7 ms·
Red Alert 2 in web browser
- khoury 11mo agoCan't start the game in the browser without a local executable of the game?
- voxic11 11mo agoCopyright, you have to provide all the copyrighted material yourself so that they can't be sued for distributing it.
- netsharc 11mo agoMan, what a waste of resources. It'd be funny if the client side just did a hash of the "uploaded" files, told the server the hash, and then the server can compare the hash and use the server copy of the assets, to save bandwidth. But as "What colour are your bits" (1) say, that'd still probably not be legal. Oops, it's a browser based game, you still need the assets on the client side, i.e. in your local memory... never mind (1) https://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/entry/23 https://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/entry/23
- shortrounddev2 11mo agoIt's a copyright thing
- torginus 11mo agoThey really should've added the demo files.
- grepfru_it 11mo agostill copyrighted
- torginus 11mo agoI doubt you would run afoul of the law by freely distributing something intended for free distribution
- doublerabbit 11mo agoIs it a risk worth taking though? It is EA games.
- grepfru_it 11mo agoI think you should reread the license so you don’t inadvertently run foul of its distribution clause
- gjs278 11mo ago[dead]
- brovonov 11mo agoYes, because they don't own the assets.
- RankingMember 11mo agoyeah, bit of a buzzkill. What's the point of being able to launch from a web browser if you've gotta go dig up the game anyways?
- tgv 11mo agoNow you can run it on more platforms.
- nonethewiser 11mo agoPoint taken, but there is an answer to your questions. Cross platform compatibility
- Aurornis 11mo agoThe point is they don’t get sued for distributing game assets they don’t own. If they could distribute them, they would.
- YcYc10 11mo agoBut what is the point of the project?
- voxic11 11mo agoIt patches the game with a modernized UX, implements a new client-server multiplayer networking model, allows you to play the game on systems which don't support it like macOS, and adds better support for modding. Overall it just updates the experience to meet modern gaming expectations. They have a whole section of their website where they list the features. https://chronodivide.com/#features https://chronodivide.com/#features
- pjmlp 11mo ago> for good performance, Firefox should be avoided Oh well. Then again, the demo is only usable for those with existing assets.
- nottorp 11mo ago> for good performance, Firefox should be avoided Can't, for privacy reasons.
- oniony 11mo agoCan, use Waterfox instead.
- littlecranky67 11mo agoHe was referring to chrome
- hackernewds 11mo agoIt's a joke
- dsnr 11mo agoI wonder what’s wrong with Firefox? What is the bottleneck? The JavaScript engine? I’m guessing the thing is compiled to wasm anyway.
- voxic11 11mo agoThe bottleneck is webgl. I'm not sure why exactly but firefox is pretty well known to have significantly worse webgl performance than can be achieved with chrome.
- lukan 11mo ago"I'm not sure why exactly" I would guess because the GPU world is messy and full of broken drivers full of hacks and workarounds, so it is rather a miracle that FF works so good, with the few engineers they have left. (If you are on a chrome based browser, open chrome://gpu to get a glimpse into the work they have been doing just for your GPU and plattform)
- bennyp101 11mo agoHow does OpenRA[0] do it? Is it just a X has expired thing? Edit: Oh maybe you do have to have the assets now? I swear last time I used it, it was all online :/ [0] https://www.openra.net https://www.openra.net
- jsk2600 11mo agoOpenRA does not distribute game assets, but they can be downloaded from OpenRA launcher.
- catapart 11mo agoSince you broached the topic, I've got an open curiosity about projects like that: if I manufactured entirely new assets, completely independently from the source game (possibly not even matching the source; like a different "skin" or "theme"), and then used those assets in a "clone" (in all but assets) of the source game, would that run afoul of IP law? I'm aware that anything can be litigated, but is there some quirk of IP protection for that kind of thing, or would I be able to use the cloned source with completely new assets without really infringing on anything? Does the cloned (re-coded? recomposed? clean-roomed?) source cause issues or create some kind of legal link from the original assets to the unrelated ones? Again, just idle curiosity. No actual intentions here, so just wondering if anyone has some deeper knowledge on the subject.
- afavour 11mo agoIIRC if you make entirely new assets you're good to go. OpenTTD (Open source version of Transport Tycoon Deluxe) has its own custom made assets, but can also be used with the original if you own them. https://www.openttd.org https://www.openttd.org Not sure it's ever been proven definitively in court, though. And if you "made" custom assets that were exactly like the original ones only with a 1px color difference or something I'm sure you'd fall foul of it. What counts as different "enough" is always debatable.
- mikepurvis 11mo agoIt would probably be the usual clean room reverse engineering rules: one guy describes the assets to be cloned, and then another guy who has never seen the originals uses that documentation to create the replacements. Once you've seen the originals, you're contaminated and no longer suitable for the role of doing the replacement work.
