Flash Multiplayer Virtual Worlds -- Table of Contents -- Flash Multiplayer Virtual Worlds -- Credits -- About the Author -- About the Reviewers -- Preface -- What this book covers -- What you need for this book -- Who this book is for -- Conventions -- Reader feedback -- Customer support -- Errata -- Piracy -- Questions -- 1. Developing Flash Virtual World -- What is a virtual world? -- Using virtual world for business -- Using virtual world for education -- Using virtual world for game -- Background -- Benefit of using Flash to build virtual world -- Connecting players in a virtual world -- A brief introduction to transport protocols -- Peer-to-peer -- Client-server network -- Polling -- Socket-based connection -- Socket server -- Available socket servers for Flash -- SmartFoxServer -- ElectroServer -- Flash Media Interactive Server -- Red5 -- Writing your own socket server -- Choosing the right server -- Application architecture of a virtual world -- The whole picture of virtual worlds -- Common features in virtual world -- Avatar -- World to explore -- Home -- Items -- Quests -- Non-player characters -- Social features -- Casual game design versus MMOG -- Existing virtual world games -- Club Penguin -- Mole -- Dofus -- World of Warcraft -- Summary -- 2. Installing the Servers -- Comparing SmartFoxServer Lite, Basic, and Pro -- SmartFoxServer Lite -- SmartFoxServer Basic -- SmartFoxServer Pro -- Modifying the behavior of server -- JSON/Raw data protocol -- Accessing the database directly -- Comparing different package options -- Developing and deploying virtual world environment -- Adjusting server setting for the deployment environment -- Hosting SmartFoxServer, web server, and database in one server -- Hosting SmartFoxServer in dedicated standalone server.

Benefiting from setting up SmartFoxServer, web server, and database in different machines -- Setting up the development environment -- Installing Java Development Kit -- Installing JDK On Windows -- Installing JDK on Mac OSX -- Installing JDK on Linux -- Installing for General Linux -- Installing for Ubuntu Linux -- Downloading SmartFoxServer Pro -- Installing SmartFoxServer Pro -- Installing on Windows -- Installing on Mac OSX -- Installing on Linux -- Running the SmartFoxServer -- Starting SmartFoxServer on Windows -- Starting SmartFoxServer on Mac OS -- Starting SmartFoxServer on Linux -- Using embedded web server and database -- Running the embedded web server -- Running the embedded database server -- Downloading third-party HTTP and database server package -- Installing WAMP on Windows -- Installing MAMP on Mac OSX -- Installing LAMP on Linux -- Connecting SmartFoxServer and MySQL server -- Downloading JDBC Driver for MySQL -- Setting up the JDBC driver -- Configuring the server settings -- Configuring MySQL server connection in SmartFoxServer -- Restarting the server -- Running examples -- Loading a simple chat application -- Setting up the administration panel -- Logging in to administration panel -- Locating the Flash Client API -- Summary -- 3. Getting Familiar with SmartFoxServer -- Configuring a basic SmartFoxServer -- Overview of the configuration file structure -- Configuring the server -- Automatically binding all available IP addresses to server -- Listening port for connections -- Setting policy load data from machines in other domains -- Setting timers for idle user logouts -- Blocking bots connections -- Setting administrator login and password -- Limiting access of the administration panel to specific IP addresses -- Displaying zone information before connecting to the server -- Defining the information separator in raw protocol.

