Porting from client-hosted to DGS - Introduction

note

This is part one of the Porting from client-hosted to dedicated server-hosted series.

See the other pages in this series:

• Part 1 - Current
• Part 2 - Client-hosted versus DGS-hosted
• Part 3 - Game changes
• Part 4 - Optimizing server builds
• Part 5 - Hosting considerations

You might have started developing your game with client-hosted in mind but then realized it wasn’t giving you the performance, reliability, or security you wanted. There are multiple reasons for choosing both a dedicated game server (DGS) solution and a client-hosted solution. This document provides guidance around switching from a client-hosted game to a dedicated-server game in Unity using Netcode for GameObjects (NGO).

There are two distinct meanings of the word “host” that you must take caren't to confuse: the NGO host and the hardware host.

• The NGO host is where both a client and a server run simultaneously. The hosting provider (the hardware host) runs your Unity server build.
• The hardware host (virtual or bare-metal) runs your Unity server build in a data center or hosting provider.

In this article, host refers to the NGO host.

Support and resources

Join the Multiplayer Technology group on Discord for questions, comments, and discussions. Also check out the following resources:

• An Introduction to multiplayer network and server models
• Dedicated Server target and stripping optimizations discussion in the Unity Forum
• Unity Support