Scanning WiFi with Lua?

Is it possible to scan for wifi networks from the game code? Thanks!

I don't believe we have any networking exposed in the API right now. This is something we're still evaluating. Realistically, I don't believe networking will make it into the 1.0 version. We may allow specific things like server-side high score boards, and maaaaaybe matchmaking.

We'd love to know what people would like to do with network access, so let us know and we can plan for the future!

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I'd love to have Wifi and Bluetooth access, for a bunch of reasons. Team playing an adventure game. Interesting phone integrations with an app on the phone over BT. The always classic sending of secret message between playdates, on local network or BT. Dungeon master and players on local for sure, maybe on server based platform. It was one of the first APIs I went digging for when I got the SDK.

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If the hardware is there why not let us use it!

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The short answer is, because it's a lot of work, with many security and performance issues to consider :grin: We'll get there eventually!

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Here are some things I'd want to do

  1. connection to my server to download one new puzzle each day -- "download from this URL and let me know when you're done"
  2. connectivity (like Apple's Multipeer.framework) to pair up to other Playdates locally -- "streaming bytes read/write with some identifier for each connection so I can send messages just to one or all connected devices. It's ok if this is an experience that I turn on only for a little while to get things connected and then we start the gameplay in a connected state" -- Spaceteam is a good example of this "waiting room to connect"
  3. connect Playdate to other platforms (could be covered by 2)
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We would love to see networking exposed to the Lua API! Would use it for a game that pulls from news headlines (http requests), streaming songs / downloading + playing back (ftp), as well as hacking the Ableton LinkKit API (websockets?) to work with Playdate so that the crank could act as the MIDI clock. Any estimate as to when network calls will be supported?

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Realistically, I wouldn't expect anything before launch. We're focused on core functionality now, and have a lot of work still to do on that front. My hope is that after we've got that nailed down and we've gotten on top of the onslaught of bug reports that'll follow release we'll have some time to map out a networking API.

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Sounds good :+1: thanks for the reply!

Any update to this now that the SDK is public?

I would love to see not only local network support but rather full support for Lua sockets in general!
Why? - Because it opens up all kinds of useful possibilities...

  • Multiplayer games and realtime collaboration tools. (This one is the most obvious use-case. Examples: Tic-Tac-Toe, Hangman, GTA1 MMO remake, Games where individual players controls only a sub-set of the game or potentially they control the same character - maybe something like a Toribash game where one player is responsible for legs, the other for arms, etc...)

  • Download code and update games and apps at runtime. (Beside games and apps, one could also offer additional SDKs that could be 'installed' by simply calling a one-liner that then downloads required library code. In particular, I was thinking about implementing DEEPL translation service into one of my Playdate apps - or even speech to text recognition.)

  • Upload files to a service/server (In particular, I think about making a tiny podcast production studio application, where you can record and edit your voice (short clips under 15min. The resulting audio file can then be streamed live or uploaded to a hosting service.)

There are sure many more interesting ideas one could do with access to sockets.

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I would like to connect Playdate to the internet and stream Spotify songs.
This idea would work very well with Playdate's stereo dog.
I will leave my Playdate on 24 hours a day if this idea is realized.