UNET Unity Multiplayer Technology Announced

Unity 5

Today, Unity Technologies announced UNET – Unity Multiplayer Technology.

A couple weeks ago, during their Unite Asia conference, Unity announced they would develop new multiplayer tools, technologies and services for Unity developers. This announcement of Unity Networking (UNET) seeks to Democratize Multiplayer Game Development, by allowing game developers to build multiplayer games for any type of game with any number of players.

Introducing UNET, Unity's upcoming multiplayer technology: http://t.co/OJl5Qbmmwm #unity3d

— Unity for Games (@unitygames) May 12, 2014

The UNET framework will be broken into three phases, released with time for feedback and modification before the next phase is complete.

• Phase 1 – Multiplayer Foundation
• Phase 2 – Simulation Server
• Phase 3 – Master Simulation Server

Phase 1 is underway currently, and will be part of the Unity 5.x release cycle. UNET phase 1 is being designed with the following features:

• High performance transport layer based on UDP to support all game types
• Low Level API (LLAPI) provides complete control through a socket like interface
• High Level API (HLAPI) provides simple and secure client/server network model
• Matchmaker Service provides basic functionality for creating rooms and helping players find others to play with
• Relay Server solves connectivity problems for players trying to connect to each other behind firewalls

Learn More

Read through the official announcement for more details. The Unity blog has also posted a series of posts about the UNET:

• Announcing UNET – New Unity Multiplayer Technology
• UNET SyncVar
• All about the Unity networking transport layer

Go Get It!

Unity UNET is still being developed, but you can download the free version and start using Unity right away.