GMClient

An extension made for enhancing GameMaker:Studio 1.4 features and prolong its lifetime.

This plugin mainly supports majority of browsers, some features of Cordova and its plug-ins, and SysError99's WebApp.

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Notes for Cordova

This section mostly applies to mobile platform (Android and iOS) only.

Config.XML file

There are some of configurations inside <widget> tag of config.xml file. These below are the required in order to make your app function properly.

1. Fixed orientation, strict your game orientation mode, works on every platforms.

<preference name="Orientation" value="landscape" />

2. Full-screen mode (Android), make your game in 'immersive mode'.

<preference name="Fullscreen" value="true" />

3. High-DPI mode (iOS), to prevent low-resolution when scaling your game.

<preference name="EnableViewportScale" value="true"/>

Plug-ins

If you want to export the project with Cordova, these are plug-ins required to operate the app correctly.

• cordova-ios-fullscreen (iOS)
• cordova-plugin-viewport (Android), for high-DPI mode.

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Usage

Compress this project as 7-Zip archive, then change its extension from .7z to .gmez.

Import file to the project and start using it!

If you want to use this extension for networking via WebSocket, just change network location of webSocketAddress inside ./client/client.js to your server address.

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References

There are plenty of command you can use in GML, as shown below:

Configuration

This section indicates all configuration being made inside of ./client/client.js

1. highDPI (boolean) Enables high-resolution mode for canvas.

GML References

This section indicates all GML functions can be used.

Audio

This category indicates functions related to media audio player.

1. audio_play(url_file_location:string) Plays audio as Media. (any medias or this can be interrupted by this or another media)
2. audio_stop() Stops currently playing audio media.

Browser

This category indicates functions related to browesr, necessary if this game is running via SysError99's WebApp

1. browser_reload() Reloads a browser.
2. dialog_alert(text:string) Shows native dialog. This returns void.
3. dialog_confirm(text:string ,hint:string) Shows confirmation dialog. This returns boolean, but if this runs on SysError99's WebApp, this will not return anything. You will need to retrieve value via network_receive() instead. The event will be pushed as text of JSON object, like below:

{
  "res": "NATIVE_confirm",
  "name": {{dialog_name}},
  "data": {{true/false}}
}

4. dialog_prompt(text:string, default:string) Shows prompt dialog. This returns text, but if this runs on SysError99's WebApp, this will not return anything. You will need to retrieve value via network_receive() instead. The event will be pushed as text of JSON object, like below:

{
  "res": "NATIVE_prompt",
  "name": {{dialog_name}},
  "data": {{user_input}}
}

5. full_screen() Triggers canvas full-screen mode for the canvas. Returns 1 (number) if full-screen is successful, and 0 (number) if failed. (unreliable if in highDPI)
6. is_full_screen() Checks if the screen is full-screen, 1 if true, and 0 if false. (unreliable if in highDPI)

Local Storage

This category indicates functions for load and save strings into browser's local storage (Can be used with SysError99's WebApp)

1. load_data(location:string) Load file from storage. Returns string.
2. save_data(location:string, data:string) Save string to localstorage.

Networking

This category indicates functions for communicating with a web server via WebSocket.

1. network_open(addr:string) Connect to a server with a specified address.
2. network_receive() Retreives any message that server have sent to the client. You should put this command inside Step loop to continuously retrieve anything from the server or connection status. Returns empty string when there is nothing happend. Returns connection status when there is a report of connection status. Returns string of data when there is some data received from a server.

Connection Status:

• connected Happens when a connection is established.
• error Happens when there is an error occured.
• close Happens when a connection is closed. Example:

    // Put this inside 'Step' Event!
    var received_message = network_receive();

    if (received_message != "") {
        switch (received_message) {
            case "connected":
                show_message("Connected to a server.");
                break;
            case "error":
                show_message("An error occured to the connection.");
                break;
            case "close":
                show_message("Connection is closed");
                break;
            default:
                show_message("This is a message from server:" + received_message);
                break;
        }
    }

3. network_send(message:string) Send a message to a server.

SysError99's WebApp related functions

This category indicates only one function. is_app() checks if this app is running inside SysError's WebApp. Returns 1 if it is, and 0 if it's not.

