Spine and Photon Multiplayer support in Gideros

Apollo14 · November 2018

Hi guys!

IMO there're two critical things that are missing:
- Spine support (fully featured, with skins, etc.)
- Multiplayer support (Photon Cloud, it has become an industry standard)

'Serious' game developers can't use game engine if it doesn't fully support Spine, it's an industry standard, we can't avoid it. Multiplayer support is also pretty mandatory.

Currenly we have partially working p2p multiplayer support via Google Play Services, but there're few essential calls that are missing (for example 'leaveroom()'). And it's pretty painful to work with Google Play console, some time ago when I was testing p2p multiplayer, it took many days to make it work.
And Google's multiplayer doesn't work on iOS, that's an unsolvable problem.
We also have 'NoobHub' server, that is suitable only for card games or chess, where bad latency can be tolerated.
'Gideros Unite' is for local multiplayer only.

I'm in no way trying to blame maintainers, they did huge amount of work, it's a miracle how dramatically Gideros changed during last year, it's really miraculous. I'm subscribed to Corona&Defold updates, they didn't change as dramatically as Gideros, though they have full-time devteams hired.

Guys if somebody else here is missing Spine and Multiplayer, can we crowdfund it?

If not, personally I have only two options - stick to what I know and have already, and focus on releasing few simple games withot stuff that I was planning.
Another option is to join the flock - switch to Unity, not because I need their bells and whistles and crap asset store, but because it supports everything out of the box, all the game services, analytics, Spine, Photon, etc. Unity is a plague.
Or maybe check Cocos2d-x, if their C++ API is as scary as some people say.

Please tell what you think about it.
Thanks.

SinisterSoft · November 2018

I think someone has asked for more Spine API commands to be available, it's just that initially @hgy29 didn't know what users wanted.

Photon Cloud is a good idea, their SDK appears to be available for all of our export types.

oleg · November 2018

@Apollo14 я 2 дні назад читав інтерв'ю. розробника 3dCoat -у нього спитали -"чому ви в 3dcoat -не зробите анімацію? цеж галузевий стандарт який є в усіх 3д редакторах"

розробник відповів -ми не хочемо витрачати ресурси на функції де ми не є лідерами. 3dCoat -не повинен мати всі функції, ви повинні викоритовувати різні 3d редактори під свої потреби

**
якщо говорити про Gіderos - для мене не стоїть вибір gіderos чи Unity - я користуюся обома двигунами, і мені не потрібні однакові двиуни -gideros займає свою нішу, а unity - свою

talis · November 2018

I agree with @oleg . It is a double sided knife, there are somethings Gideros good at, there are somethings Gideros is bad at. In general friendly speaking pluses are more than the minuses for myself. But again this outcome can change according to your needs. There is no universal solution which fits all i guess. It is like a living organism, all programs are adapting to the new needs. Some are faster some are slower. As far as i can say Gideros has a significant fast adaptation process.

Crowdfunding is also a good idea if the demand is high. So for this let us generate a user base how many people want to see Gideros supporting fully SPINE and PHOTON.
I can vote + for both property.

antix · November 2018

Its hard to compare an SDK like Defold to Gideros because Defold is owned by King Games and they have literally millions of dollars to spend on making their SDK better, Gideros is on the other hand run by a handful of people with basically zero funding.

As such you would expect other well funded SDK's to have a more full feature set but I do understand your frustration. I'd like to see a whole bunch of things in Gideros, like Multiplayer support, PathFinding, and a load of other things that I've squeeked on about on and off for ages.

At the end of the day I (and everyone) can squeek for what they think Gideros needs but It's @hgy29 who is doing the heavy lifting so it is up to him what gets added. He has a f**king tough as job and he does this all for nothing.. whilst holding down a full time job of his own.. respect!

For all its shortcomings, I still really think Gideros is the best 2D engine available. If there was some rich person or organization that could pump some funds into it so there could be rapid development and a proper road map.. it would really take off!

hgy29 · November 2018

I didn't look at photon thing, can't tell about that one. Basically I don't use any existing gaming services: they are all inadequate in my opinion because each game need its own custom server side code at some point. I write all my gaming backends myself with Java+MongoDB and JSON-RPC interface. Yesterday I was telling myself that a generic version of my server could be hosted on gideros servers, but as I just said a generic version might be enough only for really simple games. Something to think about anyhow I think.

