
Chrome World Wide Maze - pytrin
http://chrome.com/maze/
======
zerovox
I think this is the first time I've been genuinely impressed with a Chrome
Experiment.

They've recreated Super Monkey Ball entirely inside the browser, with the
option of using a device as a controller. Certainly an interesting concept for
multiplayer gaming, imagine Chrome running on a Smart TV(Chrome OS TV?) and a
couple of friends can hook up their mobiles as controllers, and play some
casual party style games like Monkey Ball or Mario Party.

~~~
Kiro
Yes, that's what I've been dreaming of ever since I first saw a smartphone.
I'm very surprised it isn't as obvious to other people how cool it would be.
The smartphone is the perfect game controller.

For example a strategy game played on a TV together with friends where each
phone is not only used for controls but also showing (private) game data and
more!

~~~
andypants
No, it's not a perfect game controller. A convenient one maybe, but not
perfect, not even good.

It has the same problem that you would encounter if you tried touch typing on
an iphone keyboard. It has no physical feedback so you have no idea if you are
pressing the correct button (or any button at all) on the phone screen unless
you are actually looking at it. Which means you won't be able to look at the
TV screen at the same time.

~~~
cgislason
Don't you think the reality is some middle ground? It's a perfect game
controller _for some games_.

~~~
andypants
Yeah, you're right. I was thinking in terms of a traditional console game
controller. A phone has other features that could be used like speakers,
microphone, accelerometer, etc. As a motion device it would be great,
definitely.

------
garethadams
The reason this is so impressive is that it brings together three technologies
that people aren't used to even seeing _one_ good implementation of yet:

    
    
      * HTML5 accelerometer support  
      * Sync between mobile/desktop using websockets  
      * Web page slicing based (by the look of it) on DOM and image processing
    

…and of course this is in a nice responsive WebGL-rendered package, which
people _are_ getting more used to thanks to the
<http://www.chromeexperiments.com/> project.

~~~
flexie
It also uses

* Battery

Lot's of it on my iPhone. But it's worth it :-)

~~~
gngeal
You know, that one also has yet to be seen with a good implementation.

------
logn
Works on Chrome only. Reminds me of the good old "Best Viewed in Internet
Explorer (click here to download)" days.

~~~
mtgx
It's an "experiment", which means it could be using some of the latest and
cutting edge HTML5 specs. Chrome happens to be very good at supporting the
latest specs. It's significantly more ahead than Firefox, and it's way, way,
_way_ ahead even than the latest version of IE.

So if an "experiment" meant to use the latest technologies happens to "only
work in Chrome", don't blame Chrome for implementing the specs much faster
than anyone else, and then developers taking advantage of them. Blame IE and
others for not implementing HTML5 specs fast enough.

Unlike in the IE6 age where Microsoft did _not_ follow the HTML standards, and
made up their own new technologies, other browsers couldn't have implemented
them even if they wanted to. In this case, if IE can't play this experiment,
it just means it will be able to play it after one or two other major
releases, once they get off their asses and get around to supporting the specs
Chrome is support today. It doesn't mean they will never be able to support
them (again, unlike with IE's tech in the "IE6 age").

~~~
azakai
> It's an "experiment", which means it could be using some of the latest and
> cutting edge HTML5 specs.

That's fair.

> Chrome happens to be very good at supporting the latest specs. It's
> significantly more ahead than Firefox, and it's way, way, way ahead even
> than the latest version of IE.

That's not accurate. Chrome is ahead in some areas, but behind in others.

But the bigger point is that the site says

> "We're sorry, but World Wide Maze is an experiment that was designed with
> the browser Google Chrome in mind."

If it said "with modern HTML5 in mind", that would be fine. But it says it was
designed for Chrome, not for standards.

~~~
Recoil42
>Chrome is ahead in some areas, but behind in others.

Correct, but as a whole, it's _significantly more ahead than Firefox, and it's
way, way, way ahead than even the latest version of IE._ What you said doesn't
contradict that point.

~~~
azakai
I don't agree that it is "significantly more ahead than Firefox" - can you
back that up? There is a long list of features that each of those browsers
has, that the other does not.