- doublerabbit 11mo agoI will throw out that if anyone does want to play RA2/YR multiplayer you can for free here: https://cncnet.org/red-alert-2 https://cncnet.org/red-alert-2
- b112 11mo agoNeat project. If looking for gameplay like this, OpenRA does play a few games without original game assets. I don't think RA2 though.
- Telaneo 11mo agoYes! This'll be fun to show some friends who are fans.
- RankingMember 11mo agoIt'd be cool if there was a similar site but using OpenRA to avoid the need for local assets.
- CursedSilicon 11mo agoOpenRA has been promising Tiberian Sun/Red Alert 2 support since 2011 Instead of working on finishing it though they just add more tedious features to RA1 (an in-game encyclopaedia, really?)
- tehwebguy 11mo agoIt was kind of a blast but a couple of newly introduced bugs this year or late last year totally killed it for me.
- robtaylor 11mo agoIt used to be great, but the 'community' has some grim individuals sadly.
- paulryanrogers 11mo agoDoes every engine need to support every game in a series? I think it's fine for OpenRA to focus on what they enjoy most, and others to cover other games.
- stego-tech 11mo agoIncoming HN hug. Love it, can’t wait to poke at it from home later.
- evanjrowley 11mo ago1. The source code for Red Alert 2 is rumored to be lost a very long time ago[0], so the fact that the Chrono Divide team was able to achieve this is quite amazing. 2. The Mental Omega mod project[1] is going strong, so RA2 is still worth playing today. Hopefully it will work in this browser-based version. [0] https://forums.revora.net/topic/107344-red-alert-2-engine-source-code/?p=1047759 https://forums.revora.net/topic/107344-red-alert-2-engine-so... [1] https://mentalomega.com/ https://mentalomega.com/
- s_dev 11mo agoShame because EA released the source code for most of the other C&C games: https://github.com/electronicarts/ https://github.com/electronicarts/ So if they had it they'd would have almost certainly included RA2 in that as well.
- swat535 11mo agoI’ve heard that the Tiberian Sun and Firestorm source code were also lost. To this day I haven’t found a game that replicates the magic of 1999 era of RTS..
- Rover222 11mo agoHow the hell could they LOSE the source code to that game? All copies of it. Not arguing with you, just saying if that's true, it's insane.
- dleslie 11mo agoVideo Game asset and source control retention was _terrible_. Hell, it's still terrible. Prior to ~2010 we were simply deleting source code and assets for finished projects; either because they weren't owned by the developer due to a publishing deal, or because the developers didn't want to reuse their garbage code. Same follows for assets, often they were owned by the publisher and not the developer, but if the developer did happen to own them they'd rarely see reuse in future projects. And publishers didn't catch on to the value of data retention until remakes started to make serious money.
- warpspin 11mo agoI loved Red Alert 2 so much at release. Always was the pinnacle of (single player) RTS for me. The over-the-top characters, the cheesy story, the terrain interactions... Everything afterwards felt lame and was geared too much towards multiplayer balance, which does not interest me the least.
- teeray 11mo ago> The over-the-top characters, the cheesy story I love that they don't take themselves too seriously in this series. RA3 had some hilarious cutscenes with characters barely holding it together (the Soviet Premier was an underrated Tim Curry role IMO).
- Xelbair 11mo ago"I'm escaping to the one place that hasn't been corrupted by capitalism, barely holds laughter back and takes a break SPACE!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1Sq1Nr58hM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1Sq1Nr58hM
- philistine 11mo agoHe looked up! It's vital to mention that in this moment, renowned character actor Tim Curry, to highlight the fact that he was going to space, chose to look up!
- ceejayoz 11mo agoI wish there was a behind-the-scenes of this.
- tomaskafka 11mo agoAbsolutely! I don't have time to play a RTS campaign, but I watched the RA3 story cutscenes and they are the top of the genre.
- Anon_troll 11mo agoIt's a shame the campaign of RA3 was boring. They got the theme and cutscenes right, but the campaign missions were rather slow, generic and forgettable. It's the opposite of C&C3, which had a good campaign but the theme was a step back from the scifi of Tiberian Sun. Especially the GDI/NOD units were way less futuristic, and the alien ones were a bit too similar to each other in style. The cutscenes were also mostly boring compared to earlier games. If I recall correctly, the expansion pack for C&C3 was much more interesting in these aspects, but the gameplay suffered.
- Joshua-Peter 11mo ago[flagged]
- Finnucane 11mo agoClick on web site, see unreadable light-grey-on-white text, say, fuck that and leave.
- Andrew-Tate 11mo ago[dead]
- tinyhouse 11mo agoWhere can I find / buy a local executable of the game?
