Multiplayer Exploratory Meeting 2022/05/30

[mikeskydev]

This thread's purpose is to explore what users and developers alike would like to see in a Multiplayer mode for Open Brush.

Prior Discussion: #163

Meeting 1: 2022/05/30 19:00 UTC
Attendance: merulaxr, andybak, camden, Chlpáč (Tomas), jin, omn0mn0m

Prior Art:
Multibrush - Using photon
Pros

• avatars changing size depending on scale in sketch
• good room setup, easy to create/manage
  Cons
• no networked scene changing, have to load into a sketch with that scene
• can't erase
• no undo/redo

What could be difficult?

• Undo/redo stack - is layers a good way to help with this?
• Erase not networked
• Scenes not networked

Solutions for networking:

• Photon (closed)
• normal (closed)
• Unity Multiplayer (closed)
• https://docs-multiplayer.unity3d.com/
• VRTK (open)
• Mirror (open) (Pop 1 uses this)
• https://mirror-networking.gitbook.io/docs/faq/server-hosting
• Forge (open) (possible to do lean servers)
• Colyseus (open) (lean servers) (no p2p)

Ideal to have

• Local Multiplayer/LAN Discovery
• Is this using a local server, or client acting as server?
• May have to consider what type of server/tech, WebRTC
• Any user can spin up a server

Avatar Support

• glTFast https://github.com/atteneder/glTFast
• UnityGLTF PR Culmination of two years of fixes, especially for export KhronosGroup/UnityGLTF#644
• UniVRM https://github.com/vrm-c/UniVRM
• OB created masks/hats

Options for sending stroke data

• per control point, for temp representation
• per stroke

Feature Requests

• ping/find other users in a massive scenes (Rosie)
• Mass viewer/broadcast mode (many read-only clients)
• imported model/reference image sync

Voice chat
Neos may be worth talking to
Dissonance - https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/audio/dissonance-voice-chat-70078
Vivox - https://unity.com/products/vivox
WebRTC video chat - https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/network/webrtc-video-chat-68030

What is MVP?

• (Multibrush level work!)
• Brush strokes synced
• See other players moving around
• VRM to show off initial idea, even if strokes not networked