Godot-matcha is an addon that lets you use WebRTC for multiplayer games by handling matchmaking using WebTorrent trackers. Conceptually it’s quite an interesting, novel approach.
WebTorrent uses a modified BitTorrent protocol that allows it to work with WebSockets. A WebTorrent tracker is essentially a directory service that keeps track of torrents offered by users. A torrent is uniquely identified by its info_hash, so if you have the torrent information, you can look up who is offering a file for download.
Rather than tracking a specific torrent file, godot-matcha generates a random identifier, which it uses as a room (or lobby). If another player has the same identifier they exchange the WebRTC’s SDP details to establish a connection.
Connecting players this way is essentially free. This is a suitable approach for mobile games, for example, where you start a game, and share an identifier with someone else to join in. Mobile party games, for example, use such an approach: One player starts a game, and others join by using some random id such as “FJRLE”.
While godot-matcha is a great proof of concept, I’ve done some testing that showed that the various clients disagree on their unique IDs. This results in challenges when setting the multiplayer authority, a key part of making the high-level multiplayer abstraction work well. The reason for the mismatch is how godot-matcha creates offers, which sets a random id as peer ID before the peers are even connected.
Godot Engine 4.0 has been released per official announcement. With version 4.0, Godot has gone through “3+ years of breaking and rebuilding from the ground up, a complete core overhaul and a full engine rewrite, through 17 alphas, 17 betas and 6 release candidates“. The announcement post is credited to “2000+ Godot contributors.” It’s a …
A new version of the Inventory System is available. This release includes a new structure placement feature and improves crafting. Structure Placement Players can now place structures from their inventory. When using an inventory item representing a structure, the player is prompted to select where to place it. The included demo lets players place an …
It’s not Far Cry, nor Crysis, but it could be. The Realistic Jungle Demo demonstrates that Godot is capable of impressive visuals. If you want to run it yourself, download it from https://wrobot.itch.io/jungledemo. It was announced in this Reddit post. Update: The source code was released (with the commercial assets removed).
Per feedback, we’ve exposed more inventory user interface component signals to make it easier to react to slot/item interactions with custom logic. New features: In addition, these bug fixes are included:
godot-matcha: Free multiplayer without a server
Godot-matcha is an addon that lets you use WebRTC for multiplayer games by handling matchmaking using WebTorrent trackers. Conceptually it’s quite an interesting, novel approach.
WebTorrent uses a modified BitTorrent protocol that allows it to work with WebSockets. A WebTorrent tracker is essentially a directory service that keeps track of torrents offered by users. A torrent is uniquely identified by its info_hash, so if you have the torrent information, you can look up who is offering a file for download.
Rather than tracking a specific torrent file, godot-matcha generates a random identifier, which it uses as a room (or lobby). If another player has the same identifier they exchange the WebRTC’s SDP details to establish a connection.
Connecting players this way is essentially free. This is a suitable approach for mobile games, for example, where you start a game, and share an identifier with someone else to join in. Mobile party games, for example, use such an approach: One player starts a game, and others join by using some random id such as “FJRLE”.
While godot-matcha is a great proof of concept, I’ve done some testing that showed that the various clients disagree on their unique IDs. This results in challenges when setting the multiplayer authority, a key part of making the high-level multiplayer abstraction work well. The reason for the mismatch is how godot-matcha creates offers, which sets a random id as peer ID before the peers are even connected.
In contrast, the godot-demo-projects repository has a webrtc_signaling demo, which uses the lobby/signaling server to tell the clients their ID, so that all clients (including the one acting as the server) add the same peer ID.
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Godot Engine 4.0 released!
Godot Engine 4.0 has been released per official announcement. With version 4.0, Godot has gone through “3+ years of breaking and rebuilding from the ground up, a complete core overhaul and a full engine rewrite, through 17 alphas, 17 betas and 6 release candidates“. The announcement post is credited to “2000+ Godot contributors.” It’s a …
Inventory System v1.18 available
A new version of the Inventory System is available. This release includes a new structure placement feature and improves crafting. Structure Placement Players can now place structures from their inventory. When using an inventory item representing a structure, the player is prompted to select where to place it. The included demo lets players place an …
The Godot Jungle Demo
It’s not Far Cry, nor Crysis, but it could be. The Realistic Jungle Demo demonstrates that Godot is capable of impressive visuals. If you want to run it yourself, download it from https://wrobot.itch.io/jungledemo. It was announced in this Reddit post. Update: The source code was released (with the commercial assets removed).
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Per feedback, we’ve exposed more inventory user interface component signals to make it easier to react to slot/item interactions with custom logic. New features: In addition, these bug fixes are included: