I am building a multiplayer game server with Unity. In the game there are players moving around the map. Now, because this map is quite large compared to the number of players, I was thinking to have the server send each clients' position only when they are nearby, and then slow the rate down when they are far away.

At first I was using the convenient SyncVar to do sync everyone's position, until I discovered its shortcomings, that is there is no conditional way to either sync or not a certain value.

I came out with this player synchronization class so far (I removed all optimizations for simplicity):

public class PlayerSyncPositionConditional : NetworkBehaviour {
    
    Vector3 lastPos;

    void FixedUpdate () {
        TransmitPosition();
    }

    [ClientCallback]
    void TransmitPosition () {
        CmdProvidePositionToServer(transform.position);
    }

    [Command]
    void CmdProvidePositionToServer (Vector3 pos){
        transform.position = pos;
    }

}

Now, what this code does is not nothing more than sending its position to the server: when I am looking at the dedicated server instance, each players' position is correct. Also, as expected, each client will not receive any updates.

From my research, I found that instead of SyncVar, I can use Server and ClientRpc to dispatch commands from the server to all clients, so this

 [Server]
 public void MoveTo() {
     RpcMoveTo(transform.position);
 }

 [ClientRPC]
 void RpcMoveTo(Vector3 newPosition) {
     transform.position = newPosition; //this will run in all clients
 }

would move all clients to the transform current position whenever needed.

Now, the problem is that those commands, apparently affect every client, while I only want to affect ones that are near each other.

I know how to have the server issue the MoveTo at any rate I want, setup more than one interval, etc. but I don't know how to have it send only to certain clients at a single time.

I am not asking for the code itself, but I am getting really confused with all these client/server architecture concepts, which class does what, etc. so any heads-up will be greatly appreciated.

I am building a multiplayer game server with Unity. In the game there are players moving around the map. Now, because this map is quite large compared to the number of players, I was thinking to have the server send each clients' position only when they are nearby, and then slow the rate down when they are far away.

At first I was using the convenient SyncVar to do sync everyone's position, until I discovered its shortcomings, that is there is no conditional way to either sync or not a certain value.

I came out with this player synchronization class so far (I removed all optimizations for simplicity):

public class PlayerSyncPositionConditional : NetworkBehaviour {
    
    Vector3 lastPos;

    void FixedUpdate () {
        TransmitPosition();
    }

    [ClientCallback]
    void TransmitPosition () {
        CmdProvidePositionToServer(transform.position);
    }

    [Command]
    void CmdProvidePositionToServer (Vector3 pos){
        transform.position = pos;
    }

}

Now, what this code does is nothing more than sending its position to the server: when I am looking at the dedicated server instance, each players' position is correct. Also, as expected, each client will not receive any updates.

From my research, I found that instead of SyncVar, I can use Server and ClientRpc to dispatch commands from the server to all clients, so this

 [Server]
 public void MoveTo() {
     RpcMoveTo(transform.position);
 }

 [ClientRPC]
 void RpcMoveTo(Vector3 newPosition) {
     transform.position = newPosition; //this will run in all clients
 }

would move all clients to the transform current position whenever needed.

Now, the problem is that those commands, apparently affect every client, while I only want to affect ones that are near each other.

I know how to have the server issue the MoveTo at any rate I want, setup more than one interval, etc. but I don't know how to have it send only to certain clients at a single time.

I am not asking for the code itself, but I am getting really confused with all these client/server architecture concepts, which class does what, etc. so any heads-up will be greatly appreciated.

I am building a multiplayer game server with Unity. In the game there are players moving around the map. Now, because this map is quite large compared to the number of players, I was thinking to have the server send each clients' position only when they are nearby, and then slow the rate down when they are far away.

At first I was using the convenient SyncVar to do sync everyone's position, until I discovered its shortcomings, that is there is no conditional way to either sync or not a certain value.

I came out with this player synchronization class so far (I removed all optimizations for simplicity):

public class PlayerSyncPositionConditional : NetworkBehaviour {
    
    Vector3 lastPos;

    void FixedUpdate () {
        TransmitPosition();
    }

    [ClientCallback]
    void TransmitPosition () {
        CmdProvidePositionToServer(transform.position);
    }

    [Command]
    void CmdProvidePositionToServer (Vector3 pos){
        transform.position = pos;
    }

}

Now, what this code does is not nothing more than sending its position to the server: when I am looking at the dedicated server instance, each players' position is correct. Also, as expected, each client will not receive any updates.

From my research, I found that instead of SyncVar, I can use Server and ClientRpc to dispatch commands from the server to all clients, so this

 [Server]
 public void MoveTo() {
     RpcMoveTo(transform.position);
 }

 [ClientRPC]
 void RpcMoveTo(Vector3 newPosition) {
     transform.position = newPosition; //this will run in all clients
 }

would move all clients to the transform current position

Now, the problem is that those commands, apparently affect every client, while I only want to affect ones that are near each other.

I know how to have the server issue the MoveTo at any rate I want, setup more than one interval, etc. but I don't know how to have it send only to certain clients at a single time.

I am not asking for the code itself, but I am getting really confused with all these client/server architecture concepts, which class does what, etc. so any heads-up will be greatly appreciated.

