Further news to report on my ElectroServer adventures! I’ve now got an ES4 installation up and running on a MediaTemple Dedicated Virtual server. It was actually pretty easy too, thanks to this tutorial from Greg Sidbury.
I had no problems following although there are a couple of bits that confused me. The first was that the download link didn’t work so I just found the Linux RPM link on the ElectroServer download pages and used that, which for the current version is :
The other thing that got me is that I put in the domain name into the ES4Configuration.xml which didn’t work. I should have put the ip address for the virtual server (which you should find in your Media Temple account or you could always just ping your domain from a terminal window).
Once I’d opened the ports and started the server running I tried to telnet in to port 9898 (the default chat port) but it was refused. So I edited the crossdomain.xml on the main webserver to include the IP address of my home internet connection and it seemed to be OK after that. (At least I think that’s what fixed it!).
So apart from a few minor hassles it was pretty seamless and only took me an hour or so. I must admit to feeling way out of my depth, this isn’t something I’m particularly expert on so please feel free to comment with further advice
What else to do in the Christmas holidays but finally get my head around ElectroServer? Of course the first (sometimes significant) hurdle in getting started with any multi-user technology is just installing the server on your machine! ElectroServer4 (ES4) is Java based so it should work on OSX, but most of the documentation is for Windows, so I spent today installing it on my MacBook and thought I would share what I learned.
ES4 runs on Java 1.6 and OSX is shipped with 1.5. You can find instructions on getting the update here, but whatever you do don’t complete the steps to make 1.6 the default Java Virtual Machine (JVM), otherwise FlexBuilder won’t work any more!
Now you need to download the Unix package (the one marked “without JVM”) on the ElectroServer downloads page, and unzip it somewhere suitable (I put it in my documents folder).
Then open up a terminal window and navigate into the folder where you unzipped it. (Handy shortcut : type “cd” followed by a space and then drag the folder from the finder onto your terminal where the full path name will be inserted).
There’s a file in here called ElectroServer that you run but you need to tell it where to find the latest JVM. According to this rather useful thread you can do this by typing :
16:28:08,523[main] INFO DisplayLogger -
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Starting ElectroServer 4.0.6
Go to http://www.electro-server.com/for the newest version.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Computer Information
Operating System: Mac OS X
Operating System Architecture: x86_64
Processors Available: 2
Memory Available: 682Mb
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Virtual Machine Information
Virtual Machine Vendor: Apple Inc.
Virtual Machine Version: 1.6.0_17
16:28:14,863[pool-1-thread-1] INFO DisplayLogger -
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
ElectroServer has started successfully
After several hours of fiddling around this was somewhat of a relief.
The next problem was that I couldn’t navigate to the admin panel which by default you can find at 127.0.0.1:8080/admin. But whenever I pointed my browser at it all I got was an empty binary file in my downloads folder. Thank goodness for Twitter where Matt Bolt saved the day with his tweet :
@sebleedelisle Make sure you’re using https, not http – I run into this constantly
Thank you Matt! I have no idea how I would have figured that one out without you! So I just navigated to https://127.0.0.1:8080/admin and it worked.
I expect to be furthering my adventures in ElectroServer over the next few days so I’ll keep you informed of how I get along.
The issue reported in my last post is now fixed so well done Adobe for moving so quickly!
There were a lot of commenters who felt that this system is fairly unwieldy and perhaps the settings should run locally. I checked out Jira and there are actually 2 feature requests there already, the first being submitted by Linda Walsh just over a year ago, but sadly with no votes!
I hate the Flash player settings panel. It drives me mental. I don’t understand the logic behind why you need to access a swf running on an external server to adjust the settings of a plugin that’s running on your computer?
And many are the times that I’ve been stuck without internet access trying desperately to allow a local swf to load files on my computer.
But today, I found that I couldn’t access the settings panel at all! It was just a blank square!
A closer look in the Activity window in Safari revealed that the security setting had expired for the server hosting the swf. Which believe it or not, is still macromedia.com!
I found a workaround though. I just directly linked to the swf at https://www.macromedia.com/support/flashplayer/sys/settingsmanager2.swf?defaultTab=g_security and then clicked continue when safari asked if I really wanted to access the swf. Although I don’t see anything at this point, if I then go back to the page with the settings panel on, it now loads.
And while I’m on it, here’s a quick tip. If you don’t want to manually add every single folder on your computer that has swfs you want to run locally, just add “/” as a safe location and you’ll never be troubled again (on OSX).
But in the meantime, I would love it if the settings for the FlashPlayer were not only accessible online. Anyone else agree?
UPDATE Thanks to Seb in the comments (not me!) for providing the solution for PC users :
On windows ive had to put in drive letters and UNC share names, e.g.
“C:\”
“\\SERVER\”
I resisted the urge to title this post What the swc?