As for IE, I don't run Windows, so I know less about it.

~~~
unconed
Firefox:

* No CSS shaders

* CSS 3D is still very buggy (<http://acko.net/#force3d>) despite the support being over a year old now. Also renders without anti-aliasing, which makes it really ugly.

* Both Firebug and the built-in inspector seriously lack compared to Chrome's dev tools which has a per-frame timeline, profiler, etc. Instead they added the rather pointless 3D tilt view of the DOM which doesn't show you the actual DOM layers (unlike this 5 minute CSS 3D hack: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-oQj9Y9I6I>) and hence is just a misleading gimmick.

* No in-browser code editing/saving

* No Web Audio API

* No desktop notifications

* No MP3, no AAC, no H.264 support (on OSX anyway), the three most common audio and video codecs.

* No date/time picker, no color picker, no number range field

Yeah, I know there are reasons behind this, but still, the picture is heavily
skewed in Chrome's favor

As for IE... CSS 3D support is incomplete (no nesting), its dev tools are
pretty crap, and they seem to be actively ignoring standards like WebGL and
pushing their own spec for WebRTC.

~~~
azakai
Those are indeed features that are missing from Firefox, yes. Although several
are already there in nightly builds (WebAudio, number range, for example).

As I said earlier, it is easy to compile such a list from the other direction,
stuff Chrome is missing. A few off the top of my head:

* A wide range of ES6 features, see <http://kangax.github.com/es5-compat-table/es6/>

* Proper fullscreen mode (resized)

* OPUS codec

* Microdata

* Scoped style

* asm.js

* etc.

All those are in Firefox.

Again, both Firefox and Chrome are ahead of each other in various ways.
Deciding which is "overall" more ahead means which features you care about -
do you care more about JS language features or HTML forms? WebAudio or Opus?
etc. There is no clear winner.

~~~
greggman
* asm.js is not a standard and was only announced 2 weeks ago. Hardly a fair comparison.

* ES6 features? All disabled on FF19.

* OPUS codec? Who uses that? Which codecs to support is not part of any standard. Browsers are free to support what they want. But at the same time, not being able to play the most common audio and video formats seems like a far bigger issue.

* What's "proper fullscreen mode?"

~~~
azakai
asm.js is not a standard, but neither are various things on html5test. I agree
it and those other things are less important though.

Not all ES6 features are disabled? For example WeakMap.

OPUS would be used by more people if more browsers than Firefox supported it
;)

Proper fullscreen mode is fullscreen where the element has the right css, that
makes it fill the screen as per the spec. Chrome does not do that yet.

------
qznc
What is it?

For me only a loading screen is shown.

Update: Found a video <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AvTl9aU5D8>

~~~
matthuggins
I'm having the same issue.

------
jgs1
Playing <http://theverge.com> with my Android phone - the final path just
before the end of the level reads "Why Andy Rubin and Android called it
quits".

------
cdi
I see no reason why this should be a Chrome exclusive in PC only mode. Firefox
supports WebGl.

~~~
pytrin
You're technically right (and I found it annoying too) - but it is a "Chrome"
expriment... naturally it would only support Chrome.

~~~
bzbarsky
Why "naturally", if other browsers also implement the relevant technologies?

~~~
pytrin
They create those demos to attract users to their browser - kind of defeats
the purpose if you can run it using any browser. I actually downloaded mobile
chrome on to run this - I usually run Firefox.

~~~
bzbarsky
If your purpose is to attract users rather than advance the web, sure.

But they _claim_ that the purpose of these demos is to advance the web.

That's not to mention that claims like "only works in Chrome" when in fact it
works elsewhere happen to be lies. I guess no one worries about that sort of
thing nowadays...

------
m4tthumphrey
Holy shit this is absolutely incredible. My mind has been blown.

------
drv
The first thing that showed up when I visited this page (in Chrome, no less):

"This page is in Spanish; would you like to translate it?"

Other than that, it seems to be just stuck on the loading screen.

~~~
k-mcgrady
I got the translation suggestion too (no idea why). The load time took about
45 seconds for me.

