0.1.0

This is the initial experimental Unity MLAPI Package, v0.1.0.

New Features

• Refactored a new standard for Remote Procedure Call (RPC) in MLAPI which provides increased performance, significantly reduced boilerplate code, and extensibility for future-proofed code. MLAPI RPC includes ServerRpc and ClientRpc to execute logic on the server and client-side. This provides a single performant unified RPC solution, replacing MLAPI Convenience and Performance RPC (see here).

• Added standarized serialization types, including built-in and custom serialization flows. See RFC #2 for details.

• INetworkSerializable interface replaces IBitWritable.

• Added NetworkSerializer..., which is the main aggregator that implements serialization code for built-in supported types and holds NetworkReader and NetworkWriter instances internally.

• Added a Network Update Loop infrastructure that aids Netcode systems to update (such as RPC queue and transport) outside of the standard MonoBehaviour event cycle. See RFC #8 and the following details:

  • It uses Unity's low-level Player Loop API and allows for registering INetworkUpdateSystems with NetworkUpdate methods to be executed at specific NetworkUpdateStages, which may also be before or after MonoBehaviour-driven game logic execution.
  • You will typically interact with NetworkUpdateLoop for registration and INetworkUpdateSystem for implementation.
  • NetworkVariables are now tick-based using the NetworkTickSystem, tracking time through network interactions and syncs.

• Added message batching to handle consecutive RPC requests sent to the same client. RpcBatcher sends batches based on requests from the RpcQueueProcessing, by batch size threshold or immediately.

• GitHub 494: Added a constraint to allow one NetworkObject per GameObject, set through the DisallowMultipleComponent attribute.

• Integrated MLAPI with the Unity Profiler for versions 2020.2 and later:

  • Added new profiler modules for MLAPI that report important network data.
  • Attached the profiler to a remote player to view network data over the wire.

• A test project is available for building and experimenting with MLAPI features. This project is available in the MLAPI GitHub testproject folder.

• Added a MLAPI Community Contributions new GitHub repository to accept extensions from the MLAPI community. Current extensions include moved MLAPI features for lag compensation (useful for Server Authoritative actions) and TrackedObject.

Changes

• GitHub 520: MLAPI now uses the Unity Package Manager for installation management.
• Added functionality and usability to NetworkVariable, previously called NetworkVar. Updates enhance options and fully replace the need for SyncedVars.
• GitHub 507: Reimplemented NetworkAnimator, which synchronizes animation states for networked objects.
• GitHub 444 and 455: Channels are now represented as bytes instead of strings.

For users of previous versions of MLAPI, this release renames APIs due to refactoring. All obsolete marked APIs have been removed as per GitHub 513 and GitHub 514.

Previous MLAPI Versions	V 0.1.0 Name
NetworkingManager	NetworkManager
NetworkedObject	NetworkObject
NetworkedBehaviour	NetworkBehaviour
NetworkedClient	NetworkClient
NetworkedPrefab	NetworkPrefab
NetworkedVar	NetworkVariable
NetworkedTransform	NetworkTransform
NetworkedAnimator	NetworkAnimator
NetworkedAnimatorEditor	NetworkAnimatorEditor
NetworkedNavMeshAgent	NetworkNavMeshAgent
SpawnManager	NetworkSpawnManager
BitStream	NetworkBuffer
BitReader	NetworkReader
BitWriter	NetworkWriter
NetEventType	NetworkEventType
ChannelType	NetworkDelivery
Channel	NetworkChannel
Transport	NetworkTransport
NetworkedDictionary	NetworkDictionary
NetworkedList	NetworkList
NetworkedSet	NetworkSet
MLAPIConstants	NetworkConstants
UnetTransport	UNetTransport

Fixes

• GitHub 460: Fixed an issue for RPC where the host-server was not receiving RPCs from the host-client and vice versa without the loopback flag set in NetworkingManager.
• Fixed an issue where data in the Profiler was incorrectly aggregated and drawn, which caused the profiler data to increment indefinitely instead of resetting each frame.
• Fixed an issue the client soft-synced causing PlayMode client-only scene transition issues, caused when running the client in the editor and the host as a release build. Users may have encountered a soft sync of NetworkedInstanceId issues in the SpawnManager.ClientCollectSoftSyncSceneObjectSweep method.
• GitHub 458: Fixed serialization issues in NetworkList and NetworkDictionary when running in Server mode.
• GitHub 498: Fixed numerical precision issues to prevent not a number (NaN) quaternions.
• GitHub 438: Fixed booleans by reaching or writing bytes instead of bits.
• GitHub 519: Fixed an issue where calling Shutdown() before making NetworkManager.Singleton = null is null on NetworkManager.OnDestroy().

Removed features

With a new release of MLAPI in Unity, some features have been removed:

• SyncVars have been removed from MLAPI. Use NetworkVariables in place of this functionality.

• GitHub 527: Lag compensation systems and TrackedObject have moved to the new MLAPI Community Contributions repo.

• GitHub 509: Encryption has been removed from MLAPI. The Encryption option in NetworkConfig on the NetworkingManager is not available in this release. This change will not block game creation or running. A current replacement for this functionality is not available, and may be developed in future releases. See the following changes:

  • Removed SecuritySendFlags from all APIs.
  • Removed encryption, cryptography, and certificate configurations from APIs including NetworkManager and NetworkConfig.
  • Removed "hail handshake", including NetworkManager implementation and NetworkConstants entries.
  • Modified RpcQueue and RpcBatcher internals to remove encryption and authentication from reading and writing.

• Removed the previous MLAPI Profiler editor window from Unity versions 2020.2 and later.

• Removed previous MLAPI Convenience and Performance RPC APIs with the new standard RPC API. See RFC #1 for details.

• GitHub 520: Removed the MLAPI Installer.

Known issues

• NetworkNavMeshAgent does not synchronize mesh data, Agent Size, Steering, Obstacle Avoidance, or Path Finding settings. It only synchronizes the destination and velocity, not the path to the destination.
• For RPC, methods with a ClientRpc or ServerRpc suffix which are not marked with [ServerRpc] or [ClientRpc] will cause a compiler error.
• For NetworkAnimator, Animator Overrides are not supported. Triggers do not work.
• For NetworkVariable, the NetworkDictionary List and Set must use the reliableSequenced channel.
• NetworkObjectss are supported but when spawning a prefab with nested child network objects you have to manually call spawn on them
• NetworkTransform have the following issues:
  • Replicated objects may have jitter.
  • The owner is always authoritative about the object's position.
  • Scale is not synchronized.
• Connection Approval is not called on the host client.
• For NamedMessages, always use NetworkBuffer as the underlying stream for sending named and unnamed messages.
• For NetworkManager, connection management is limited. Use IsServer, IsClient, IsConnectedClient, or other code to check if MLAPI connected correctly.