I am building a multiplayer game server with Unity. In the game there are players moving around the map. Now, because this map is quite large compared to the number of players, I was thinking to have the server send each clients' position only when they are nearby, and then slow the rate down when they are far away.

At first I was using the convenient SyncVar to do sync everyone's position, until I discovered its shortcomings, that is there is no conditional way to either sync or not a certain value.

I came out with this player synchronization class so far (I removed all optimizations for simplicity):

public class PlayerSyncPositionConditional : NetworkBehaviour {
    
    Vector3 lastPos;

    void FixedUpdate () {
        TransmitPosition();
    }

    [ClientCallback]
    void TransmitPosition () {
        CmdProvidePositionToServer(transform.position);
    }

    [Command]
    void CmdProvidePositionToServer (Vector3 pos){
        transform.position = pos;
    }

}

Now, what this code does is not nothing more than sending its position to the server: when I am looking at the dedicated server instance, each players' position is correct. Also, as expected, each client will not receive any updates.

From my research, I found that instead of SyncVar, I can use Server and ClientRpc to dispatch commands from the server to all clients, so this

 [Server]
 public void MoveTo() {
     RpcMoveTo(transform.position);
 }

 [ClientRPC]
 void RpcMoveTo(Vector3 newPosition) {
     transform.position = newPosition; //this will run in all clients
 }

would move all clients to the transform current position whenever needed.

Now, the problem is that those commands, apparently affect every client, while I only want to affect ones that are near each other.

I know how to have the server issue the MoveTo at any rate I want, setup more than one interval, etc. but I don't know how to have it send only to certain clients at a single time.

I am not asking for the code itself, but I am getting really confused with all these client/server architecture concepts, which class does what, etc. so any heads-up will be greatly appreciated.

I am building a multiplayer game server with Unity. In the game there are players moving around the map. Now, because this map is quite large compared to the number of players, I was thinking to have the server send each clients' position only when they are nearby, and then slow the rate down when they are far away.

At first I was using the convenient SyncVar to do sync everyone's position, until I discovered its shortcomings, that is there is no conditional way to either sync or not a certain value.

I came out with this player synchronization class so far (I removed all optimizations for simplicity):

public class PlayerSyncPositionConditional : NetworkBehaviour {
    
    Vector3 lastPos;

    void FixedUpdate () {
        TransmitPosition();
    }

    [ClientCallback]
    void TransmitPosition () {
        CmdProvidePositionToServer(transform.position);
    }

    [Command]
    void CmdProvidePositionToServer (Vector3 pos){
        transform.position = pos;
    }

}

Now, what this code does is not nothing more than sending its position to the server: when I am looking at the dedicated server instance, each players' position is correct. Also, as expected, each client will not receive any updates.

From my research, I found that instead of SyncVar, I can use Server and ClientRpc to dispatch commands from the server to all clients, so this

 [Server]
 public void MoveTo() {
     RpcMoveTo(transform.position);
 }

 [ClientRPC]
 void RpcMoveTo(Vector3 newPosition) {
     transform.position = newPosition; //this will run in all clients
 }

would move all clients to the transform current position

Now, the problem is that those commands, apparently affect every client, while I only want to affect ones that are near each other. On top of that, I don't know how to set two different rates at which send the ClientRPC command.

I know how to have the server issue the MoveTo at any rate I want, setup more than one interval, etc. but I don't know how to have it send only to certain clients at a single time.

I am not asking for the code itself, but I am getting really confused with all these client/server architecture concepts, which class does what, etc. so any heads-up will be greatly appreciated.

I am building a multiplayer game server with Unity. In the game there are players moving around the map. Now, because this map is quite large compared to the number of players, I was thinking to have the server send each clients' position only when they are nearby, and then slow the rate down when they are far away.

At first I was using the convenient SyncVar to do sync everyone's position, until I discovered its shortcomings, that is there is no conditional way to either sync or not a certain value.

I came out with this player synchronization class so far (I removed all optimizations for simplicity):

public class PlayerSyncPositionConditional : NetworkBehaviour {
    
    Vector3 lastPos;

    void FixedUpdate () {
        TransmitPosition();
    }

    [ClientCallback]
    void TransmitPosition () {
        CmdProvidePositionToServer(transform.position);
    }

    [Command]
    void CmdProvidePositionToServer (Vector3 pos){
        transform.position = pos;
    }

}

Now, what this code does is not nothing more than sending its position to the server: when I am looking at the dedicated server instance, each players' position is correct. Also, as expected, each client will not receive any updates.

From my research, I found that instead of SyncVar, I can use Server and ClientRpc to dispatch commands from the server to all clients, so this

 [Server]
 public void MoveTo() {
     RpcMoveTo(transform.position);
 }

 [ClientRPC]
 void RpcMoveTo(Vector3 newPosition) {
     transform.position = newPosition; //this will run in all clients
 }

would move all clients to the transform current position

Now, the problem is that those commands, apparently affect every client, while I only want to affect ones that are near each other.

I know how to have the server issue the MoveTo at any rate I want, setup more than one interval, etc. but I don't know how to have it send only to certain clients at a single time.

I am not asking for the code itself, but I am getting really confused with all these client/server architecture concepts, which class does what, etc. so any heads-up will be greatly appreciated.