*drawlogic » web http://drawlogic.com interactive and game development technologies for the web - flash, flex, unity3d, silverlight, javascript Thu, 17 May 2012 13:12:20 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Hardware Acceleration on the Web, The Next Interactive Web is Materializing http://drawlogic.com/2011/07/02/hardware-acceleration-on-the-web-the-next-interactive-web-is-materializing/ http://drawlogic.com/2011/07/02/hardware-acceleration-on-the-web-the-next-interactive-web-is-materializing/#comments Sun, 03 Jul 2011 00:26:16 +0000 drawk http://drawlogic.com/?p=1006 Interactive on the web is changing at a rapid clip. The path of the next wave of ineractive and gaming on the web is beginning to materialize.

WebGL, Canvas grouped with html5 are final and providing new landscapes to draw on and new ways to make levels to beat. Most browsers and platforms are supporting this technology. Tools like Three.js make that very fun. Mozilla Firefox, Chrome and Safari are including WebGL + canvas and mostly hardware accelerated, making Javascript an even more powerful glue of the web.

Adobe is going low level with Flash ‘Molehill’ 3D and hardware acceleration platform that companies like Unity will be including as an export target.

Microsoft has finally laid out their plans. Silverlight is alive with Silverlight 5 / 3D powered by XNA (any surprise? guess it isn’t dead) and hardware acceleration throughout Internet Explorer, this appears to be Microsoft’s version of the future.

Plugins like Flash, Unity, Silverlight, others will continue to push the bounds cross platform where standards cement the technology behind it for a platform to reach the next innovative step.

Mobile has blown up the scene with native and low-level focus, causing web platforms to also go low level for more performance thanks to Apple and now Android. Native languages like C, C++ and Objective-C came roaring back as the hardware was reset a bit back to late 90s/early 2000s processor and graphics power. However with mobile and cpu cost on platform as service system, native will stay more over the coming years.

Games, interactive and entertainment projects and apps are going to be even more fun. New opportunities all over the place.  Game on!

]]> http://drawlogic.com/2011/07/02/hardware-acceleration-on-the-web-the-next-interactive-web-is-materializing/feed/ 1 Microsoft’s Answer to WebGL, Silverlight 5 3D, Hardware Acceleration + XNA http://drawlogic.com/2011/05/18/microsofts-answer-to-webgl-silverlight-5-3d-hardware-acceleration-xna/ http://drawlogic.com/2011/05/18/microsofts-answer-to-webgl-silverlight-5-3d-hardware-acceleration-xna/#comments Thu, 19 May 2011 00:24:32 +0000 drawk http://drawlogic.com/?p=1012 Microsoft has finally laid out their plans. Silverlight is alive with Silverlight 5 / 3D powered by XNA (any surprise? guess it isn’t dead) and hardware acceleration throughout Internet Explorer for canvas/html5 focus apparently aloongside Silverlight for deeper graphical needs or changes. It was originally outlined back in April at MIX 2011, but it shows their path and answer to WebGL/Canvas and standards for interactive and game development on the web (plus I have been busy on two titles, one for iOS and one for both iOS and Android, gotta say it is nice to see how fast your app gets posted to Android store compared to iOS…).

There are some nice examples of toolkits being developed such as Balder 3D and JigLibX pulled from this experiment.

We might have to wait a while for Moonlight to catch up on this one, guess that would take an OpenGL rendering layer like WebGL?…:)

 

]]> http://drawlogic.com/2011/05/18/microsofts-answer-to-webgl-silverlight-5-3d-hardware-acceleration-xna/feed/ 3 WebGL Spec 1.0 Now Final From Khronos http://drawlogic.com/2011/03/04/webgl-spec-1-0-now-final-from-khronos/ http://drawlogic.com/2011/03/04/webgl-spec-1-0-now-final-from-khronos/#comments Fri, 04 Mar 2011 19:59:29 +0000 drawk http://drawlogic.com/?p=979 Khronos announced today that WebGL, the great OpenGL web hope, is now officially final for the 1.0 version. Khronos announced this today via the GDC and their website, it was also mentioned at Gamasutra.

