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Any godot programmers here. How is godot's support of games in the browser? 4 years ago I was deciding on a game engine to use. I considered it to unreal, Unit

Any godot programmers here. How is godot's support of games in the browser? 4 years ago I was deciding on a game engine to use. I considered it to unreal, Unity, and godot. I want to be able to build games that can be played on the web. I have many fond memories of the Flash game days. Distributing games over the web allows me to share games with people without the friction of installers, or App Store gate keepers, which I think is super cool. At the time, only Unity supported web. I decided to go full in on Unity.

Applejinx 4y ago
That question interests me too, because I would imagine it would do quite well. Godot's failings seem to be ones of omission, as a rule, and having less built in might help in browser-based games, because there would be less to download to get started, while still allowing for the basics in many classes of game. I know it's strong on 2D. I don't know for a fact it's lighter than say Unity, it just seems like it would be. Anyone with more direct experience here?
zubspace 4y ago
I have written a few games in Godot, which also work in the browser for Ludum Dare. [1] Works great, 2D and 3D, with small differences, but I can only speak for GDscript. I'm not sure if C# exports are working. First and foremost: Build time for all export targets together (windows. linux and web) takes less than 10 seconds and usually just work. Some things like GPU particles had to be replaced with CPU particles and I remember that some texture compressions were not properly supported. But other than that, it mostly works out of the box. Can only recommend. [1] https://ldjam.com/users/zubspace/games https://ldjam.com/users/zubspace/games
konsuko 4y ago
It has been excellent, best browser game engine imo - however as of Godot 4, the web export is completely broken, unfortunately. Godot with C# straight up has no web export and no mobile export atm, just desktop.
- capableweb 4y ago
  > best browser game engine > web export is completely broken > Godot with C# straight up has no web export Hmm, something is amiss here... They're already on RC5 and web export not working doesn't sound like the web platform is a focus of theirs. AFAIK, the web export being broken is not mentioned in "Known Issues" about V4 either.
  - acupofjose 4y ago
    In the Runtime Changes Section: "Mobile and web platforms are not supported at the moment, and will be worked on for a future Godot 4 release." / "For the mobile platform specifically we are going to use the Mono runtime."
  - cridenour 4y ago
    Web Export for 4 is fine, just not with C#. That may be the same thing to some people, but there is a distinction.
    - konsuko 4y ago
      No, it's not fine. It's broken on Chrome for macOS and freezes on startup for about 10-20 seconds. Has nothing to do with C#, this happens with GDScript, too. It's a known issue, has been discussed at length on Github (by myself as well) and there is no fix in sight at the moment. I would consider that broken.
  - prophesi 4y ago
    > AFAIK, the web export being broken is not mentioned in "Known Issues" about V4 either. It may be outdated since the reason it no longer works is because of these C# changes, as mentioned in the article.
sdkgames 4y ago
Regarding Godot 3.x and HTML5 export. Users reported crashes with GLES3. It seems stable rendering is based on GLES2 (WebGL v1.0). Some features don't work in HTML5 (e.g. "Some features are also not supported in WebGL 2.0 specifically."[1]; "built-in antialiasing will not look correct for translucent lines and may not work on certain platforms" [2]) [1] https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/tutorials/export/exporting_for_web.html#webgl-version https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/tutorials/export/expo... [2] https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/classes/class_canvasitem.html#class-canvasitem-method-draw-line https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/classes/class_canvasi...
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
kleiba 4y ago
Does anyone actually play games in the browser? I mean, there is no technical reason not to, but I kinda find it strange.
- kleiba 4y ago
  Sorry if my question was worded badly. Obviously, some people are playing games in the browser - perhaps I should have asked more specifically what the appeal is, e.g. is it mostly small casual games like what Flash used to be used for, or do people actually play more invested games? And sorry again if the answer to these questions is so obvious to some of you that the question itself sounds dumb, but I'm simply not experienced with this topic.
  - omoikane 4y ago
    Running games in the browser provides a bit of convenience of not having to download and run a platform-specific executable. There might be some security benefits too. Depends on the nature of the game though. It works best for games that are lightweight and stateless.
    - kleiba 4y ago
      Sure, this was clear to me too. My question was not so much about the advantages of browser games but rather if they actually have a market. And speaking of that: what are the main monetization schemes? Are browser games sold like other games? Or are they mostly ad-based like other web content?
      - omoikane 4y ago
        As one data point: https://itch.io/games https://itch.io/games currently lists 729397 games, 844 of which are tagged HTML5. It's nonzero but I guess it's not that big. But https://itch.io/games/html5 https://itch.io/games/html5 lists 301816, I am not sure how to reconcile these numbers. Some of those are accepting donations, but I can't tell if they are profitable.
  - 4y ago
surmoi 4y ago
The binaries produced just for the engine itself (so exluding the game code and assets) is already several MB large when compressed with brotly or gzip [1]. So it works, but it's too large to be competitive enough on web games portals. Most players will just go play another game if it takes too long to load (download). Only JS based game engines and to some extend Defold are good enough in this regard. [1] https://github.com/godotengine/godot/issues/68647 https://github.com/godotengine/godot/issues/68647
- miohtama 4y ago
  Note that the article mentions ahead-of-time compilation and binary size trimming as one of the explicit goals of this version.
  - NoahKAndrews 4y ago
    Specifically if you're using .NET, that wouldn't apply to GDScript the same way.
jordo 4y ago
We made https://rocketbotroyale.winterpixel.io https://rocketbotroyale.winterpixel.io in godot 3.5. ~ 20MB wasm binary, ~20MB game assets. We did however, have to do a ** ton of engine modifications to get the performance characteristics we needed on web, so mileage may vary depending on what you are actually building. But overall, 3.5 supports web very well. 4.0 is too unstable for us to use it yet, so jury still out on that one. But the absolute, most amazing thing ( coming from the anxiety of app 'submissions', going through 'reviews', etc ), is the ability to update/fix/hotpatch everything instantly. Like within seconds. We have a simple CI/CD workflow that builds, updates & deploys a new godot site ( with dedicated gameserver backends) within seconds. The ability to just do this however you want, whenever you want, without going through some kind of platform distribution interface is great. With the exception of WGSL being such a dumpster fire of a spec, I'm pretty bullish on web for gamedev & distribution. There's some really great stuff being built right now, see: wasm+webtransport+wgpu
- birracerveza 4y ago
  I want to say I'm a big fan of this game, simple and really fun! Good job!
- mycall 4y ago
  Do you see any use cases to include WASI into your godot gaming support? Maybe midi music too.

