7 ms·

Flash vs HTML - Waste Invaders

136 points by polskibus 14y ago

wilfra 14y ago
Your landing page and the game are both amazingly well designed and fun to interact with. Some of the best work I've seen.
- degenerate 14y ago
  Agree. THIS is how you do parallax! I love how the scrollbar is nonexistent; that somehow made the experience better!
TelmoMenezes 14y ago
I'm not voting because you require me to "like" you on facebook. I wouldn't have a problem giving you a like if you weren't trying to manipulate me. I know this is not a scientific poll but just a marketing effort disguised as one, and that's ok, but I would try to be less disingenuous about it. Nice game, btw.
- pacomerh 14y ago
  "Manipulate me", oh people take this so seriously.
  - lucb1e 14y ago
    I wouldn't play any game that required me to like anything.
    - Funnnny 14y ago
      You can play the game without liking anything, can't you ?
      - ebbv 14y ago
        Yep. It's required if you want to vote in the meaningless survey, though.
  - pacomerh 14y ago
    Half the people here are just too dramatic about simple things. "My identity is sacred and my privacy is sacred". If you want to be private you already know what to do, first world problems man. Geez.
antihero 14y ago
HTML5 version ran WAY faster for me (Chromium Linux) but without sound :(
- hayksaakian 14y ago
  Was about to post the same but for chrome beta on nexus 7. No sound but way awesome FPS
- brazzy 14y ago
  To me (Firefox on Windows 7), Flash seemed a little more responsive, but not radically so.
  - StavrosK 14y ago
    HTML5 ran faster for me as well. "Faster" as in "everything was sped up at 2x".
  - holtbp 14y ago
    Did you try Chrome?
- zanny 14y ago
  Same thing here, Aurora on Arch.
fjarlq 14y ago
Two problems with the HTML5 version in Chrome: 1) No audio 2) If my mouse cursor moves off the window it loses control of the ship Flash version has neither of these problems. No idea why audio is broken. I tried a couple HTML5 audio test pages and it works there. I'm using Chrome beta 26.0.1410.28 on both Windows 7 and OSX Lion, broken on both. I didn't notice any other differences.
- coffeeaddicted 14y ago
  Exact same problems in Firefox. Also background scrolling in flash was somewhat smoother.
- commieplant 14y ago
  Try using this library for audio: http://howlerjs.com http://howlerjs.com
Lionga 14y ago
On my android (which was the only reason for HTML5) the game does not run at all.
doomlaser 14y ago
The performance of the HTML5 version is smooth and quite impressive, but HTML5's achilles heel is sound. I didn't have any audio. This game aside, I still haven't played an HTML5 game with audio that wasn't plagued by high latency / other funkiness.
- wereHamster 14y ago
  Sadly Firefox doesn't support the WebAudio API, only an older audio API. The WebAudio API was designed primarily by Google and is very nice. It's only supported by Chrome AFAIK. Last year at Google IO they had a talk about it. We use the API in our game, and it works great.
  - pbhjpbhj 14y ago
    browserquest.mozilla.org managed to do sound OK.
    - wereHamster 14y ago
      It's certainly possible to play sounds in all modern browsers. It may be a bug in the game. Or they simply decided not to support all the APIs. We did that because it doesn't make sense to support two different sound APIs when in a few months there will be one as a W3C standard supported by the two major browser engines (screw IE, it doesn't even do WebGL).
  - doublec 14y ago
    Nightly builds of Firefox are starting to get support for the Web Audio API, hidden behind a pref 'media.webaudio.enabled', which can be set in 'about:config'. At some point when it's considered more useable someone will blog about it and the state it's in.
NicholasMurray 14y ago
No noticeable difference for chrome (on xp) between each version apart from the sound.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
kayoone 14y ago
I love the open approach to the technologies. I do all my game programming in Unity (which supports Flash deployment and will offer HTML5 as soon as its ready i bet) but im also looking into HTML5 and writing games in Javascript. The website is also totally aswesome, you wrote you did it in flash ? Did you redo it in JS or convert it somehow ?
camus 14y ago
For those who wonder the tech behind is PIXI.js and some good old TweenMax/TweenLite ( js version ). I wonder if they coded sprite movements by hand or used a tool for that though. I'm just glad they did not use adobe edge ;) And yes it does run in IE9.
arocks 14y ago
They could have also included some technical parameters like framerate, memory consumption or battery usage for the sake of comparison. Even if all browsers gain universal support for HTML5, we must remember that Flash can exist outside browsers. A lot of flash games are in circulation which are simply embedded inside Office documents. The actual Flash standalone runtime is only a few megabytes in size. Flash content is highly compressed and very efficiently packed. In other words, the problem is not Flash per se, it is the Adobe runtime of Flash. Just like Google changed the browser game by introducing an extremely efficient browser, someone can (in theory) develop a mobile friendly, efficient (and open source) runtime. Flash format quite close to the ideal for games.
- wladimir 14y ago
