Networking in Unreal Engine

What the talk is about

Eugen Ponomarenko walks game designers and technical designers through the basics of Unreal Engine's networking framework and client-server interaction, using a dedicated server setup. The core rule: data flows from the server to clients, and gameplay actions should ideally happen only on the server, otherwise cheating becomes a problem. He covers where GameMode, GameState, PlayerState, PlayerController and Pawn exist, how variable replication works (including notify variants), and the event types: run on server, run on owning client and multicast. He also highlights a common trap with Net Cull Distance: an object outside the radius does not exist for the client, so a loot box or a teammate's health bar can show stale state. He suggests a manager for interactive objects and heavy testing of network logic. Useful for anyone prototyping multiplayer in Unreal Engine.