For spine, gideros does have a complete support for it as long as you use the lua-based version. It is not as efficient as the native one, but you have access to all features.

Apollo14 · November 2018

Thanks! I totally forgot about spine-lua lib that has all the functionality.

If there was some rich person or organization that could pump some funds into it so there could be rapid development and a proper road map

That's exactly my desire

To have successful apps that'll generate really good income, and reinvest it into the engine.

@hgy29 IMO custom servers are very expensive, cause they have to be located worldwide for good latency. At least in the NA, SA, EU, and two asian regions. None of them can be skipped, all are important markets.

It is expensive to pay monthly rent for 5 servers and hire good backend specialist who'll setup them all.

Even huge publishers choose Photon, though they have enough resources to have their own custom servers. What to say about indies.

Apollo14 · November 2018

SinisterSoft said:
I think someone has asked for more Spine API commands to be available, it's just that initially @hgy29 didn't know what users wanted.

Photon Cloud is a good idea, their SDK appears to be available for all of our export types.

Let's find out how much gold is needed for Photon integration and how many people are willing to crowdfund?
1. Apollo14

SinisterSoft · November 2018

I was wary of Photon at first because you have to search for prices - but the price for photon for 60 months is pretty good ($95 or something similar). But can you have more than one game on there for that?

@PaulR was thinking about a plugin tutorial, maybe that would be a good one to do?

Apollo14 · November 2018

@SinisterSoft it seems that their one-time plans are for one app only, and they have some other plans
I guess game can be tested and soft-launched on a free plan, if metrics are good, then it's worth to get 'one-time' plan
If I'd have to use their non-one-time plan, I'd prepare at least two multiplayer games to squeeze more from the plan.

@PaulR was thinking about a plugin tutorial, maybe that would be a good one to do?<</p>

that would be a great one to do!

keszegh · November 2018

you should ask @hgy29 or anybody else capable (is there?) for how much they would add photon. then make a tentative kick-starter noting for whom it is worth how much to have photon addon. and if there is enough money tentatively then you can straight donate this to gideros and then it will be done without paying kickstarter the fee.

antix · November 2018

@hgy29.. 101% of the games we make here are simple games

hgy29 · November 2018

antix said:
@hgy29.. 101% of the games we make here are simple games

i must be among the -1% that have needs that don’t fit in standards

PaulR · November 2018

I sent another email to Photon about splitting the Corona file into a generic interface and proprietary compiled code. I think that's a good idea for them (for business from users of other Lua engines that aren't Corona) and us.

Re a tutorial, I think the tutorial needs to focused on building and interfacing with Gideros. Then that non-obvious knowledge can be applied to simple extensions to apps or more complicated plugins which uses general programming knowledge.

Apollo14 · November 2018

PaulR said:
I sent another email to Photon about splitting the Corona file into a generic interface and proprietary compiled code. I think that's a good idea for them (for business from users of other Lua engines that aren't Corona) and us.

They didn't agree to do it for Defold engine

https://forum.photonengine.com/discussion/7976/lua-version-for-defold
I guess they're afraid of hackers/cheaters?

Apollo14 · November 2018

OMG I see @antix asked Photon guys 2 years ago

https://forum.photonengine.com/discussion/8763/sdk-files-wont-open

SinisterSoft · November 2018

Here is the photon.lua file converted from the bytecode that Corona use to the bytecode that Gideros uses:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0wyw3t6waxlu5uj/photon.lua?dl=0

I tested it on the helloworld corona example. I had to add my app id, then comment out the bit at the bottom that hangs about.

client:connectToRegionMaster("EU")
client.logger:info("Start")
--if display then
--   client.logger:info("Start")
 --  timer.performWithDelay( 100, client, 0)
--else
--   while true do
 --      client:timer()
  --     socket.sleep(0.1)
--    end
--end

I also added socket.lua to my project, don't know if it's needed or not.

If anyone converts the Corona photonsdk examples then please send me a copy.

