Creating an online realtime Flash movie

November 8, 2006 9:08 AM

If I have a computer application that spits out data continually in the form of UDP datagrams, can I then take that data and plug it into a "live" Flash movie to be viewed online?

Basically, it's for a type of race system. At the moment, at the end of the race, the race software produces a text file containing all the race data. This is then parsed, fed into an SWF and the race can then be replayed.

However; the appplication can broadcast the data as UDP packets throughout the course of the race. What would we need to create a Flash movie so that web users can view the race on the web in (near) real time?

What technology would we need, and how we would achieve it? Would the application need to run a web server? Is it insanely complicated or something that can be done easily through, say, Flash MX?

posted by Hartster to Computers & Internet (1 answer total)

IANAFP but unless this application that spits out UDP is running on the web server that served up the Flash file, then you are going to need something on the web server that captures the traffic from the race application and can relay it to the running Flash application.

Even if it were on the same machine as the web server, you'd have to chat with a real Flash programmer to know if the Flash programming language would let you receive UDP broadcasts and even then, things like broadcasts are usually only available on the local subnet unless there is special network configuration setup.

Hopefully this limited amount of ramblings were helpful as it seems like no one else is biting on this post.
posted by mmascolino at 3:50 PM on November 8, 2006