Configuring the Zones and Rooms -- Configuring a zone -- Naming your zone -- Assigning default names to users -- Broadcasting the user count -- Limiting the users that can connect to a zone -- Limiting numbers of rooms in a zone -- Limiting the number of rooms a user can create -- Getting all room variables along with room list requests -- Setting moderators for the zone -- Creating rooms -- Regular room -- Game room -- Limbo room -- Properties of a room -- Comparing the available properties of each room type -- Introducing the events of rooms -- Comparing the available events of each room type -- Debugging in local machine -- Downloading the latest debugger version of Flash player -- Creating the mm.cfg file -- Testing the debugger log -- Locating the Flash log output file -- Reading the Flash logfile -- Open the flashlog.txt in web browser -- Using a Firefox add-on to read the Flash logfile -- Reading the log with FlashTracer -- Reading the log with FlashBug -- "Tail" the trace log file in terminal -- Flash Security Sandbox -- Configuring master socket policy server -- Configuring SmartFoxServer to send socket policy -- Loading policy file from Flash client -- Enabling the network access for the Flash document -- Keeping updates to Flash player security policy -- Creating a Flash document to connect to the server -- Logging into a zone -- Creating a cooperative drawing whiteboard -- Testing the cooperative whiteboard -- Summary -- 4. Creating Map and Ground in Isometric View -- Comparing different game views -- Top-down perspective -- Side-scrolling view -- 3D view -- Isometric game view -- Getting an isometric projection view -- Isometric coordination -- Making an isometric map -- Creating the base tile of an isometric map -- Creating a basic isometric tile map -- Drawing seamless shore border -- Texturing an isometric map -- Texturing a big map.

Converting between screen coordination and isometric map coordination -- Building a map editor -- Summary -- 5. Creating Avatars -- Designing an avatar -- Determining the direction numbers of avatars' views -- Rendering avatars in Flash virtual world -- Drawing an avatar using vector animation -- Rendering avatars using bitmap sprite sheet -- Rendering avatars using real-time 3D engine -- Rendering avatars using 2D bone skeleton -- Drawing an avatar in Flash -- Drawing the idle and walking animation -- Creating an avatar class -- Logging in SmartFoxServer with avatar -- Using user variables in virtual world -- Adding name to the avatar -- Customizing your avatar -- Customizing different styles -- Customizing the color -- Adding customization to avatar class -- Designing a customization panel -- Making our customization panel -- Integrating the customization into SmartFoxServer -- Summary -- 6. Walking Around the World -- Creating the world -- Holding states of the player -- Moving the avatar -- Movement synchronization -- Making avatar able to walk -- Walking by keyboard -- Introducing path finding -- Implementing A* search -- Understanding the heuristic function -- Balancing between accuracy and speed -- Walking by mouse click -- Broadcasting where you walked -- Scrolling the world -- Saving the position for next time -- Creating an avatar database table -- Creating a new zone in config.xml -- Programming our first server-side extension -- Saving and loading last position -- Summary -- 7. Creating Buildings and Environments in the Virtual World -- Placing buildings on the map -- Outputting building from 3D software -- Loading the building map data -- Ordering the buildings -- Ordering the movie clips in Flash -- Determining an object's location and view -- Shaping the buildings -- Rendering z-order for l-shaped buildings.

Rendering z-order for rectangle buildings -- Rendering z-order for square buildings -- Creating a loop to sort the z-order -- Designing a big virtual world -- Dividing the big world -- The pros and cons of the seamless world -- Partitioning the world into rooms -- Connecting rooms with portals -- Adding sound to the virtual world -- Mixing art-based background with tile-based map -- Building map editor for buildings -- Summary -- 8. Creating an Inventory System -- Classifying items in the virtual world -- Different types of items -- Items for avatar -- Weapon -- Tools -- Riding -- Entertainment -- Material item -- Collecting items -- Collecting items that appear in the open -- Collecting items that are hidden -- Getting items after archiving some quests -- Buying items in virtual shop -- Trading items with other players -- Buying from real shop -- Displaying items in different forms -- Defining the data structure of inventory items -- Setting the item ID -- Implementing inventory in the SmartFoxServer -- Coding the server-side extension -- Implementing the item panel -- Loading the item definition -- Loading the items list from the server -- Moving items -- Implementing the item operation in RAM -- Creating items -- Exchanging items with other players -- Introducing the economy in virtual world -- Balancing the items virtual economy -- Setting the price of the items -- Preventing the inflation -- Hosting special event -- Adding fatigue to items -- Limiting the total amount of high-level items -- Preventing the virtual economy from affecting the real world -- Trading with real money -- Government policy on virtual items -- The responsibility to maintain a good economy system -- Summary -- 9. Communicating with Other Players -- Communicating using several methods -- Sending public messages -- Sending private messages -- Sending group messages.

Communicating in real-time voice.