------
sgdesign
So that's what the Google Reader team is working on now!

------
guylhem
I would love to see some apps better integrated - basic stuff like calendar
and todo (BTW check out <http://drive.google.com/keep> \- it's a rival to
Evernote)

That was solved and properly done tens of years ago on the palm. Why can't I
have something at least as good right into the browser, synced with my google
account??

(Edit: not the wrong place since you already do your mail with a browser...
and keep your contacts... and your todos... just remove the middleman, the
website, and put everything in the browser. My guess is end users might love
that)

~~~
anoncow
Eventually every software evolves to include email natively.

~~~
otibom
Including Common Lisp.

------
gcb0
Chrome, bringing back the "best viewed with Internet Explorer" banners...

(and now the kids have no idea what i'm talking about :)

------
AlexMuir
Mindbending.

Sometimes you have to actually play with something to appreciate its
potential.

------
faceyspacey
How do they get other web pages, given cross-domain constraints? Are they
downloading the page on the server into a headless browser like Phantom JS,
and then delivering the result to your browser to be manipulated using WebGL
and Javascript?

I get that there are capabilities like drawWindow() to turn parts of the dom
into raster images programmatically, but how doe they suck the web page into
your browser in the first place, given cross domain constraints???

~~~
faceyspacey
I actually think I got it, and it's less impressive than I thought. Check this
Screenshot: <http://snapplr.com/hb27> ...they're essentially rendering the
entire site in a headless browser like Phantom JS on their server and taking a
screenshot (i.e. basic stuff any intermediate javascript developer can do).

Next, they're manipulating a basic image with WebGL, etc.

...So this is NOT impressive because they have lost the dom, unlike Firefox
Tilt which maintains knowledge of the DOM the entire time--for example you can
continue to edit the web page as you're playing around with the rendering in
3D space. With this you could not do that.

Tilt is a firefox addon, which must be where they get access other domains.
Without being a firefox add on (or Chrome Extension), I was imagining this
Maze experiment rendering the dom of another site in a headless browser on
their server, and then delivering the resulting HTML to your page with all the
absolute and relative URL paths of images and files adjusted so that they
would render on another domain. And then at this point, the WebGL stuff could
happen, manipulating an actual dom.

That all said, there are a few things that happen in the game that suggest
knowledge of the dom, such as the way the make text have a 3D bubble cloud
style. Maybe they are in fact doing some analysis in a headless browser, aside
from just making a simple screenshot. They also break up logical portions of
the page. So maybe the find the coordinates and dimensions of these logical
portions and then in webgl crop the large image of the page at these exact
coordinates.

I'm sure someone else has done a more thorough analysis. Would love to know
what anyone else finds here to figure out how they're doing what they're
doing.

~~~
skeletonjelly
How are they aware of the DOM level though? Certain elements pop out, are you
suggesting they just use path mapping? It would be easier to, along with the
screenshot, send the DOM tree hierarchy with some coordinates no? Still kind
of impressive, but true it's no Tilt.

------
lazugod
What awkward emphasis put on syncing your phone with Chrome.

------
craigerrington
Literally just read [http://www.fastcolabs.com/3007250/open-
company/boxs-65-year-...](http://www.fastcolabs.com/3007250/open-
company/boxs-65-year-old-android-engineer-gives-your-startup-some-
unsentimental-advice#) from HN and saw mention of "Maze Wars" for the first
time ever...Then an hour later, a Chrome Project with mobile controller pops
up. I love the future.

------
shurcooL
Does anyone know if the websocket connection goes through the internet, or if
there's anyway it can shortloop to using LAN if both devices are on the same
network?

I got disconnected twice within 1 minute, so I'm guessing the former... That,
and I suppose unless you literally give it the internal IP of a device, it
can't really make any assumptions (i.e. it's meant to work over internet too).

------
morganwilde
Unbelievable, my eyeballs were bursting out of their sockets when I saw
this... Thank you Google for showing the way!

------
albertzeyer
The connect doesn't work for me. I tried using the TabSync method and by
typing the code manually. It just keep saying "please enter the 6-digit code".

