1. Create or open an Unreal Engine 5 project (For new projects, it is recommended that you use the Third Person project template, as it already has a working character that is replicated).

​

2. Configure the project to use the Steam Online Subsystem

​

    • Go to Edit -> Plugins -> search for Online Subsystem Steam

    • Check Enabled

    • Click Restart Now

    • In the project folder, go to Config

    • Open DefaultEngine.ini Add the following to the bottom of DefaultEngine.ini (copy them directly from Unreal Engine’s Documentation page)

​

https://docs.unrealengine.com/4.27/en-US/ProgrammingAndScripting/Online/Steam/

​

    • Save and close. The full file should appear as follows (with your project name where it says “MenuSystem”)

​

    • Open DefaultGame.ini and add:

​

 [/Script/Engine.GameSession] MaxPlayers =100

 

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

     • Compile the Visual Studio Project (CTRL + SHIFT + B)

​

3. Add the Plugin to the Project Folder

​

     • Copy the Plugins folder into your project:

​

     • Inside Plugins, you should see MultiplayerSessions

​

     • Close Unreal Engine and Visual Studio. Delete your Binaries, Intermediate, and Saved folders. Right-click your .uproject and select Generate Visual Studio project files.

​

     • Open your Visual Studio project solution (.sln). You should now see a Plugins folder in the Solution Explorer

​

     • Open your project in Unreal Engine. It will ask if you would like to rebuild modules. Select Yes.

​

     • In the Content Browser, click Settings. Check Show Plugin Content.

​

     • You will now have two extra folders in the Content Browser: Multiplayer Sessions Content and Multiplayer Sessions C++ Classes.

​

     • Go to the Multiplayer Sessions Content folder. There is a Widget Blueprint called WBP_Menu.

​

4. Create a Lobby Level

​

     • Create a new level, and save it in your project (it doesn’t matter where you save it or what you name it)

​

     • Open your starting level.

​

     • Open the Level Blueprint. Use Create Widget to create a new widget, selecting WBP_Menu as the widget class. Connect this to Begin Play.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

     • Drag off of the Return Value output and search for Menu Setup. Select it.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

 

​

    • Change the Number of Public Connections to the number of players you want in your game

 

    • Change the lobby path to the path to your lobby level (use /Game/ instead of /Content/) and leave out the .umap extension.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

5. Play Test the Game

 

   • Go to Platforms -> -> Package Project.

   • Create a new folder or select a folder destination

   • Click Select Folder

   • Upload to a Google drive (or anywhere else) and download it onto a second machine

   • Run the Steam client in the background. Make sure both computers are set to the same region (Steam -> Settings -> Downloads -> Download Region).

   • On one machine, launch the game and click Host

   • On the other machine, launch the game and click Join

   • Test Play!