3 ms·

Probably they didn't use canvas for the same reason as Google (for their current Pac-Man logo game): DOM based renderer will work on more browsers. Canvas emul

by bd 16y ago

Probably they didn't use canvas for the same reason as Google (for their current Pac-Man logo game): DOM based renderer will work on more browsers. Canvas emulation for Explorer is not very fast. This may not be a problem for chart-like applications, but when you want smooth animations, milliseconds add up. Now, if you excuse me, I will shamelessly plug my recent canvas game (I don't support Explorer): http://alteredqualia.com/cubeout/ http://alteredqualia.com/cubeout/

GrandMasterBirt 16y ago
Great. You got me fired for playing. I blame you. :) Addictive. Still needs some help from frame-rate awareness. When a "slowdown" occures the game needs to be aware of it's processing slowdown and slow down the game fps to compensate otherwise things "jump".
- bd 16y ago
  About slowdowns. Which browser/OS do you use? I know I have troubles on Firefox on Windows 7. I do compensation for actual elapsed time, but unfortunately this doesn't help when setInterval fires too late (in FF I can get occasional "jump" frame with 30x usual duration, I suspect due to garbage collection [1]). Chrome and Opera are much more reliable in their JS timing. ---- [1] You can check GC + animation test here: http://hacks.mozilla.org/2010/01/javascript-speedups-in-firefox-3-6/ http://hacks.mozilla.org/2010/01/javascript-speedups-in-fire... FF (even version 3.6) performs pretty badly: I got 80-120 ms delay due to GC, Opera has 21ms, Chrome has 8 ms. For my game it's even worse, normal frame can take 14 ms, garbage collected one 500 ms.
kiba 16y ago
Can I plug my canvas game too? I just finished up a tetris clone last night: http://kibabase.com/jstet.html http://kibabase.com/jstet.html
gommm 16y ago
Great, I loved blockout as a kid. Spent a lot of time with my parents trying to beat each others high score. Brings back a lot of good memories.
- bd 16y ago
  Yep, I also remember Blockout fondly. Way more fun than Tetris, despite being much less popular.

by bd 16y ago

GrandMasterBirt 16y ago

Great. You got me fired for playing. I blame you. :) Addictive. Still needs some help from frame-rate awareness. When a "slowdown" occures the game needs to be aware of it's processing slowdown and slow down the game fps to compensate otherwise things "jump".

bd 16y ago
About slowdowns. Which browser/OS do you use? I know I have troubles on Firefox on Windows 7. I do compensation for actual elapsed time, but unfortunately this doesn't help when setInterval fires too late (in FF I can get occasional "jump" frame with 30x usual duration, I suspect due to garbage collection [1]). Chrome and Opera are much more reliable in their JS timing. ---- [1] You can check GC + animation test here: http://hacks.mozilla.org/2010/01/javascript-speedups-in-firefox-3-6/ http://hacks.mozilla.org/2010/01/javascript-speedups-in-fire... FF (even version 3.6) performs pretty badly: I got 80-120 ms delay due to GC, Opera has 21ms, Chrome has 8 ms. For my game it's even worse, normal frame can take 14 ms, garbage collected one 500 ms.

kiba 16y ago

Can I plug my canvas game too? I just finished up a tetris clone last night: http://kibabase.com/jstet.html http://kibabase.com/jstet.html

gommm 16y ago

Great, I loved blockout as a kid. Spent a lot of time with my parents trying to beat each others high score. Brings back a lot of good memories.

bd 16y ago
Yep, I also remember Blockout fondly. Way more fun than Tetris, despite being much less popular.