Unite11: Making Family Guy Online

MAKING

1 11/3/2011 Making Family Guy Online (Roadhouse Interactive and A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. Games)

IAN VERCHERE FUNKY SWADLING
CCO ROADHOUSE CEO A.C.R.O.N.Y.M.


CO-FOUNDER AND CHIEF CREATIVE
OFFICER OF ROADHOUSE INTERACTIVE

EX-EA, Co-FOUNDER OF RADICAL
ENTERTAINMENT, THEN EX-EA A
COUPLE OF MORE TIMES

MADE SOME AMAZING GAMES AND
A COUPLE OF BAD ONES

LEARNED MORE FROM THE BAD ONES
THAN THE GOOD ONES


ROADHOUSE IS A PRODUCTION
COMPANY – WE MAKE GAMES THE WAY
MOVIES ARE MADE

FIND THE RIGHT TEAMS, TOOLS AND
TALENT FOR A GIVEN PROJECT

FAMILY GUY ONLINE IS A VERY
DIFFERENT MODEL: IT’S NOT A LICENSED GAME.
WE’RE BUILDING IT FOR FOX

WE’RE WORKING DIRECTLY WITH THE SHOW TO
EXTEND FAMILY GUY TO ONLINE


WE CHOSE A.C.R.O.N.Y.M GAMES AS OUR LEAD
DEVELOPMENT PARTNER

I HAD BEEN WORKING IN UNITY BEFORE AND
BROUGHT it TO A.C.R.O.N.Y.M.

HAD TO CONVINCE THEM AT FIRST BUT ONCE
THEY LOOKED AT IT, UNITY SOLD ITSELF

WE BUILT A FAMILY GUY PROTOTYPE
IN 7 DAYS AND CAPTURED THE DEAL


DAVID HELGASON TONY GARCIA


DESIGN AND ART LEADS ARE AT A.C.R.O.N.Y.M.
BUT A LOT OF THE MODELS
AND ANIMATIONS ARE BEING DONE BY
MINDWALK STUDIOS IN BEIJING, CN

ROADHOUSE PUT THE WHOLE THING
TOGETHER AND WE MAKE SURE IT RUNS.

MY PARTNERS IN ROADHOUSE HANDLE
OPERATIONS AND CONTRACTS


JAMES HURSTHOUSE TARRNIE WILLIAMS
CEO PRESIDENT


• For fans of the TV Show
• Free-to-Play
• Unity Web Based MIDCORE
• ”MMLOL”
• CHARACTEr CREATOR IS LIVE
• CLOSED BETAS STARTING
• FUNKY WILL NOW TELL YOU HOW
WE’RE GETTING IT DONE


• 39 People in Vancouver, Canada.
• Founded in 2004 to make small fun games
• Currently developing two large free-to-play
Unity Web titles, including Family Guy
Online


Previous work:
• Rocketmen: Axis of Evil
• Rocketmen: It Came from Uranus
• Sony NBA
• Tecmo NBA Unrivaled
• Wipeout (no, not that Wipeout. The TV show)
• Zombie Cookin’ (using Unity iOS)

What This Session is About



• Over 200 developer months spent so far
• Systems and methods we used to
extend Unity to make a MMO game
• “Awesome Practices”



• Unity and Client/Server Architecture
• Project Architecture
• Perforce Integration
• Photon Socket Server



• Network Packet Architecture
• Instance Game Design
• Cute Tidbits



• Streaming World
• GUI
• Art Implementation
• Character Creator



I guarantee some part of this session will
be irrelevant to you.

Hang in there... I bet you’ll find something
cool.



Question: Can you have our systems?



Question: Can you have our systems?

Answer: NO!!!!
(but please make your own)


Unity


We Love Unity

• Web Deployment
• Cross Platform (PC and Mac)
• Cheap Licensing
• C# for Coding
• Perforce Integration
• MAYA Support


Client and Server


Client and Server: One Project

One Unity Project generates:

• Client Webplayer
• Client Data
• Server Windows Executables


WHY?

• Guarantees Server development and
Client development always in sync
• Write common systems once, rather than
reimplementing in a non-Unity way


WHY?
• World editing done once in Unity
• Unity has already written collision,
component based objects, main loop,
resource management, data importers,
etc.


Project Architecture



Fact:

There are many types of developers, most of
whom don’t care about the way other types
want to develop.



Content builders (modellers, animators)



World artists



World artists
Game scripters



World artists
Game scripters
Server programmers



World artists
Game scripters
Server programmers
Client programmers


Content Builders (modellers, animators)
World Artists
Game Scripters
Server Programmers
Client Programmers
Testers / Product Owners


User Type: Content Builder

• Wants to see how his work will appear.
• Wants quick iteration between art
programs and in-game.
• Does NOT want to run servers, does NOT
want to wait for a deployment build.



ASSET VIEWER
(Unity World)


User Type: World Artist
• Wants to see how work looks all put
together
• Wants to see how work looks as it’s
streamed in
• Does NOT want to run servers, does NOT
want to wait for a deployment build.



