Export and hosting

[Castiel]

Hello everyone I will say in advance, I am not English-speaking (and not Spanish), so I use a translator and ask stupid questions Who can tell you how to upload the game to hosting? ( maybe there is a video on YouTube)
And also tell how you assemble your project before publishing ( Export games)

[Cheshire]

Both of these questions will depend heavily on where you intend to host the game as well as how you wish to distribute it. 

 

So what's your plan? 

[Castiel]

@Cheshire It's banal for 5-10 people to play (Hosting on your computer is not suitable, I want the server to work 24/7, that is, hosting is needed). Accordingly, it will have to be distributed without Steam and other gaming platforms. Although if there is a platform on which you can host the game for free, then why not?

[Cheshire]

In that case, if hosting the server on your own system is out of the question the easiest way would be this: 

 

An alternative would be to set up your own VPS and configure, maintain and secure it though that will likely be more expensive and time consuming. 

 

Regarding distribution, you'll want some place to host the files and updates and configure a few things. The general concept is explained in the documentation: 

https://docs.freemmorpgmaker.com/en-US/deploy/distributing.html#preparing

 

Depending on what you choose to use (website, itch.io, asset encryption or no) and what you intend to use to get your client across there might be some minor tweaks here and there you need to do yourself. 

 

If you have more specific questions we could give more specific answers. 

[Castiel]

@ЧеширI have already seen the option with your hosting, but it seemed expensive to me for a small project. Do you happen to know if it is possible to do a file integrity check using itch.io ( steam has such a feature).

I have already read the documentation, but I have not figured out what to do with the database, which files need to be downloaded...

[Cheshire]

Regarding the server host, I don't think you're understanding what a server host is. It won't host your files but just your game server. Itch and steam can only host your game files. 

 

Regarding where the database goes.. It stays with you. A nything in the server folder will stay on the game server and players will never see any of those files. 

 

The client folder will go to the players and need some place to be updated from through a webserver or something. 

[Castiel]

@Cheshire 

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Regarding the server host, I don't think you're understanding what a server host is. It won't host your files but just your game server. Itch and steam can only host your game files.

Yes, I know that

 

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Regarding where the database goes.. It stays with you. A nything in the server folder will stay on the game server and players will never see any of those files.

I mean, where is she?) I worked with a mysql database once, I had a file with the .sql extension there, but I didn't find one here. Where can I get this file to upload it to the hosting?

[Cheshire]

Server\resources\

playerdata.db

gamedata.db

 

Those are the sqlite files. 

I would highly suggest migrating to mysql for a live game however. (Check the server command migrate for more information) 

[Castiel]

@Чешир So, I think I'm starting to understand something.

Two questions:

1) If I rent your hosting, will you upload the necessary files yourself? or is it done manually?
2) If I want to run the game on a locale, can I have a short list of how to do it?

[Cheshire]

It's not my hosting, Jc does that and it's entirely his system. But there should be a guide on the related site on how it works though. 

 

And the short of what to do to locally host a server is basically as follows:

- have a computer on 24/7

- run intersect server.exe

- If the server says it can't be reached from the internet, portforward the port you've configured for the server (may have to look up how to do this for your modem/router as it depends on the make and model) 

- point your client configuration to your Wan ip address. 

 

After that you'll have to package up your client and distribute it through some means again. Be it a website, itch.io, steam or whatever other platform you want to use. 

[Castiel]

@Cheshire 

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It's not my hosting, Jc does that and it's entirely his system. But there should be a guide on the related site on how it works though.

Oh, right, sorry

 

Thanks for the explanation, I think I got it

 

[Castiel]

@Чешир I remembered another question that also fits the topic! Is building a project in Microsoft Visual Studio necessary only if I changed something in the source code? Will it not be possible to somehow build a project so that the files are not as accessible as they are now?

[jcsnider]

The editor has the capability to package an update in which will throw all the audio/graphics the client needs into a packs folder, they will be encrypted and their extensions will change.

 

You only need to build with visual studio if you need to make source code edits, yes.

[Castiel]

 @jcsnider And can I clarify with you about the database ( suddenly you know ) ? When I worked with GTA:SA multiplayer, in order to run the game on the local, it was necessary to run the Denwer or OpenServer program and import a database into it. Why in the case of IE Engine we do not need to do these actions? Or is it necessary only for MySQL?

[Cheshire]

By default the server uses sqlite which is a file based database system. That's why unless you switch to mysql you won't have to set anything up. 

 

If you run the migration command and give it a server to connect to it'll move the data over and import it automatically. 

[Castiel]

1 hour ago, Cheshire said:

By default the server uses sqlite which is a file based database system. That's why unless you switch to mysql you won't have to set anything up.

 

If you run the migration command and give it a server to connect to it'll move the data over and import it automatically.

That is, for MySQL I will already need Denwer / OpenServer? ( so that the game finds the database when starting from the local )

[Cheshire]

I don't know what denwer is, but the mysql server itself can be anywhere you want. I'd suggest keeping it close to your game server to reduce query latency though. 

[Smoot]

This thread is a mess.

 

On your local system you can run the server, editor and client without denwar or anything. They're all exes and they can run on Windows at the same time. The database, as stated, is nosql which doesn't require anything special to run.

So on my system I just keep server and then client/editor in separate folders. Once you run the server the first time it populates a bunch of files.

