MultiUser Server
Development of the Multiuser Server was discontinued with the release of Director MX, when Director was ported to Mac OS X. No Mac OS X version of the server exists. The xtra was ported to Mac OS X, however, to ensure backward compatibility for existing projects.
Finding the Components
You can download the xtra for all current development platforms here.
You can find the Windows version of the server in the Goodies folder on the Director MX CD-ROM, or here. You can download a PDF file for the documentation for Windows (2.7 MB) and Macintosh (3.4 MB)
You may also like to consider using Tabuleiro's Nebulae Server, which runs on Linux, Windows, Solaris, FreeBSD and Mac OS X. The main difference between this and the Multiuser Server is that server-side scripts for Nebulae need to be written in Java.
Comparison with Flash Communication Server
Macromedia recommends that you use the Flash Communication Server instead of Director's Multiuser Server for all new projects. However, there are important differences between the two.
- Maximum number of connections
- The Multiuser Server version 3.0 can be freely distributed, allowing up to 50 simultaneous connections. If you enter up to 2 Director serial numbers, you can extend this to 2000 connections. Flash Communication Server provides for 50 connections with the Personal Edition included free with Director MX (but not with MX 2004). This can be expanded by stacking server licences.
- UDP support
- The Multiuser Server version 3.0 supports UDP messaging. This is often used for fast non-critical exchange of small packets of data for real-time action games.
- Peer-to-peer communications
- In the absence of a server, the Multiuser Xtra allows up to 16 users to connect in peer-to-peer mode. This allows basic communications, but advanced features such as groups, database access and server-side scripting are not available. Flash Communication Server does not provide peer-to-peer messaging; all communications must pass through a server.
- Server-side scripting language
- The Multiuser Server version 3.0 uses Lingo as the server-side scripting language. Flash Communication Server uses JavaScript. Flash Communication Server does not support UDP.
- Administration tools
- Flash Communication Server provides administrative tools. The Multiuser Server requires you to edit the configuration files manually.
- Streaming audio and video
- Flash Communication Server supports bi-directional streaming audio and video. Director can handle incoming audio and video streams only, without server support.
- Unicode support
- Flash Communication Server supports Unicode. The Multiuser Server does not.
- HTTP Tunneling
- Flash Communication Server supports HTTP Tunneling. The Multiuser Server does not.