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Tutorial: Multiplayer Game with Unity 3D and Azure Cloud- Part 3

Part 3- Hooking it all together

Multiplayer Unity 3D With Azure: Hooking It All Up and Making It Work

Introduction

In our previous articles, we set up Photon PUN with Azure and Unity 3D to create a real-time multiplayer game. Now, it’s time to hook everything up and make it work seamlessly! 🎮

We’ll cover:

  • User authentication (sign-up/sign-in)
  • Lobby mechanics (how players join and interact)
  • Game session handling (starting and managing games)
  • Smooth player movement (interpolation, prediction, and lag compensation)
  • Photon’s different networking update models
  • Anti-cheat strategies and Photon’s built-in protections

Step 7: User Authentication (Sign-Up & Sign-In)

7.1 Setting Up PlayFab Authentication with Photon

We’ll use Azure PlayFab to manage user authentication before connecting to Photon.

Step 1: Initialize PlayFab in Unity

Install the PlayFab SDK via the Unity Package Manager and create a PlayFabManager.cs script:

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using PlayFab;
using PlayFab.ClientModels;
using UnityEngine;

public class PlayFabManager : MonoBehaviour
{
    public void LoginWithCustomID(string customId)
    {
        var request = new LoginWithCustomIDRequest
        {
            CustomId = customId,
            CreateAccount = true
        };

        PlayFabClientAPI.LoginWithCustomID(request, OnLoginSuccess, OnLoginFailure);
    }

    private void OnLoginSuccess(LoginResult result)
    {
        Debug.Log("Login successful! PlayFab ID: " + result.PlayFabId);
    }

    private void OnLoginFailure(PlayFabError error)
    {
        Debug.LogError("Login failed: " + error.GenerateErrorReport());
    }
}

Step 2: Connect PlayFab to Photon

Once authenticated, we need to connect Photon to PlayFab:

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using Photon.Pun;
using Photon.Realtime;
using PlayFab;
using PlayFab.ClientModels;
using UnityEngine;

public class MultiplayerAuthenticator : MonoBehaviourPunCallbacks
{
    public void AuthenticateAndConnect()
    {
        PlayFabClientAPI.GetAccountInfo(new GetAccountInfoRequest(), result =>
        {
            string playFabId = result.AccountInfo.PlayFabId;
            PhotonNetwork.AuthValues = new AuthenticationValues(playFabId);
            PhotonNetwork.ConnectUsingSettings();
        }, error => Debug.LogError("Failed to retrieve PlayFab ID: " + error.GenerateErrorReport()));
    }
}

Now, users authenticate with PlayFab before joining a Photon multiplayer session. ✅

Step 8: The Lobby System

A lobby is where players wait before joining a game. Photon supports:

  1. Default Lobby - A simple list of open game rooms.
  2. Custom Matchmaking Lobbies - Filtered searches (e.g., rank-based matchmaking).

8.1 Creating a Lobby UI

We need a UI panel listing available rooms. Here’s how we fetch room lists:

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using Photon.Pun;
using Photon.Realtime;
using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.UI;

public class LobbyManager : MonoBehaviourPunCallbacks
{
    public Text roomListText;

    public override void OnRoomListUpdate(List<RoomInfo> roomList)
    {
        roomListText.text = "Available Rooms:\n";
        foreach (var room in roomList)
        {
            roomListText.text += room.Name + " (" + room.PlayerCount + "/" + room.MaxPlayers + ")\n";
        }
    }
}

This updates the lobby UI dynamically as rooms are created.

Step 9: Handling Game Start

Once players are in the lobby, we let them start a game:

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using Photon.Pun;
using UnityEngine;

public class GameLauncher : MonoBehaviour
{
    public void StartGame()
    {
        PhotonNetwork.LoadLevel("GameScene");
    }
}

Step 10: Smooth Player Movement and Position Updates

Photon provides multiple ways to synchronize player movement:

  1. Photon Transform View (simple but laggy)
  2. Manual Synchronization (more control, less lag)
  3. State Interpolation & Prediction (best for smoothness)

10.1 Using Photon Transform View (Easy Mode)

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using Photon.Pun;

public class PlayerSync : MonoBehaviourPun, IPunObservable
{
    public void OnPhotonSerializeView(PhotonStream stream, PhotonMessageInfo info)
    {
        if (stream.IsWriting)
        {
            stream.SendNext(transform.position);
        }
        else
        {
            transform.position = (Vector3)stream.ReceiveNext();
        }
    }
}

10.2 Advanced: Lag Compensation & Prediction

For better smoothness, use interpolation:

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private Vector3 networkPosition;
private float smoothing = 0.1f;

void Update()
{
    if (!photonView.IsMine)
    {
        transform.position = Vector3.Lerp(transform.position, networkPosition, smoothing);
    }
}

Step 11: Anti-Cheat Strategies in Photon

Photon does not have built-in cheat detection but allows:

  • Server-side authoritative movement
  • Encryption for network packets
  • Custom anti-cheat logic

Pros and Cons of Photon Anti-Cheat

FeatureProsCons
Client-side checksEasy to implementHackers can bypass
Server-authoritativeHarder to hackMore server load
Encrypted packetsPrevents packet injectionNot bulletproof

NOTE
Unity3d is very versatile and can target many platforms. All the techniques here apply to iPhone-iOS, Android , as well as Windows and Mac.

Unity3d has the ability to target web pages- by compiling to web assembly. BUT the caveat is when you are running on a web page, your code can talk back to the server it came from , but cannot make calls out to other domains (cross origin issues).

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