Applejinx 4y ago

That question interests me too, because I would imagine it would do quite well. Godot's failings seem to be ones of omission, as a rule, and having less built in might help in browser-based games, because there would be less to download to get started, while still allowing for the basics in many classes of game. I know it's strong on 2D. I don't know for a fact it's lighter than say Unity, it just seems like it would be. Anyone with more direct experience here?

zubspace 4y ago

I have written a few games in Godot, which also work in the browser for Ludum Dare. [1] Works great, 2D and 3D, with small differences, but I can only speak for GDscript. I'm not sure if C# exports are working. First and foremost: Build time for all export targets together (windows. linux and web) takes less than 10 seconds and usually just work. Some things like GPU particles had to be replaced with CPU particles and I remember that some texture compressions were not properly supported. But other than that, it mostly works out of the box. Can only recommend. [1] https://ldjam.com/users/zubspace/games https://ldjam.com/users/zubspace/games

konsuko 4y ago

It has been excellent, best browser game engine imo - however as of Godot 4, the web export is completely broken, unfortunately. Godot with C# straight up has no web export and no mobile export atm, just desktop.

capableweb 4y ago
> best browser game engine > web export is completely broken > Godot with C# straight up has no web export Hmm, something is amiss here... They're already on RC5 and web export not working doesn't sound like the web platform is a focus of theirs. AFAIK, the web export being broken is not mentioned in "Known Issues" about V4 either.
- acupofjose 4y ago
  In the Runtime Changes Section: "Mobile and web platforms are not supported at the moment, and will be worked on for a future Godot 4 release." / "For the mobile platform specifically we are going to use the Mono runtime."
- cridenour 4y ago
  Web Export for 4 is fine, just not with C#. That may be the same thing to some people, but there is a distinction.
  - konsuko 4y ago
    No, it's not fine. It's broken on Chrome for macOS and freezes on startup for about 10-20 seconds. Has nothing to do with C#, this happens with GDScript, too. It's a known issue, has been discussed at length on Github (by myself as well) and there is no fix in sight at the moment. I would consider that broken.
- prophesi 4y ago
  > AFAIK, the web export being broken is not mentioned in "Known Issues" about V4 either. It may be outdated since the reason it no longer works is because of these C# changes, as mentioned in the article.

