Corona® AutoLAN- Public Internet Multiplayer Support Beta! Join Now!

Games
#21

Hello community,
Here is Jayant’s wonderful review of our product:
http://reviewme.oz-apps.com/2012/01/create-multi-player-games.html
And if you want to know more about us:
http://reviewme.oz-apps.com/2012/01/meet-developer-dynamic-duo.html

Just an update on development:
We are pleased to announce internet functionality in the next update. As usual all of you who already bought autoLAN will get subsequent updates for free. The internet functionality system will be in its beta phases and will be published as an update soon. We request that everyone test out the new internet system when it is available and report any problems you encountered. Currently we have the following features.

  • Automatic server discovery (much the same way as LAN)

  • NAT punch-through via matchmaker server, get past the router

  • Traffic is all peer to peer, minimal bandwidth is used on the public matchmaker server.

  • Geolocation based matchmaking, to minimize latency between clients

  • php script will also be published so you can run the matchmaking daemon on your own server.

  • Ability to make real-time internet based games! Latency will be near the latency of the physical network transport layer. Only initialization transactions need a centralized server for NAT traversal but all other transactions are direct from peer to peer.

We just want the community’s opinion and feature requests.
What makes this better than some of the other internet multiplayer options currently available for Corona? Simple answer is there is no middleman, all packets go directly from device to device resulting in far less latency enabling you to create real time games. [import]uid: 55057 topic_id: 19917 reply_id: 79779[/import]

#22

Being able to do online multiplayer with this would be fantastic.

What would make it better than other(s) would be if you had clear precise documentation on how to use it with plenty of samples (like lobby’s, 1vs1 match) As others do not

And by samples i mean fully working samples :slight_smile:

Just my $.02 [import]uid: 84637 topic_id: 19917 reply_id: 80157[/import]

#23

This could be awesome!!!
[import]uid: 19626 topic_id: 19917 reply_id: 80174[/import]

#24

When can we expect to see this update out of interest?

Thanks [import]uid: 84637 topic_id: 19917 reply_id: 80334[/import]

#25

Hi Danny,
Thanks for your interest and your tips. In our current product we have a full working example with a game lobby system as well and we plan to extend this to the internet version. We are expecting it to be released by the end of the week. Your comments are very helpful and any more will be appreciated!
Thanks,
M.Y. Developers [import]uid: 55057 topic_id: 19917 reply_id: 80466[/import]

#26

Awesome!

I purchased it and am looking forward to the release!, I checked out the sample from the current version and its very nice. Your code is great and very well written. I am a admirer of your work.

Please email me at danny [at] anscamobile.com when it’s released and i will post it up on my site (infuseddreams.com) and re-tweet it [import]uid: 84637 topic_id: 19917 reply_id: 80469[/import]

#27

Thanks! We will let you know as soon as its done. Your site looks very impressive well done! Let us know if you run into any problems or want a specific feature to implement before the release.

-M.Y. Developers [import]uid: 55057 topic_id: 19917 reply_id: 80492[/import]

#28

Thanks, appreciate that.

Can’t think of anything specifically, the promise of a ready made lobby system sounds very intriguing :slight_smile: [import]uid: 84637 topic_id: 19917 reply_id: 80579[/import]

#29

Purchased this week guys, looking forward to getting stuck in!

Couple of questions:

How is the lobby system going?

From where would we download updates?

Can a device be both a server and a client at the same time?
I’m messing about at the moment trying to make a simple lobby system, but it looks as though it would depend on the device being both the Client: looking for tables to be started by servers or for servers to broadcast that space is available - and Server: created a table and waiting for clients to join. Is this possible?

Cheers! [import]uid: 52386 topic_id: 19917 reply_id: 80828[/import]

#30

Hello Shorty,

How is the lobby system going?

For this release the lobby system will be for matchmaking purposes only for internet games. It does not use any Lua code but is a php script on a webserver. When a player wishes to host a game the server will log their ip/port and do a ip-geolocation lookup and save his latitude/longitude coordinates. When a player wishes to join a game the server will then perform the same operation and send him a list of the top 10 (or more) closest servers. Hopefully this will reduce latency. In future releases we will look into getting a friend based system as well but for now this is how we will do it.

From where would we download updates?

You should get an email from our digital distributor (e-junkie) when we ship the update.

Can a device be both a server and a client at the same time?

It should be possible to be the client and server at the same time since all the ports are dynamically allocated at runtime. The only problem that might arise is the server might listen to its own broadcast but this should be easy to fix. We will make sure it works for you in this next update.
So your approach would be to get rid of the join and host button and just do both at once? This is certainly a good idea and would definitely be possible.

