Reliability Modes

The reliability mode determines which transport a packet is sent over. It acts as a transport selector, not an abstract delivery guarantee.

Code	Name	Transport	Description
0	Unreliable	UDP	Packet is sent over UDP. May be lost, duplicated, or reordered.
1	ReliableUnordered	TCP	Packet is sent over TCP. Delivery is guaranteed.
2	ReliableOrdered	TCP	Packet is sent over TCP. Delivery is guaranteed.

Note

ReliableUnordered (1) and ReliableOrdered (2) are functionally identical. Both are sent over TCP, which inherently provides ordered delivery. The distinction exists in the enum but has no practical difference in the original implementation.

Transport Mapping

• Unreliable (0) = send over UDP.
• Reliable (1 or 2) = send over TCP.

There is no "reliable UDP" or "unreliable TCP". The reliability mode is a direct selector for the underlying transport. Because of this split, each device's BMAddress object announces two distinct ports: one dedicated to reliable TCP traffic, and another for unreliable UDP traffic.

Flash Games

Flash Player's Socket class only supports TCP. Flash games have no access to UDP transport (unless using Adobe AIR native extensions, which the Brass Monkey SDK did not use). As a result, Flash games always call setReliabilityForTouch(1,1), forcing all traffic (including touch and sensor data) through TCP. The Flash SDK also ignores the unreliable port entirely (never stores it on receive).

Typical Usage

Channel	Default Reliability	Transport	Notes
Message (RPC)	Reliable (1 or 2)	TCP	Always reliable
Touch	Unreliable (0)	UDP	Overridden to Reliable for Flash games
Acceleration	Unreliable (0)	UDP	Overridden to Reliable for Flash games
Gyro	Unreliable (0)	UDP	Overridden to Reliable for Flash games
Orientation	Unreliable (0)	UDP	Overridden to Reliable for Flash games
D-Pad	Reliable (1 or 2)	TCP	Always reliable
Bytes	Reliable (1 or 2)	TCP	Always reliable