SinisterSoft · November 2018

Here is a replacement for the helloworld example, you need to add the socket.lua file to your project.

local LoadBalancingClient
local LoadBalancingConstants
local tableutil
local Logger
local photon
 
if pcall(require,"plugin.photon") then -- try to load Corona photon plugin
    print("Demo: main module:","Corona plugin used")
    photon = require "plugin.photon"    
    LoadBalancingClient = photon.loadbalancing.LoadBalancingClient
    LoadBalancingConstants = photon.loadbalancing.constants
    Logger = photon.common.Logger
    tableutil = photon.common.util.tableutil    
else  -- or load photon.lua module
    print("Demo: main module:","Lua lib used")
    photon = require("photon")
    LoadBalancingClient = require("photon.loadbalancing.LoadBalancingClient")
    LoadBalancingConstants = require("photon.loadbalancing.constants")
    Logger = require("photon.common.Logger")
    tableutil = require("photon.common.util.tableutil")    
end
 
local appInfo = require("cloud-app-info")
 
local EVENT_CODE = 101
local MAX_SENDCOUNT = 100
 
local client = LoadBalancingClient.new(appInfo.ServerAddress, appInfo.AppId, appInfo.AppVersion)
-- client:setLogLevel(Logger.Level.DEBUG)
local lastErrMess = ""
 
function client:onOperationResponse(errorCode, errorMsg, code, content)
    print("debug","onOperationResponse", errorCode, errorMsg, code, tableutil.toStringReq(content))
    if errorCode ~= 0 then
        if code == LoadBalancingConstants.OperationCode.JoinRandomGame then  -- master random room fail - try create
            print("info","createRoom")
            self:createRoom("helloworld")
		else 
			print("error",errorCode, errorMsg)
        end
    end
end
 
function client:onStateChange(state)
    print("debug","Demo: onStateChange " .. state .. ": " .. tostring(LoadBalancingClient.StateToName(state)))
    if state == LoadBalancingClient.State.JoinedLobby then
        print("info","joinRandomRoom - 1")
        self:joinRandomRoom()
    end
end
 
function client:onError(errorCode, errorMsg)
    if errorCode == LoadBalancingClient.PeerErrorCode.MasterAuthenticationFailed then
        errorMsg = errorMsg .. " with appId = " .. self.appId .. "\nCheck app settings in cloud-app-info.lua"
    end
    print("error",errorCode, errorMsg)
    lastErrMess = errorMsg;
end
 
function client:onEvent(code, content, actorNr)
    print("debug","on event", code, tableutil.toStringReq(content))
    if code == EVENT_CODE then
        client.mReceiveCount = client.mReceiveCount + 1
        client.mLastReceiveEvent = content[2]
        if client.mReceiveCount == MAX_SENDCOUNT then
            self.mState = "Data Received"    
            client:disconnect();
        end
    end
end
 
local textObject=TextField.new(nil,"")
textObject:setPosition(100,100)
stage:addChild(textObject)
 
client.mState = "Init"
client.mLastSentEvent = ""
client.mSendCount = 0
client.mReceiveCount = 0
client.mLastReceiveEvent= ""
client.mRunning = true
 
 
function client:update()
    self:sendData()
    self:service()
end
 
function client:sendData()
    if self:isJoinedToRoom() and self.mSendCount < MAX_SENDCOUNT then
        self.mState = "Data Sending"    
        local data = {}
        self.mLastSentEvent = "e" .. self.mSendCount
        data[2] = self.mLastSentEvent
        data[3] = string.rep("x", 160)
        self:raiseEvent(EVENT_CODE, data, { receivers = LoadBalancingConstants.ReceiverGroup.All } ) 
        self.mSendCount = self.mSendCount + 1
        if self.mSendCount >= MAX_SENDCOUNT then
            self.mState = "Data Sent"
        end
    end
end
 
function client:getStateString()
    return LoadBalancingClient.StateToName(self.state) .. "\n\nevents: " .. self.mState .."\nsent "..self.mLastSentEvent..", total: ".. self.mSendCount .. "\nreceived "..self.mLastReceiveEvent .. ", total: " .. self.mReceiveCount 
        .. "\n\n" .. lastErrMess
end
local prevStr = ""
function client:timer(event)
    local str = nil
    --print("logger",trace("quant"))
    if self.mRunning then
        self:update()
    else
        self.ticktock:stop()
        self.mState = "Stopped"
    end
 
