Lacewing Server Object and Firewall Warning

[Kasc]

Hey, I'm learning to use Lacewing trying to to use the Lacewing Sever Object with DizzyDoo's tutorial on how to make a chatroom but have come across an annoying snag:

Whenever I try to start a server with the command "Host on port 6121" my Windows Firewall pops asking if the executable "stdrt.exe" can have permissions. Normally, this would be fine but it asks this EVERY time I try to play and if you don't allow the permissions immediately the attempt to connect to my own server doesn't work (I presume it times out)!

Also, I can't find any documentation on the server object - is it as simple as telling the server object and then connect to you're own external IP?

Thanks,
Joe!

[LB]

if you build the server as an EXE and make sure the check box in the application properties for compressing the runtime is unticked, it will only ask once.

You should connect to "localhost", because you would have to do some port forwarding on your router to connect through your external IP.

[Kasc]

Thanks for the response

I assume I can do this by making another 'game' in MMF2 that hosts the server and get the main program to run said .exe but keep it hidden?

How would I close the server program when the main application isn't running anymore?

[LB]

Why would you need another program? You can host a server in the same application that you connect to it

[Kasc]

Well it's just that you said

if you build the server as an EXE

I assumed that meant as a separate exe, wouldn't that be better anyway so you don't have your entire game uncompressed?

[LB]

It depends entirely on what you're trying to do and how you're doing it. If you keep everything internal (which is a bad idea anyway) then of course you wouldn't want it uncompressed. But at the same it's a hassle to deal with launching and controlling other programs without the Global Function object or the Instance Communicator. You can decide which is best for your situation; I have no idea how you have your game/app set up

[Kasc]

I'm planning to make Tower Defence game with a co-op option, but until then I need to learn how to use MMF2 properly so I'm currently trying to figure out the best way to run the server for co-op. I am thinking the best way would be to do how Terraria does it - you input your friend's IP address and connect to them, but the way I've tried has the above issues!

How would you do it?

[LB]

Um, pretty much all games that let you host a server work that way. It is in fact how I myself would do it. Firewalls are an occupational hazard for someone running a server - and having them pop up every time shouldn't be a problem unless the server goes down a lot.

[James]

Well it's just that you said

if you build the server as an EXE

I assumed that meant as a separate exe, wouldn't that be better anyway so you don't have your entire game uncompressed?

Unchecking "Compress the runtime" doesn't mean your graphics/sound won't be compressed, it just means the MMF runtime itself won't be. The size increase isn't much, and it won't grow as your game does.

I would go as far as to recommend always having "Compress the runtime" unchecked, especially if you're doing anything networking related. The approach MMF uses to compress the runtime (extracting an executable to the temp directory and executing it) is dubious as far as some security software is concerned.

It also means task manager will show eg "mygame.exe" as the process name instead of "stdrt.exe", which is less confusing for the user.

[Kasc]

Alright, thanks