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Unity has Javascript support, and can target WebGL for its builds.

klodolph 7y ago
Depends on what you mean by “JavaScript support”. Do you want to write code in JavaScript? That’s deprecated. Do you want to target WebGL? It works but it’s less than ideal. If you want to make a WebGL app, Unity would not be my choice. The tooling used to fall into the “that works, but it’s cursed” category, because it would compile the C# to CIL with Mono, then compile CIL to C++ with il2cpp, and the C++ to JS with Emscripten. I think. If you think this pipeline is “extremely cursed”, well, you’re not alone. If you want to make a browser game with tooling, there are some better options. Different options for 2D and 3D. You’re going to have to accept some kind of compromise and the ecosystem is a bit difficult to navigate.
- heyitsguay 7y ago
  Whoa, JavaScript support is deprecated? News to me! I always use C# anyway but still seems like a shame. And yeah, agreed, it's probably pretty clunky compared to what some WebGL-specific frameworks might give you. I don't know if anything out there has quite the UI setup or polish as Unity though. Do you know of any? Edit: Saw your edit. That sounds super cursed.
  - klodolph 7y ago
    Deprecating JavaScript (UnityScript) is a good thing. Language bindings are a nightmare, and the more languages you support, the worse it gets. Consider that you might want to write a class in C++, wrap it in a C# interface, and then use it from UnityScript. Consider that if you write something for the asset store, the consumers may be using C# or JS. If you’re looking for something with good UI and polish, maybe GameMaker Studio fits the bill? I don’t keep tabs on this space. I use Unity when I’m collaborating with people, and use simpler frameworks when I’m working alone.
    - DonHopkins 7y ago
      I totally agree that UnityScript and Boo were terrible ideas and executions that were cursed, and it's a great thing they're deprecated. JavaScript itself though is great. But the standard ways of integrating Unity and JavaScript in the WebGL back-end are extremely inefficient, terribly designed, and leave a lot to be desired. There are much more efficient ways of communicating by judicious use of P/Invoke and insight into how WebAssembly and the C# / Unity JavaScript runtime binding works, which I've studied and leveraged in UnityJS. See some of the links in the other message I posted about UnityJS that discuss the JavaScript/C# JSON messaging bridge I developed, which is based on P/Invoke instead of Unity's terrible "GameObject.SendMessage", and techniques for blitting images and raw arrays of typed numbers back and forth between Unity and JavaScript. The great thing about Unity that makes it worth all the effort of making up for its other weaknesses is its editor, and the ability to extend the editor with custom user interfaces, by widgets and editors in the object property sheets and 3d gadgets and objects in the world itself. The editor and its customizable UI facility is a common ground for artists and programmers to meet, that enables programmers to give artists a huge amount of power and flexibility, and artists to see and totally control what they're creating immediately and interactively. Here's a demo of Unity3D pie menus that shows and explains some custom editors, as well as in-world editing tools. (It's kind of old, so the demo requires the now-obsolete Unity browser plug-in, since it isn't compiled for WebGL.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMN1LQ7qx9g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMN1LQ7qx9g I've made a general purpose pie menu component in C# for Unity3D, which supports text items, image items, and 3d object items too! I will make it available as free open source software on the Unity3D app store! Here's a silly demo, showing a set of SimCity pie menus: https://www.donhopkins.com/home/PieMenuDemo/PieMenuDemo.html https://www.donhopkins.com/home/PieMenuDemo/PieMenuDemo.html (If you don't have the Unity3D browser plug-in installed, it should show you a link to install it.) They have a full set of useful notifiers so you can tightly integrate them with your application to give rich feedback during tracking (for example, modifying the 3D menu items, or previewing the effect of the menu item and distance parameter in real time, making them more like "direct manipulation"). For example, to show how you can implement feedback like The Sims pie menus with the head in the