WebGL already sees great support in numerous engines including my favorite Three.js from the infamous mr. doob.

There is already a thriving middleware ecosystem around WebGL to provide a wide diversity of Web developers the ability to easily create compelling 3D content for WebGL-enabled browsers.  These tools include: C3DL, CopperLicht , EnergizeGL, GammaJS, GLGE, GTW, O3D, OSG.JS, SceneJS, SpiderGL, TDL, Three.js and X3DOM.  Links to these authoring tools and WebGL demos can be found at www.khronos.org/webgl/wiki/Main_Page.

It will take some time for WebGL to propagate.  It is ready and on in Chrome and Firefox by default in betas. Safari it can be enabled via app parameter.  IE and MIcrosoft have yet to chime in, will we see DirectX for the web or adoption of WebGL.  Time will tell…  Until then Unity and Flash with the 3d api Molehill are forging ahead.  I am sure we will see an export to WebGL for Unity down the line but there are still some interesting script execution speed issues that compiled code in Flash and Unity Web Player will still be faster on.

So Khronos isn’t stopping at WebGL, they are now tackling WebCL or OpenCL for the web just like WebGL is OpenGL for the web (currently at the OpenGL ES 2.0 level which is nice because that is big on mobile — mobile and web games are at about the same level).

Khronos is also today announcing the formation of the WebCL™ working group to explore defining a JavaScript binding to the Khronos OpenCL™ standard for heterogeneous parallel computing.  WebCL creates the potential to harness GPU and multi-core CPU parallel processing from a Web browser, enabling significant acceleration of applications such as image and video processing and advanced physics for WebGL games.

]]> http://drawlogic.com/2011/03/04/webgl-spec-1-0-now-final-from-khronos/feed/ 2 WebGL Will Be Part of Chrome 9 Regular Releases http://drawlogic.com/2010/12/16/webgl-will-be-part-of-chrome-9-regular-releases/ http://drawlogic.com/2010/12/16/webgl-will-be-part-of-chrome-9-regular-releases/#comments Thu, 16 Dec 2010 23:01:13 +0000 drawk http://drawlogic.com/?p=931 Chrome 9 with WebGLGood news for the beginning of hardware accelerating the web, WebGL will now be part of the main Chrome releases not just a compile option for Chromium nightlies.

Google Chrome 9 enables WebGL support by default. “WebGL is a new web technology that brings hardware-accelerated 3D graphics to the browser without installing additional software” and it can be used to create cool applications like Google Body Browser, Field, Aquarium and more.

The update for Chrome 9 also sandboxes Flash, WebGL and plugins like extensions and tabs so that using them will be more secure and not crash the browser or the tab. Hopefully Safari has this soon, and then a few years from now IE may get it. Or they will put out their own DirectX web plugin so everyone has to write it twice like currently in game development. /sarcasm

]]> http://drawlogic.com/2010/12/16/webgl-will-be-part-of-chrome-9-regular-releases/feed/ 1 Google Talking To Game Devs About Creating Facebook Competitor and Interesting Comment by Mark DeLoura from Google http://drawlogic.com/2010/07/29/google-talking-to-game-devs-about-creating-facebook-competitor-and-interesting-comment-by-mark-deloura-from-google/ http://drawlogic.com/2010/07/29/google-talking-to-game-devs-about-creating-facebook-competitor-and-interesting-comment-by-mark-deloura-from-google/#comments Thu, 29 Jul 2010 20:34:49 +0000 drawk http://drawlogic.com/?p=828 On the web based gaming front…

Google looks to be making a gaming site to compete with Facebook only kicking the gaming up a notch? By the comment from Mark DeLoura, head of developer advocate for Google gaming, it appears they/he also favor going 3d or native client with WebGL or Unity wrapped in the native client.

Check the comment by Mark DeLoura on the gamasutra post regarding the rumored Google Me Facebook like gaming/social site:

I think Flash will continue to be a very viable platform. The Flash toolset is pretty frickin’ amazing, and there are a ton of happy Flash developers out there, and great games galore.

