RPCs
RPCs (Remote Procedure Calls) are a way of sending a method call across the network and executing it on another peer. uLobby features a rich RPC system that allows you to easily send messages containing arbitrary data between peers in a reliable way. It shares most of the features that uLink offers but differs slightly in the API.Defining an RPC Method
RPC methods are normal methods defined with the UnityEngine.RPC attribute. You can specify any method parameters, and optionally a uLink.BitStream and LobbyMessageInfo parameter. The LobbyMessageInfo parameter contains information about the RPC message, such as the peer who sent it. The following are two examples of RPC method definitions:
[RPC]
public void MyRPC(int argument)
{
// Do something.
}
[RPC]
public void MyOtherRPC(string argument, LobbyMessageInfo info)
{
Debug.Log("Received RPC sent by " + info.sender);
}
Sending RPCs
RPCs are sent using the Lobby.RPC() method, that has the following declarations:void RPC(string rpcName, LobbyPeer target, params object[] args)
void RPC(string rpcName, IList<LobbyPeer> targets, params object[] args)
rpcName is the name of the method to execute, and the second argument
is either a list of peers or a single peer in which to execute the RPC. The
third argument is an arbitrary list of arguments that will be serialized and
sent with the RPC to be retrieved as arguments for the RPC method
implementation.
Only the lobby is allowed to send RPCs to any connected peer. Servers and
clients are only allowed to send to the lobby.
Just like uLink, uLobby will automatically attempt to serialize any class
or struct values given as a parameter to the call, without you having to write
special serialization code. However, you can also define your own serialization
codecs to fully customize the way data is sent and retrieved.