You can totally just work on your own system as much as you want. If you want others to connect, you open up your firewall ports. Setup the client file to connect to your ip and your defined ports, then send them to your collaborator.

So at that point, you can work, and your collaborators can work.

 

Once you get to a point where you are ready to start opening it up more and no longer want it to be self hosted, you'll need a virtual linux server, I use AWS personally.

Then you'll get whatever you want running, mySQL, like web hosting for a CMS, get mono going and get your firewall and all the patching and blah stuff.

Once the server is ready you upload all of your server folder to the virtual server. You then run the server.exe with Mono, and run the migrate command with your mysql details (localhost, uid and pass, db name. It will convert the nosql file to a full mysql setup. It uses 2 database, one for the users and one for the rest.

 

Now the hosting that JCSnyder has here cuts A TON of the work out of all of this. He essentially has a virtual server and all that stuff going already. So you upload the server files from your local machine, and it does the rest for you. No patching, no dealing with sql, etc. It's really nice if you're not a server admin or don't want to deal with it.

 

I hope that helps and doesn't add to the confusion.

[Castiel]

@Smoot Thank you for the answer. I've already figured out about the local network. Regarding the hosting JCSnyder also understood everything! But it seems to me that I will not be able to use any other hosting, because due to the language barrier, I did not understand some points.

[Smoot]

@Castiel I believe his hosting is generally using the nosql db. That would make it easily portable, otherwise a mysql db is also portable, just not quit as simple. JC can clarify if I'm wrong here

[Castiel]

@Смут I don't understand how I can put the game on a rented VPS myself. After all, in addition to uploading the contents of the "server" folder there, you need to do some actions, but what..

[Smoot]

I mean it takes a variety of things to learn. Go through the documentation and anything in there that's new to you, google and learn. That's how we all did it, and I'd bet most of us don't have the time to teach it thread by thread.

Essentially you upload the files to the server, then ssh in and run the command sudo mono Intersect\ Server.exe . I'm sure a lot of hosts have little command line interfaces but I'm not sure if that will work. If your host doesn't allow ssh you'll need to find one that does. You also need mono installed on the server, but this is all in the documentation.

 

I mean it takes a variety of things to learn. Go through the documentation and anything in there that's new to you, google and learn. That's how we all did it, and I'd bet most of us don't have the time to teach it thread by thread.

If you're stuck on a step in the docs, just let us know specific steps that you're stuck on, perhaps it needs updated or clarified.

 

 

[Castiel]

@SmootI have read the documentation, but due to my ignorance of English, I have a lot of questions. I have already used different hosting services before and have a rough idea of what it is. The fact is that there were game hosting sites specialized for a specific game, and here, in addition to loading the server, I need to configure something before that. It's a pity there are no videos or tutorials with pictures, because it would be easier that way.

JОcsnider hosting is so good, but the cheapest tariff plan supports only 5 people, this is very bad.

[jcsnider]

21 hours ago, Castiel said:

@Смут I don't understand how I can put the game on a rented VPS myself. After all, in addition to uploading the contents of the "server" folder there, you need to do some actions, but what..

If you rent a vps from anywhere all you really have to do is install the .Net Framework (if it's a windows vps) or Mono (if it's a linux vps). Open firewall ports, and then run the server.

 

Finally you modify the client config so the client and editor connect to the server on that vps. The instructions are really not any different than for a game like Minecraft so you can find guides for that in your language and then just adapt for Intersect.

 

Don't worry about MySql until you start having performance issues. Sqlite is fine and requires no setup.

 

 

17 hours ago, Castiel said:

JОcsnider hosting is so good, but the cheapest tariff plan supports only 5 people, this is very bad.

 

I modifying or removing that verbiage soon because not only is it outdated it's also just inaccurate. The 5 players is not a limit or restriction. The size of your game, whether you have custom coded changes, and how efficient your events and other game aspects are just as important as the allocated specs. If you have inefficient custom code or a ridiculously massive game then 5 players might be the max, but if you have a smallish/medium vanilla Intersect project then it's not unreasonable to think that it could hold 20 on its own -- maybe more. If you had a single empty map on vanilla intersect it could probably handle 100+.

[Castiel]

@jcsnider

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If you rent a vps from anywhere all you really have to do is install the .Net Framework (if it's a windows vps) or Mono (if it's a linux vps). Open firewall ports, and then run the server.

 

Finally you modify the client config so the client and editor connect to the server on that vps. The instructions are really not any different than for a game like Minecraft so you can find guides for that in your language and then just adapt for Intersect.

 

Don't worry about MySql until you start having performance issues. Sqlite is fine and requires no setup.

Thank you, I think I understand!

 

 

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I modifying or removing that verbiage soon because not only is it outdated it's also just inaccurate. The 5 players is not a limit or restriction. The size of your game, whether you have custom coded changes, and how efficient your events and other game aspects are just as important as the allocated specs. If you have inefficient custom code or a ridiculously massive game then 5 players might be the max, but if you have a smallish/medium vanilla Intersect project then it's not unreasonable to think that it could hold 20 on its own -- maybe more. If you had a single empty map on vanilla intersect it could probably handle 100+.

I think I got it. It's really better to change the signature so as not to confuse people. Thank you, then it would probably be better to rent your hosting!)