Sending an entity to client

[Raxis]

I was doing a bit of testing in terms of sending an entity from the server to the client. However whenever I send it from the server it's fine it reads as

Entity [76] ["sent_ball"]
but when I receive I have

[NULL_ENTITY].

Of course when I try to get the model it returns something along the lines of

"tried to use a null entity".

Heres the code, any help would be great:

Server:

local SendEntity = ents.Create("sent_ball")

if(ValidEntity(SendEntity)) then

umsg.Start("SendEntityHook")
umsg.Entity(SendEntity)
umsg.End()
end

Msg(SendEntity)

Client:

local function RecieveEntity(data)
Msg(data:ReadEntity())
end
usermessage.Hook("SendEntityHook", RecieveEntity)

[maurits]

You probably have to use SendEntity:Spawn() first because right now you're sending an entity that hasnt been properly initialized.

[Raxis]

Tried it, it didn't work. Any other suggestions?

[leiftiger]

Entities may not exist on the client before the client has seen it, best way to solve this is to use a timer and wait for the entity to become valid by sending the entity index instead and checking that until its not a null entity.

In my testing it may take a few seconds before the client has recognized the entity, which can be solved with repeating timers.

[Raxis]

So, does the player actually have to see the entity on his screen in order for it to be initialized. Or can I just send an entity even though they don't see it. (And obviously use the timers to wait for it)