4 ms·

There's very little processing power needed for that demo, outside access to the GPU via WebGL for rendering. It's a completely different model from HTML/CSS. A

by Jare 13y ago

There's very little processing power needed for that demo, outside access to the GPU via WebGL for rendering. It's a completely different model from HTML/CSS. And WebGL will not be available for Android WebViews (or iOS ones for that matter) for quite a while yet.

frik 13y ago
It's sad, Google and Apple try protect their walled garden app-stores by all means. Android 4.4+ are based on Chrome/blink for the WebView but they deactivated the hardware acceleration for Canvas2D and removed WebGL support, as well as Web Audio API. [1] iOS 4+ support WebGL in the webkit engine, but it's only enabled for iAds. [2] [1] http://www.html5gamedevs.com/topic/1915-android-44-kitkat-includes-chromium-powered-web-view/ http://www.html5gamedevs.com/topic/1915-android-44-kitkat-in... [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebGL http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebGL and the related discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7265230 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7265230
- andybak 13y ago
  I don't quite see the argument here. To quote from your link: > Chrome for Android supports a few features which aren't enabled in the WebView, including: If Google was trying to protect the app-store walled-garden - surely that would mean the reverse? Currently in-browser games that bypass the appstore completely have access to more features than native apps?
  - frik 13y ago
    Both companies cripple HTML5 support on their mobile OS. Developers are left with almost no choice but to write native apps for their platform (if they care about execution speed). It fits perfectly in the picture that Apple doesn't allow alternative browser engines. Chrome for iOS just embeds UIWebView and there is no Firefox for the same reason. The JavaScript JIT is disabled for UIWebView, and only enabled for Safari.app. In an ideal world, one could write powerful HTML5 apps that run on Android, iOS, FirefoxOS and desktop browsers. And AppsStores would allow one to add an entry to the apps web URL or at least provide an non-crippled WebView so that one can write a simple wrapper app (or use phonegap/etc).
    - Mikeb85 13y ago
      Google allows many browsers on Android, you can install Firefox or Aurora and use Firefox apps. You can run all the newest HTML5 features on Chrome for Android. The promise of HTML5 is the open web, not apps in the Google Play store. Right now I'm running WebGL apps on my Android phone, and in Chrome you can put web apps on your homescreen with a single click in the menu. You don't need to go through any store, and you can open it like any Android app from the homescreen. What's more open than that?

by Jare 13y ago

frik 13y ago

It's sad, Google and Apple try protect their walled garden app-stores by all means. Android 4.4+ are based on Chrome/blink for the WebView but they deactivated the hardware acceleration for Canvas2D and removed WebGL support, as well as Web Audio API. [1] iOS 4+ support WebGL in the webkit engine, but it's only enabled for iAds. [2] [1] http://www.html5gamedevs.com/topic/1915-android-44-kitkat-includes-chromium-powered-web-view/ http://www.html5gamedevs.com/topic/1915-android-44-kitkat-in... [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebGL http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebGL and the related discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7265230 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7265230

andybak 13y ago
I don't quite see the argument here. To quote from your link: > Chrome for Android supports a few features which aren't enabled in the WebView, including: If Google was trying to protect the app-store walled-garden - surely that would mean the reverse? Currently in-browser games that bypass the appstore completely have access to more features than native apps?
- frik 13y ago
  Both companies cripple HTML5 support on their mobile OS. Developers are left with almost no choice but to write native apps for their platform (if they care about execution speed). It fits perfectly in the picture that Apple doesn't allow alternative browser engines. Chrome for iOS just embeds UIWebView and there is no Firefox for the same reason. The JavaScript JIT is disabled for UIWebView, and only enabled for Safari.app. In an ideal world, one could write powerful HTML5 apps that run on Android, iOS, FirefoxOS and desktop browsers. And AppsStores would allow one to add an entry to the apps web URL or at least provide an non-crippled WebView so that one can write a simple wrapper app (or use phonegap/etc).
  - Mikeb85 13y ago
    Google allows many browsers on Android, you can install Firefox or Aurora and use Firefox apps. You can run all the newest HTML5 features on Chrome for Android. The promise of HTML5 is the open web, not apps in the Google Play store. Right now I'm running WebGL apps on my Android phone, and in Chrome you can put web apps on your homescreen with a single click in the menu. You don't need to go through any store, and you can open it like any Android app from the homescreen. What's more open than that?