ElectroServer 4 Overview

ElectroServer 4 is multiplayer server product that facilitates interaction between many connected users. Having been tested with as many as 200,000 concurrent users, ElectroServer 4 is highly scalable.  In addition to multiplayer capabilities, ElectroServer is used for real-time audio and video streaming and recording. 

ElectroServer works by allowing client applications, such as Flash, Java, or Silverlight, to connect via socket to it and log in. This connection is persisted as long as the client wants to stay connected. While connected the server can push data to the client or the client can make requests of the server at any time.

Developers often find zones and rooms useful. A room is a collection of users that can all “see” each other. These users can easily communicate to achieve chatting or multiplayer game play. A zone is a collection of rooms. Chatting can occur as public messages sent to an entire room of users, or private messages that are sent to one or more specific users in any room. Users can add other users as buddies.  Users are informed when their buddies join and leave the server.

The server is highly extensible using what are called extensions. An extension is a collection of 1 or more ActionScript or Java files/classes that are used to add more functionality to the server. These extensions can be used as server-level event handlers, such as the Login Event Handler, as Managed Objects which come in handy for things like database connection pooling, or as Plugins. Plugins are run at the server level or at the room level and are frequently used to execute game logic.

The server is configured and maintained via a powerful web-based administration tool. This allows for management of things like user permission sets, language filters, extensions, and persistent rooms.