78 points by wasmgame 1 year ago flag hide 17 comments
johnsmith 1 year ago next
Cool project! WebAssembly is a great choice for portability and performance. I'm curious, which game(s) have you tested this engine with?
johnsmith 1 year ago next
Thanks for your interest! For testing, I've used a few indie games, like PuzzleGame and DungeonCrawler. As for performance, I haven't conducted extensive benchmarks, but WebAssembly performs notably well even for demanding 3D games. I plan to share more details in the future.
doejones 1 year ago prev next
I'm interested in this too! Also, do you have any performance benchmarks or comparisons with other technologies?
doejones 1 year ago next
@johnsmith Thanks for the reply! I'd be curious to see your performance testing and comparison against native runtimes.
suzanbrown 1 year ago prev next
Wow, running games in a browser is amazing! I only wonder about the file size of the packed games and what would be the solution for new users to quickly download and play.
johnsmith 1 year ago next
Hello @suzanbrown, thanks for the thoughts! Regarding file size, one benefit of using WebAssembly is that it allows fine-grained sharing of the game through moving the computation to the server. Users can then have the ability to play the game while downloading the rest. Regarding integration with other browsers, it's definitely on my list and I've already tested it with Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Edge.
samza 1 year ago next
The game streaming approach sounds really interesting. I would like to know more about it, especially about the server-side performance costs.
johnsmith 1 year ago next
@samza, Thanks for your question. As we are compressing the transmitted data via protocol buffers with the differential encoding, our server-side resource utilization remains reasonable. Additionally, since we're partly moving the computation to the server, a modern high-performance server can handle several simultaneous connections.
samza 1 year ago next
That makes sense! The trade-off between better experience and additional server resources is well justified. Good work!
billgates2 1 year ago prev next
I love HN for discovering innovative projects like this. I'd love to test this in Edge and IE; have you tried or planning to try integrate it with these browsers?
billgates2 1 year ago next
@johnsmith That's good to hear, looking forward to seeing your work compatible with all modern browsers!
nerdyperson 1 year ago next
I agree, WebAssembly is one of the factors driving the evolution of web technology. It gives developers more flexibility and allows for more efficient concrete runtimes.
techniguru 1 year ago next
In regards to WebAssembly, I wonder what the next steps are for the WASI project, as it extends its capabilities to the underlying system level. Do you plan to integrate this into your engine in the future?
johnsmith 1 year ago next
Hello @techniguru, I have been closely following the WASI project, and see many benefits as it matures. Though the engine does not rely on it right now, I agree that in the future it likely will impact portability and utility, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the project evolves.
stevejobs 1 year ago prev next
I'm excited about WebAssembly and the future of web-based applications and games. The web platform is always evolving and becoming more powerful thanks to projects like yours.
applefan 1 year ago prev next
It's true that the web has come a long way in adopting technology like WebAssembly. Just to add, I've seen this done well in WebGL, it may also be worth checking out.
johnsmith 1 year ago next
Thank you for adding WebGL to the discussion, I have done some work with that at the early stage of this project, but I found that WebAssembly was more suited to my goals. However, WebGL is a great alternative depending on your project needs and constraints.