Automatic Proxy Discovery

This project showcases the troubles with more complex proxy configurations in Unity. This will most likely never affect you except when you do anything with heavy enterprise customers (think: Automotive, Pharma, Medical, etc.). In these cases not being able to handle complex proxy setups will kill all your networking efforts 🙈

I focus mainly on two different networking components:

The standard UnityWebRequest
The .NET HttpClient

UnityWebRequest picks up a simple system proxy automatically but lacks features for dynamic configuration (changes at runtime through code) and more intricate SSL configuration.

Note: This bug has finally been fixed in Unity 2022.1.X! Checkout https://issuetracker.unity3d.com/issues/unitywebrequest-does-not-respect-auto-proxy-settings for more information

HttpClient doesn't do anyting automatically but ooffers extensive APIs for dynamic configuration, dirty SSL hacks, etc.

I will show how these differences affect the networking behavior in three different scenarios given the small application I built which allows for dynamic script based proxy configuration:

No proxy
Standard simple system proxy
Scripted configuration using a proxy.pac file

What does the App do?

The given application consists of one screen that allows you to download Chuck Norris quotes. You can select if you use UnityWebRequest (WWW) or the .NET HttpClient to do this.

Prerequisites

Unity
A Windows PC
Telerik Fiddler

No Proxy

In cases where no proxy server is configured for the system (and no proxy is present on the network) everything works fine 🎉🎉🎉

System Proxy

In cases where you set a standard system proxy both UnityWebRequest as well as the HttpClient are able to pick up the correct proxy server with the code provided in this application.

Scripted Proxy Configuration

The case that breaks everyting built on UnityWebRequest is scripted proxy configuration. As stated above: this is really common in enterprise setups and a real blocker if you want to deploy - say - a VR/AR/MR training or assistance experience built with Unity. You might manage to convince the IT department to treat you with special care but in my experience you don't want to be the 'special little snowflake'. If your application is hated by a corporate IT department from the get-go it will most likely never scale up.

This repo ships with a very simple PAC file that basically points to the local Fiddler proxy for every host you want to call.

WalternativE / UnityAutomaticProxyDiscovery