Does this try to do a direct connection? In my network, that probably wouldn't
work because of our firewall. Or it might if the port it listens on is high
enough.

~~~
spydum
No, it does not. It appears to be going back through googles systems as the in
between. I was able to play it and I know for certain my pc and tablet have no
direct connectivity

------
rockfort
For me, the Screen just flickers when I'm ingame and I get a huge headache :(

It does pick up on the smartphone movement on the minimap, but the ball wont
move… I can jump tho.

Any ideas? (OSX 10.6.8, Chrome Version 25.0.1364.172 // iPhone 4 10.6.2,
Chrome Version 25.0.1364.124)

------
gregparadee
This is the most impressive "experiment" I have seen come out of Google in a
long time. Hopefully others will start to take advantage of these new
technologies and we will start seeing more things like this. +1 to Google. Pun
intended.

------
drunken_thor
Okay so before I even got to the actual experiment I was impressed that the
music on the page only plays while you are currently viewing the page, so if
you are on another tab the music stops! I want to know how to just do that!

~~~
elisee
I haven't looked at the source code but according to
[https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/DOM/Using_the_Page_...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/DOM/Using_the_Page_Visibility_API), you can simply register a onblur /
onfocus event handler on the window object (this doesn't use the recent Page
Visibility API, it's been possible for a long time)

------
cromwellian
The basic control mechanism was also detailed at Google I/O 2012 in this
session: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lMcNPDR6uw>

------
namenotrequired
It tells me to use chrome while I am on chrome...

------
tonetheman
Wish I could see it. Way too many passwords hoops to jump through to get
everything setup. The idea is cool though.

~~~
drivebyacct2
Huh? Chrome on Android will auto-login to your Google account.

~~~
skeletonjelly
Had to enter my password here.

------
Achshar
My PC is not fast enough, the intro lags very badly. And I don't have a ICS
phone, so no way to run chrome :(

------
adlpz
Doesn't seem to do anything with a Nexus 7. And it does have an accelerometer
and gyroscope.

~~~
jschuur
Just played it with a Nexus 7 (wifi via tab sync) and it worked just fine. The
accelerometer was a little finicky though.

------
aaronsnoswell
Does nothing for me, just sits there loading in both Chrome 25.0.1364.172 and
canary.

------
orvtech
This is awesome! now lets get some sweet Tux Racer or Mario Kart going!
(please?)

~~~
spydum
That is a killer idea! This could totally be made multiplayer too..

~~~
orvtech
less talky talky more coding, I will supply coffee

------
sangupta
Super awesome. If this is why Google did some spring cleaning, then am happy!

------
jferge
A combination of marble blast and pacman, using websites as stages. Love it!

------
icoder
Hm, my Galaxy SII isn't compatible with Google Chrome browser. Odd.

~~~
codesuela
you need ICS for Chrome

------
cweathe2
Is there any url we could use to share a specific website?

------
phpnode
crashed my entire PC on chrome, mint-linux 64bit

edit - likely a webgl problem that I've brought upon myself by disabling the
gpu-blacklist

~~~
jplmelanson
Working perfectly with Version 25.0.1364.160 Ubuntu 12.10
(25.0.1364.160-0ubuntu0.12.10.1)

~~~
hydrology
but i got directed to this page: <http://chrome.com/maze/pc/not-supported/> on
Ubuntu 12.10 Chrome Version 25.0.1364.172

~~~
thefreeman
It depends on your video card and drivers whether WebGL will be automatically
enabled / supported. I had to go to chrome://flags and enable the

 _Override software rendering list Mac, Windows, Linux, Chrome OS, Android
Overrides the built-in software rendering list and enables GPU-acceleration on
unsupported system configurations._

Option to get WebGL enabled by default

------
soccermove
Hacker news stage is way too easy

~~~
Extigy
Nah, Google is just way OP.

------
morefranco
This is pretty damn cool....

------
f1codz
amazing. just wow. i havent been more impressed in a long time.

------
liquid_lazer
doesn't load on my machine.

------
flyheart
not supported