  someone can (in theory) develop a mobile friendly, efficient (and open source) runtime I don't think the format is documented to that level. And even if it is, it is very complex and hard to get right for other implementations (and it is a moving target controlled by one player, a bit like MS office formats). And why bother? If you have the choice, why not go with HTML5 which already has some good and very fast free implementations available? Or as you're implementing your own environment anyway, go completely native?
  - arocks 14y ago
    Yes the SWF format has not been fully documented [1] by Adobe to make it easy to develop an implementation. But so was the case with Office documents, but several open source projects can now successfully read and write them. EDIT: It seems that the Flash Player EULA is a major roadblock. Once installed, you cannot perform any reverse engineering on it [2]. [1]: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/swf.html http://www.adobe.com/devnet/swf.html [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnash#Adobe_Flash_Player_End-User_License_Agreement http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnash#Adobe_Flash_Player_End-Us...
    - calinet6 14y ago
      Even if it were to be documented, I imagine it would read something like: "This API works exactly like this. Except when the user disables local storage. Oh wait, also not when the Flash version is 11.0.635.24.b. Well, also it's different if you don't have a security-inst-config.xml installed in the home directory of the user under the path .adobe/flash/securityPolicy. OH! Also it works completely differently if you're using HTTPS. And it won't work at all if you're trying to access any server without a security policy defined on the DNS TXT record third from the top. Also there are some slight issues between 3 and 5 PM GMT on Tuesdays, but a workaround can be found on the Macromedia support forums."
synor 14y ago
I lost mouse focus a couple of times by moving the pointer out of the browser window in the HTML5 version which lead to multiple game deaths. This didn't happen with the flash version. Is there some technical barrier in browsers preventing complete mouse capturing?
evadne 14y ago
Reminds me of GreenSock TweenLite and indeed they’re using it for the timeline. http://www.greensock.com/ http://www.greensock.com/
goggles99 14y ago
Game ran like complete garbage in HTML5 (Firefox 19, Windows7 i7 2600, 12GB ram). It had a very low framerate, did not respond to mouse in a timely fashion and had no sound. Ran completely smooth and flawless in Flash. Isn't progress (HTML5) great.
- edoloughlin 14y ago
  You should check your FF extensions. I had a very smooth experience on a much older setup: FF19, OS X 10.7.5, Core2Duo 2.9GHz (MaxBookPro late 2008), 4GB RAM. I found that the HTML5 version tracked my mouse cursor more smoothly then Flash.
  - babuskov 14y ago
    As long as your users have the same problem as goggles99, HTML5 will not be a technology to choose. It is more likely that they already have Flash installed, than being willing to "check their extensions". BTW, HTML5 version runs really slow on my computer as well. FF1.9, Linux, Core2Duo 1.6GHz, 2GB RAM, while Flash one works flawlessly.
- jgj 14y ago
  It ran great for me in HTML5 (Firefox 19, Windows7 i7 Q720, 16GB RAM) + Firebug, et al open.
- somebehemoth 14y ago
  Your anecdotal experience says absolutely nothing about the progress of HTML5. Other folks with lesser setups aren't having the same issues as you (me included) so I suspect there is a problem with your rig.
- holtbp 14y ago
  P.S. Firefox is complete garbage compared to Chrome.
pbhjpbhj 14y ago
Flash version won't start for me, FF19 on Ubuntu with Flash 11,2,202,270.
- aliem 14y ago
  Flash on linux is dead, The only updated standard implementation comes from Google Chrome (note: not Chromium)
jandy 14y ago
That was an interesting comparison. As others have said, no sound on the HTML5 version. There were some minor differences between the two that I found interesting. The HTML5 scrolling would occasionally stutter; however, the Flash version suffered from some slight alignment issues in the tiles. Overall I was very impressed by the HTML5 version, the two were almost impossible to tell apart. I doubt (apart from the obvious audio issue) I would've known which was which if I hadn't been told beforehand.
fmavituna 14y ago
Yesterday I played this : Kingsroad - https://www.rumblegames.com/kingsroad https://www.rumblegames.com/kingsroad First I thought it was HTML 5 and the best HTML 5 game I've ever seen, turned out it's Flash Stage3D stuff. It might be possible to develop games like this in HTML 5 but I haven't seen one yet.
prs 14y ago
I tried the HTML5 game, kept pressing fire and switched to Exposé with the F3 key. Worked for me to obtain auto fire on Chrome/Mountain Lion.
monk_e_boy 14y ago
I saw the intro, then a blank deep blue screen. Nothing happened. Boring.
sspiff 14y ago
I tried both on my Windows 7 laptop from work, which runs on a first-gen i5 and HD2000 graphics. The HTML5 version runs smoothly, the Flash one is barely playable and has lots of visible tearing from the lack of VSync.
psionski 14y ago
Flash - http://imgur.com/fj0AH2r http://imgur.com/fj0AH2r HTML5 - http://imgur.com/dLmHfbE http://imgur.com/dLmHfbE I'd say HTML wins with my browser configuration.
arms 14y ago
I loved the presentation. Once I was done reading, I scrolled back up just to view the whole thing again. Now, time to try the game :)
