Spawn prefabs according to player platform with LobbyManager

Question

I'm trying to spawn different prefabs depending on the player platform. So I'm overriding the NetworkLobbyManager to spawn objects the way I want. So I create a Dictionnary that associates a connectionId to an index of a prefab and then I instantiate a prefab according to this index.

using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.Networking;

public class LobbyManager : NetworkLobbyManager
{
    private Dictionary<int, int> m_currentPlayers;

    void Start()
    {
        m_currentPlayers = new Dictionary<int, int>();
    }

    void AddPlayer(NetworkConnection conn)
    {
        if (Application.platform == RuntimePlatform.WindowsEditor || Application.platform == RuntimePlatform.WindowsPlayer)
        {
            m_currentPlayers.Add(conn.connectionId, 0);
        }
        else if (Application.platform == RuntimePlatform.Android)
        {
            m_currentPlayers.Add(conn.connectionId, 1);
        }
    }

    public override GameObject OnLobbyServerCreateLobbyPlayer(NetworkConnection conn, short playerControllerId)
    {
        AddPlayer(conn);

        return base.OnLobbyServerCreateLobbyPlayer(conn, playerControllerId);
    }

    public override GameObject OnLobbyServerCreateGamePlayer(NetworkConnection conn, short playerControllerId)
    {
        GameObject go = Instantiate(spawnPrefabs[m_currentPlayers[conn.connectionId]]);
        NetworkServer.AddPlayerForConnection(conn, go, playerControllerId);

        return go;
    }
}

But with this code the spawn player on the clients is always the same as the host and I don't know why because it seems like I'm overriding the correct functions and I saw here http://abrgame.blogspot.fr/2016/01/using-unet-to-spawn-different-player.html a guy who used the same technique and that works for him...

Answer 1

Your Problem

if (Application.platform == RuntimePlatform.WindowsEditor || Application.platform == RuntimePlatform.WindowsPlayer)
{
    m_currentPlayers.Add(conn.connectionId, 0);
}
else if (Application.platform == RuntimePlatform.Android)
{
    m_currentPlayers.Add(conn.connectionId, 1);
}

The NetworkLobbyManager component behaves differently when started as a client or a host, but ultimately, if i am correct, the host handles the player spawning. In your code that means, the component only looks at its own platform, not at the platforms of the connecting players.

Possible Solution

You need to pass the information about the connecting player's platform to the host. You can create a derived class of NetworkConnection that retrieves and carries the platform information, a derived class of NetworkClient which uses your custom NetworkConnectionclass, and ultimately adjust your own NetworkLobbyManager derived class to extract the platform information and use it.

//NetworkClient

public class MyNetworkClient: NetworkClient
{
    public MyNetworkClient() : base()
    {
        SetNetworkConnectionClass<MyNetworkConnection>();
    }
}

//NetworkConnection class

public class MyNetworkConnection : NetworkConnection
{
    private RuntimePlatform connectionPlatform;

    public MyNetworkConnection() : base()
    {
        connectionPlatform = Application.platform;
    }

    public RuntimePlatform ConnectionPlatform { get { return connectionPlatform; } }
}

// Suggested adjustment for your NetworkLobbyManagerClass

void AddPlayer(MyNetworkConnection conn)
{
    // I like switches, it's a question of taste imo
    switch(conn.ConnectionPlatform)
    {
        case RuntimePlatform.Android:
            m_currentPlayers.Add(conn.connectionId, 1);
            break;
        case RuntimePlatform.WindowsEditor:
        case RuntimePlatform.WindowsPlayer:
        default:
            m_currentPlayers.Add(conn.connectionId, 0);
    }
}

public override GameObject OnLobbyServerCreateLobbyPlayer(NetworkConnection conn, short playerControllerId)
{
    // Explicitely pass your custom class
    AddPlayer(conn as MyNetworkConnection);
    return base.OnLobbyServerCreateLobbyPlayer(conn, playerControllerId);
}

public override GameObject OnLobbyServerCreateGamePlayer(NetworkConnection conn, short playerControllerId)
{
    GameObject go = Instantiate(spawnPrefabs[m_currentPlayers[conn.connectionId]]);
    NetworkServer.AddPlayerForConnection(conn, go, playerControllerId);

    return go;
}

I'd like to hear from you whether it worked. :)

Edited: Since MyNetworkConnection inherits from NetworkConnection, it should be able to be passed as a NetworkConnection parameter. That means, you can leave your overriden methods as they are, however you need to explicitely pass your MyNetworkConnection class to your AddPlayer method.