sdkgames 4y ago

Regarding Godot 3.x and HTML5 export. Users reported crashes with GLES3. It seems stable rendering is based on GLES2 (WebGL v1.0). Some features don't work in HTML5 (e.g. "Some features are also not supported in WebGL 2.0 specifically."[1]; "built-in antialiasing will not look correct for translucent lines and may not work on certain platforms" [2]) [1] https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/tutorials/export/exporting_for_web.html#webgl-version https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/tutorials/export/expo... [2] https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/classes/class_canvasitem.html#class-canvasitem-method-draw-line https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/classes/class_canvasi...

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

kleiba 4y ago

Does anyone actually play games in the browser? I mean, there is no technical reason not to, but I kinda find it strange.

kleiba 4y ago
Sorry if my question was worded badly. Obviously, some people are playing games in the browser - perhaps I should have asked more specifically what the appeal is, e.g. is it mostly small casual games like what Flash used to be used for, or do people actually play more invested games? And sorry again if the answer to these questions is so obvious to some of you that the question itself sounds dumb, but I'm simply not experienced with this topic.
- omoikane 4y ago
  Running games in the browser provides a bit of convenience of not having to download and run a platform-specific executable. There might be some security benefits too. Depends on the nature of the game though. It works best for games that are lightweight and stateless.
  - kleiba 4y ago
    Sure, this was clear to me too. My question was not so much about the advantages of browser games but rather if they actually have a market. And speaking of that: what are the main monetization schemes? Are browser games sold like other games? Or are they mostly ad-based like other web content?
    - omoikane 4y ago
      As one data point: https://itch.io/games https://itch.io/games currently lists 729397 games, 844 of which are tagged HTML5. It's nonzero but I guess it's not that big. But https://itch.io/games/html5 https://itch.io/games/html5 lists 301816, I am not sure how to reconcile these numbers. Some of those are accepting donations, but I can't tell if they are profitable.
- 4y ago

surmoi 4y ago

The binaries produced just for the engine itself (so exluding the game code and assets) is already several MB large when compressed with brotly or gzip [1]. So it works, but it's too large to be competitive enough on web games portals. Most players will just go play another game if it takes too long to load (download). Only JS based game engines and to some extend Defold are good enough in this regard. [1] https://github.com/godotengine/godot/issues/68647 https://github.com/godotengine/godot/issues/68647

miohtama 4y ago
Note that the article mentions ahead-of-time compilation and binary size trimming as one of the explicit goals of this version.
- NoahKAndrews 4y ago
  Specifically if you're using .NET, that wouldn't apply to GDScript the same way.

jordo 4y ago

We made https://rocketbotroyale.winterpixel.io https://rocketbotroyale.winterpixel.io in godot 3.5. ~ 20MB wasm binary, ~20MB game assets. We did however, have to do a ** ton of engine modifications to get the performance characteristics we needed on web, so mileage may vary depending on what you are actually building. But overall, 3.5 supports web very well. 4.0 is too unstable for us to use it yet, so jury still out on that one. But the absolute, most amazing thing ( coming from the anxiety of app 'submissions', going through 'reviews', etc ), is the ability to update/fix/hotpatch everything instantly. Like within seconds. We have a simple CI/CD workflow that builds, updates & deploys a new godot site ( with dedicated gameserver backends) within seconds. The ability to just do this however you want, whenever you want, without going through some kind of platform distribution interface is great. With the exception of WGSL being such a dumpster fire of a spec, I'm pretty bullish on web for gamedev & distribution. There's some really great stuff being built right now, see: wasm+webtransport+wgpu

birracerveza 4y ago
I want to say I'm a big fan of this game, simple and really fun! Good job!
mycall 4y ago
Do you see any use cases to include WASI into your godot gaming support? Maybe midi music too.