5 ms·

Chrome Cube Lab

38 points by kjhughes 12y ago

stewdio 12y ago
If you’re into JavaScript pop open the browser console on this guy: http://iamthecu.be http://iamthecu.be :) Works best in Chrome / Safari / Opera.
nkozyra 12y ago
WebGL "hit a snag" on like 30% of these but the 808 one was magically timed to the tempo of a song I had playing (the tap tempo didn't work, though).
ant_sz 12y ago
Cool! It seems that other than WebGL, this experiment uses only CSS3 transform. I never thought such a complicated thing can be done by CSS. But...The faces wink a little on my firefox
josephwegner 12y ago
This is really cool. Aside from the cool tech, it seems like Google is trying to build on the viral mechanisms that made 2048 so popular - they make it really easy to fork, customize, and launch your own version. Nice idea, really.
verroq 12y ago
Why is this so slow on Firefox? Why is every single cool thing that show up on HN so slow in Firefox?
- untog 12y ago
  Sounds like something you might want to ask the Firefox team about.
  - Pacabel 12y ago
    Is that worthwhile, though? Whenever the issue of Firefox's performance or resource usage comes up, the response is usually along the lines of, "There are no problems." Then somebody usually links to http://arewefastyet.com/ http://arewefastyet.com/, using it as "evidence" that Firefox is somehow faster than the competition. Meanwhile, there are many of us sitting here using Firefox, suffering from the poor performance that was initially inquired about, wondering how it could possibly be claimed that such an obvious problem "does not exist".
    - fixermark 12y ago
      ... the bug thread then continues to the point where someone eventually says "Patches always welcome." ... which is understood polite-speak for "Yes, it's a problem. No, nobody is volunteering to fix it right now."
- walls 12y ago
  Chrome is quickly becoming the new IE. Browser demos are now frequently written and tested for the quirks and behavior of a single browser. (and it's always Chrome) This behavior people have been railing against for years is once again standard.
  - EvanYou 12y ago
    Specifically for these experiments though, CSS 3D transform has been implemented based on the same working draft for quite a while, and it's mostly being edited by folks from Apple. Firefox being slow really has little to do with people optimizing for Chrome.
  - SEJeff 12y ago
    Not really. They are based on open standards that use functionality that happens to be faster under V8 (chrome's javascript engine). In fact, this uses threejs[1] under the hood. It is just that the version of Firefox someone is using sucks in comparison to Chrome for the three.js stuff (likely WebGL). [1] http://threejs.org/ http://threejs.org/
    - Pacabel 12y ago
      In practice, an "open standard" that has only been suitably implemented by just one party really isn't all that open. Now, maybe there's a greater chance that the situation will change, and other suitable implementations will eventually arise. But until that happens, an open standard with one usable implementation really isn't different from a closed standard at all.
      - SEJeff 12y ago
        I would counter that and say, "An 'Open Standard' created and then implemented by 1 party is no different than a closed standard". However, Khronos[1], the entity that makes opengl, also made the webgl standard. The fact that mozilla hasn't done as good of a job implementing it as google has doesn't magically negate the fact that it is still an open standard (that mozilla has actually implemented, just poorly). [1] https://www.khronos.org/webgl/ https://www.khronos.org/webgl/
- drzaiusapelord 12y ago
  This is why: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=856900 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=856900
- fixermark 12y ago
  There are some issues that developers of Firefox (in aggregate) don't consider enough of a priority to fix. My personal favorite bug: [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=116083 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=116083] Long story short: "It'll be a problem until someone patches a solution in."
abeinstein 12y ago
The 'Get the Code' link is broken (https://chrome.com/cubelab#create https://chrome.com/cubelab#create). Does anyone have a link to the code?
thrush 12y ago
Does the breaking scroll bother anyone else? Besides trying to make a statement, does the breaking scroll serve any practical purpose? For example, does it give the cube on the top/first nav window a chance to load/unload? Also, it's especially weird that the button in the top left takes you all the way to the top, but the buttons on the top right manage the rest of the navigation.
- jfoutz 12y ago
  yeah, makes the back button super fun too. Each pause seems to insert itself into history.
  - raimondious 12y ago
    This is the second link I've seen today that does this (Hood.ie being the other). Can we stop this before it becomes a thing?
wzy 12y ago
Well... IE 11 failed in rendering this correctly like i knew it would. Yet every other day my PC nags be about updates

