Sending Messages To Maya..?

[naughty]

Is it possible to send messages or data to Maya from an external app..?

For example would it be possible to write an "Instant Messenger" style MEL UI, so multiple users runing Maya (over a LAN) could send text messgaes to each other...?

I'm thinking about writing a little multi-player mini-game in MEL and I'm wondering how I could send the relevent data to each player... It's not a Real-Time game so it doesn't have to update on the fly... but it would be nice if there was some way of using DOS network commands or something to send info...

The only way I thought it could be done is to write the data to a network file and then read it in.. but that's not ideal...

Am I making sense? has anyone done anything like this (in MEL of course)?

:nathaN

[amitc]

I'd think you'd need to run another program below MEL which will relay and recieve message on either end. The Mel part can use pipes to pull up the data from the app into maya.

I'd doubt if MEL would push data over the network.

[samosval]

Hi
Its easy
just read help about mel command : commandPort
Next you must compile file mcp.exe from SDK examples
If you need more info write me (zubakov AT mail.ru)

SamoSval

[naughty]

QUOTE(Samosval @ 09/02/05, 02:40 AM)
Next you must compile file mcp.exe from SDK examples
[snapback]213934[/snapback]

hmmm... now that doesn't sound much like MEL to me..!

I have looked at the commandPort command but it means nothing to me, I don't even know what a socket is...

seriously, I have no access to or understanding of the API or SDK or any programmer type stuff.. I want to do this with a single MEL file. If it can't be done simply using MEL (& system) alone that's fair enough.. I'll just take a different approach to "message sending". I was just wondering if there was an easy way using MEL...

:nathaN

[rob-bateman]

popen can do it, though really for something more secure you'd want to use sockets. I've seen a messaging client done before on linux by simply writing messages to a text file, not great, but worked.

[joojaa]

Problem with command port is athat its knidof one way only so you could send mesages in but maya would not have any way to send messages out. in this sense popen is actualy for a truly only mel solution that will work.

That said witha bit of help from a extrenal script you can easily be able tp get maya to send those messages.

And yeah on socets take google in hand and ask thets how you ghet over with it. But basicaly socets are just named streams that basicaly are the backbone of all interenet trafic.