Playfab matchmaking - doesn't look through active servers

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Taras Lazoriv asked Sep 16, '19

Playfab matchmaking - doesn't look through active servers

Hello
I have an issue and I'm not sure if it's a bug.

Playfab matchmaking seems to always look for an appropriate server among the servers with "Standing by..." status. If all available servers are in the "Active" status, matchmaking cannot find the appropriate server to start the game session. Connection timeout simply expires.

My project may have hundreds game sessions happening simultaneosly.

Could someone please give an advice on how to make the matchmaking look through the "Active" servers first and only if the load is relatively high - expand the search to "Standing by..." servers?

Matchmaking

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Answer 1 · 2019-09-17T05:31:14Z

Citrus Yan answered Sep 17, '19

Hi Taras,

Just as Brandon said, “Active” means that a game session currently in progress, while “Standing By” means that a server is waiting for players to connect. When players need to start a game session, first, they will need to request one to be allocated from a build’s standing-by pool, then PlayFab will fulfill a server request within 1 second if standing-by servers are available. Once the server has been put into the active state, clients connect to the server and play.

You are saying that your project may have hundreds of game sessions happening simultaneously, which means that you’ll need to maintain a high standing-by level: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/gaming/playfab/features/multiplayer/servers/quickstart-for-multiplayer-servers-game-manager#configure-regions PlayFab will maintain a set of standing-by servers to ensure that servers are immediately available. As this standing-by pool is consumed by new allocations, PlayFab initializes new standing-by sessions. The amount of standing-by sessions required is dependent on how fast new sessions are requested during peak utilization, and how quickly they can be created and initialized. You may need to determine your game’s standing-by level based on your own situation, some performance tests may be needed.

By the way, here is the Multiplayer Servers Overview doc that talks about some key concepts and steps to help you better understand the service.

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Answer 2 · 2019-09-16T21:27:08Z

brandon@uprootstudios.com answered Sep 16, '19

I think you have it backwards:

"Active" means that a server is currently hosting connected players / a game is in progress

"StandBy" means that a server is waiting for players to connect

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Taras Lazoriv commented · Sep 16, 2019 at 09:40 PM

So , i can't use matchmaking to connect to active servers?

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Answer 3 · 2019-09-17T08:29:10Z

Taras Lazoriv answered Sep 17, '19

Hi Citrus,

I think I put it wrong.

Each my server instance is capable of playing many sessions in parallel. For example, on server 1, 10 game sessions can take place simultaneously. But matchmaking doesn't let me do this. He has 1 server - 1 game session (mb - since he searches only in the pool "Standing by"). The question was: is it possible to configure matchmaking from the playfab so that matchmaking can point to servers that users are already playing on?

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Citrus Yan commented · Sep 17, 2019 at 08:40 AM

You may need to use server backfill tickets to fulfill your requirement.

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Stanislav Felinskyi Citrus Yan commented · Sep 17, 2019 at 11:39 AM

Hi @Citrus Yan !

Thanks for the link!

I'm trying to find the method Create Server Backfill Ticket inside PlayFab Unity SDK but without any success. Looks like this method is missing or replaced, or I'm looking in a wrong place. Do you know anything regarding this?

Thanks in advance!

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Citrus Yan Stanislav Felinskyi commented · Sep 18, 2019 at 10:46 AM

@Stanislav Felinskyi @Zhi Kang ShaoHi, APIs associated with Using server backfill tickets

are currenty in Beta, which means that you cannot access it in public released SDKs. If you are a Pro or Enterprise Tier, you can contact us to apply for it. And, making POST requests directly should also work.

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