I would like to see higher-fidelity 3D content on the web though. It’s been a dream of many people going back to VRML days. WebGL and Native Client are two solutions to this that will be integrated into the Chrome browser. At Google I/O we talked about Unity running inside of Native Client, which combines the hardware acceleration and security of Native Client with the fantastic toolset and runtime from Unity. It’s peanut butter and chocolate (well, for me). This is a platform I’m really excited about for 3D web games.

Indeed peanut butter and chocolate is mighty tasty.

]]> http://drawlogic.com/2010/07/29/google-talking-to-game-devs-about-creating-facebook-competitor-and-interesting-comment-by-mark-deloura-from-google/feed/ 0 Web Sockets in Google Chrome and Proposed Standard for HTML5 http://drawlogic.com/2009/12/09/web-sockets-in-google-chrome-and-proposed-standard-for-html5/ http://drawlogic.com/2009/12/09/web-sockets-in-google-chrome-and-proposed-standard-for-html5/#comments Thu, 10 Dec 2009 04:24:37 +0000 drawk http://drawlogic.com/?p=705 Google is pushing Web Sockets into Chrome based on the Web Socket standards being developed at all major engineering standards groups.  Web Socket is an interesting direction but it is great to couple that with O3G or WebGL for some multiplayer 3d game development with just a browser.

Starting in the Google Chrome developer channel release 4.0.249.0, Web Sockets are available and enabled by default. Web Sockets are “TCP for the Web,” a next-generation bidirectional communication technology for web applications being standardized in part of Web Applications 1.0. We’ve implemented this feature as described in our design docs for WebKit and Chromium.

Sample Code

if ("WebSocket" in window) {
  var ws = new WebSocket("ws://example.com/service");
  ws.onopen = function() {
    // Web Socket is connected. You can send data by send() method.
    ws.send("message to send"); ....
  };
  ws.onmessage = function (evt) { var received_msg = evt.data; ... };
  ws.onclose = function() { // websocket is closed. };
} else {
  // the browser doesn't support WebSocket.
}

Socket Advantage

Flash has long been the answer for sockets for web applications and once sockets were added to Flash it instantly became a better interactive and gaming platform for multi-user applications and multiplayer games. They started with XmlSocket then recently added Socket for raw binary data in as3.  Silverlight and Java also have this feature but having this in script is pretty significant because many applications could really use a browser supported bi-directional communication link.

What is Missing

The biggie missing from Flash, Silverlight, etc and Web Sockets is UDP and preferably RUDP or Reliable UDP which allows UDP datagrams to be sent back and forth either verified delivery or broadcast. Unity does support UDP.  The best socket layers are reliable UDP based because mixing TCP and UDP can lead to queuing and not all messages are critical so having just UDP isn’t enough, having TCP is too much.  Reliable UDP is the way to go but so far no web layers are doing it well except Unity on that one (you still have to make your own RUDP implementation – libraries like Raknet or enet in C/C++ give you this but you can’t use that in Unity client only on the server). (Edit: Flash does have RTMFP which is based on UDP and uses FMS for nat for p2p but it is still not a true low level UDP socket just yet as it supports more features. A low-level UDP socket would also be nice in flash.)

Web Communication Evolving

I am a big Flash fan and have been developing it since 1999 among other platforms, I have recently watched other technologies nearly match the features and some go beyond it.  The interesting thing about Web Sockets is that it does go after a core feature of flash; Canvas and WebGL or O3D also do. Flash still has the webcam, mic, sound mixers/tranform, and for now sockets which put it at an advantage in gaming and interactive. Flash used to  be the sole greatest video player but Silverlight is doing a pretty good job of that as well so that is still an advantage but others are entering including possibly browser support in html5. I still think it is the best video but they would need to keep innovating.

Another interesting point about this is XMLHttpRequest objects.  Originally “AJAX” was created by Microsoft for IE, pushing new features and innovating back when IE was a good browser and ahead in IE4. Mozilla and others adopted this feature (as well as editable text areas for html) because they were great features for web applications to evolve to.  now Google is pushing with Chrome and Web Sockets is the next step that should be in web browsers even if it is only TCP based for now.  This will add great capabilities and will probably be preferred over AJAX/XMLHttpRequest for really interactive and real-time tools/games should it take hold.  Ian Hickson is running the table on the standards with this effort and it is a good one to get behind.