Thanks,
M.Y. Developers [import]uid: 55057 topic_id: 19917 reply_id: 80866[/import]

#31

As for the lobby system you propose… For instance, I am developing an app that the player can either play against anyone in the lobby (or closest location would suffice) but also facebook friends. Your system may rule out the facebook friend possibility ?

I presume we will be able to override that and show all players regardless of distance ?

Thanks [import]uid: 84637 topic_id: 19917 reply_id: 80868[/import]

#32

Danny,

If you want to run the script on your own web-server you can choose to send as many servers as you wish or even disable the geolocation sorting. The top 10 scheme was designed to save bandwidth but it can be easily disabled as sorting/filtering can also be done on the client side. There are many ways you can accomplish a facebook based friends system, here are a couple.
Lets suppose Bob and Bill are friends on facebook and Bob wants to host a game.

You can stick the Bob’s friend list (or anything else) in the custom broadcast table. when Bill gets the server list from the matchmaker he will read all the server broadcasts and only display the servers on his friends list (including Bob). You can also do the filtering on the server side if you are fluent in php or you can just leave it as it is and do all the filtering on the lua side (although this may waste bandwidth).

you can also use the application name field to not only filter different applications but create private “channels” within the same application. For instance, say Bob hosts a private game with Bill. You can assign the application id something like “multipongBob123456890” and send this information to Bill. This way only Bill can see Bob’s game and vice versa.

It is difficult to create a one size fits all system but we created a system that you can customize. If there is a popular demand for a facebook driven system then we may integrate this in the future.

Do you currently have a multiplayer solution integrating facebook? We are curious to know how you implemented that.

Thanks,
M.Y. Developers
[import]uid: 55057 topic_id: 19917 reply_id: 80930[/import]

#33

Thanks for the response.

Thats great how your allowing for running your php code on our own servers. Adds the needed flexibility.

I handle the facebook system via lua.
I am more than happy to share my code with you once i integrate Autolan. Eagerly awaiting release :slight_smile: [import]uid: 84637 topic_id: 19917 reply_id: 80933[/import]

#34

Hello Community,
Unfortunately there have been problems with Dreamhost recently and our website is currently down. We are working to fix this issue so please be patient.

In the meantime we are thinking about doing a public beta for our new AutoLAN internet. Anyone who is interested please respond to this post. We will be limiting the public beta to 50 users.

Thank you,
M.Y. Developers [import]uid: 55057 topic_id: 19917 reply_id: 81601[/import]

#35

count me in doubleslashdesign [at] gmail… :slight_smile: I already got your autolan and corna ultimote :slight_smile:

Larry [import]uid: 11860 topic_id: 19917 reply_id: 81605[/import]

#36

Count me in!

Mo [import]uid: 49236 topic_id: 19917 reply_id: 81612[/import]

#37

Missed the promotion code. Will it become available in the App Store soon? [import]uid: 6288 topic_id: 19917 reply_id: 81615[/import]

#38

@ M.Y.developers

First of All I want to say amazing work you have done with your products. All of your products are extremely useful and you continue to help improve Corona with your amazing products.

Now as for AutoLAN this seems very interesting I been studying and working with Corona/Lua for nearly 1 year and even If I understand a lot by now like they say everyday you learn something new. I have a few questions about this product as I have never attempted or looked into learning multiplayer/online apps, but with this it opens up that possibility!

  1. How does online works? One device host and another device connect (LAN) ? Or do you need to have a server to allow (players) to play online?

  2. Considering the one thing we always hate online (LAG) if you are connected via LAN how bad is the lag? Or this depends on type of game and how the game is programmed? But lets say a simple hockey game will the puck be in the same position on both devices (ie no LAG?)

Once again Thank You for your great products I will continue supporting you guys and I apologize for the “noobish” questions. [import]uid: 30314 topic_id: 19917 reply_id: 81622[/import]

#39

You know I’d like to help if you’ve still got beta room. hehe Let me know; can’t wait to see it either way. [import]uid: 21712 topic_id: 19917 reply_id: 81623[/import]

#40

@doubleslashdesign @lemsim
Thanks for your interest! We will let you know when it is ready.

@Mo
Thanks Mo! We will let you know.

@mobilefun4me
We have a sale during every update so please be sure to watch for promo codes. Would you like to take part in the beta? You can try AutoLAN out this way.

Thanks,
M.Y. Developers
[import]uid: 55057 topic_id: 19917 reply_id: 81617[/import]