center that looks at the selected item, I've made a 3d object in the pie menu center with the webcam texture on it, so YOUR head is in the center of the menu, looking at the selected item! (That's why the demo asks for permission to use the webcam.) The pie menu and each item has a title as well as a description. One feature I've added is the ability not only to disable an item, but also to provide an explanation of why the item is disabled! (PacMan in the demo is disabled, for example.) I wish other menus and widgets would do that -- it's frustrating when you can find an item you want, but can't figure out why it's disabled! Another nice thing about them is that you can either configure algorithmically with an API, or with JSON data (which makes it easy to make dynamic data driven menus downloaded from a server or database), or construct them in the Unity3D editor out of objects (which makes it easier for artists to design them)! I've made a custom Unity3D editor that lets you edit the properties, drag and drop textures and objects, edit and rearrange the items, and has some convenience commands, so you can place the 3D item objects in a circle in the 3D world, and call a command that figures out which item is in which direction by their position, and tidies them up. (That is much easier than arranging their order in a linear list of items.) I'm going to play around with more in-world editing features, to make them easier for artists to design them. Source code: https://www.donhopkins.com/home/PieMenuDemo/PieMenuDemo.zip https://www.donhopkins.com/home/PieMenuDemo/PieMenuDemo.zip
chrisdirkis 7y ago
It was a javascript-like language called UnityScript, that actually compiled to IL, and had a lot of C#/CLR features tacked on top. It was fairly unused, and kinda cursed to boot. Unity also had another language called Boo, which was fake Python which also compiled to the CLR, and we're happy that's dead too. There's some packages like MoonSharp which will let you write Lua for Unity (modulo some bindings), and a few visual scripting tools too. There's also going to be a native visual scripting tool coming out in the next year or so.
- DonHopkins 7y ago
  One important distinction is that C# and UnityScript and Boo are build-time compiled languages, not interpreted (or JITted) at runtime like JavaScript typically is. You can't dynamically download and interpret UnityScript code at runtime, or include it in downloadable asset packages. If you make any changes to your app, you have to release a new version of it, and convince users to upgrade, and you can't just push an update out over the web, like you can with JavaScript. This comes into play on the Apple app store. Even if you implemented, say, a Scheme interpreter in C# that could interpret s-expressions at runtime, Apple would not let you publish an iOS app on their app store that downloaded Scheme code and interpreted it. It's not impossible or hard to do, but it's simply against their rules. On Apple's app store, the ONLY language you're allowed to do that with is JavaScript, running in Apple's own Safari web browser's JavaScript engine. That is a hard non-technical constraint that there is no way of programming or negotiating your way out of, and it's not going to change any time soon. The old version of the iOS Safari component, UIWebView, runs in-process, and allows you to call back and forth with native code (it has a nice native Objective C bridge), but it did not have a JIT so it was slow. (Sandboxed iOS apps developed outside of Apple aren't allowed to write to code memory, so JIT compilers are prohibited.) https://steamclock.com/blog/2013/05/apple-objective-c-javascript-bridge/ https://steamclock.com/blog/2013/05/apple-objective-c-javasc... But the new iOS Safari component, WKWebView, runs in a separate process that Apple trusts, and it has the JIT enabled, so its JavaScript engine is extremely fast and robust, and fully compatible with most modern JavaScript libraries. But you can't call native code, because it's running in another process, and doesn't support an Objective C bridge. But you can send messages back and forth (tell it to execute JavaScript code, receive JSON or text messages back from JavaScript, but no directly passing pointers or calling functions). So instead of using a platform specific Objective C <=> JavaScript bridge like the one Apple deprecated, UnityJS has a cross platform C# <=> JavaScript bridge with a JSON protocol, so it works fine with WKWebKit, without breaking Apple's app store rules.

