As far as I know, BYOND uses an IE7-derived embedded browser.
It's 8 years old at this point. It was obsolete on the day it was released, and has aged like vinegar. Its abysmal standards-compliance, poor performance, and proprietary licensing are quite annoying to developers using BYOND.
Considering BYOND's current development revolves around pivoting to a Dart-based HTML5 client, now might be the appropriate time to fix this.
I'd suggest the Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF):
https://code.google.com/p/chromiumembedded/wiki/GeneralUsage
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium_Embedded_Framework
It's free, open-source, relatively compliant and zippy, cross-platform, and has a C API almost certainly an order of magnitude above IE7's (so if you guys managed to suffer through that then this might seem easy in comparison :V).
Applies to both DreamSeeker and the webclient I suppose: especially to DreamSeeker, since it would offer a relatively quick and painless way of implementing a pure web-based standalone to replace it.
ID:1740685
 Dec 16 2014, 11:22 pm
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Dec 16 2014, 11:30 pm
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Tom
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It's probably not going to happen. We don't have much interest in further developing the software client (DS). However, the browser control in the webclient works fine, and just uses whatever browser the webclient is embedded in. If you haven't tried the webclient, you should-- it is almost completely compatible with DS (including most 4.0 skins upport) and we will work on optimizing so it is just as fast (if not faster) than the software client. We'll also look into working on a standalone for this.
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Pushing the webclient too hard at this point, some of us don't care for it.
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NNAAAAHH wrote:
Pushing the webclient too hard at this point, some of us don't care for it. Stupidest thing I've heard all day. | |
Most idiotic sentence written this month.
What use do I have for the web client? I'm not going to go out of my way to support it. I would MUCH rather some decent features and fixes first. | |
Tom wrote:
We don't have much interest in further developing the software client (DS).It sounds as if all development for it is going to stop completely. Is that the case? Or is this only temporary? | |
I'm with Unwanted4Murder. Stupidest thing I've read in a long time, and I read a lot of stupid shit daily.
NNAAAAHH wrote: What use do I have for the web client? I'm not going to go out of my way to support it. I would MUCH rather some decent features and fixes first. Like it or not, Tom and Lummox are going to probably be phasing out DreamSeeker in favor of the webclient. Probably because they're both very smart gentlesirs. But let me answer your question. What use do you have for the webclient? I'll begin first by explaining to the best of my ability what the webclient actually is, which shouldn't be taken with too much authority: The webclient is basically just javascript code that a byond server spits out that you can embed onto an external website or play directly on byond.com itself. This is neat because it lets you potentially play games mobile or without having to install byond at all. But what's really neat is that it gives you precision control of the client itself, which us, the little guys who work with byond daily would've KILLED to have years ago. You don't understand the implications of being able to control how the client and server communicate... the implications of being able to have infinite control over what the client is being shown. It's hella buggy atm and that's expected, because it's a fresh new feature that not many people are helping test. Much of the beauty of the webclient lies in the ability for you to program your own interface in javascript / html to create truly responsive and flashy things, but so far people are only scratching the surface of what it can do. Hell, even I am just scratching the surface I feel. Wanna know why the webclient kicks ass? Design your game's UI around it, instead of relying on DM to convert your .dmf interfaces, and you'll find out. | |
NNAAAAHH wrote:
What use do I have for the web client? Cross-platform compatibility. Mobile development. Enhanced UI control. The ability to not have your software look like some sort of scam. I'm not going to go out of my way to support it. You don't have to "go out of your way" for anything. Almost all features are compatible with the web client out of the box. If you're going to criticize something, maybe learn about it first. | |
I think the most appealing aspect of the browser support is the potential exposure. Being able to throw your project up onto dozens of gaming portals, much larger than BYOND, is going to be very nice. If you score a partnership with a site like Gamejolt or Kongregate, you're probably looking at least a million hits if your game has the potential to be popular.
I am content with the engine once the HTML5 support is polished and grateful for the work Tom/Lummox have put in over the years. There's nothing else I'd really ask for. ...though we're off-topic and I half-expect these comments to be deleted. It's just a pity to see an active member of the community (NNAAAAHH) out of the loop when this is essentially BYOND's best release yet. | |
Unwanted4Murder wrote:
NNAAAAHH wrote: Agreed. How can you not care for it and still use BYOND? lmao. | |
Sorry, I should've put "I" in bold, what use do I have for the web client? Zero. I know what it is, I know what it does. I didn't even read the majority of your post, because it's unnecessary. Not interested in the web client. There are, I feel, much more needed features and fixes than the client.
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All of the things you listed are extremely poor and I could do a lot better a lot easier on another engine, say one designed for mobile gaming. I'm not a big supporter of playing browser games in general, aside from the casual tower defense or flash animation.
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I didn't care for the flash client, when that was a thing. Simply put; I don't see much of a market for in-browser games that I would be interested in developing.
I do apologize, as it appears I have derailed the thread. | |
Can't you all just be grateful that development is still ongoing..
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I am, I just wish some other features and fixes would be worked on instead. All this time and development on the flash and now the html5 client, for what turnout? I don't see the whole thing as worthwhile. It's a nifty feature that makes converting games already made into other websites almost effortless, but if I were to want to develop an game with browser/mobile/cross-platform playing, there are far better solutions with far better results.
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