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> It seems like writing game netcode without setting up a WebRTC server should be reason enough. this begs the question - is the browser really the right platf

by chii 4y ago

> It seems like writing game netcode without setting up a WebRTC server should be reason enough. this begs the question - is the browser really the right platform for a game where netcode like that is needed? Why make the browser even more complex, when the original design of it is meant to only display documents? If we keep going down this road, you'd end up with an operating system inside the browser.

anonymoushn 4y ago
If we're going to have games and audio on the web, which we do, we could at least have them work without mountains of additional latency or WebRTC servers. I would also like it if web sites would display documents, allow the browser's "find" feature to work, and not use "responsive UI" to delete the form that I'm halfway done filling out when I resize my window, but I don't think my preferences have much weight here.
- fulafel 4y ago
  WebRTC is peer-to-peer so there's no additional network latency from the protocol. There's the TURN fallback for when the participants can't reach each other, in which case bouncing through a proxy is the best you can do anyway. (If some implementations have high processing latency on top of the network latency, this can be fixed without changing the protocol).
mattnewton 4y ago
> when the original design of it is meant to only display documents? Ship sailed, horse out of barn, etc etc on this point.
girvo 4y ago
While I may personally agree with your line of thinking there, we are about 15 years too late to argue that point I think.
sascha_sl 4y ago
> If we keep going down this road, you'd end up with an operating system inside the browser. Arguably, we're already there. I stopped pretending the web wasn't going to be the common platform of the future when WebUSB dropped and I learned you can root a Nintendo Switch from Chrome OS. Without the Linux part. If you build something today, without too many resources backing you up, and you want it to run anywhere, you build something that resembles a PWA with Electron wrappers. (resembling because it could also be something like Flutter).
- account42 4y ago
  > when WebUSB dropped You mean when Google implemented it in their EEE fork of the web.
meheleventyone 4y ago
> this begs the question - is the browser really the right platform for a game where netcode like that is needed? Yes, it works pretty well using established technologies in the browser already.

by chii 4y ago

anonymoushn 4y ago

If we're going to have games and audio on the web, which we do, we could at least have them work without mountains of additional latency or WebRTC servers. I would also like it if web sites would display documents, allow the browser's "find" feature to work, and not use "responsive UI" to delete the form that I'm halfway done filling out when I resize my window, but I don't think my preferences have much weight here.

fulafel 4y ago
WebRTC is peer-to-peer so there's no additional network latency from the protocol. There's the TURN fallback for when the participants can't reach each other, in which case bouncing through a proxy is the best you can do anyway. (If some implementations have high processing latency on top of the network latency, this can be fixed without changing the protocol).

mattnewton 4y ago

> when the original design of it is meant to only display documents? Ship sailed, horse out of barn, etc etc on this point.

girvo 4y ago

While I may personally agree with your line of thinking there, we are about 15 years too late to argue that point I think.

sascha_sl 4y ago

> If we keep going down this road, you'd end up with an operating system inside the browser. Arguably, we're already there. I stopped pretending the web wasn't going to be the common platform of the future when WebUSB dropped and I learned you can root a Nintendo Switch from Chrome OS. Without the Linux part. If you build something today, without too many resources backing you up, and you want it to run anywhere, you build something that resembles a PWA with Electron wrappers. (resembling because it could also be something like Flutter).

account42 4y ago
> when WebUSB dropped You mean when Google implemented it in their EEE fork of the web.

meheleventyone 4y ago

> this begs the question - is the browser really the right platform for a game where netcode like that is needed? Yes, it works pretty well using established technologies in the browser already.