    str = client:getStateString()
    if(prevStr ~= str) then
        prevStr = str
        print("\n\n")        
        print(str)
		if textObject then
			textObject:setText(str)
		end
    end
 
end
 
function client:startTimer()
	self.ticktock=Timer.new(100)
	self.ticktock:addEventListener(Event.TIMER,client.timer,self)
	self.ticktock:start()
end
 
client:connectToRegionMaster("EU")
print("info","Start")
client:startTimer()

Also don't forget to set your app_id in the cloud-app-info.lua file.

SinisterSoft · November 2018

btw, you don't need socket.lua after all, just remember to add the sockets plugin on export.

PaulR · November 2018

Great OTB thinking there @SinisterSoft !

Apollo14 · November 2018

omg there're hell lot of calls in the Photon SDK, I'll have to check them in the morning when my mind is fresh!

SinisterSoft · November 2018

@Apollo14 Sticking with Gideros for a while now then?

Apollo14 · November 2018

SinisterSoft said:
@Apollo14 Sticking with Gideros for a while now then?

OMG you guys what you have done, now I will have to stop whining and start working on an actually planned game project, there're no excuses anymore! It's not fair!!!!

Especially you, mr.Hacker!
I have no words, seriously...

PaulR · November 2018

@Apollo14 : sorry to be so boring, but could you edit your first post at the top or next to where you say Spine and Photon are missing to clarify the situation when you get a moment? For people in the future who google and don't scroll down?

Apollo14 · November 2018

@PaulR yes, sure (I've also thought that topic name isn't good)

SinisterSoft · November 2018

I've converted demo-helloworld-cloud and demo-console now. Anyone done any of the others?

totebo · November 2018

Guys. Are you in the process of Photonifying Gideros on the fly? I'm bringing the popcorn!

Would be so sweet (not the popcorn, obviously, they should be salty) to have a plug and play multiplayer option in Gideros.

SinisterSoft · November 2018

The include file is done - it's in Lua so it's all platforms. It's just the demos to convert.

Apollo14 · November 2018

@SinisterSoft I've found only three corona demos (on this page: https://docs.coronalabs.com/plugin/photon/index.html )
Are there any more demos somewhere? I didn't find "demo-console", can you pls share its converted version?

p. s. uh, it took me so long to cut the bs from their corona example and understand how to perform the most necessary actions
(probably they could've added more basic example, from which new developers could get general concept faster)
anyway, let's continue grinding...

totebo said:
Guys. Are you in the process of Photonifying Gideros on the fly? I'm bringing the popcorn!

Would be so sweet (not the popcorn, obviously, they should be salty) to have a plug and play multiplayer option in Gideros.

you can help us too by testing and adopting corona examples! (after you finish tasty popcorn, of course)

btw there's one alternative to photon, which is free from the start (i guess it's much more indie-friendly, but there's no info how do they accept developers to 'indie programme', probably they're not accepting all and everybody)
https://www.gamesparks.com/pricing/
(they have non-encrypted libs for Corona and Defold)

SinisterSoft · November 2018

@Apollo14 The demos are in the coronasdk download from the photonegine website.

You could make different demos if you like?

Here is the latest version of the hellowworld-cloud demo with the logging texts working (rather than just 'print')

local LoadBalancingClient
local LoadBalancingConstants
local tableutil
local Logger
local photon
 
print("Demo: main module:","Lua lib used")
photon = require("photon")
LoadBalancingClient = require("photon.loadbalancing.LoadBalancingClient")
LoadBalancingConstants = require("photon.loadbalancing.constants")
Logger = require("photon.common.Logger")
tableutil = require("photon.common.util.tableutil")    
 
local appInfo = require("cloud-app-info")
 
local EVENT_CODE = 101
local MAX_SENDCOUNT = 100
 
local client = LoadBalancingClient.new(appInfo.ServerAddress, appInfo.AppId, appInfo.AppVersion)
-- client:setLogLevel(Logger.Level.DEBUG)
local lastErrMess = ""
 