For some unknown reason Flash just stopped exporting swc files properly. FDT could no longer see what was inside them. FDT guru Alan Klement kindly offered to help me troubleshoot the problem and he discovered that the catalog.xml file inside had empty script tags.
So I subsequently tried publishing the swc (and swf) to a different folder, and no swc would even appear! I also tried making a new fla and copying everything into it and this didn’t work either. Then I made a new fla and created a symbol, exported it for actionscript, set it to create a swc, and that broke too!
It’s such a weird thing. It basically killed most of my productivity yesterday. And the terrifying thing is that I don’t even really know how I fixed it.
I just came in this morning, and did everything with a new fla directory and a new swc directory, copied the assets into the library and it worked.
If you want to protest again Sony BMG’s hype machine that is the X-Factor, then whatever you do, do not buyRage Against the Machine’sKilling in the Name Of this week!
Here’s why : Rage Against the Machine are signed to Epic, a subsidiary of Sony BMG. And the X-Factor winner will be signed to Simon Cowell’s label SyCo, also a subsidiary of Sony BMG (and by themselves generate a huge proportion of Sony BMG’s income). So while you’re sticking it to the man, you’re also giving the man loads more money!
So here’s what’ll happen. All you X-Factor haters will buy RATM, but let’s face it you weren’t gonna buy the X-Factor single anyway, right? And if X-Factor fans hear about this campaign they will want to support their artist and buy more X-Factor singles. End result : more X-Factor singles sold and more RATM singles sold. So who are you trying to hurt here?
Some people have accused Sony BMG of setting this up themselves, but I don’t think that’s true. But if they had it would be bloody clever of them!
Sure, it’ll be fun to have a Christmas number 1 with the word fuck in it. But no radio station will be playing it on Christmas morning that’s for sure. And do you really want to give a major label loads more money in order to achieve this minor delight?
Instead, why not just give some money to charity (and you could do worse than by using this justgiving page) or instead maybe really stick it to the major labels by supporting independent artists such as Pomplamoose who prove that you no longer need a record label to be a successful artist. And that’s how to really worry the majors.
Most people don’t know it, but before I was in digital media I was a professional musician. It’s not something I talk about very much but last week at the £5App Christmas special I had the chance to offload my story onto an unsuspecting audience.
I revealed exactly what it was like to be an almost-ran band in the 90s, including recording demos on dodgy equipment, mail outs that actually involved cutting things out and stuffing them into envelopes and being one of the first bands to use the internet to promote ourselves (using the “revolutionary” new RealPlayer ). From playing in front of 25,000 people, and recording in George Martin’s Air Studios, to what we had to do for money, and struggling to get out of the London “toilet” venue scene. And I even exploded a few music industry lies (including our own) along the way.
And of course, unveiled some horrifically embarrassing footage.
There were so many stories that I didn’t have time for. Like the time we ran out of petrol on the way back from a gig, and the police (seeing an abandoned transit van with bags full of cables inside) assumed the worst and initiated a full scale terrorist alert.
Or about our close friend, who was in a girl band doing really well, only to be dropped by her label. She was on Top of the Pops and then the next month she was signing on. She even filled in “Pop star” as her occupation on the form.
Or the university gig where the stage was invaded by an drunk, naked and overweight rugby player who I tried to shoo off the stage with my guitar. He was disconcertingly sweaty.
And the really nice part is that I could finish up my presentation with a happy story about brilliant independent internet artists (like Pomplamoose), and how it’s now possible to record your own music and promote it online. And as if to prove this, me and Jenny did our own Pomplamoose inspired videosong of our own and put it on youtube. Which was quite a fun experiment, we recorded it all in GarageBand and videod it with a Flip MinoHD. Quite a difference from ten years ago when we needed budget studios and friends with video cameras.
And I couldn’t really tell you about the video without including it. So here it is. Happy Christmas!
I’ve just set up a brand new 2 day training course to teach you everything I know about making Flash games! It’s in Brighton (of course) on the 8th and 9th of February (the week after the Papervision training).
We’ll be covering all the fun stuff, collisions, physics, optimisation, actionscript animation and working with graphical assets and sound. I’ve just put the first draft of the itinerary together and I’m really excited about it – it’s all of my very favourite things about programming ActionScript.
And of course we’ll be using my portfolio of games as case studies, including Jambuster (BBC), Extreme Pamplona (Sure for Men), The Simple Game (Philips) and we’ll even be diving into the code for LunarLander3D in detail.
Early bird pricing is only £250 for 2 days and there are 4 student places, so please book early to ensure your space.
Back in my home town Brighton and my favourite venue the Lighthouse, I’m running another 2 day Papervision workshop on the 1st and 2nd February 2010.
As ever, I’ll be covering everything you need to know to get started with Papervision and then on to the cool stuff, games, skyboxes, augmented reality, interactivity and much, much more!
And looking at case studies, including BAFTA award winning* Big and Small!
There are limited early bird places at £249 and also 4 student places at £99, but please book early as space is very limited.
