Can Epic Online Services (EOS) relays allow for dedicated server?

Epic Online Services Dedicated Servers
Epic Online Services Dedicated Servers
Epic Online Services Dedicated Servers

Unfortunately, no.

​Epic Online Services (EOS) provides a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Relay system designed to facilitate direct connections between players by handling NAT traversal and firewall issues. This system is particularly useful for games that rely on player-hosted sessions or lightweight multiplayer experiences.

OS's P2P Relay is not intended for use as an dedicated (often called authoritative) game server. Dedicated / authoritative servers are centralized servers that maintain the definitive game state, ensuring consistency and fairness across all clients. They are essential for competitive or cheat-sensitive games, as they can validate actions and prevent unauthorized behavior.

Epic Online Service Recommends Edgegap

For developers seeking authoritative server solutions, EOS recommend to be integrated with third-party services like Edgegap.

Edgegap offers automated orchestration and deployment of dedicated game servers, providing game developers to deploy game server in less than 3 seconds on average, reduces latency by 58% on average for your players and, in demand, tap into the world’s first, and largest, regionless cloud network with 615+ locations worldwide.

This integration allows developers to leverage EOS's features including game services, account services and online services such as session management, and other services.

​For Unreal developers seeking more than a lobby browser for matchmaking in Unreal, developers can use Edgegap's own Matchmaking system, which enables you to match players across any unique ruleset - from skill-based (SBMM) ranking, ELO, latency, region-based / geo-based, group-size parameters & much more. Learn more on Epic Game's FAB marketplace for Unreal Engine.

In summary:

  • EOS P2P Relay: Facilitates direct player connections; suitable for non-authoritative, peer-hosted games.​

  • Authoritative Servers: Require separate infrastructure; can be implemented using services like Edgegap in combination with EOS.​

If you're developing a game that necessitates authoritative control over game state, integrating EOS with a dedicated server solution would be the appropriate approach.

Written by

the Edgegap team

Sources and/or content collaboration with

Epic Online Services