XenSoft FlashNetwork

[Ed Mack]

This is for Xentor, as he can't post a new thread. I pass the mic over to you...

P.s In the mean time, the url for it is http://www.xensoft.net/software/flashnetwork.shtml

[jeroen84]

And everyone should look at it. It's a great idea of Xentor to make such a program. (bumping this as well...)

[Ed Mack]

It's very exciting

[jeroen84]

Too bad I have a break. Or else I would spread it on my school. Then everyone would play multiplayer games on our LAN...

[tonypa]

I hope it could take more then 2 players

[jeroen84]

Maybe he can expand it later....

*hopes*

[Xentor]

Eventually I'll make it for more than 2 players... But I follow the tried-and-true method of "First we make it work, then we make it pretty"...

Oh, and thanks Ed... Wanted to start a thread, but havin probs

[jeroen84]

Sounds good Xentor. And yes, you're right. I feel the same thing. Before I start working on the graphics of a game, I want the actionscript to be fully ready.

[Xentor]

Version 0.1.1 BETA released (Still a developer release)

Added features:
- Drag & Drop functionality (Drag SWFs from windows explorer)
- Restricted characters changed, so you can send carriage returns and linefeeds
- Added variable: /XSFN:localip, which gives the IP address of the local computer.

Also redesigned the page to organize it a bit more... Full changelog, features, API, protocol, and downloads at XenSoft.net

[Ed Mack]

Grovey! It has the localip. The one thing it needs to take off is ease of use for non techies, such as they might be able to get it bundled with a swf or somthing else.

[Xentor]

Yeah, I've been brainstorming that, but I'm not sure if it'll be possible... See, my program works by embedding the flash player ActiveX control (The same one IE uses) inside itself...

XSFN loads the movie by simply telling the embedded player what the filename is... So if the swf is attached to the exe file (It would pretty much just be appended to the end of the XSFN executable), the player wouldn't be able to find it... Only solution I could think of is, when you run the program, to copy the swf from the end of the exe to a temporary file...

This would add a little to the startup time, and would still require an installation, so the libraries are registered...

*sigh*... Problems everywhere...

Another option... Use a different file extension, like .xsf instead of .swf, and have that filetype associated to XSFN... In other words, double-clicking on an .xsf file would open it with FlashNetwork...

[Mad-Sci]

HEy HEy Xentor, nice to see ya man..whazup. Lemme see if that thingie realy works..

ms

PS some Ping-Pong stats will be nice for debugin...

PSS: ha ha Flash-ICQ..just make a buddy list with static IP's
[Edited by Mad-Sci on 04-30-2002 at 01:48 AM]

[jeroen84]

Xentor.. the .xsf sounds good.

Another way to do it is making a shortcut for each swf file.

That shortcut would execute something like: "XSFN.EXE filename.swf"

And then XSFN would automatically open filename.swf when it starts.

J

[Xentor]

Hey Mad, long time no talk man...

jeroen - Well, the idea was to have one file that the user could just double-click on to play... Or maybe just click a link and play it right from a web page...

[jeroen84]

I know another way as well...

You can make a script so when you right-click on a file in windows, below 'open', it sais 'Open with XSFN...'.

It's possible, I know how to do such a thing manually and I've seen other programs do it as well.

Jeroen, just given some ideas

[Xentor]

Possible, but I think what's wanted is a projector-type thing, where the movie can be made into an executable... I'm trying to figure out a good way to do it...

[Ed Mack]

The MM swf player can export projectors, that's just the sort of thing that your player would be good with (I understand implimentation isn't that easy though).

Or else, giving it it's own extension would be good, although many users would be relutant to download players

[Xentor]

So, anyone else have any suggestions? I put out these pre-releases to see what kind of features people want... Any extra variables needed, any extra commands, anything else the flash movie should be notified of (Events)...

Transparency isn't looking too good, and imitating the "projector" capability of flash is going to be a lot of work, so I'm not going to put time into that unless this really catches on...

For now I'm just trying to see what people need... If I don't get any comments, I'll just put it out as-is with a couple minor changes to turn it into a full release...

[jeroen84]

Maybe something like onRecieve? Like the onXML() command?

Jeroen

[Xentor]

I'm not too familiar with the XML stuff (Never got around to trying it out)...

Right now, since I can't call methods from outside the movie, it notifies the movie of incoming data by calling a frame labeled "ReceiveData" and setting the "message" variable to the incoming data... All inside the XSFN movie clip...