Deploying Unity Game Server Into Playfab Cloud

Microsoft Azure PlayFab service is a great way to host your multiplayer game and manage player data. With Azure PlayFab, game developers can leverage cloud-based infrastructure and services to scale their games and provide an optimal experience for players. In this guide, I will take you through the steps involved in deploying your Unity Linux game server on the PlayFab service, all at no cost.

Prerequisites:

• Supports both Mirror and Fishnet
• Server is set up in a Linux container.
• Dev machine: Windows 10/11
• Needs a PlayFab Account with payments setup (you wont be charged)

Initial setup:

Machine and Project Setup: (Windows 10/11)

• Enable WSL2 and install Ubuntu distro. More info: Set up your Windows development device - PlayFab | Microsoft Docs
• Install and setup Docker for wsl2 and make sure it’s running Linux Containers
• Add Linux Build support module to your Unity Engine Installation
• Access to the game’s PlayFab developer account and its docker “Azure container registry” credentials for a new build.
• Make sure your project has Unity C# SDKs for PlayFab and UnityGsdk (Playfab game server SDK for unity) setup and the api’s have already been integrated. (Sample server script & client script)
• Setup either mirror or fishnet in the project, and add their network managers into the scene

Network Manager Setup for Mirror:

• Create a new custom network manager as a inherited child class of mirrors network manager and add the KCP transport component into the same gameobject, which inturn uses UDP protocol

• Add a simple switch in the custom network manager like in the below image and set up all other necessary events like OnClientJoined etc in the script.

• Add server and client listener scripts as child of the network manager gameobject

Network Manager Setup for Fishnet:

• Create a new custom network manager script, similar to the above mirror one.

• Add fishnet’s network manager as the child of the above gameobject along with it’s tugboat transport component

• Add server and client listener scripts for playfab as child of custom network manager gameobject

Build and Deploy:

Building the headless server:

• Switch to Dedicated-Server Build mode and Select Linux as Target Platform
• In Custom networkManager, switch Build type to REMOTE_SERVER (which in turn enables the agent-listener script)
• Build the game and once build complete, create docker file in the build’s parent directory Create a Dockerfile - PlayFab | Microsoft Docs Directory and file should look something like the below image and the parent directory shouldn’t have any other files/directories except the dockerfile and game directory (Note: Exclude the “ServerX_BurstDebugInformation_DoNotShip” Directory before creating the docker image of build folder.)

Creating and Deploying the Docker Image:

• Copy the Docker Creds from PlayFab developer account
• In your windows machine, open the ubuntu terminal (not windows cmd),
• move to the directory which contains the previously created Dockerfile,

  cd mnt/c/Code/Test/battle-axes/Builds/server5/
  

• run the login command

  docker login -u <username_here> -p <password_here> <url_here>*
  

• run the build docker image command

  docker build -t <url_here>/battleaxes_server:v1 .
  

Note: there is a . in the end of above command which means all files in the directory and increment v1 (vX) based on previously uploaded version)*

• Now before pushing this image to the cloud, test it locally by following these steps.
• run the push docker build to cloud command

  docker push <url_here>/battleaxes_server:v1
  

Testing the headless server:

Testing locally using playfab’s MpsLocalAgent:

• Download the localAgent that’s required for testing playfab builds locally. Url: Releases · PlayFab/MpsAgent · GitHub
• Setup the **MultiplayerSettings.json **file in the downloaded directory. more_info: Debug Container-based game servers using LocalMultiplayerAgent | Microsoft Docs

The file should look something like this in the end:

• Now open windows terminal in the downloaded directory and run command:

  .\LocalMultiplayerAgent.exe -lcow
  

Note: lcow stands for Linux Containers On Windows

• Once the local server goes to “active”, connect a local client with ip: 127.0.0.1 and port 56100

Using SSH into running cloud server:

• Click on “Connect to Virtual Machine” in builds of playfab developer console
• Open your windows terminal and Run the ssh command

  ssh <id_here>@<ip_here> -p <port_here>
  

• Run the Docker ps to get current running container info

  sudo docker ps -a
  

• Get current server logs by cmd:

  sudo docker logs <docker_container_id>
  

Testing locally using ParrelSync and three Unity editor instances:

• Setup ParrelSync in the project GitHub - VeriorPies/ParrelSync: (Unity3D) Test multiplayer without building
• Have three editor instance running, one will be playfab_server and the other two will be playfab_clients (not local clients),
• Join the server from other clients using the default local host ip address (0.0.0.0) and default local port.

Common issues:

• If you get an error called: “You must set PlayFabSettings.TitleId before making API Calls.” you can get the title id from playfab developer console.

• If you get this error “network playfab not found” Open “SetupLinuxContainersOnWindows.ps1” in LocalMultiplayerAgentPublish you just downloaded and run this “docker network create playfab –driver bridge” in your linux distribution .

Connecting to our playfab game server as client:

Client Build Setup:

• Switch back to whatever target platform you were previously in from the dedicated server platform.
• In Custom networkManager, switch Build type to PLAYFAB_CLIENT (which in turn enables the client-startup script)

• In the playfab dashboard, click on the “request server”, when you have standby servers, and then Get the ip address, port and build id from the playfab console on the website.

• Make sure you have the right build-id, ipAddress, port **and **region set in the custom network manager or the network manager script and save scene for all clients

• Now with server already running, Click on Start game from clients in UnityEditor, and this should connect them all together.

• Now open a second client and click on “Join Game” button, enter the configuration you received above

Multiple instances:

Inspecting multiple instances in same VM:

• Containers use “playfab” network plugins, to inspect the instances in the machine run:

  docker inspect network playfab
  

• More details: Connecting clients to game servers - PlayFab | Microsoft Learn