New Update - online multiplayer (beta)

Announcements
1

I just deployed a new update that I’ve been working super hard on, so I hope you like it:

Online Multiplayer (beta) - this is for subscribers only

  • This was originally launched over a year ago, but it had to be shelved for the HTML5 port, and it has been disabled for a long time
  • I have improved the stability and reliability quite a bit but it still has some known issues and needs more work and testing
  • A rough overview is here
  • A simple example is here

My intention is to deploy it and make it available even though it’s not 100% complete so that it can get tested a bit and we can discuss what features will need to be added to make it more useful.

In addition to the multiplayer, the following updates were made as well:

  • multiple crash fixes
  • changed physics debug key (again): ctrl+shift+d
  • new multiplayer debug key (for tracking down networking problems): ctrl+shift+m
  • fixed crash in EXtractor block when not selecting a property to extract

Let me know if you find any problems or have feedback - thanks!

2

@XXD3G & @Superstargames - “Disabled” at the bottom means the network was disabled. This happens if you open the editor, so that people can’t easily cheat while in a game by opening up the editor and changing the running game. If you reload the page it will go away.

Free users can play multiplayer games, they just aren’t able to make them - so this message doesn’t have anything to do with the type of account you’re using.

3

Thank you so much @grazer!

4

This is amazing! :star:
Thanks for the fixes and the great Multiplayer update!

5

I am free account. ;(

6

This thing looks bloody useful…

7

Yay! Multiplayer is coming back!

8

This has nothing to do with this, but I have a question, What does it mean by my game is Disabled?

9

it just has to be for subs, us poor free users.

10

Yeah, if it’s disabled, that means that you aren’t connected to the game’s network.
And yes, that’ll show up all the time for free users.

11

I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS!!!

FLOWLAB JUST GOT THAT MUCH BETTER!

12

Is there a way for friends to create their own multiplayer instance?

13

You could send them a link?

Tho if you’re asking if you could play on a private game…I’m not so sure.

14

Does multiplayer still work if you export the game?

15

Hey @grazer Im going to take a shot at making a simple multiplayer game and I was wondering how well timers sync between different player objects.

For example if two player objects are spawned at the same time and a two timers set too, say 5 and repeat forever start when they are spawned will the stay in sync for several minutes while the game is played?

Also do shared objects have behaviors synced or just physics and their own iterations of behaviors for each player?

16

@“Mushroom Productions” No way I say

17

@“my_name (<_>)” - If you can manage to trigget the Timers’ start all at the same time, they should stay pretty well synchronized for a few minutes.

The behaviors themselves are not synchronized - each game runs independently, and the following things are updated:

  • physics of shared objects
  • physics of player objects
  • keyboard and mouse inputs from player objects
  • shared blocks
18

Can you emit a ‘Shared’ object after the game starts? Cause it normally crashes the game when I do.

@grazer

19

Well, the rough overview of multiplayer says that you can emit/spawn shared objects, but only if you are connected to a network (so you have to be playing with someone). The crash could be due to a bug.

20

Hmm…