ARTIST
MASTER FILE
(Unity Scene)



STANDALONE
WORLD
STREAMER
(Web Player Build)


User Type: Scripter / Server
Programmer
• Wants to see the game working.
• Wants to debug the server.
• Does NOT care about the client


User Type: Scripter / Server
Programmer
WEB CLIENT
(Web Player Build)

SERVER DEBUG
(Unity Scene)


User Type: Client Programmer

• Wants to debug the client.
• Does NOT care about the server.


User Type: Client Programmer

SERVER
(Windows .EXE)

CLIENT DEBUG
(Unity Scene)


User Type: Product Owner or
Tester
• Can wait for internal deployment.
• Does not want to run anything – only
cares about final user experience


User Type: Product Owner or
Tester

WEB CLIENT
(Web Player Build)


Project Output


Project Output

• Web Client + its Resource Data
• Game Asset Bundles
• Server Executables
• Streaming world “grids”
• World Asset Bundles


Project Output

All from one project, please!


Project Output

All from one project, please!

How?

SYMBOLIC LINKS


Project Output
Why one project?

• Common code and data is shared
• Compatible with source control
• Simple build process for any type of
developer


We Learned Something

• Asset Viewer was a single world
• It blew up our PCs
• Now it is several “worlds” which can be
symbolically linked together as needed


Perforce


We (mostly) Love
Perforce
• Fast, reliable.
• Not too expensive
• Good for art and code assets
• Branches and Integrations are
awesome
• Allows local experiments


Perforce

Unity (Pro version) and Perforce are able
to get along, thanks to metafiles.

But...


Perforce

Unity loves to create files, move files and
make files writable without telling you.

Perforce does NOT like that.


Perforce

So, we wrote a consistency tool.

A Unity Editor Script which works out what
Unity changed (including file moves!), and
builds Perforce changelists for you.


Photon


We Love Photon

• Solid, fast, scalable
• Written in C and C++
• Extensible in C#
• Unity works out-of-the-box
• UDP and RUDP


Photon

We use Photon as a Socket Server only.

The game is written in Unity.


Photon

We’ve extended Photon for:
• Server creation
• Server destruction
• Server configuration
• Player assignment (load balancing).


Photon

We started with “Lite”
• C# project which ships with Photon
• Sort of like a chat server
• Rooms, operations and events


Photon

Each Server has its own Room

Entry room is used for joining the game or
switching worlds.


Photon

Entry Room talks to the database,
configures servers on demand, and
moves clients into those rooms.


Photon

For a server-to-server transition, a server
will update the database then kick a
Photon player into the Entry Room.
The Entry Room process repeats.


Photon
If an underpopulated, open world matches
what a player is seeking, the player is put
there.
Otherwise, Photon finds an available world
and sets it into the correct mode before
placing the player.


Photon

Registering a Server is simple. When you
launch any of our Unity Server Windows
Executables, it automatically registers
itself with Photon, creating a Room.


Photon

Photon 3 (just out!) features Photon to
Photon communication, so we can now
load balance not only between Unity
Servers but between Photon Servers.


Network Architecture

(you thought that last section was dry?)


First... a joke.

What’s the best thing about telling a UDP
joke?


First... a joke.

What’s the best thing about telling a UDP
joke?

I don’t care if you get it or not!


First... a joke.

What’s the worst thing about telling a TCP
joke?


First... a joke.

What’s the worst thing about telling a TCP
joke?

If you don’t get it, I repeat it slower and
slower until you do!


Feel free to leave now


I promise I’ll show you something shiny
after this section.


Message Types: Update

Update messages sent at high rate,
describe the state of something that is
frequently changing its state (like a
player)



If you don’t receive one, don’t worry. A
better one will be along soon.

Use UDP!



Safety tip:
UDP messages can cross, so don’t use
data if it’s older than your most recent
successful receive.


Message Types: Reliable
Data that has to get through, in order, or the
game won’t work.

e.g. Instantiate, deinstantiate, UI requests.

Use RUDP (or TCP if you must)


Message Types: Reliable

Important:
A messed up RUDP or TCP delivery
will block all other packets of that type to
that client. Minimize these!


Message Types: ROM

Some objects update infrequently, but rely
on their previous state being sucessfully
set
e.g. Doors, Combat actions, Collectibles


Message Types: ROM

If one object isn’t yet updated, don’t hold up
other objects. They are independent of each
other.

We invented Reliable Ordered Messages


Message Types: ROM
A ROM is quite a lot like RUDP, but server tracks
them separately per-client per-object instead of one
list per client.

We can also obliterate them from the queue if we
know an object is no longer in a client’s relevant set,
and the message hasn’t been acknowledged.


Throttling and Pruning

If we find ourselves trying to send too
much data per “frame”, we spread the
load over multiple frames – sending a few
milliseconds later is better than dropping
packets.