Multi-Touch

This category indicates multi-touch functions. Example:

// Put this function inside 'Step' Event.
touch_invoke(room_width,room_height); //start touch instance with defined screen resolution.

var touch_start_id;
var touch_end_id;
var touch_move_id;

do {
    // When Touch begins, like mouse_check_button_pressed()
    touch_start_id = touch_start();  //get ID of each touch

    if (touch_start_id > -1) { //if touch exists
        // Usage Example
        draw_sprite(spr_test, 1, touch_x(touch_start_id), touch_y(touch_start_id));
        draw_set_font(font_default);
        draw_text_ext(touch_x(touch_start_id),touch_y(touch_start_id),string(touch_start_id), 60, 200);
    }
} until (touch_start_id < 0);


do {
    // When Touch ends, like mouse_check_button_released()
    touch_end_id = touch_end(); //get ID of each touch

    if (touch_end_id > -1) {
        // Usage Example
        draw_sprite(spr_test, 2, touch_x(touch_end_id), touch_y(touch_end_id));
        draw_set_font(font_default);
        draw_text_ext(touch_x(touch_end_id), touch_y(touch_end_id), string(touch_end_id), 60, 200);
    }
} until (touch_end_id < 0);

do {
    // When Touch continuously happens (holding), like mouse_check_button()
    touch_move_id = touch_move(); //get ID of each touch

    if (touch_move_id > -1) {
        // Usage Example
        draw_sprite(spr_test,0,touch_x(touch_move_id),touch_y(touch_move_id));
        draw_set_font(font_default);
        draw_text_ext(touch_x(touch_move_id), touch_y(touch_move_id), string(touch_move_id), 60, 200);
    }
} until (touch_move_id < 0);

touch_clean(); //end touch instance.

Limitations

This extenstion only works with only one instance. If you want to use it in multiple instances, I'd recommend using with statement to call each instances you want instead:

touch_invoke(room_width,room_height); //start touch instance with defined screen resolution.

var touch_start_id;
var touch_end_id;
var touch_move_id;

do {
    touch_start_id = touch_start();
    if (touch_start_id > -1) {
        // Set global values for instances.
        global.touch_id = touch_start_id;
        global.touch_x = touch_x(touch_start_id);
        global.touch_y = touch_y(touch_start_id);
        // Call instances
        with(obj_joystick) {
            event_perform("ev_mouse","ev_left_press");
            // then use global variables
        }
    }
} until (touch_start_id < 0);

do {
    touch_end_id = touch_end();
    if (touch_end_id > -1) {
        // Set global values for instances.
        global.touch_id = touch_start_id;
        global.touch_x = touch_x(touch_start_id);
        global.touch_y = touch_y(touch_start_id);
        // Call instances
        with(obj_joystick) {
            event_perform("ev_mouse","ev_left_release");
        }
    }
} until (touch_end_id < 0);

do {
    touch_move_id = touch_move();
    if (touch_move_id > -1) {
        // Set global values for instances.
        global.touch_id = touch_start_id;
        global.touch_x = touch_x(touch_start_id);
        global.touch_y = touch_y(touch_start_id);
        // Call instances
        with(obj_joystick) {
            event_perform("ev_mouse","ev_left_button);
        }
    }
} until (touch_move_id < 0);

touch_clean(); //end touch instance.

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Examples

This section shows an example of use cases of this extension

Automatic scaling & rotation warning

Create an object, then put all of these codes for each sections.

1. Create:

// Resolution
game_width = 1600;
game_height = 900;

surface_current_width = 1;
surface_current_height = 1;

window_width = game_width;
window_height = game_height;

// Incorrect orientation variables
browser_refreshed = false;
incorrect_orientation = false;

// Check incorrect orientation
if (browser_width / browser_height < 1)
    incorrect_orientation = true;

2. Step:

// Any mouse interactions will make the game full-screen on broewser.
if (mouse_check_button_pressed(mb_left))
    full_screen();

// Resolution
if (window_width != browser_width ||
    window_height != browser_height) { 
    var browser_scale = browser_height / (game_height + 10);
    var width_scale = floor(browser_scale * game_width);
    
    if(width_scale > browser_width){
        browser_scale = browser_width / (game_width + 10);
        width_scale = floor(browser_scale * game_width);
    }
    
    var height_scale = floor(browser_scale * game_height);

    window_width = browser_width;
    window_height = browser_height;
    window_set_size(width_scale, height_scale);
    window_center();
}

// Surface scaling, referred from room size.
if (room_width != surface_current_width ||
    room_height != surface_current_height) {
    surface_current_width = room_width;
    surface_current_height = room_height;
    surface_resize(application_surface, surface_current_width, surface_current_height);
}

// Warn incorrect orientation
if (incorrect_orientation) {
    if (room != room_rotate) {
        prev_room = room;
        room_goto(room_rotate); /// go to the room that will tell user to rotate the screen.
    }
    
    if (browser_width / browser_height >= 1) {
        if (!browser_refreshed) { 
            browser_reload();
            browser_refreshed = true; // Stop the game to refresh the browser once again.
        }
    }
}

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Future Releases

In further release there will be some of more features supported, like IAP, and monetization. But that's just been very far and requires some of my requirements to fulfill it in. Still, there are a lot of work, but it will eventually happen when my demand rises up.