Lacewing, Bluewing, and servers

[Phi]

Heyo folks,
Since there appears to be no CTF2.5 thread, I'll just update here.

Lacewing is a multiplayer online extension, used to connect computers to servers and allow said computers to communicate.
Lacewing can be used in CTF2.5 and MMF2, developer not required.

Lacewing is primarily Windows-only; there is a port for SWF aka Flash exporter.
There is a derivative which is somewhat less buggy and uses a more recent version of liblacewing, called Bluewing, or Lacewing Blue Client. Bluewing is Windows-only.

Full details on how liblacewing, Bluewing, Lacewing, OINC, etc fit together, their history, are found at this page:
Lacewing history and server list

The page also includes a list of public servers. The availability of these servers is not guaranteed, but should be high; the more reliable ones are higher in the list.
With use of the Get object and a bit of code, you can download a textual list of servers and try each one; details for the list is on the page.

I recommend use of Bluewing, since I will fully investigate any bugs and it is open-source as well (written in C++), if you want to fix yourself. Again, details on the page.
In addition, Bluewing's A/C/E's match up with those of regular Lacewing, so you should be able to manually overwrite the MFX files for an instant upgrade. I wouldn't recommend that, though, since Bluewing has a few extra features - so reverting back with the MFA using those features will not work.

I recently fixed a bug so global event triggering will now work in Bluewing.

Let me know if you guys need more information on that page, or you encounter a bug with Bluewing, or want to fund a port to a different language. Contact by forum PM, email, or hang around in ClickConverse.

[happygreenfrog]

You forgot to mention that Lacewing works in Android, which means that it's nearly completely cross-platform, which gives it an advantage over Bluewing that is more than enough for me to stick with Lacewing for any projects that I even think have the slightest chance of being ported to Android.

On the other hand, for projects that don't have a chance of being ported to Android, Bluewing does sound like it is a good alternative...

[LB]

James had originally intended to make his Lacewing extension open source back in 2013, I PM'd him last night to remind him.

[Phi]

Good catch about Android, Mr. HGF. I'll get a mod to edit that.
Although you can just rename Lacewing's Android files to Bluewing, and Bluewing will work in Android, since the A/C/E's match up (as I said).

[happygreenfrog]

I guess that's always true, Phi, though it doesn't allow us to use any of Bluewing's bug fixes then, though it at least means that we can then use Bluewing for Windows.

P.S. I'm suspicious that the reason that James hasn't been working on Lacewing recently is perhaps because he's working on CF3 (I remember hearing that he was, anyways).

[Spryz]

Will this work in MMF2Dev with the Flash Exporter?

[Phi]

Yes Spryz, Dev and Std editions of both MMF2 and CTF2.5 supported.

However, Flash, the platform itself, does not support UDP - so messages sent using Blast actions (as opposed to Send), will not be transfered.

[Deathkiller]

Is it possible to use Lacewing on 2 WiFi connectet Android Phones with client to client? (Without PC as Host)

[Phi]

Not client-to-client, without a server, no. Lacewing isn't designed for peer-to-peer.
One would have to act as the server and the other would have to know the server phone's IP address. As far as I know there's no Android port of the Lacewing Relay Server, making this impossible.

[SirEatAlot]

Yes, finally some progress on the online objects! What about the help file for bluewing? Would be really helpful for the new A/C/E not in lacewing.. great work!