The game goes on generating updates
and ROMs at the same rate, though.
When an update is put into a queue, older
still-queued updates are removed, as new
data is always better.



Important:
If you’re pruning the queue like this, maintain
the queue position of the old data, otherwise
it will never get sent – it will keep moving to
the back of the line!


Instance Design


Instance Design

The problem:
How to make sure the game feels
populated and multiplayer, while
preventing players from messing with
each other’s “misadventures”


Instance Design

We considered using traditional
instances.
Go into a “misadventure” world, and your
party is there alone.
No party? You play alone!


Instance Design

Cons:
• Not very multiplayer
• Uses a lot of server power for one
person
• (in other words, too expensive!)


Instance Design

We considered using traditional shared
spaces.

Everyone adventures together!


Instance Design
Cons:
• People can “ninja” your drops
• Players may have to camp spawns
• Some designs mean that everyone
progresses through the misadventure,
regardless of if they’ve helped.


Instance Design

Our solution:

Additive and Subtractive Relevant Sets


Instance Design

Items that everyone should be able to
access, but get removed from the world
when you access them:

Subtractive Relevant Set


Instance Design

Items that only one person or group
should be able to access, but can exist in
a multiplayer environment:

Additive Relevant Set


Instance Design

We can extend this system (in a tutorial, say)
to give each player their own private enemy.
The effect is like multiple solo instances, but
all running on one server!


Cute Tidbits


XML based object instantiation
We specify our game objects in XML, and use reflection to
create and assemble all the components.

Components can be conditional based on server or client
instantiation.

Solves problems from duplicating or mismatching data.


Server Warnings sent to Client
Most developer types run the servers as a Windows .EXE

But, there can be hidden bugs that only show up on the
server.

We extended Unity’s exception handler and debug logger to
send server problems to the Client, so errors are noticeable.


Streaming World


Streaming World

Streaming your worlds is a Good Thing.


Streaming World

We divide each large world into grids, and
only load the 9 grids surrounding you.


Streaming World


Streaming World
Problems:

Line of Sight – you ought to see large structures
further than one grid out

But, if you increase grid size, you lose the
benefits of streaming.


Whole World


One Grid


Streaming World
BEFORE

Average Grid Size 858

Backdrop 116

Shared Assets 1

Initial Load 7837

Total Load 13724


Streaming World
Solution (part 1)

Textures take up more data than models

Move ALL textures to “shared assets”
loading


Streaming World
BEFORE AFTER

Average Grid Size 858 467

Backdrop 116 116

Shared Assets 1 501

Initial Load 7837 4821

Total Load 13724 7474


Streaming World

How can we squander these savings?


Streaming World
Solution (part 2)

Move low detail meshes into a single
backdrop

Leave high detail meshes grid-based


Low Detail Backdrop


High Detail Grid


Streaming World

BEFORE AFTER BIG BACKDROP

Average Grid Size 858 467 449

Backdrop 116 116 781

Shared Assets 1 501 545

Initial Load 7837 4821 5371

Total Load 13724 7474 7191


GUI


GUI

Sorry, Unity. We don’t love your default
GUI implementation.

Immediate mode GUI is fine for single
developer prototyping.


GUI

Beg, borrow, license, steal or write an
event-driven, widget based GUI.

(We wrote, if you were wondering)


GUI

Web based games need to resize to any
web page size.

We lock our aspect ratio, so our artists
don’t explode.


GUI
Widgets are hierarchical, and have layout anchors specified.

If webplayer is below target resolution, scale down.

If webplayer is above target resolution
DO NOT SCALE UP! Build the UI according to its anchors.


Art


Art
We had to match the art direction of the TV
show.

• Family Guy is 2D
• Family Guy Online is 3D
• Uh-oh!


Art

Step one:
Art Geniuses (creatives and technical)
must be in-house.
Outsourcing is for bulk work.


Art

Use a toon shader (obviously)

Mouth is a sprite, which mirrors based on
character and camera facing


Art


Art

Facial Animation is done through a sprite
sheet, based on mouth type and desired
expression


Art


Art

Characters are assembled from multiple
meshes, each its own asynchronously
loaded asset bundle.


Art

Asset Viewer (discussed earlier) is used
for previewing and piecing together the
parts.


Art


Art
We wrote a custom memory manager for
character assets.

We didn’t trust C#’s garbage collector.

Maintain a Most Recently Used list to avoid
excessive loading/unloading.


Art

Assemble the parts into a character in
coroutines, to avoid any performance hit.

We run “ghosts” around on the client before
all assets are streamed in.


Character Creator

Last thing, honest!


Character Creator

Character Creator was the first part of the
game we wanted to reveal to the public.

It had to be slick.


Character Creator
“Grey Block” design


Character Creator
Flash Prototype (sorry Unity!)


Character Creator
Finally, using Unity


Character Creator

Demo of Flash Prototype


Character Creator

Demo of Unity (in Editor)


THANK YOU!
… any questions?

Roadhouse Interactive and A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. Games

Unite11: Making Family Guy Online

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