5 ms·

It's not so much that the browser can do it, as it has been able to for a long time, but that an app in a sandboxed environment, with an abstraction between its

It's not so much that the browser can do it, as it has been able to for a long time, but that an app in a sandboxed environment, with an abstraction between itself and the host machine, can do it in decently fast times.

dekhn 6y ago
But why is that a good thing? You're just making an argument for an inner platform, but without any factual justification. Is sandboxing truly critical? (millions of graphical artists using Blender, Maya, etc don't care) Abstraction? Why is that important, the amount of work to get a 3D app to do something interesting in the browser is about 10X that of writing a qtpy app, and I don't see the value in any "abstraction". webgl was a good idea and I dedicated years to trying to make interactive browser applications, and now I've concluded that if I want to make product in time, that works for decades, on all platforms, at speed, I will use systems like Qt for desktop apps, not browsers.
- hugozap 6y ago
  I played with this app and it's a great experience, I didn't have to install anything and have shared it with a few people who (in a few seconds) were happy creating stuff. None of us professional artists (like millions of people out there). For me, that's amazing. There's a lot of value in having options (with low friction) for casual creators like myself. Agree with your point about dev experience being painful though.
  - robertlagrant 6y ago
    Not having to install anything (or upgrade anything ever) is indeed pretty amazing.
  - robertlagrant 6y ago
    Not having to install anything on any OS or phone with a browser (or upgrade anything ever) is indeed pretty amazing.
- sbergot 6y ago
  And you are just acting as a gatekeeper. This app is accessible for anyone who is not able/willing to install something locally like a kid using a computer at school. This is what sandboxing gives you. Blender and Maya are useful for experts. Not all tools have to target experts.
  - vagrantJin 6y ago
    That's the word. Accessible. I dont have to have my computer and can still get work done. Well said.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- ArtDev 6y ago
  Maximum interoperability is always a good thing. The web rules. Chromebooks are everywhere these days. They do have to fallback on Android apps and Debian apps sometimes, but this is also what makes them so versatile.
- msla 6y ago
  I remember the 1990s, which probably informs my view here, but I'll tell you this: There's something to be said for targeting a cross-platform browser instead of a single OS. Windows. It was Windows. Outside of what the (much smaller!) Open Source world developed, stuff worked on Windows in the 1990s and practically nothing else. Now I can open a browser and have a 3D sculpting application and nobody needs to care what OS I run. You can denigrate webapps all you want, I won't hear you over the sound of how happy I am that I don't have to dual-boot with Windows anymore.

dekhn 6y ago

But why is that a good thing? You're just making an argument for an inner platform, but without any factual justification. Is sandboxing truly critical? (millions of graphical artists using Blender, Maya, etc don't care) Abstraction? Why is that important, the amount of work to get a 3D app to do something interesting in the browser is about 10X that of writing a qtpy app, and I don't see the value in any "abstraction". webgl was a good idea and I dedicated years to trying to make interactive browser applications, and now I've concluded that if I want to make product in time, that works for decades, on all platforms, at speed, I will use systems like Qt for desktop apps, not browsers.

hugozap 6y ago
I played with this app and it's a great experience, I didn't have to install anything and have shared it with a few people who (in a few seconds) were happy creating stuff. None of us professional artists (like millions of people out there). For me, that's amazing. There's a lot of value in having options (with low friction) for casual creators like myself. Agree with your point about dev experience being painful though.
- robertlagrant 6y ago
  Not having to install anything (or upgrade anything ever) is indeed pretty amazing.
- robertlagrant 6y ago
  Not having to install anything on any OS or phone with a browser (or upgrade anything ever) is indeed pretty amazing.
sbergot 6y ago
And you are just acting as a gatekeeper. This app is accessible for anyone who is not able/willing to install something locally like a kid using a computer at school. This is what sandboxing gives you. Blender and Maya are useful for experts. Not all tools have to target experts.
- vagrantJin 6y ago
  That's the word. Accessible. I dont have to have my computer and can still get work done. Well said.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
ArtDev 6y ago
Maximum interoperability is always a good thing. The web rules. Chromebooks are everywhere these days. They do have to fallback on Android apps and Debian apps sometimes, but this is also what makes them so versatile.
msla 6y ago
I remember the 1990s, which probably informs my view here, but I'll tell you this: There's something to be said for targeting a cross-platform browser instead of a single OS. Windows. It was Windows. Outside of what the (much smaller!) Open Source world developed, stuff worked on Windows in the 1990s and practically nothing else. Now I can open a browser and have a 3D sculpting application and nobody needs to care what OS I run. You can denigrate webapps all you want, I won't hear you over the sound of how happy I am that I don't have to dual-boot with Windows anymore.