Skip to main content

Shard Players

Overview​

The Shard_Players component is responsible for maintaining and broadcasting aggregated player counts (total players, ghosts, and alive players) across both the local shard and any connected secondary shards. It operates exclusively on the master shard and uses network variables to synchronize counts with other shards, emitting a ms_playercounts event whenever values change.

Dependencies & Tags​

  • No components added to inst, but it relies on:
    • TheWorld.ismastersim (asserts it runs only on the master simulation instance)
    • TheWorld.ismastershard (enables core logic only on the master shard)
    • TheShard:GetSecondaryShardPlayerCounts() (for fetching counts from secondary shards)
    • AllPlayers global table (for iterating local players)
    • net_byte() for network variable creation
  • No tags added or removed on the entity.

Properties​

No public instance properties are initialized in _ctor or elsewhere. All state is held in local module-scope variables (e.g., _localPlayers, _secondaryShardDirty). Only self.inst is assigned as a public reference to the component’s host entity.

Main Functions​

GetNumPlayers()​

  • Description: Returns the current total number of players (alive + ghosts) across the local and secondary shards.
  • Parameters: None.

GetNumGhosts()​

  • Description: Returns the current total number of ghost players (players who have died but are still present) across the local and secondary shards.
  • Parameters: None.

GetNumAlive()​

  • Description: Returns the current number of living players, computed as total players minus ghosts.
  • Parameters: None.

Events & Listeners​

  • Listens for:
    • "master_secondaryplayerschanged" on TheWorld → triggers update of secondary shard counts.
    • "ms_playerspawn" on TheWorld → registers new players for tracking and schedules an update.
    • "ms_playerleft" on TheWorld → stops tracking a player and schedules an update.
    • "ms_becameghost" on individual players → flags player count changes.
    • "ms_respawnedfromghost" on individual players → flags player count changes.
    • "playercountsdirty" on inst → triggers broadcast of current counts via ms_playercounts.
  • Pushes/emits:
    • "ms_playercounts" → broadcasts an event payload containing total, ghosts, and alive counts.
    • Triggers "playercountsdirty" via network variable change notifications (net_byte sync callback).