Photon Integration Sample

Photon does not natively support UNIGINE data types. To send such data over the network, it must be serialized before transmission and deserialized upon receipt.

The sample includes utility code demonstrating how to serialize and deserialize UNIGINE-specific types using Photon:

• Common types supported by Photon are listed here (click on Common-cpp - data types and utilities). A PDF version of this reference is also provided with the sample
• More complex data types, such as transformation matrices, require explicit registration for custom serialization - this process is illustrated within the sample.

By studying this sample, you'll gain a foundation for building your own UNIGINE-based multiplayer applications using Photon's networking services. From there, you can explore and integrate additional Photon products as needed.

• UNIGINE SDK Browser (latest version)
• UNIGINE SDK Community or Community PRO edition
• Visual Studio 2022 (recommended)
• GitHub access to clone the repository.

Starting the Photon C++ sample requires you to perform the following steps:

1. Clone or download the sample from the UNIGINE Git repository
2. Open SDK browser and make sure you have the latest version

3. Add the sample project to SDK Browser:

   • Go to the My Projects tab
   • Click Add Existing then select the *.project file located in the cloned sample folder, and click Import Project

     

4. Repair the project

   • After importing, you'll see a Repair warning - this is expected, as only essential files are stored in the Git repository. SDK Browser will restore the rest

     

   • Click Repair to let SDK Browser restore the required files

   • When the configuration window opens, click Configure Project without making any changes

     Notice

     This sample is currently released for UNIGINE SDK Community or Community PRO editions only. If you do not have a Community edition of the latest SDK, you should add it via the SDKs tab (this edition is free).
5. Download and set up the Photon Realtime SDK:
   • Register at www.photonengine.com if you haven't done it before

   • Download Photon Realtime C++ Windows SDK, version 5.0.13 Build 2

     

6. Copy Photon SDK files to the sample project. From the downloaded SDK's /source folder, copy the following folders into source/PhotonSDK of your project:

   

   Notice

   You can quickly access your project via SDK Browser by clicking the three dots next to your project's name and selecting Open Folder.

   

7. Create App IDs in Photon Dashboard:

   • Go to the Dashboard at www.photonengine.com (the tab in the top right corner) and click CREATE A NEW APP

     

   • Create two applications for this sample: Realtime Photon SDK and Chat Photon SDK

     

     Creating a Realtime Photon App

     

     Creating a Chat Photon App

   • Use the generated App IDs in your sample project. The same ID is used for every instance (i.e. other participants don't need to create their own apps)

     

8. Add App IDs to the sample project. Open the file data/application_params.json in your project folder and paste the App IDs to the corresponding fields

   Source code

   {
       "realtime_application_id": "______________",
       "realtime_application_version": "1.0",
       "chat_application_id": "_________________",
       "chat_application_version": "1.0"
   }

9. Open the project in your IDE

   • Launch the recommended Visual Studio 2022 (other C++ IDE with CMake support can be used as well)
   • Load your project: Open Folder-> your _project/source - the root folder of CMakeLists.txt. If everything is set up correctly, the CMakeLists.txt file will be highlighted in bold in the Solution Explorer window, indicating that the project is ready to build
   • Build and Run the project.

If you're still having trouble running the application, revisit the steps above to ensure nothing was skipped, double-check that all required Photon SDK folders and libraries are correctly placed in the corresponding source/PhotonSDK and bin folders. If you encounter CMake issues in Visual Studio, try rebuilding the project by right-clicking on it in the Visual Studio 2022, selecting Delete Cache and Reconfigure and then Build again.