ferongr 14y ago
I'm not really sure I could tell them apart in an ABX test. But it's not like the game is demanding in any way. The amount of sprites is way too low and they're all bitmaps. Furthermore, you don't need the webaudio api to playback an audio track and few effects concurrently, like this game does. Standard <audio> elements with the preload attribute work fine [1]. What I'd like to see is a comparison between 2D vector graphic performance of Flash compared to Web technologies as implemented in browsers. In my experience browsers are still very slow at that (without WebGL) while Flash had excellent performance for as long as I remember. [1]http://robert.ocallahan.org/2011/11/latency-of-html5-sounds.html http://robert.ocallahan.org/2011/11/latency-of-html5-sounds....
_quasimodo 14y ago
I do like the HTML5 version, but i don't want to install flash so i can't compare them. But thanks for porting your game. Gives me hope that flash might die some day.
dave1010uk 14y ago
When comparing Flash and HTML5, Flash wins 4 out of the 5 criteria but the balance scales end up with them both equal. Also, Flash gets a 0% for mobile browsers as new phones don't get Flash Player. I'm willing to be that a higher number of smart phones in use today have Flash Player installed (all but iOS and recent Android) than have a browser that supports all the HTML5 required for the game.
- holtbp 14y ago
  Flash fails to reach a large portion of the market, so Flash fails. HTML5 is the future. Also, this game (and many other flash experiences) crash my Flash plugin and take up more CPU usage than HTML5 video or canvas experiences.
  - tluyben2 14y ago
    What are you running? For me Flash does less CPU. I agree with HTML5 being the future, but the future is not now.
Mahn 14y ago
None of the two scrolled smoothly for me. I guess that makes it a draw :-)
networked 14y ago
I tried this on slightly older hardware [1] running Linux Mint 13 x86_64 and here's what I found: First, even scrolling the website itself was slow and jerky in Firefox 19.0. When I switched to Chromium 24.0.1312.56 the website scrolled nicely. The Flash version of the game ran somewhat choppily with Flash 11.0.1.152 and I could see distinct seams in the scrolling background [2]. However, it had sound and was overall playable. When I tried the HTML 5 version it ran smoothly but felt too fast (seemingly faster than the Flash version would have been with a good frame rate) and had no sound. The total memory/CPU usage as reported by Chromium's task manager is higher with Flash [3]. Unfortunately, it doesn't report the frame rate for Flash. Edit WRT the game's design: when I first played the game I went to grab a power-up and my ship apparently got enveloped in some sort of a bright and colourful energy ring. I couldn't tell whether that was a good thing that happened because I picked up the power-up or a bad thing caused by an encounter with a nearby enemy bullet. I had to watch the life counter in the top right until it happened again to know for sure that that's what it looks like when my ship explodes. The explosion looks bright, colourful and pretty, and it's not immediately clear it indicates failure. [1] http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:X61s http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:X61s; mine has an L7500 CPU. [2] http://imgur.com/qpOIwUt http://imgur.com/qpOIwUt [3] http://imgur.com/gRfi5KV,E6B1oeG http://imgur.com/gRfi5KV,E6B1oeG
n2j3 14y ago
Tested on macmini 2009 (or 2006? the one without hdmi anyway , 2GB ram, Core2 T7200@2.00GHz, Intel 945GM onboard GPU >_< etc) running Debian wheezy and compton. Surprisingly html5 was the smoothest of the two, but with no sound. Conversely, sound was crisp but the game itself seriously 'choppier' (with regards to FPS) in Flash 11.2.202.258 . Obligatory htop screenshots: http://666kb.com/i/cc6jh5a4d3wqopmqu.png http://666kb.com/i/cc6jh5a4d3wqopmqu.png < Flash http://666kb.com/i/cc6jhhh5ywa8qrlgm.png http://666kb.com/i/cc6jhhh5ywa8qrlgm.png < html5 Browser in use: Chromium 24.0.1312.68 Not sure if the compositor (compton) is responsible for the lag or something else entirely. I don't really have the time to test any further :S
Tyrant505 14y ago
I get a strange line that goes down the flash version every few seconds, nice and slowly. Chrome, rMBP.
frozenport 14y ago
1. Why does the airplane fly backwards? 2. Flash and HTML5 version shave different timings and different game-plays. HTML5 version seems to move faster but with more skipped frames.
georgeecollins 14y ago
Do you know they get the HTML5 version to be a full screen app that doesn't slide horizontally or vertically? I have been looking everywhere for how to do that in Safari. Thanks anyone.
doormat23 14y ago
Hello! The HTML5 audio does not work because I didn't have time to add it in :) The main timeline was animated in flash and we wrote a little exporter to output all the items to a js file.
doormat23 14y ago
Hello! The HTML5 audio does not work because I didn't have time to add it in :) The main timeline was animated in flash and we wrote a little exporter to output all the items to a js file.
tluyben2 14y ago
Flash version is much better. Less CPU for me as well. I do native mobile/flash/html5 versions for games I make; the html5 versions rarely get any play time. People download native on iOS/Android and on Mac/Win they play the flash version.