Depends on what you mean by “JavaScript support”. Do you want to write code in JavaScript? That’s deprecated. Do you want to target WebGL? It works but it’s less than ideal. If you want to make a WebGL app, Unity would not be my choice. The tooling used to fall into the “that works, but it’s cursed” category, because it would compile the C# to CIL with Mono, then compile CIL to C++ with il2cpp, and the C++ to JS with Emscripten. I think. If you think this pipeline is “extremely cursed”, well, you’re not alone. If you want to make a browser game with tooling, there are some better options. Different options for 2D and 3D. You’re going to have to accept some kind of compromise and the ecosystem is a bit difficult to navigate.

heyitsguay 7y ago
Whoa, JavaScript support is deprecated? News to me! I always use C# anyway but still seems like a shame. And yeah, agreed, it's probably pretty clunky compared to what some WebGL-specific frameworks might give you. I don't know if anything out there has quite the UI setup or polish as Unity though. Do you know of any? Edit: Saw your edit. That sounds super cursed.
- klodolph 7y ago
  Deprecating JavaScript (UnityScript) is a good thing. Language bindings are a nightmare, and the more languages you support, the worse it gets. Consider that you might want to write a class in C++, wrap it in a C# interface, and then use it from UnityScript. Consider that if you write something for the asset store, the consumers may be using C# or JS. If you’re looking for something with good UI and polish, maybe GameMaker Studio fits the bill? I don’t keep tabs on this space. I use Unity when I’m collaborating with people, and use simpler frameworks when I’m working alone.
  - DonHopkins 7y ago
    I totally agree that UnityScript and Boo were terrible ideas and executions that were cursed, and it's a great thing they're deprecated. JavaScript itself though is great. But the standard ways of integrating Unity and JavaScript in the WebGL back-end are extremely inefficient, terribly designed, and leave a lot to be desired. There are much more efficient ways of communicating by judicious use of P/Invoke and insight into how WebAssembly and the C# / Unity JavaScript runtime binding works, which I've studied and leveraged in UnityJS. See some of the links in the other message I posted about UnityJS that discuss the JavaScript/C# JSON messaging bridge I developed, which is based on P/Invoke instead of Unity's terrible "GameObject.SendMessage", and techniques for blitting images and raw arrays of typed numbers back and forth between Unity and JavaScript. The great thing about Unity that makes it worth all the effort of making up for its other weaknesses is its editor, and the ability to extend the editor with custom user interfaces, by widgets and editors in the object property sheets and 3d gadgets and objects in the world itself. The editor and its customizable UI facility is a common ground for artists and programmers to meet, that enables programmers to give artists a huge amount of power and flexibility, and artists to see and totally control what they're creating immediately and interactively. Here's a demo of Unity3D pie menus that shows and explains some custom editors, as well as in-world editing tools. (It's kind of old, so the demo requires the now-obsolete Unity browser plug-in, since it isn't compiled for WebGL.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMN1LQ7qx9g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMN1LQ7qx9g I've made a general purpose pie menu component in C# for Unity3D, which supports text items, image items, and 3d object items too! I will make it available as free open source software on the Unity3D app store! Here's a silly demo, showing a set of SimCity pie menus: https://www.donhopkins.com/home/PieMenuDemo/PieMenuDemo.html https://www.donhopkins.com/home/PieMenuDemo/PieMenuDemo.html (If you don't have the Unity3D browser plug-in installed, it should show you a link to install it.) They have a full set of useful notifiers so you can tightly integrate them with your application to give rich feedback during tracking (for example, modifying the 3D menu items, or previewing the effect of the menu item and distance parameter in real time, making them more like "direct manipulation"). For example, to show how you can implement feedback like The Sims pie menus with the head in the center that looks at the selected item, I've made a 3d object in the pie menu center with the webcam texture on it, so YOUR head is in the center of the menu, looking at the selected item! (That's why the demo asks for permission to use the webcam.) The pie menu and each item has a title as well as a description. One feature I've added is the ability not only to disable an item, but also to provide an explanation of why the item is disabled! (PacMan in the demo is disabled, for example.) I wish other menus and widgets would do that -- it's frustrating when you can find an item you want, but can't figure out why it's disabled! Another nice thing about them is that you can either configure algorithmically with an API, or with JSON data (which makes it easy to make dynamic data driven menus downloaded from a server or database), or construct them in the Unity3D editor out of objects (which makes it easier for artists to design them)! I've made a custom Unity3D editor that lets you edit the properties, drag and drop textures and objects, edit and rearrange the items, and has some convenience commands, so you can place the 3D item objects in a circle in the 3D world, and call a command that figures out which item is in which direction by their position, and tidies them up. (That is much easier than arranging their order in a linear list of items.) I'm going to play around with more in-world editing features, to make them easier for artists to design them. Source code: https://www.donhopkins.com/home/PieMenuDemo/PieMenuDemo.zip https://www.donhopkins.com/home/PieMenuDemo/PieMenuDemo.zip

chrisdirkis 7y ago

It was a javascript-like language called UnityScript, that actually compiled to IL, and had a lot of C#/CLR features tacked on top. It was fairly unused, and kinda cursed to boot. Unity also had another language called Boo, which was fake Python which also compiled to the CLR, and we're happy that's dead too. There's some packages like MoonSharp which will let you write Lua for Unity (modulo some bindings), and a few visual scripting tools too. There's also going to be a native visual scripting tool coming out in the next year or so.

DonHopkins 7y ago
One important distinction is that C# and UnityScript and Boo are build-time compiled languages, not interpreted (or JITted) at runtime like JavaScript typically is. You can't dynamically download and interpret UnityScript code at runtime, or include it in downloadable asset packages. If you make any changes to your app, you have to release a new version of it, and convince users to upgrade, and you can't just push an update out over the web, like you can with JavaScript. This comes into play on the Apple app store. Even if you implemented, say, a Scheme interpreter in C# that could interpret s-expressions at runtime, Apple would not let you publish an iOS app on their app store that downloaded Scheme code and interpreted it. It's not impossible or hard to do, but it's simply against their rules. On Apple's app store, the ONLY language you're allowed to do that with is JavaScript, running in Apple's own Safari web browser's JavaScript engine. That is a hard non-technical constraint that there is no way of programming or negotiating your way out of, and it's not going to change any time soon. The old version of the iOS Safari component, UIWebView, runs in-process, and allows you to call back and forth with native code (it has a nice native Objective C bridge), but it did not have a JIT so it was slow. (Sandboxed iOS apps developed outside of Apple aren't allowed to write to code memory, so JIT compilers are prohibited.) https://steamclock.com/blog/2013/05/apple-objective-c-javascript-bridge/ https://steamclock.com/blog/2013/05/apple-objective-c-javasc... But the new iOS Safari component, WKWebView, runs in a separate process that Apple trusts, and it has the JIT enabled, so its JavaScript engine is extremely fast and robust, and fully compatible with most modern JavaScript libraries. But you can't call native code, because it's running in another process, and doesn't support an Objective C bridge. But you can send messages back and forth (tell it to execute JavaScript code, receive JSON or text messages back from JavaScript, but no directly passing pointers or calling functions). So instead of using a platform specific Objective C <=> JavaScript bridge like the one Apple deprecated, UnityJS has a cross platform C# <=> JavaScript bridge with a JSON protocol, so it works fine with WKWebKit, without breaking Apple's app store rules.