38 points by kjhughes 12y ago

If you’re into JavaScript pop open the browser console on this guy: http://iamthecu.be http://iamthecu.be :) Works best in Chrome / Safari / Opera.

nkozyra 12y ago

WebGL "hit a snag" on like 30% of these but the 808 one was magically timed to the tempo of a song I had playing (the tap tempo didn't work, though).

ant_sz 12y ago

Cool! It seems that other than WebGL, this experiment uses only CSS3 transform. I never thought such a complicated thing can be done by CSS. But...The faces wink a little on my firefox

josephwegner 12y ago

This is really cool. Aside from the cool tech, it seems like Google is trying to build on the viral mechanisms that made 2048 so popular - they make it really easy to fork, customize, and launch your own version. Nice idea, really.

verroq 12y ago

Why is this so slow on Firefox? Why is every single cool thing that show up on HN so slow in Firefox?

untog 12y ago
Sounds like something you might want to ask the Firefox team about.
- Pacabel 12y ago
  Is that worthwhile, though? Whenever the issue of Firefox's performance or resource usage comes up, the response is usually along the lines of, "There are no problems." Then somebody usually links to http://arewefastyet.com/ http://arewefastyet.com/, using it as "evidence" that Firefox is somehow faster than the competition. Meanwhile, there are many of us sitting here using Firefox, suffering from the poor performance that was initially inquired about, wondering how it could possibly be claimed that such an obvious problem "does not exist".
  - fixermark 12y ago
    ... the bug thread then continues to the point where someone eventually says "Patches always welcome." ... which is understood polite-speak for "Yes, it's a problem. No, nobody is volunteering to fix it right now."
walls 12y ago
Chrome is quickly becoming the new IE. Browser demos are now frequently written and tested for the quirks and behavior of a single browser. (and it's always Chrome) This behavior people have been railing against for years is once again standard.
- EvanYou 12y ago
  Specifically for these experiments though, CSS 3D transform has been implemented based on the same working draft for quite a while, and it's mostly being edited by folks from Apple. Firefox being slow really has little to do with people optimizing for Chrome.
- SEJeff 12y ago
  Not really. They are based on open standards that use functionality that happens to be faster under V8 (chrome's javascript engine). In fact, this uses threejs[1] under the hood. It is just that the version of Firefox someone is using sucks in comparison to Chrome for the three.js stuff (likely WebGL). [1] http://threejs.org/ http://threejs.org/
  - Pacabel 12y ago
    In practice, an "open standard" that has only been suitably implemented by just one party really isn't all that open. Now, maybe there's a greater chance that the situation will change, and other suitable implementations will eventually arise. But until that happens, an open standard with one usable implementation really isn't different from a closed standard at all.
    - SEJeff 12y ago
      I would counter that and say, "An 'Open Standard' created and then implemented by 1 party is no different than a closed standard". However, Khronos[1], the entity that makes opengl, also made the webgl standard. The fact that mozilla hasn't done as good of a job implementing it as google has doesn't magically negate the fact that it is still an open standard (that mozilla has actually implemented, just poorly). [1] https://www.khronos.org/webgl/ https://www.khronos.org/webgl/
drzaiusapelord 12y ago
This is why: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=856900 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=856900
fixermark 12y ago
There are some issues that developers of Firefox (in aggregate) don't consider enough of a priority to fix. My personal favorite bug: [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=116083 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=116083] Long story short: "It'll be a problem until someone patches a solution in."

abeinstein 12y ago

The 'Get the Code' link is broken (https://chrome.com/cubelab#create https://chrome.com/cubelab#create). Does anyone have a link to the code?

thrush 12y ago

Does the breaking scroll bother anyone else? Besides trying to make a statement, does the breaking scroll serve any practical purpose? For example, does it give the cube on the top/first nav window a chance to load/unload? Also, it's especially weird that the button in the top left takes you all the way to the top, but the buttons on the top right manage the rest of the navigation.

jfoutz 12y ago
yeah, makes the back button super fun too. Each pause seems to insert itself into history.
- raimondious 12y ago
  This is the second link I've seen today that does this (Hood.ie being the other). Can we stop this before it becomes a thing?

wzy 12y ago

Well... IE 11 failed in rendering this correctly like i knew it would. Yet every other day my PC nags be about updates