Slashdot Mirror

> Scripting languages, basically do not do threading, of any kind, at all. They're too slow to synchronize across threads, which makes invoking threads inside them fruitless

Bullshit. You CAN do asynchronously loading of assets with JavaScript.

From d3wasm

I did a couple of changes to the idTech 4 engine in order to be able to start the game before all the data have been loaded. So, along with the initial 5MB executable download, there is a first 15MB download to fetch only what is necessary to load the game engine and enter the main menu. Then, the remaining ~380MB are fetched asynchronously.

> While you certainly can write an application or game with a scripting language, it will be slow, it will be limited by the operating system's own libraries (eg 32-bit libraries on a 64-bit OS as just one example) and generally require more maintenance than simply writing it in C to begin with.

I prefer C/C++ myself but you don't know what the fuck you are talking about W.R.T games and scripting:

1. You DO realize that there is a WIDE variety of games from "idle games" and simple puzzle games to full blown First Person Shooters right?

Are you telling me the JavaScript implementation of 2048, xkcd Sand Castle Builder, or Cookie Clicker is slow??

2. You DO realize you can "transpile" C/C++ code into JavaScript right, such as Doom 3, using Emscripten right?

Or how about RollerCoaster Tycoon? Here OpenRCT2 was ported to run inside a browser.

> yet GPU's APIs have standardized more or less on just four API's, OpenGL, Direct3D, Vulkan, and WebGL.

FTFY.

WebGL exists to offload rendering to the GPU inside the browser. There are TONS of playable WebGL Games

3. Lastly, Unity can target WebGL

when do you think it's useful to run games in background tabs?

When they're streamlined simulations of an RTS's tech tree. Click the cookie a few times and I'll explain.

Eliminating the NES from the equation:

I imagine that Orteil, developer of the game Cookie Clicker, might be interested in implementing "some kind of minimal functionality" for a page on his website. Currently the game requires JavaScript for its core function of executing game rules and displaying its graphics. What "kind of minimal functionality" would be appropriate here? How could a game written in JavaScript be made downloadable? Are you referring to providing a zipfile with all game assets and then hoping the user knows how to override Chrome's default policy of not allowing XMLHttpRequest to the file: URL scheme? Overriding this policy requires closing all tabs and restarting Chrome with the --allow-file-access-from-files command-line option.

Likewise with the game Pirates Love Daisies.

Assuming that you're referring to replacement of SWF wtih HTML5:

you replaced one format that [...] Was owned by a company that had no problem not only allowing it to be bundled with anything but ALSO allowed for FOSS alternatives

Initially, Adobe's SWF spec was licensed under terms that specifically forbade its use to create third-party players. Adobe didn't drop that provision until the Open Screen Project in the second quarter of 2008.

[Flash does] Not only did video but animation and gaming.

HTML5 also does gaming. See Cookie Clicker and Pirates Love Daisies, for example.

[HTML5 video] Had mandatory DRM baked in

It's not mandatory. A web browser publisher can just choose not to support Netflix and Amazon video.

[HTML5 video] Requires a codec that is not only owned by one of the biggest patent trolls around but is openly hostile to FOSS

Where does the HTML5 spec require use of MPEG-4 codecs? Last time I checked, WebM (Matroska container, VP8 or VP9 video codec, and Vorbis or Opus audio codec) was also acceptable, and only pack-in browsers on proprietary operating systems (IE and Safari) fail to support WebM out of the box. Even Microsoft Edge will get WebM support come Windows 10 Anniversary Update. Besides, SWF also used H.263 and H.264.

MPEG-LA has made it clear they will sue FOSS companies which is why all work on supporting that format has to be done outside Berne convention countries

MPEG-LA licenses patents, not copyrights. The Berne Convention refers to copyrights, not patents. It looks like you've been bitten by the false equivalence of intellectual property.

Doesn't support half the features of the supposedly "inferior" format its replacing

Could you list some SWF features that aren't supported in HTML5 and can't easily be polyfilled? Because if there were, it wouldn't be possible to build Shumway, a polyfill for SWF itself.

How would a real-time chat application or collaborative whiteboard "gracefully degrade" without scripts and without Flash? All I can think of is "read-only, press Ctrl+R to refresh". And how would a game such as Pirates Love Daisies or Cookie Clicker gracefully degrade? By providing native versions for fourteen different platforms?

well... how about a cookie? :)

Or how about a few quintillion cookies?

Cow Clicker is dead. Let's get the milk and the butter, make chocolate and dough, and play Cookie Clicker.

Cookie Clicker is perfectly playable with Flash Player turned off.

The more you click, the more cookies you bake during a click frenzy. (Not that Cookie Clicker uses this exploit, mind you.)

I've found your nightmare: Cookie Clicker. Now with candy hearts!

NYT does tracking using cookies and what should you do with cookies ? Eat them!

I thought one was supposed to use cookies to hire a grandma to bake you more cookies, then build a factory to make cookies, then ship in cookies from another planet, then bring in cookies from a hellish alternate universe, click, click, click...

2) Start Cookie Clicker, play for a while, hire a couple grandmas, open the menu, and click "Export save". What you see is a JavaScript prompt box, which your web application can create using code like the following. Try it now by copying it into your browser's JavaScript console:
window.prompt("Copy this and paste it somewhere safe","Nobody desires pain for the sake of pain, but people endure it as part of seeking pleasure.");
One limit is that a prompt box does not support newlines; you'll need a custom lightbox for that.

3) Cookie-clicking games have already moved to HTML5.

Other uses of Flash Player include:
4) 3D graphics in web browsers that don't implement WebGL, like Safari and IE pre-11, or on machines whose video card driver is incompatible with the WebGL implementation of the installed browser, like Firefox on Linux on an Atom N450 laptop
5) Camera access in web browsers that don't implement the Stream API, like Safari and IE

2) Start Cookie Clicker, play for a while, hire a couple grandmas, open the menu, and click "Export save". What you see is a JavaScript prompt box, which your web application can create using code like the following. Try it now by copying it into your browser's JavaScript console:
window.prompt("Copy this and paste it somewhere safe","Nobody desires pain for the sake of pain, but people endure it as part of seeking pleasure.");
One limit is that a prompt box does not support newlines; you'll need a custom lightbox for that.

3) Cookie-clicking games have already moved to HTML5.

Other uses of Flash Player include:
4) 3D graphics in web browsers that don't implement WebGL, like Safari and IE pre-11, or on machines whose video card driver is incompatible with the WebGL implementation of the installed browser, like Firefox on Linux on an Atom N450 laptop
5) Camera access in web browsers that don't implement the Stream API, like Safari and IE

Omnom nom, nom

I thought the proper sound for cookies was clickity-clickity-click.

While on the surface I agree with you, sadly there is a game called cookie clicker in which all you do is click and not on anything in particular. You can check out the original javascript game here if you aren't partial to iOS.

Just play Progress Quest.

Personally I prefer Cookie Clicker. After the first few minutes, once you've bought a farm and a few cursors, most of the stuff is automated, and you only need to look at it once every few minutes.

http://orteil.dashnet.org/cookieclicker/

you know what IS as addictive as cocaine?!!

I heard a rumor somewhere, probably on the internet, that step 2 in the next upgrade for cookie clicker. don't click that link. oh wait, maybe I should have said that first...