]]> http://drawlogic.com/2009/12/09/web-sockets-in-google-chrome-and-proposed-standard-for-html5/feed/ 10 Haxe Sandy Ability to Generate a 3D Javascript Engine Port of Sandy for Canvas http://drawlogic.com/2009/07/16/haxe-sandy-able-to-generate-a-3d-javascript-engine-port-of-sandy-for-canvas/ http://drawlogic.com/2009/07/16/haxe-sandy-able-to-generate-a-3d-javascript-engine-port-of-sandy-for-canvas/#comments Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:32:36 +0000 drawk http://drawlogic.com/?p=604 Haxe Sandy is a version of Sandy that can export to an experimental Javascript 3D engine taking advantage of the <canvas> element. There are some great demos that run smoothly in canvas capable browsers and very smooth in Chrome.

Demos of Haxe Sandy:

Sandy was actually the first open source 3d engine in flash, maybe this will be a trend building in haXe for export to flash and javascript?  It certainly looks like a great start and would make a very nice platform for 3d on the web allowing Sandy or other flash libraries to run in Flash and Javascript by writing in an abstraction platform like haXe. Other libraries like Motor2, Physaxe, haxe3D, PureMVC and more have haXe versions. Still very experimental but a possible need when Flash and canvas are both in the market in the future.  Right now it is still all Flash.

[ via Matthew Casperson at devmaster.net ]

]]> http://drawlogic.com/2009/07/16/haxe-sandy-able-to-generate-a-3d-javascript-engine-port-of-sandy-for-canvas/feed/ 0 amfast Python Remoting and Services Library for Flash, Flex and other AMF http://drawlogic.com/2009/05/18/amfast-python-remoting-and-services-library-for-flash-flex-and-other-amf/ http://drawlogic.com/2009/05/18/amfast-python-remoting-and-services-library-for-flash-flex-and-other-amf/#comments Mon, 18 May 2009 07:18:12 +0000 drawk http://drawlogic.com/?p=548 pyamf is pretty sweet for Flash remoting with Pythonic server side, but now we have two nicely done and integrated remoting kits for python on the server side.

amfast is a new remoting library  that looks to be as sweet as pyamf (where sweet == fast and useful).  I am checking out amfast now but the speed boost alone might be worth it.  For instance, working with real-time games, when you need static content you need to grab that quickly sometimes via a content service.  The faster that link the better. It also has Twisted integration which is great for networking and SQLAlchemy integration which is in my opinion the best ORM for python (pyamf has twisted, django, pylons, sqlalchemy as well)

amfast is well documented and has some great examples.  If you have the Python addiction, check it.

Description

  • AmFast is a Flash remoting framework for Python.
  • AmFast can use AMF to communicate between Python and Flash, Flex, and any other system that supports AMF.
  • AMF is a binary object serialization protocol used by Actionscript based applications.

Server Features

  • Support for NetConnection and RemoteObject RPC.
  • Support for Producer/Consumer ‘push’ messaging with HTTP polling, HTTP long-polling, and real-time HTTP streaming channels.
  • Support for authentication with NetConnection and RemoteObject.
  • Flexible Target mapping system to map message destinations to invokable Target objects.
  • Support for ChannelSets with multiple Channels to expose resources in different ways.
  • Built in Channels for CherryPy, Twisted Web, and plain WSGI.
  • Support for configurable Endpoints. Use AmFast’s built-in AMF encoder/decoder C-extension, or use an external AMF encoder/decoder, such as PyAmf for a pure-Python implementation.

