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Multiplayer Services SDK

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Multiplayer Services SDK

Integrate multiplayer sessions

Learn how multiplayer sessions manage connected players, session ownership, and game state in Unity Multiplayer Services.
Read time 2 minutesLast updated 10 days ago
Implement multiplayer functionality in your games using sessions, a unified system that manages player connections and interactions across multiple Unity Gaming Services.
Sessions provide an abstraction layer for managing multiplayer game states, including initial player connections and gameplay interactions, and automatically handle complex multiplayer operations such as host election, players joining or leaving, and network connection establishment.
Beginning with Unity 6.0 LTS, developers can use session operations to create their multiplayer experiences. Instead of having to manually coordinate between the SDKs for Lobby, Matchmaker, and Relay, the Multiplayer Services (MPS) SDK merges the functionality previously spread across these individual services' SDKs into a unified API centered around sessions. For example, when creating a session, the MPS SDK automatically handles lobby creation, relay allocation, and manages the Netcode connection. Similarly, while joining a session, the MPS SDK manages lobby joining, and Netcode connection establishment. This combined approach maintains all the capabilities of the underlying Unity Gaming Services (UGS) Multiplayer services while reducing implementation complexity.
Initialize UGS and authenticate the player
Initialize UGS and authenticate a player to start a multiplayer game.
Create your first multiplayer session
Create a new session, configure its connection type, and define its initial properties to start a multiplayer game.
Find and join a session
Implement ways for players to join an existing session, such as by using a join code or browsing a list of sessions.
Match players
Implement different ways to matchmake into a session by using Unity Lobby or Unity Matchmaker.
Manage properties as a host
As a session host, read, add, update, or remove session and player properties with several visibility options.
Manage properties as a client
Interact with sessions as a client by reading session properties and managing your own player properties with customizable visibility.
Migrate session host
Learn about changing session ownership, including host election and data migration.
Network connection management
Players can create and join sessions using different network connection types and configuration options.
Important
Starting with Multiplayer Services SDK version 1.2, the default network handler implementation for Netcode for Entities automatically creates client and server worlds if none are available when starting a network connection through sessions.
Older versions of the MPS SDK require you to create your Netcode for Entities client and server worlds before you can create or join a Multiplayer Services session. When you first add the Netcode for Entities package to your project, the default bootstrap automatically creates the client and server worlds at startup.
For more advanced use cases, use a custom network handler to override the default integration with Netcode for Entities.