- doublerabbit 11mo agoSteam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2229850/Command__Conquer_Red_Alert_2_and_Yuris_Revenge/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/2229850/Command__Conquer_... The whole bundle for £6 or £1.60 for RA2/YR.
- lostmsu 11mo agoDamn this is much better than playing on actual Windows desktop. It is positively awesome! Yuri's Revenge when? Also, if that's a non-profit fan project, why is the source code not available?
- lostmsu 11mo agoHow does it work?
- xangel 11mo ago"It just works."
- wahnfrieden 11mo agoThis game was a big part of my childhood. I ran a somewhat popular modding site for it, "RA2 Factory" (as well as "Tiberian Sun Factory"). I spent more time honing my dev skills building these sites as well as modding editor tools than I did actually playing with any mods though. I even visited their studios in LA during a cross-country Amtrak trip. They were very kind, especially the community manager (whose name escapes me). I was given a tour and allowed to play Yuri's Revenge before its release. They gave me a Dune 2 box and C&C poster which I still have somewhere.
- OptionOfT 11mo agoI wonder if this is a complete rewrite. When you have a large ship, like the Aircraft Carrier or Dreadnaught, you'll notice that its rotation is much smoother than in the original game.
- Zardoz84 11mo agoKirov reporting
- superconduct123 11mo agoAnyone else feel like real-time strategy games with full 3D just never look as good as old 2D ones? I think its something about the perspective warping of the 3D camera that makes 3D RTS games look weird to me
- jszymborski 11mo agoI alsi feel this way about point n' click adventure games. Something about pre-rendered graphics that makes me feel great.
- patates 11mo agoWith 3D, you get unlimited amount of angles to view with less detail compared to 2D, a detailed well designed angle (or 2, or 3).
- Keyframe 11mo agoabsolutely, and I don't think it's due to our nostalgic-tinted glasses. Not everything has to be 3D.
- Etherlord87 11mo agoIt's largely about pattern detection in our brains. If the pixels always look the same, it's easier to spot them. For many people graphics in a video game are a secondary addition but the decision making is uncontested priority; modern 3D graphics get in the way by making everything less readable.
- dgan 11mo agoI was so mad when they made Warcraft into 3D. It looked childish and killed the vibe entirely for me
- hackerbeat 11mo agoYeah, I think new games in style of the old Warcraft games would be a huge success.
- npteljes 11mo ago
- asadm 11mo agoI still play this with my friends. Yearly, we do it in person atleast once.
- intalentive 11mo agoWeb based gaming has a bright future. Why pay a distributor if you can just host your game on the web? Pretty good cross platform compatibility…
- cc-d 11mo agoExcellent opinion HN chad. Bring back the java applets.
- xangel 11mo agoThank you so much guys, you've made my day! Life isn't so bad after all.
- HelloUsername 11mo agoIt seems many people here seem to misunderstand you need the original files yourself; you don't. If you read carefuly: "import an archive containing *.mix files from a web URL." They provide you this (archive.org) URL! Simply click the Download button and start playing. Also on Firefox. And, unfortunately, Chronodivide does not work with Yuri's Revenge expansion; apparently that game is build differently.
- DrammBA 11mo ago> They provide you this (archive.org) URL! That wasn't the case when I checked the site a few hours ago, the autopopulated link is new.
- HelloUsername 11mo ago> That wasn't the case when I checked the site a few hours ago, the autopopulated link is new. Sorry, didn't know. That's very strange, I've never had that in all my times playing Chronodivide. Just in case the URL field is empty for someone: https://archive.org/download/red-alert-2-multiplayer/Red-Alert-2-Multiplayer.exe https://archive.org/download/red-alert-2-multiplayer/Red-Ale...
- dmitrygr 11mo agoOnce they add support for Yuri's Revenge, i'll be guaranteed to never ever again accomplish anything else
- cc-d 11mo agovery based works extremely well nice job team
- elemdos 11mo agoThis but C&C Generals would be a dream come true
- __turbobrew__ 11mo agoCan I have some shoes? AK-47’s for EVERYONE!
- yigithan 11mo agoI love the whole Command & Conquer series. As others have pointed out, even though the graphics were 2D and pixelated, the soundtracks would really draw you into the atmosphere. I cannot describe how good it felt to play these games during school breaks, sometimes until dawn. These games were the sole reason we upgraded the RAM on our PC whenever a new one came out. I bought the bundle from EA a couple of years back and still play it occasionally. This will be my son’s first PC game too.
- into_the_void 11mo agoInteresting that the main menu buttons, UI, etc. are actual HTML elements (divs) but the full game itself is a full canvas (expected). Why are there performance issues on Firefox?