Red5 RTMP server howto

Ok if you got as far as multiuser / multiplayer applications in flash. You probably heard of the Red5 server, it's an open source implementation of the very inexpensive Adobe FMS server, it can be downloaded totally free here.

2008-07-08

I apologize if I was unable to answer all the chat requests. I'm using google talk, a chat request comes in as a link that opens a new window which then asks to load the flash version of the google talk chat client which in turn often gets stuck downloading the contact list. This must be one of the worst google developments so far, but hopefully they will get their act together soon. Please complain to them if it doesn't work, Although keep in mind they are working on ultra important feature additions to their other products such as the email addict lockout feature. I can't wait to try that one:) I'm currently getting quite a few requests to work in the AS3 world again, lately I've been doing compact-framework in .NET although I should give silverlight a try while I'm here ;)

2008-05-10

2008-01-18

This flash asteroids game got me back to the good old times, programming games in turbo pascal and turing after completing all of the semester's assignments within the first three weeks of class. Hacking the school networks, playing jokes on our gay liberian, capturing the admin's passwords and then looping silly messages at login time for fellow students during exams... The concept of time seemed so different then. I really wish I had the time now to finish this little project but alas it must be put off for "more serious work".
When I started looking into as3 multi user programming there was hardly anything out there, that's how I got into Red5. Then hopped onto smartfox for an almost ready to use platform with almost working examples. I got as far with astro as having a two player almost totally desynchronized game going with full communication. I started restructuring the code and realized I will need much more of a network lib to accomplish this task. So thus a much simpler game must be created first (that's the code below also very unfinished). Since it won't be (for another couple months at least) before I can get back into this. ...and maybe by that time there will be an add-on for red5 to do game programming, with some solid examples. Or maybe a successful multi user game development company will give me a very decent offer to forget about the current projects I'm working on for a while. Who knows, anything can happen. Until then good luck on your journey into this flashy world and hopefully anything posted here will help you on it.

Cheers.

PS. asteroids game is largely based on an as2 game from a game programming book by a dude called repo and so it has an amazing structure for an as2 flash project ;)

2007-10-09

This is a simple flash game I put together. The source code is available for download. It should give you a quick push if you're thinking of making action based multi player games. As well as illustrate the many problems faced when developing them.

2007-09-06

Take a look at Smartfoxserver it supports AS3, installed for me without issues and the examples actually did run. It's build for flash game development and makes it much simpler then it's possible with Red5 at the moment. However the free version has a limit of only 20 connections. I'm starting to port some of it's functionality to Red5. The little flash Admin tool that comes with it is also pretty nifty. I've also discovered that my Red5 installation wasn't the latest don't make the same mistake.

2007-08-30

I'm adding a very simple but working chat program written in Flex 3. All the flash development tools seem to be going through a morphing phase I failed to find even one example that didn't require a fix so far. If you have Red5 installed with default settings Simple Chat will be able to communicate with this Flex AS3 Simple Chat program. Download Flex 3 source.

2007-08-27
Written mostly in java, of which you will need a recent version prior to the installation. The package installed for me uneventfully. I had to manually specify the java path. It automatically runs by itself which i was unaware of. Trying to run it I got a dos window (in the familiar java style) with garbage text output to the screen. A "wrapper failed" message at the bottom, I assumed correctly that the wrapper refers to red5 in the very intuitive java lingo, why didn't they name it a bean, I don't know. However a simple msg saying red5 is already running would save me some valuable time here. Thinking the installation failed I went to the programs directory trying to find some sort of an interface or a meaningful log file however other then the familiar garbage that was previously output to the screen I found nothing useful in the directory tree reminiscent of very well organized linux applications. After reading some more articles however red5 seemed to be it, so I gave the flash examples a try - they were a bit hidden - I found them on another webpage with fla sources., Most of them didn't bother doing much, in one you drag a ball, in another you attempt to type into an empty box, without any acknowledgment msg finally http://localhost:5080/demos/ofla_Demo.swf showed a connection failed error. Running the swf files locally didn't help as Adobe blocks net access for locally executed flash content. After searching the net some more I came across a tester application which was released by Macromedia a while ago. It tested the connection to their servers. some more searching and I found a similar application with source also apparently written by them. I quickly changed it to connect to the default ports that Red5 runs at. Here is the Red5 default connection tester. and the source code.

Adobe allows you to change your flash security settings with these online forms. Click allow if you want local swf files to connect.

You think this is it? I'm ready to program some nifty network flash network apps well... I found that Flash Player 9 is unable to connect to the current version of red5 (which was released in june 2007). For the new Flash Player to connect to your Red5 server you must replace some class files in your red5 installation jar. The far file under certain operating systems like vista is write protected. Thus you must copy it out of your red5 install directory do the replace and put it back in as administrator. This took me a while to figure out as other online multiplayer software certainly did work in my flash 9 player (which btw is newer then the one available for download on adobe's website, must be benefits of using their open source flex development package:) At first I thought there is some special way to include the flash content into a page, but fortunately that wasn't it.

Ah yes I nearly forgot this doesn't fix RTMPT, but if you don't know that's the tunneled version of RTMP don't don't worry about it.

Ah a red5 blog how did I miss it... Has a nice testing utility as well. Needs port 8088 there that's the default.