Unreal Engine Plugin

Network Next comes with a drop-in Unreal Engine plugin that replaces the NetDriver.

1. Copy the entire NetworkNext folder into your Plugins directory.

The Unreal Engine is still being updated, but will be placed under the ~/next/unreal directory when it is ready (soon!)

2. Add the following to the bottom of DefaultEngine.ini

[/Script/Engine.Engine]
!NetDriverDefinitions=ClearArray
+NetDriverDefinitions=(DefName="GameNetDriver",DriverClassName="/Script/NetworkNext.NetworkNextNetDriver",DriverClassNameFallback="/Script/NetworkNext.NetworkNextNetDriver")

[/Script/NetworkNext.NetworkNextNetDriver]
ServerBackendHostname=server-dev.[yourdomain.com]
BuyerPublicKey="<your buyer public key>"
NetConnectionClassName="/Script/NetworkNext.NetworkNextConnection"

3. Scan all ini files in your game project in case somewhere else is clobbering the NetDriver setting.

If this is the case the Network Next plugin will not work.

This is a common failure point during integration for our Unreal Engine customers.

4. Edit your game mode blueprint to exec UpgradePlayer in response to the OnPostLogin

5. Set environment variables on the server

export NEXT_SERVER_ADDRESS=10.2.100.23        # change to the public IP of your server
export NEXT_DATACENTER=cloud                  # autodetects datacenter in GCP or AWS
export NEXT_BUYER_PRIVATE_KEY=<your buyer private key>

6. Verify your sessions and servers show up in the portal

When everything is working correctly, you will see your client sessions showing up in the portal under "Sessions", and your servers will show up under "Servers".

The Network Next SDK takes great care to fall back to no acceleration if anything is misconfigured. So to make sure your integration is working properly, make sure to verify that you see your sessions and servers in the portal. If they do not show up, the configuration is not correct even though the client and server can still connect.

Congratulations! You have successfully integrated Network Next with your Unreal Game!

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