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Thread: Experimenting with WebGL...

  1. #31
    It is all about the right tool for the job. We initially looked at Smart Mobile Studio to create an online education product that would also work with iPad and Android. We thought of SMS so we could leverage our pascal coding skills. We then decided to go with HTML5 instead (HTML/javascript/css3). This too would have been ok, however, we are now using contruct 2 which still compiles to HTML5 (WebGL etc) but doesn't require much in the way of coding. I estimate project that would take us 4-5 weeks to complete using standard coding only take a week to do with Construct 2. Our current project looks like it will be completed under budget and under time by a fair amount which means we can afford to invest more money in extra art assets.

    To get back to the point Javascript and WebGL works well for some projects. Personally HTML 5 has so many big plusses it makes it very attractive to use. Wether it is business apps or casual gaming/ educational software the idea that you can write once and then more or less distribute to pc/mac/ipad/android etc is very nice.
    Last edited by czar; 01-02-2013 at 07:11 PM.
    The views expressed on this programme are bloody good ones. - Fred Dagg

  2. #32
    I have ported the 3d capabilities of the engine: http://gen2gdk.com/g2mp/demo1
    I bet that's something that construct 2 cannot do

  3. #33
    That last WebGL is cool in many ways!

    Quote Originally Posted by Dan View Post
    I also agree that for any serious projects for mobile devices, javascript is just not fast enough. so it's best to be able to do both the javascript and the native binary.
    It's a mixed bag TBH.

    On the desktop, Chrome V8 can run right up there with .Net, Java and Delphi in most scenarios, and I've occasionally seen it pull some stunts that required use of ASM to beat with Delphi or FreePascal, especially on floating point tasks. FireFox SpiderMonkey has nice tricks, but is often lagging behind V8.

    On mobile platforms, the king is iOS Safari, for some reason Chrome for Android's V8 doesn't seem to be in the same league as its desktop brother, and Chrome for Android generally isn't quite up to iOS standards in the web graphics department.
    When graphics are involved, Safari can really push the pixels, pity Apple still hasn't enabled WebGL... Given what I've seen with CSS 3D demos, guess having WebGL in Safari would get the browser competitive with most apps, with only special cases out of reach.

    Also node-webkit really shines on the desktop, it starts instantaneously and performance is as good as, if not better, than regular Chrome (they don't have the overhead a proper browser has). They have plans for mobile versions, I'd really like to see if their Android one could run better than the classic PhoneGap approach or Chrome for Android.

    I currently have a non-game related project underway, a plant floor scheduling Gantt chart, being developed in SmartPascal. The graphics are 2D, but involve a lot of under-the-hood trees, hashes, lists and other high-level structures, light on maths but heavy on graph logic, and so far HTML+JS holds its own at least as well as Delphi would IME, and better in the graphics department. Tendering is all anti-aliased Canvas, with paths, brushes, gradients... and everything is properly hardware accelerated AFAICT on the usual suspects. And it runs everywhere "out of the box", which is mighty comfortable.

  4. #34
    In my case the main point of interest is high performance game development, so I have to use direct3d, opengl, gles, webgl for the graphics. unfortunately, webgl is basically nonexistent on ios platforms so there's nothing to even talk about here. on the android you can compare the performance of the latest demo I posted and its binary equivalent http://gen2gdk.com/files/g2mp_demo0.apk. so I am convinced that for the mobile game development the native code has an edge over html5. however, html5 is still an awesome platform since it works in the browser, and on the desktops the difference in performance is negligible. personally, by using my game engine, I get the advantage of being able to compile both the native executables (fpc + lazarus) and the html5 javascript (smart mobile studio).
    Last edited by Dan; 06-02-2013 at 02:38 PM.

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