Controlling Unity3D dedicated servers | window toolkits & IPC /RPC methods

unity3d-gui.md

There is two ways of controlling a dedicated servers:

1. Using a GUI toolkit to render a window with all the needed controls
2. Using some kind of service framework (IPC/RPC methods) hosted in Unity3D to make remote access using any tool possible

#Possible GUI toolkits

Windows.Forms

Advantages:

• visual gui builder

Disadvantages:

• ugly
• hey its FORMS
• looks inpredictable on Linux or Mac

GtkSharp

Disadvantages:

• Glade not available for Unity3D
• has to be installed & bundled

#Possible service framework (IPC/RPC methods)

WCF Named Pipes

Advantages:

• could resolve by only name

Disadvantages:

• not available in Mono / Linux (http://stackoverflow.com/a/5366677)

MMF (MemoryMappedFile)

Advantages:

• could resolve by only name

Disadvantages:

• only available with PInvoke in .NET 3.5
• not available in Mono (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/25506132/accessing-memorymappedfiles-in-unity)

WCF TCP/WS

Advantages:

• automatic client proxy creation

Disadvantages:

• need to know target port
• requires netsh rules on windows (possible fix here: http://stackoverflow.com/a/10128350)
• duplex bindings not implemented in Mono (WSDualHttp, NetTCP,..)

Sockets

Advantages:

• they work in Mono, in theory... god knows what they forgot to implement

Disadvantages:

• need to know target port
• have to manage the sockets and serialisation
• you could also hammer the bits into stone and ship the messages with German DHL

#FUCK MONO. Lets wait for Unity3D to ship a newer .NET