136 points by polskibus 14y ago

Your landing page and the game are both amazingly well designed and fun to interact with. Some of the best work I've seen.

degenerate 14y ago
Agree. THIS is how you do parallax! I love how the scrollbar is nonexistent; that somehow made the experience better!

TelmoMenezes 14y ago

I'm not voting because you require me to "like" you on facebook. I wouldn't have a problem giving you a like if you weren't trying to manipulate me. I know this is not a scientific poll but just a marketing effort disguised as one, and that's ok, but I would try to be less disingenuous about it. Nice game, btw.

pacomerh 14y ago
"Manipulate me", oh people take this so seriously.
- lucb1e 14y ago
  I wouldn't play any game that required me to like anything.
  - Funnnny 14y ago
    You can play the game without liking anything, can't you ?
    - ebbv 14y ago
      Yep. It's required if you want to vote in the meaningless survey, though.
- pacomerh 14y ago
  Half the people here are just too dramatic about simple things. "My identity is sacred and my privacy is sacred". If you want to be private you already know what to do, first world problems man. Geez.

antihero 14y ago

HTML5 version ran WAY faster for me (Chromium Linux) but without sound :(

hayksaakian 14y ago
Was about to post the same but for chrome beta on nexus 7. No sound but way awesome FPS
brazzy 14y ago
To me (Firefox on Windows 7), Flash seemed a little more responsive, but not radically so.
- StavrosK 14y ago
  HTML5 ran faster for me as well. "Faster" as in "everything was sped up at 2x".
- holtbp 14y ago
  Did you try Chrome?
zanny 14y ago
Same thing here, Aurora on Arch.

fjarlq 14y ago

Two problems with the HTML5 version in Chrome: 1) No audio 2) If my mouse cursor moves off the window it loses control of the ship Flash version has neither of these problems. No idea why audio is broken. I tried a couple HTML5 audio test pages and it works there. I'm using Chrome beta 26.0.1410.28 on both Windows 7 and OSX Lion, broken on both. I didn't notice any other differences.

