NetworkObject: Ownership, Proxy State, and Automatic Culling

NetworkObject Ownership, Proxy State, and Culling

Derived from NetworkObject.cs in the s&box engine source.

Ownership Model

Every networked GameObject has a NetworkObject (internal) that tracks:

• Owner — The Guid of the Connection that owns this object. Guid.Empty means unowned.
• Creator — The Guid of the Connection that originally created this object.
• IsOwner — True if Owner == Connection.Local.Id.
• IsUnowned — True if Owner == Guid.Empty.
• IsProxy — True if we don't own this object AND it's not unowned-with-host-control.

Proxy Logic

IsProxy = true  when:
  - Not spawning (_isNetworkSpawning == false)
  - AND not the owner (IsOwner == false)
  - AND NOT (IsUnowned AND Networking.IsHost)

This means: the host controls all unowned objects — they are NOT proxies for the host.

Control

• Object is unowned AND c.IsHost
• OR c.Id == Owner

Orphaned Behavior

When the owner disconnects, NetworkOrphaned determines what happens:

Network Culling

Objects are automatically culled from connections that can't see them:

• Culling uses INetworkVisible.IsVisibleToConnection() if present on the GameObject.
• Falls back to Scene.IsBBoxVisibleToConnection() for global culling.
• Objects are only culled after being invisible for 2 seconds (CullDelay = 2f).
• Set GameObject.Network.AlwaysTransmit = true to disable culling entirely.
• When culled, GameObject.Network.SetCullState(target, true) is called.

Owner Change Events

When ownership changes, the engine fires:

• IGameObjectNetworkEvents.NetworkOwnerChanged(newOwner, previousOwner) on all components


• IGameObjectNetworkEvents.StartControl() when we gain ownership


• IGameObjectNetworkEvents.StopControl() when we lose ownership


• Transform interpolation is cleared on ownership change.