Flash gets GPU-accelerated 3D! MAX Racer with P2P multiplayer
October 26th, 2010
The revolution is here and the world is never be the same!
Last couple months were just exciting like never before. We’ve been working with guys from Alternativa Platform and Mythos Labs on 3D racing demo with realtime multiplayer over P2P. The game is set to Los Angeles, where popular developers’ conference Adobe MAX takes place right now.
The game uses the new set of GPU-accelerated 3D APIs – currently codenamed Molehill (see Adobe Labs page). You will be able to get your hands on this API in the first half of 2011.
Multiplayer demo – controlling with three computers
MAX Racer Teaser by Alternativa
Check this video to see how it looks like, when playing with friends all over the world:
Implementing the P2P multiplayer
My role in this game was to implement realtime multiplayer over P2P API, which I have to say works just fluently. We have tried playing the game through internet over 2000 km (from Prague in Czech Republic to Perm in Russia) and I had the feeling like we were sitting next room and playing over LAN.
P2P = Getting the best latency possible
Direct connections in P2P is the best possible method to keep your latency as lowest as possible. With direct connections, you can be sure, that the data packets will be delivered, so the transmission is fully reliable. (Note: this is not the case of Posting, Directed Routing and Multicast, where it’s best effort delivery)
When we talk about the programming logic, you basically setup one outgoing stream and 2,3 or 5 (depends on the number of players) incoming streams.
Then you get something, what we call Full Mesh. This P2P architecture makes sure, that all data between the players is delivered in the smallest time possible.
We also ran into couple challenges in multiplayer, it’s not enough to transfer only direction changes (like forward, back, left, right), you also have to transfer a real position to sync on position. This will still make it a little bit choppy, because of massive use of physics and rendering speed. So the solution was to implementing interpolations, which is similar to smoothing. If you are at the Adobe MAX, make sure you drop on my session on Tuesday – Building P2P Multiplayer Games. I will also write more article in the future on how to solve this.
Hooking up Game Controllers
Yes, yes, yes, yes! We are working on adding the support of game controllers in Flash Player in the future. I hooked-up MAX Racer with a steering wheel USB controller and I have to say, it was pretty easy to do. I am pretty sure, you will love it and I can’t wait to see more Facebook realtime games with controllers online.
More info MAX Racer
If you want to check more info about the MAX Racer, watch this video by Thibault Imbert (PM for Flash Player).
Game Screenshots
Look at that details. Yeah, and we are rendering this in 60fps running 1920×1080.
Art was done by Mythos Labs. Kudos for the great job guys!
I just wanted to give a credit to Todd Wahoske and team from Mythos Labs for these great graphics and to Alternativa Platform guys – Vladimir Babushkin, Mikhail Fominykh, Anton Volkov and Alex Karpovich.
Finally I have to say that it was a great pleasure to work with guys on this game!
Flash on!
Winners of the Summer AIR Mobile Contest (CZ/SK)
October 21st, 2010
I am proud to announce winners of the Czech/Slovak Summer AIR Mobile Contest 2010 and I have to say, I was amazed by the talent and passion guys put into development.
Prizes were 2x Google Nexus One, 1x CS5 Web Premium, 2x Flash Pro CS5, 3x Flash Builder 4 and some goodies.
1st place
onBoard – endless realtime drawing board with P2P support
Versions: AIR for Android, AIR for desktop, Flash Player in browser
Author: Jozef ChĂştka
My comment: onBoard brings completely new look on social creativity. You start drawing something and someone finishes it and adds new ideas to that. The app is in it’s beginnings and it’s used by 500 people a day currently. It’s also very optimized to run fluently on mobile devices. It uses mipmapping – depth of zoom like Google Maps.
Available in Android Market
Move from Stratus to Adobe Cirrus
October 10th, 2010
Quick note: As you have probably already registered, we have renamed Adobe Stratus P2P rendezvous service to Adobe Cirrus.
You can read about details at Kevin’s Towes blog.
Basically, acquire new developer key here and use new address:
rtmfp://p2p.rtmfp.net/YOUR-DEVKEY/What are Stratus and Cirrus? Cloud types:
(Source: Wikipedia.org)
The most simple P2P Object Replication Example
September 16th, 2010
Here you can download the simplest P2P Object Replication example, which is easy to understand. Previous examples might have been too complicated to start with. Grab this code and start using it right the way.
Download source
Try demo – open in two or more windows. Click “startProviding” button on one of them and “startReceiving” on the rest of the windows. You can then click “writeObject” to check the received object on the receiver windows.
Good Luck!
My upcoming speeches – September, October 2010
September 6th, 2010
Autumn is nearly here and I have little heads-up for those of you who would like to meet me or come to my sessions during September and October 2010.
Next to that, if you would like to see me speaking somewhere else, just drop me an e-mail to tomkr (at) adobe (dot) kom and we will see what we can do for that and hopefully it will be possible.
Okay, so where you can see me for sure:
IBC.org 2010 – Amsterdam
September 9-14 2010
International Broadcasting Convention – one of the biggest conferences and trade fairs in the world about broadcasting, TV, satellites, cable, digital imaging, audio/video technology and so on.
I will be available at the Adobe Booth out there and also doing theatre sessions about Advanced P2P techniques in Flash. If you are coming, make sure you stop by for a little chat.
For Digital – Prague
September 23 2010
I am going to talk about Augmented Reality.
WebExpo.net 2010 – Prague
September 24-25 2010
Get inspired with the future stuff. Session: Flash and HTML5 – my colleague Petr Pechacek is going to join me for this session.
CS5 Production Premium Launch – Prague, Bratislava
October 19-20 2010
Jason Levine, the Adobe evangelist rockstar is coming to Prague and Bratislava. Registration to be available soon. I will be joining Jason on the stage.
Adobe MAX 2010 – Los Angeles
October 23-27 2010
This is the place to be. The most exciting conference to attend, again in Los Angeles, California.
This year I have a session about Building P2P Multiplayer Games on Tuesday, October, 26th, 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm. Make sure you stop by.
Link to my session