How "difficult" will this be?

mmckenzie · Post by **mmckenzie** » Sat Jan 10, 2009 7:26 am

Hi, I'm new to Revolution and fairly new to programming in general. I need to create an application that will be like a multiplayer "game server" but with some added features and controls. I am planning on using Revolution Studio and even though my application will be running only on Windows, will it be a problem to create it on my Mac?

I realize that Rev is capable of creating apps to be deployed anywhere, but I hope I'm not making my job unnecessarily difficult.

Thanks!

Mike

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Sat Jan 10, 2009 1:20 pm

Hi Mike,

Without any clear examples of what you want to do, there's no way to tell you how difficult it will be and whether there are any peculiarities regarding cross-platform compatibility.

Best,

Mark

mmckenzie · Post by **mmckenzie** » Sat Jan 10, 2009 6:28 pm

Mark,

Thanks for the response. Yeah, I had a feeling I wouldn't get much more than that, but I'm not sure how to explain the application. I guess the application will need to deal a lot with networking under Windows XP. It will also need to access whatever multi-player game information that is available from your typical multi-player game. The idea is similar to the software found here: https://www.nerdclub.net/alp/
I am just now figuring this all out so things are very much up-in-the-air right now.

Thanks

Mike

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Sat Jan 10, 2009 6:43 pm

Hi Mike,

I had a quick look at the website, but can't figure out what it is in 2 seconds. Nowhere, it says "this is a programme that lets you do such and so..." What kind of games are you thinking of?

Revolution is able to communicate through sockets over TCP. Networking shouldn't be a problem.

Best,

Mark

mmckenzie · Post by **mmckenzie** » Sat Jan 10, 2009 6:59 pm

Mark,

Sorry, I should have explained about the software. The software on the site is used to manage LAN parties. So basically it allows an administrator to manage all of the computers on a network to all login and play various multi-player games on a LAN. It keeps track of each player, allows them to be formed into teams and also manages the various matches and game maps that are played. There are a lot of multi-player computer games that are very popular and many have there own game server software, but I am trying to make something a lot more customized.

As you mentioned Rev should be able to handle this, I was just concerned with the fact I would be creating this on a Mac. However since I have the Windows server right here to test it all on, perhaps I am worrying for no reason.

Thanks again for your help!

Mike

Garrett · Post by **Garrett** » Sat Jan 10, 2009 10:53 pm

Like Hamachi?

mmckenzie · Post by **mmckenzie** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 12:09 am

Garret,

No. I just checked out Hamachi and it's not really as specific as I am talking about as regards game server software.

I think I will forge ahead with my concept and design at this point. I am just now getting into Revolution so I imagine it will take me awhile on this project.

Thanks for your response!

Mike

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 1:00 am

Hi Mike,

Sockets work the same way in Revolution on any platform. You can safely develop a server on Mac and run it on Windows while clients connect from a Linux platform, for example.

With regard to other features, I still can't say anything, because I don't know what kind of games you are talking about. It is unclear to what extend you need platform specific features, such as shell functions, QuickTime, database access, and file management.

Best,

Mark

mmckenzie · Post by **mmckenzie** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 2:09 am

Mark,

Here is a list of some of the multi-player PC games I am referring to:

CounterStrike
Company of Heroes
Battlefield 1942
Battlefield 2
Halo
Starcraft

There are probably another 20 to 30 other popular PC games that are playable as multi-player games via LAN, but at least some of these should give you an idea of what games I am referring to.

In general I think that it sounds like Revolution can handle the basics of what I need to do.

Thanks for your help.

Mike

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 2:20 am

Hi Mike,

I am no gamer and have no idea what that list of titles implies. If you need to know whether you can make a particular game with Revolution, you will have to describe it, unless someone more familiar with games already understands what you want to accomplish and can answer this question.

Anyway, since you're saying that you believe Revolution can do what you want, it seems that your question has been answered already.

Best regards,

Mark

Garrett · Post by **Garrett** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 11:35 am

I suggest looking for all the examples in the rev online browser that relate to internet communications, such as rev chat, there's an ftp example etc. Make some small stuff first, like a chat program and the likes, to get more familiar with Rev first. Then tackle your project. I've the jest of what you want to do and I believe you'll be able to do it in Rev, but personally don't have the experience or info you need to actually accomplish it right off.

mmckenzie · Post by **mmckenzie** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 4:24 pm

Garret,

Yeah, I saw the chat example and I think it will help me get more familiar with those concepts and network stuff in general.

I have not upgraded yet to Rev 3, and was wondering if I will be missing too much by staying with version 2.8

Thanks again!

Mike

Garrett · Post by **Garrett** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 6:45 pm

I gotta say that the new IDE in Rev 3 is a must have! It's so much more organized than before. It's less cumbersome for sure. The tabbed editor is just wonderful. All I can say is that you'll likely get more work done quicker in Rev 3 than before, all because the IDE is now works for you and with you instead of against you.

Other than that, check the rev main site for what changes, fixes and upgrades were dropped into Rev 3 from the 2.8 and 2.9 releases to see if it's worth it to you. The new ide was more than enough for me to upgrade.

malte · Post by **malte** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 7:33 pm

And I must say I really love most of the new features that came with 2.9 and 3.0. The new multidimensional arrays for example. I would recommend you download a trial of 3.0 and see if it is for you. If you like it, now would be a good time to upgrade, as the bundle offer still runs for a few days, so you could get some nice add ons to your Rev Toolkit at no extra cost.

Cheers,

Malte

mmckenzie · Post by **mmckenzie** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 10:55 pm

Thanks! I have downloaded the demo and will give it a spin.

Mike