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Deploy and Run Windows Server in the Cloud

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Goals

• Deploy a project to the cloud.
• Connect to it from a local game-client

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Requirements

• Download Visual Studio. The community version is free.
  • Required workloads: .NET desktop development and Desktop development with C++
• Download Unreal Engine Source Code. For instructions, see Downloading Unreal Engine Source code (external).
• Completed Unreal Project with PlayFab Unreal GSDK installed and configured
• Release Server configuration of your project built from Visual Studio or Development Editor
• Client configuration of your project built from Visual Studio or Development Editor
• MPS is enabled for your title, and billing is set up
• [Optional] Install Docker for Windows

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Instructions

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Package the game-server

• [OPTIONAL] This section can be done to refresh the files which Unreal builds into your project. This is useful if you’ve recently created or deleted files.
  • If you have not recently built your project in “development editor” configuration, do so now
  • Close Visual Studio
  • Navigate to the {ProjectName}.uproject file for your project
  • Right-click on the {ProjectName}.uproject file in your file editor and select “Generate Visual Studio Project Files”
  • Re-open the {ProjectName}.sln file in Visual Studio
• Select Development Editor configuration
• Run your project
• Observe the Unreal Editor, which should have loaded your project
• In the top left of the Unreal editor menu, Select File -> Package -> Build Target -> {ProjectName}Server
• Select File -> Package -> Build Configuration -> Shipping
• Select File -> Package -> Windowsx64
• Select and remember an output location {ShippingServerFolder}
• You can now use this packaged version of your game-server to test with LocalMultiplayerAgent
• Once verified with LocalMultiplayerAgent, see creating a build guide
  • Testing on MPS at this point will require an intermediate tool from PlayFab MpsAllocatorSample
  • This tool bypasses some client work for now, and allows us to allocate a server without a direct request from the game-client
  • The proper way to do this on a client is a separate topic covered in the allocation guide.
• Zip your Shipping Server build from {ShippingServerFolder} above
  • Your zip should contain everything in {ShippingServerFolder}, optionally at the root of the zip file
  • [Optional] IE, the root of your zip should contain {ProjectName}Server.exe (It’s suggested the exe should not be in a subfolder such as “WindowsServer”. Rebuild your zip if desired)
• Get familiar with the build creation process guide
• Specific details for specific configurations are detailed below:

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Set up a Windows Dedicated Server on PlayFab

• Navigate to Game Manager -> Multiplayer
• Select New Build
• Give the build a name
• Select a Virtual Machine (For the samples described in these guides, the recommended option with the fewest cores is sufficient)
• Servers per machine can be approximately 1~10
  • Improving/Raising this number is based on the performance of your game-server
  • You can use VM metrics to measure performance of your game server, and optimize to raise this number
• Skip Server details for now (covered in the next step)
• In the Assets block, drag your zip file from the previous section into the upload box
  • If you’re re-launching, you can select Use existing assets
• Wait for the upload to complete
• Skip Start Command for now (covered in the next step)
• In the Network block, set the Port Name field to gameport
  • It’s mandatory to define the port that will be used to connect to your game-server
  • Unreal GSDK contains code to read this port automatically, and internally override the Unreal Server host port according to this value
  • The name of this port is required to be gameport
• Continue to the next step that matches the “Server Details” that you want to configure

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Option 1: Windows Process Mode

• In Server Details, select Process and Windows
• In Assets, set the start command to:
  • {ProjectName}Server.exe or {ProjectName}Server.exe -log if you want to generate log files
  • The start command is executed from the command-line, using your unzipped asset files as the working directory
  • If you chose to pack your zip file with sub-folders, you can specify a relative path such as: WindowsServer/{ProjectName}Server.exe to access your project with a relative sub-path
• Select Add Build
• Skip ahead to the Configure Regions section below

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Option 2: Windows Container Mode

• In Server Details, select Process and Windows
• In Assets
  • Set the Mount Path for your gameServer zip file to C:\assets (or something similar, denoted as {MountPath})
  • Set the start command to: {MountPath}\{ProjectName}Server.exe or {MountPath}\{ProjectName}Server.exe -log if you want to generate log files
  • The start command should represent a full path in the container, to your -Server.exe file
  • If you chose to pack your zip file with sub-folders, you can specify an absolute path such as: {MountPath}\WindowsServer\{ProjectName}Server.exe to access your project with an absolute sub-path
• Select Add Build
• Skip ahead to the Configure Regions section below

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Next steps