coffeeaddicted 14y ago
Exact same problems in Firefox. Also background scrolling in flash was somewhat smoother.
commieplant 14y ago
Try using this library for audio: http://howlerjs.com http://howlerjs.com

Lionga 14y ago

On my android (which was the only reason for HTML5) the game does not run at all.

doomlaser 14y ago

The performance of the HTML5 version is smooth and quite impressive, but HTML5's achilles heel is sound. I didn't have any audio. This game aside, I still haven't played an HTML5 game with audio that wasn't plagued by high latency / other funkiness.

wereHamster 14y ago
Sadly Firefox doesn't support the WebAudio API, only an older audio API. The WebAudio API was designed primarily by Google and is very nice. It's only supported by Chrome AFAIK. Last year at Google IO they had a talk about it. We use the API in our game, and it works great.
- pbhjpbhj 14y ago
  browserquest.mozilla.org managed to do sound OK.
  - wereHamster 14y ago
    It's certainly possible to play sounds in all modern browsers. It may be a bug in the game. Or they simply decided not to support all the APIs. We did that because it doesn't make sense to support two different sound APIs when in a few months there will be one as a W3C standard supported by the two major browser engines (screw IE, it doesn't even do WebGL).
- doublec 14y ago
  Nightly builds of Firefox are starting to get support for the Web Audio API, hidden behind a pref 'media.webaudio.enabled', which can be set in 'about:config'. At some point when it's considered more useable someone will blog about it and the state it's in.

NicholasMurray 14y ago

No noticeable difference for chrome (on xp) between each version apart from the sound.

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

kayoone 14y ago

I love the open approach to the technologies. I do all my game programming in Unity (which supports Flash deployment and will offer HTML5 as soon as its ready i bet) but im also looking into HTML5 and writing games in Javascript. The website is also totally aswesome, you wrote you did it in flash ? Did you redo it in JS or convert it somehow ?

camus 14y ago

For those who wonder the tech behind is PIXI.js and some good old TweenMax/TweenLite ( js version ). I wonder if they coded sprite movements by hand or used a tool for that though. I'm just glad they did not use adobe edge ;) And yes it does run in IE9.

arocks 14y ago

They could have also included some technical parameters like framerate, memory consumption or battery usage for the sake of comparison. Even if all browsers gain universal support for HTML5, we must remember that Flash can exist outside browsers. A lot of flash games are in circulation which are simply embedded inside Office documents. The actual Flash standalone runtime is only a few megabytes in size. Flash content is highly compressed and very efficiently packed. In other words, the problem is not Flash per se, it is the Adobe runtime of Flash. Just like Google changed the browser game by introducing an extremely efficient browser, someone can (in theory) develop a mobile friendly, efficient (and open source) runtime. Flash format quite close to the ideal for games.

wladimir 14y ago
someone can (in theory) develop a mobile friendly, efficient (and open source) runtime I don't think the format is documented to that level. And even if it is, it is very complex and hard to get right for other implementations (and it is a moving target controlled by one player, a bit like MS office formats). And why bother? If you have the choice, why not go with HTML5 which already has some good and very fast free implementations available? Or as you're implementing your own environment anyway, go completely native?
- arocks 14y ago
  Yes the SWF format has not been fully documented [1] by Adobe to make it easy to develop an implementation. But so was the case with Office documents, but several open source projects can now successfully read and write them. EDIT: It seems that the Flash Player EULA is a major roadblock. Once installed, you cannot perform any reverse engineering on it [2]. [1]: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/swf.html http://www.adobe.com/devnet/swf.html [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnash#Adobe_Flash_Player_End-User_License_Agreement http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnash#Adobe_Flash_Player_End-Us...
  - calinet6 14y ago
    Even if it were to be documented, I imagine it would read something like: "This API works exactly like this. Except when the user disables local storage. Oh wait, also not when the Flash version is 11.0.635.24.b. Well, also it's different if you don't have a security-inst-config.xml installed in the home directory of the user under the path .adobe/flash/securityPolicy. OH! Also it works completely differently if you're using HTTPS. And it won't work at all if you're trying to access any server without a security policy defined on the DNS TXT record third from the top. Also there are some slight issues between 3 and 5 PM GMT on Tuesdays, but a workaround can be found on the Macromedia support forums."

