Input & Connection Flags

Introduction

The DeterministicInputFlags are used by Quantum to:

• detect whether a player is present , i.e. connected, to the simulation;
• decide how to predict the next tick's input for a given player; and,
• know whether the input on a verified frame was provided by a client or was replaced by the server.

It is possible to automate the checks by implementing PlayerConnectedSystem, for more information please refer to its entry on the Player page.

Types

C#

public enum DeterministicInputFlags : byte {
  Repeatable = 1 << 0,
  PlayerNotPresent = 1 << 1,
  ReplacedByServer = 1 << 2
}

• PlayerNotPresent = means there is no client connected for this player index.
• ReplacedByServer = means the player index is controlled by a client, but the client did not send the input in time which resulted in the server repeating or replacing/zeroing out the input.
• Repeatable = tells both the server and other clients to copy this input data into the next tick (on server when replacing input due to timeout, and on other clients for the local prediction algorithm). This can be set by the developer from Unity when injecting player input and should be used on direct-control-like input such as movement; it is not meant for command-like input (e.g. buy item).

Implementation example

IMPORTANT: DeterministicInputFlags can only be trusted on verified frames.

The code snippet below is an extra from the LittleGuys sample found on the BotSDK page.

C#

private void UpdateIsBot(Frame f, EntityRef littleGuyEntity)
{
  // Return if players shouldn't be replaced by bots
  if (!f.RuntimeConfig.ReplaceOnDisconnect)
    return;

  // Only update this information if this frame is Verified.
  if (!f.IsVerified) return;

  var littleGuyComponent = f.Unsafe.GetPointer<LittleGuyComponent>(littleGuyEntity);

  // Get the input flags for that player
  var inputFlags = f.GetPlayerInputFlags(littleGuyComponent->PlayerRef);

  // Bitwise operations to see if the PlayerNotPresent flag is activated
  var playerDisconnected = (inputFlags & DeterministicInputFlags.PlayerNotPresent) == DeterministicInputFlags.PlayerNotPresent;

  // Store it in the IsBot field so this can be evaluated in other parts of code
  littleGuyComponent->IsBot = playerDisconnected;

  // Only initialize the entity as a bot if it doesn't have the HFSM Agent component yet
  if (playerDisconnected && f.TryGet<HFSMAgent>(littleGuyEntity, out var hfsmAgent) == false)
  {
    // We're replacing players only by the HFSM, but this could easily be changed to be GOAP instead

    HFSMHelper.SetupHFSM(f, littleGuyEntity, f.RuntimeConfig.ReplacementHFSM);
  }
}