[ANSWERED] Quick OSC question

[jrhooker]

Hi all,

I did search for this answer but all the explainers I found were older and I want to make sure I'm not creating unnecessary work for myself. 

I have a very straightforward m/s (is there better terminology for this?) relationship between two macs running isadora. I haven't done this in a while: is it true that the only way to not have to change all the IP addresses on the OSC Transmit actors in every scene is to set up a LAN and static IP address?  And in order to do that I have to have a router, right? I can't just connect the two computers directly to one another, correct?

Thanks,

Jake

[DillTheKraut]

@jrhooker

This question is about network infrastructure.

To send OSC messages, you need to know the IP addresses or at least the subnet Network address of the computers you want to send the OSC messages to. A router automatically (if configured the right way, which is mostly by default), gives unique IP addresses to every device and keeps a database of all connected to it (It is called DHCP protocol).

You can (with a modern Network ports on these devices), connect two computers directly, but:

If there is no router or such central server which serves these addressees in the network, the devices will get an automatic IP (APIPA protocol) in the range 169.254.x.y until you give 'em a dedicated IP address manually.

But instead of sending OSC messages to a specific device, you can send them to a so called broadcast address to all devices with an IP in the same subnet. Which in the case of the auto IP setting would be 169.254.255.255.

This way you could use OSC without any manual network configuration or router/dhcp device on directly connected devices.

I have to admit, that I did try the broadcast send to a network with manually or by DHCP but not yet with the auto-ip function. But logically it should work the same.

Best Dill

[jrhooker]

@dillthekraut Thanks for this! I'll try this out. Appreciate it. 

[Juriaan]

Hi there @jrhooker, 

You can either use OSC (OpenSourceControl) for this or use our Net Broadcaster /  Listener actors.

OSC will need a dedicated IP. Yes, in performance/installation environments we typically set static IPs in the DHCP lease of the Router, that way when we connect a device with a specific MAC address it will always link up with that IP address.

Net Broadcaster is great because you simply set the ID of the computer in the Isadora preferences menu. You don't have to set the Network IP address. Just plug all your devices in with the same router and you are ready to go, set your Network ID in the Isadora preferences so that they all have a unique ID and you are ready to go!

Net Broadcaster requires a router with Multicast support.