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Is NaCI Chrome only? What's the difference than writing games on top of WebGL?

redthrowaway 15y ago
NaCl allows native execution; WebGL is an abstraction that allows access to hardware resources. NaCl is C/C++ based, and so allows for faster execution than WebGL, which is JS-based. WebGL's cool, but NaCl allows truly native performance, platform-agnostic and living in the browser. They're different beasts entirely.
- gcp 15y ago
  NaCl is not platform agnostic.
  - nextparadigms 15y ago
    You mean it's not in Chrome for Linux and Chrome for Mac?
    - bkaradzic 15y ago
      It's platform agnostic in sense that it runs on all platforms where desktop version of Chrome browser runs. But if you mean Chrome is platform, then yes it runs only in Chrome for now. It's not standard for all browsers, but I think that's going to change with more games like AirMech that wouldn't be possible to make in .js/WebGL/HTML5. It's also fully open sourced with permissive license (BSD), which should not present any barrier for others to adopt it. Adoption will likely be decided by politics (f.e. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/24/jay_sullivan_on_firefox/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/24/jay_sullivan_on_fire...), rather than technical issues. One interesting thing about CWS apps is that they can be ran in window mode, and shortcut can be placed on desktop. At that point NaCl app doesn't look any different than native desktop app. It's pretty cool!
shaka881 15y ago
For now, it is only adopted by Chrome. The code for NaCl is all open sourced and the ABI is stable, so other parties could adopt it if they were so inclined. The difference is that it allows for extremely fast native code execution within a sandboxed environment, compiled from languages that normally target native environments (C/C++/etc.) With NaCl you can run very resource intensive games without risk of exposing your system to malicious software. A boon for the indie devs that want to cross-compile for other platforms, or those that just can't stand Javascript. :)

NaCl allows native execution; WebGL is an abstraction that allows access to hardware resources. NaCl is C/C++ based, and so allows for faster execution than WebGL, which is JS-based. WebGL's cool, but NaCl allows truly native performance, platform-agnostic and living in the browser. They're different beasts entirely.

gcp 15y ago
NaCl is not platform agnostic.
- nextparadigms 15y ago
  You mean it's not in Chrome for Linux and Chrome for Mac?
  - bkaradzic 15y ago
    It's platform agnostic in sense that it runs on all platforms where desktop version of Chrome browser runs. But if you mean Chrome is platform, then yes it runs only in Chrome for now. It's not standard for all browsers, but I think that's going to change with more games like AirMech that wouldn't be possible to make in .js/WebGL/HTML5. It's also fully open sourced with permissive license (BSD), which should not present any barrier for others to adopt it. Adoption will likely be decided by politics (f.e. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/24/jay_sullivan_on_firefox/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/24/jay_sullivan_on_fire...), rather than technical issues. One interesting thing about CWS apps is that they can be ran in window mode, and shortcut can be placed on desktop. At that point NaCl app doesn't look any different than native desktop app. It's pretty cool!

shaka881 15y ago

For now, it is only adopted by Chrome. The code for NaCl is all open sourced and the ABI is stable, so other parties could adopt it if they were so inclined. The difference is that it allows for extremely fast native code execution within a sandboxed environment, compiled from languages that normally target native environments (C/C++/etc.) With NaCl you can run very resource intensive games without risk of exposing your system to malicious software. A boon for the indie devs that want to cross-compile for other platforms, or those that just can't stand Javascript. :)