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

public enum DeterministicInputFlags : byte {
  Repeatable = 1 << 0,
  PlayerNotPresent = 1 << 1,
  ReplacedByServer = 1 << 2,
  Command = 1 << 3
}

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 was extracted from the PlayerConnectedSystem provided in the SDK.

public unsafe class PlayerConnectedSystem : SystemMainThread {
    public override void Update(Frame f) {
      // only trustable in Verified frames
      if (f.IsVerified == false) {
        return;
      }

      for (int p = 0; p < f.PlayerCount; p++) {
        var isPlayerConnected = (f.GetPlayerInputFlags(p) & Photon.Deterministic.DeterministicInputFlags.PlayerNotPresent) == 0;
        // extra logic based on the player connectivity state 
      }
    }
  }
}

Introduction
Types
Implementation example