Attributes, Quality of Life

There are a variety of attributes which add functionality to speed up development time.

Client

Placing a Client attribute above a method ensures that the method cannot be called unless the local client is active. There are are additional properties which may be added to the attribute for additional functionality.

 /* The server does not need to play VFX; only
 * play VFX if the client is active.
 * 
 * If this method were called with no client active
 * a warning through be printed. You can change the logging type
 * using the Logging property. 
 * 
 * It's also possible to allow only the owner of the
 * object to call the method by setting RequireOwnership
 * to true; this value is false by default. */
 [Client(Logging = LoggingType.Off, RequireOwnership = true)]
 private void PlayVFX() { }

Server

The Server attribute provides similar features of the Client varient, except will not allow the method to run if the server is not active.

/* The server would validate hit results
 * from a client.
 * 
 * Like the Client attribute a warning will be
 * thrown if this is called while the serveris not active.
 * The warning can be changed or disabled by adjusting
 * the Logging property. */
[Server(Logging = LoggingType.Off)]
private void ValidateHit() { }

NonSerialized

This attribute is part of the System namespace, and may be used to prevent a field from being serialized over the network when using your own types. It's important to remember that placing NonSerialized over a field will also prevent it from showing in the inspector, nor working for other serializers such as JsonUtility.

public class PlayerStats
{
    public float Health;
    public float MoveSpeed;
    /* In this example ControllerIndex is only used
     * for local multiplayer. This data does not need to be sent
     * over the network so it's been marked with NonSerialized. */
    [System.NonSerialized]
    public int ControllerIndex;
}