AMF Encoder/Decoder Features

  • AMF0/AMF3 encoder/decoder written in C as a Python extension for speed.
  • More than 10x faster than the PyAmf encoder/decoder (even when using PyAmf’s optional C-extension).
  • Map custom classes with ClassDef objects for complete control over serialization/de-serialization.
  • Full support for IExternalizable objects.
  • Data persistence with SqlAlchemy including remotely-loadable lazy-loaded attributes.
  • Actionscript code generation from ClassDef objects.
]]> http://drawlogic.com/2009/05/18/amfast-python-remoting-and-services-library-for-flash-flex-and-other-amf/feed/ 9 Box2D based Javascript 2D Physics Engine called Box2DJS http://drawlogic.com/2009/02/18/box2d-based-javascript-2d-physics-engine-called-box2djs/ http://drawlogic.com/2009/02/18/box2d-based-javascript-2d-physics-engine-called-box2djs/#comments Wed, 18 Feb 2009 20:31:12 +0000 drawk http://drawlogic.com/?p=386 Box2D is responsible for inspiring many 2d physics engines including Motor2, Box2DFlashAS3 and others.  Box2D the original toolkit is a solid c++ physics engine that has many great examples and features including real collision.

Now it has inspired a pure Javascript version of Box2D called Box2Djs to (using prototype dependency) to implement many of the same demos using the same functionality.  So it appears Box2D if you want to find a baseline standard physics kit for 2D, it now has versions in many languages that might allow you to have 2d physics capabilities across many platforms.

Box2DJS is a JavaScript port of Box2D Physics Engine. To tell the truth, this is converted from Box2DFlashAS3_1.4.3.1 in an automatic manner. (The reason why not Box2DFlashAS3_2.0.0 based is simply because I overlooked the renewal.)

Dependencies

  • prototype.js
  • IECanvas (when you use a canvas tag to display the result of your physics simulation)

Links

How to use

  1. Download a zip file and extract it.
  2. Copy js/ and lib/ directories from the extracted directory to your app directory.
  3. Copy script tags in the header part of index.html in the extacted directory to your html file where you want to simulate physics.

    Because this library does not have a lazy-loading system now, you should load all classes before starting your simulation. To make things worse, each library has a bit complicated dependency each other so that loading libraries in wrong order may cause a fatal error. To avoid such a trouble, it is strongly recommended to copy the header part of this file or `index.html’ including the downloaded zip file.

  4. Utilizing Box2D APIs, simulate the newton world as you like.

    The Box2DJS APIs are completely same as those of Box2DFlashAS3. Please refer information about it.

Also the speed of your javascript engine makes a big difference just like the AS2 AVM1 to the AS3 AVM2 virtual machines.  Chrome is much faster than FF3.

Video of Box2DJS in Chrome

Video of Box2DJS in FF3

]]> http://drawlogic.com/2009/02/18/box2d-based-javascript-2d-physics-engine-called-box2djs/feed/ 3 List of 2008 Unity3D Games and Recently Launched Minotaur China Shop by Flashbang Studios http://drawlogic.com/2008/12/14/list-of-2008-unity3d-games-and-recently-launched-minotaur-china-shop-by-flashbang-studios/ http://drawlogic.com/2008/12/14/list-of-2008-unity3d-games-and-recently-launched-minotaur-china-shop-by-flashbang-studios/#comments Mon, 15 Dec 2008 03:55:18 +0000 drawk http://drawlogic.com/?p=316 Unity3D is a great platform for developing 3d games where you need hardware acceleration beyond what Flash 3d can give you for the web.

There are lots of great independent gaming companies and web gaming companies realizing this and here in the #phx Arizona market a few good ones including Flashbang Studios on their Unity3D gaming site Blurst. I have been developing Unity3D for about 6 months and it is great where you want 3d environments over 2000 polys for the web.  The power of 3d hardware rendering on the web combined with a great development environment is making it possible to make really fun games with unity3d.

Unity3D Games Released Recently

Flashbang recently released Minotaur China Shop to add to their Blurst.com site of Unity3D games and community. They detailed the launch day at their blog.  It is a pretty fun game and once you get further into the game design with different paths, selling products or thrashing your china shop for insurance and strategic upgrades it has legs to keep interest.

Minotaur China Shop Trailer

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/2474951[/vimeo]

There are lots of great Unity 3d games out there here is a list of the best of 2008:

      [source]

      ]]>       http://drawlogic.com/2008/12/14/list-of-2008-unity3d-games-and-recently-launched-minotaur-china-shop-by-flashbang-studios/feed/ 5