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Blob & Document Storage

Redwood supports traditional blob storage; blobs are just files/documents with any structure/format. If you want to simply persist USaveGames or any other larger files (i.e. larger images, documents, videos, etc.; think megabytes in size), this storage mechanism is better than using the database.

Unreal Interface​

There are a few easy-to-use functions in the URedwoodServerGameSubsystem to read/write data to the blob storage, including Blueprint-friendly latent nodes.

  • GetBlob - Read a blob from storage; returns a byte array
  • PutBlob - Write a blob to storage; takes a byte array
  • GetSaveGame - Read a USaveGame from the storage
  • PutSaveGame - Write a USaveGame to the storage

You don't have to do anything special with your SaveGame classes; they will be serialized and deserialized automatically.

Providers​

Redwood currently blob providers are:

  • Stub - Used in development when running the Dev Initiator; this stores blobs as files on the local filesystem.
  • S3 - Used in Kubernetes environnments; you can use any S3-compatible API service, such as AWS S3 and DigitalOcean Spaces.

Configuration​

You can find the blob storage configuration located in the Realm Instance Config under persistence.blobs. The stub provider is enabled by default when running the Dev Initiator, and s3 is used by default when running in Kubernetes.

If you choose to use a different S3 provider than the included SeaweedFS (recommended in production), you will need to configure the various persistence.blobs.s3 variables. See the default Realm Instance Config for more details on each of the available variables.

SeaweedFS​

Redwood will deploy an S3 provider for you by default when running in Kubernetes. If you don't want to use blobs, make sure you set persistence.blobs.provider to none in your Realm Instance Config and deployment.kubernetes.instances.<your k8s instance (i.e. k8s-default)>.dependencies.seaweedfs.enabled to false to disable the feature altogether.

warning

It's highly recommended for you to use a managed S3 service like AWS S3, DigitalOcean Spaces, or Cloudflare R2 in production. SeaweedFS can be used in production, but ensure that it's properly configured and maintained.