synor 14y ago

I lost mouse focus a couple of times by moving the pointer out of the browser window in the HTML5 version which lead to multiple game deaths. This didn't happen with the flash version. Is there some technical barrier in browsers preventing complete mouse capturing?

evadne 14y ago

Reminds me of GreenSock TweenLite and indeed they’re using it for the timeline. http://www.greensock.com/ http://www.greensock.com/

goggles99 14y ago

Game ran like complete garbage in HTML5 (Firefox 19, Windows7 i7 2600, 12GB ram). It had a very low framerate, did not respond to mouse in a timely fashion and had no sound. Ran completely smooth and flawless in Flash. Isn't progress (HTML5) great.

edoloughlin 14y ago
You should check your FF extensions. I had a very smooth experience on a much older setup: FF19, OS X 10.7.5, Core2Duo 2.9GHz (MaxBookPro late 2008), 4GB RAM. I found that the HTML5 version tracked my mouse cursor more smoothly then Flash.
- babuskov 14y ago
  As long as your users have the same problem as goggles99, HTML5 will not be a technology to choose. It is more likely that they already have Flash installed, than being willing to "check their extensions". BTW, HTML5 version runs really slow on my computer as well. FF1.9, Linux, Core2Duo 1.6GHz, 2GB RAM, while Flash one works flawlessly.
jgj 14y ago
It ran great for me in HTML5 (Firefox 19, Windows7 i7 Q720, 16GB RAM) + Firebug, et al open.
somebehemoth 14y ago
Your anecdotal experience says absolutely nothing about the progress of HTML5. Other folks with lesser setups aren't having the same issues as you (me included) so I suspect there is a problem with your rig.
holtbp 14y ago
P.S. Firefox is complete garbage compared to Chrome.

pbhjpbhj 14y ago

Flash version won't start for me, FF19 on Ubuntu with Flash 11,2,202,270.

aliem 14y ago
Flash on linux is dead, The only updated standard implementation comes from Google Chrome (note: not Chromium)

jandy 14y ago

That was an interesting comparison. As others have said, no sound on the HTML5 version. There were some minor differences between the two that I found interesting. The HTML5 scrolling would occasionally stutter; however, the Flash version suffered from some slight alignment issues in the tiles. Overall I was very impressed by the HTML5 version, the two were almost impossible to tell apart. I doubt (apart from the obvious audio issue) I would've known which was which if I hadn't been told beforehand.

fmavituna 14y ago

Yesterday I played this : Kingsroad - https://www.rumblegames.com/kingsroad https://www.rumblegames.com/kingsroad First I thought it was HTML 5 and the best HTML 5 game I've ever seen, turned out it's Flash Stage3D stuff. It might be possible to develop games like this in HTML 5 but I haven't seen one yet.

prs 14y ago

I tried the HTML5 game, kept pressing fire and switched to Exposé with the F3 key. Worked for me to obtain auto fire on Chrome/Mountain Lion.

monk_e_boy 14y ago

I saw the intro, then a blank deep blue screen. Nothing happened. Boring.

sspiff 14y ago

I tried both on my Windows 7 laptop from work, which runs on a first-gen i5 and HD2000 graphics. The HTML5 version runs smoothly, the Flash one is barely playable and has lots of visible tearing from the lack of VSync.

psionski 14y ago

Flash - http://imgur.com/fj0AH2r http://imgur.com/fj0AH2r HTML5 - http://imgur.com/dLmHfbE http://imgur.com/dLmHfbE I'd say HTML wins with my browser configuration.

arms 14y ago

I loved the presentation. Once I was done reading, I scrolled back up just to view the whole thing again. Now, time to try the game :)

ferongr 14y ago

I'm not really sure I could tell them apart in an ABX test. But it's not like the game is demanding in any way. The amount of sprites is way too low and they're all bitmaps. Furthermore, you don't need the webaudio api to playback an audio track and few effects concurrently, like this game does. Standard <audio> elements with the preload attribute work fine [1]. What I'd like to see is a comparison between 2D vector graphic performance of Flash compared to Web technologies as implemented in browsers. In my experience browsers are still very slow at that (without WebGL) while Flash had excellent performance for as long as I remember. [1]http://robert.ocallahan.org/2011/11/latency-of-html5-sounds.html http://robert.ocallahan.org/2011/11/latency-of-html5-sounds....

