game

 Move the player objects away from the start position
 Shoot bullets at one player until their health reaches zero
 The player should teleport to the starting position.
Non-Player Objects
While player objects are spawned when client connect to the host, most games have non-player
objects that exist in the game world, such as enemies. In this section a spawner is added that
creates non-player objects that can be shot and killed.

 From the GameObject menu create a new empty game object

 Rename this object to “EnemySpawner”
 Select the EnemySpawner object
 choose the Add Component button and add a NetworkIdentity to the object
 In the NetworkIdentity click the “Server Only” checkbox
 choose the Add Component button and create a new script called “EnemySpawner”
 Edit the new script
 Make it a NetworkBehaviour
 Implement the virtual function OnStartServer to create the enemies
using UnityEngine;

using UnityEngine.Networking;
 public class EnemySpawner : NetworkBehaviour {

public GameObject enemyPrefab;

public int numEnemies;

public override void OnStartServer()

for (int i=0; i < numEnemies; i++)

var pos = new Vector3(

Random.Range(-8.0f, 8.0f),

0.2f,

Random.Range(-8.0f, 8.0f)

);

var rotation = Quaternion.Euler( Random.Range(0,180), Random.Range(0,180),

Random.Range(0,180));

var enemy = (GameObject)Instantiate(enemyPrefab, pos, rotation);

NetworkServer.Spawn(enemy);

Now create an Enemy object:

 From the GameObject menu create a new Capsule.

 Rename the object to “Enemy”
 Choose the Add Component button add a NetworkIdentity component to the Enemy
 Choose the Add Component button add a NetworkTransform component to the Enemy
 Drag the Enemy object into the Asset view to create a prefab
 there should be a prefab asset now called “Enemy”
 Delete the Enemy object from the scene
 Select the Enemy prefab
 Choose the Add Component button and add the Combat script to the Enemy
 Choose the Add Component button and add the HealthBar script to the Enemy
 Select the NetworkManager and in Spawn Info add a new spawnable prefab
 Set the new spawn prefab to the Enemy Prefab
The bullet script was setup to only work for players. Update the bullets script to hit any object with
the Combat script:

 Open the Bullet script

 Change the collision check to use Combat instead of PlayerMove:
using UnityEngine;

public class Bullet : MonoBehaviour

void OnCollisionEnter(Collision collision)

var hit = collision.gameObject;

var hitCombat = hit.GetComponent<Combat>();

if (hitCombat != null)

hitCombat.TakeDamage(10);

Destroy(gameObject);

Hookup the EnemySpawner with the Enemy object:

 Select the EnemySpawner object

 Find the “Enemy” slot on the EnemySpawner component
 Drag the Enemy prefab into the slot
 Set the numEnemies value to 4
Test Enemies:

 Build and run the game

 When starting as Host, four enemies should be created at random locations
 The player should be able to shoot enemies
 When the client joins they should see the enemies in the same positions as on the server
Destroying Enemies
While the enemies can be shot by bullets and their health goes down, then respawn like players.
Enemies should be destroyed when their health reaches zero instead of respawning.

 Open the Combat script

 Add a “destroyOnDeath” variable
 check destroyOnDeath when health reaches zero
using UnityEngine;

using UnityEngine.Networking;

public class Combat : NetworkBehaviour

public const int maxHealth = 100;

public bool destroyOnDeath;

[SyncVar]

public int health = maxHealth;

public void TakeDamage(int amount)

if (!isServer)

return;

health -= amount;

if (health <= 0)

if (destroyOnDeath)
 {

Destroy(gameObject);

else

health = maxHealth;

// called on the server, will be invoked on the clients

RpcRespawn();

[ClientRpc]

void RpcRespawn()

if (isLocalPlayer)

// move back to zero location

transform.position = Vector3.zero;

 Select the Enemy prefab

 Set the destroyOnDeath checkbox to true for the Enemy
Now the enemy will be destroyed when health reaches zero.

Spawn Positions for players

 Add new game object and place at player start location
 Add NetworkStartPosition component to new game object
 Lobby
 Create Lobby Scene
 Import multiplayer-lobby package
 Add GuiLobbyManager prefab to scene
 Configure the manager
o Scenes
o Prefabs
o spawners