function client:onOperationResponse(errorCode, errorMsg, code, content)
    self.logger:debug("onOperationResponse", errorCode, errorMsg, code, tableutil.toStringReq(content))
    if errorCode ~= 0 then
        if code == LoadBalancingConstants.OperationCode.JoinRandomGame then  -- master random room fail - try create
            self.logger:info("createRoom")
            self:createRoom("helloworld")
		else 
			self.logger:error(errorCode, errorMsg)
        end
    end
end
 
function client:onStateChange(state)
    self.logger:debug("Demo: onStateChange " .. state .. ": " .. tostring(LoadBalancingClient.StateToName(state)))
    if state == LoadBalancingClient.State.JoinedLobby then
        self.logger:info("joinRandomRoom - 1")
        self:joinRandomRoom()
    end
end
 
function client:onError(errorCode, errorMsg)
    if errorCode == LoadBalancingClient.PeerErrorCode.MasterAuthenticationFailed then
        errorMsg = errorMsg .. " with appId = " .. self.appId .. "\nCheck app settings in cloud-app-info.lua"
    end
    self.logger:error(errorCode, errorMsg)
    lastErrMess = errorMsg;
end
 
function client:onEvent(code, content, actorNr)
    self.logger:debug("on event", code, tableutil.toStringReq(content))
    if code == EVENT_CODE then
        client.mReceiveCount = client.mReceiveCount + 1
        client.mLastReceiveEvent = content[2]
        if client.mReceiveCount == MAX_SENDCOUNT then
            self.mState = "Data Received"    
            client:disconnect();
        end
    end
end
 
local textObject=TextField.new(nil,"")
textObject:setPosition(100,100)
stage:addChild(textObject)
 
client.mState = "Init"
client.mLastSentEvent = ""
client.mSendCount = 0
client.mReceiveCount = 0
client.mLastReceiveEvent= ""
client.mRunning = true
 
 
function client:update()
    self:sendData()
    self:service()
end
 
function client:sendData()
    if self:isJoinedToRoom() and self.mSendCount < MAX_SENDCOUNT then
        self.mState = "Data Sending"    
        local data = {}
        self.mLastSentEvent = "e" .. self.mSendCount
        data[2] = self.mLastSentEvent
        data[3] = string.rep("x", 160)
        self:raiseEvent(EVENT_CODE, data, { receivers = LoadBalancingConstants.ReceiverGroup.All } ) 
        self.mSendCount = self.mSendCount + 1
        if self.mSendCount >= MAX_SENDCOUNT then
            self.mState = "Data Sent"
        end
    end
end
 
function client:getStateString()
    return LoadBalancingClient.StateToName(self.state) .. "\n\nevents: " .. self.mState .."\nsent "..self.mLastSentEvent..", total: ".. self.mSendCount .. "\nreceived "..self.mLastReceiveEvent .. ", total: " .. self.mReceiveCount 
        .. "\n\n" .. lastErrMess
end
local prevStr = ""
function client:timer(event)
    local str = nil
    self.logger:trace("quant")
    if self.mRunning then
        self:update()
    else
        self.ticktock:stop()
        self.mState = "Stopped"
    end
 
    str = client:getStateString()
    if(prevStr ~= str) then
        prevStr = str
        print("\n\n")        
        print(str)
		if textObject then
			textObject:setText(str)
		end
    end
 
end
 
function client:startTimer()
	self.ticktock=Timer.new(100)
	self.ticktock:addEventListener(Event.TIMER,client.timer,self)
	self.ticktock:start()
end
 
client:connectToRegionMaster("EU")
client.logger:info("Start")
client:startTimer()

Apollo14 · November 2018

uh, now I see them inside sdk zip file...
i think demos are ok, I just expected them to be oversimplified

for developing multiplayer game one has to understand all and everything in their API, so it's unavoidable anyway
but I think I'll create more basic demo for quicker introduction to Photon

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories

In this Discussion

Top Posters

Spine and Photon Multiplayer support in Gideros

Comments

Howdy, Stranger!

Quick Links

Categories

In this Discussion

Top Posters

Spine and Photon Multiplayer support in Gideros

Comments