_quasimodo 14y ago

I do like the HTML5 version, but i don't want to install flash so i can't compare them. But thanks for porting your game. Gives me hope that flash might die some day.

dave1010uk 14y ago

When comparing Flash and HTML5, Flash wins 4 out of the 5 criteria but the balance scales end up with them both equal. Also, Flash gets a 0% for mobile browsers as new phones don't get Flash Player. I'm willing to be that a higher number of smart phones in use today have Flash Player installed (all but iOS and recent Android) than have a browser that supports all the HTML5 required for the game.

holtbp 14y ago
Flash fails to reach a large portion of the market, so Flash fails. HTML5 is the future. Also, this game (and many other flash experiences) crash my Flash plugin and take up more CPU usage than HTML5 video or canvas experiences.
- tluyben2 14y ago
  What are you running? For me Flash does less CPU. I agree with HTML5 being the future, but the future is not now.

Mahn 14y ago

None of the two scrolled smoothly for me. I guess that makes it a draw :-)

networked 14y ago

I tried this on slightly older hardware [1] running Linux Mint 13 x86_64 and here's what I found: First, even scrolling the website itself was slow and jerky in Firefox 19.0. When I switched to Chromium 24.0.1312.56 the website scrolled nicely. The Flash version of the game ran somewhat choppily with Flash 11.0.1.152 and I could see distinct seams in the scrolling background [2]. However, it had sound and was overall playable. When I tried the HTML 5 version it ran smoothly but felt too fast (seemingly faster than the Flash version would have been with a good frame rate) and had no sound. The total memory/CPU usage as reported by Chromium's task manager is higher with Flash [3]. Unfortunately, it doesn't report the frame rate for Flash. Edit WRT the game's design: when I first played the game I went to grab a power-up and my ship apparently got enveloped in some sort of a bright and colourful energy ring. I couldn't tell whether that was a good thing that happened because I picked up the power-up or a bad thing caused by an encounter with a nearby enemy bullet. I had to watch the life counter in the top right until it happened again to know for sure that that's what it looks like when my ship explodes. The explosion looks bright, colourful and pretty, and it's not immediately clear it indicates failure. [1] http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:X61s http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:X61s; mine has an L7500 CPU. [2] http://imgur.com/qpOIwUt http://imgur.com/qpOIwUt [3] http://imgur.com/gRfi5KV,E6B1oeG http://imgur.com/gRfi5KV,E6B1oeG

n2j3 14y ago

Tested on macmini 2009 (or 2006? the one without hdmi anyway , 2GB ram, Core2 T7200@2.00GHz, Intel 945GM onboard GPU >_< etc) running Debian wheezy and compton. Surprisingly html5 was the smoothest of the two, but with no sound. Conversely, sound was crisp but the game itself seriously 'choppier' (with regards to FPS) in Flash 11.2.202.258 . Obligatory htop screenshots: http://666kb.com/i/cc6jh5a4d3wqopmqu.png http://666kb.com/i/cc6jh5a4d3wqopmqu.png < Flash http://666kb.com/i/cc6jhhh5ywa8qrlgm.png http://666kb.com/i/cc6jhhh5ywa8qrlgm.png < html5 Browser in use: Chromium 24.0.1312.68 Not sure if the compositor (compton) is responsible for the lag or something else entirely. I don't really have the time to test any further :S

Tyrant505 14y ago

I get a strange line that goes down the flash version every few seconds, nice and slowly. Chrome, rMBP.

frozenport 14y ago

1. Why does the airplane fly backwards? 2. Flash and HTML5 version shave different timings and different game-plays. HTML5 version seems to move faster but with more skipped frames.

georgeecollins 14y ago

Do you know they get the HTML5 version to be a full screen app that doesn't slide horizontally or vertically? I have been looking everywhere for how to do that in Safari. Thanks anyone.

doormat23 14y ago

Hello! The HTML5 audio does not work because I didn't have time to add it in :) The main timeline was animated in flash and we wrote a little exporter to output all the items to a js file.

doormat23 14y ago

Hello! The HTML5 audio does not work because I didn't have time to add it in :) The main timeline was animated in flash and we wrote a little exporter to output all the items to a js file.

tluyben2 14y ago

Flash version is much better. Less CPU for me as well. I do native mobile/flash/html5 versions for games I make; the html5 versions rarely get any play time. People download native on iOS/Android and on Mac/Win they play the flash version.