Minor remark about the headline: This appears to be a TF2 map loaded into a minimal Source Engine WebGL port as an example. TF2 itself was not ported, just enough of the Source Engine components to load a map - he could've used a map file from just about any Source Engine powered game.
Technically this is not a port. It's just an OpenGL application that can read and render the TF2 map format. A port would consist of modifying the original source (which I assume the author does not have access to, since it's a closed source product) so that it runs on a different platform.
Fair distinction. Half-Life 2 SDK open sources a decent amount of code. Take a look at his source code, a lot of it is a re-implementation of Valve's map and model data structures in Javascript with similar naming convention. Hence why I called it a "minimal port" or "ported just enough components" to load a map.
Actually, I think those problems will be solved before audio. Audio is in a terrible state with the web. We need a good 3D sound API. Flash? Ugh. Write the entire app in WebGL/JS/html and then go to flash?
Have you played with the experimental sound API in Chrome? It's not perfect (latency is an issue for sure) but it's much, much better than what's out there otherwise. The Mozilla audio API is decent, but doesn't do 3d AFAIK.
It doesn't cover the mouse problem for one simple reason: acceleration. Sure, I can tell when the pointer is on the border to my user-fullscreened window (I even have code to make sure that the user is fullscreened), but you suddenly lose track of acceleration. Since you can't grab and hide the cursor and just track raw movement deltas, you can't implement your own acceleration. That makes it impossible to do good mouse grab with current facilities.
I'm surprised you aren't already aware of this: the mouse lock API is being worked on in the W3C WebApps and Web Events working groups. Implementations in Chrome/Webkit and Firefox very soon, hopefully.
I'm aware of it, but it's just not there yet. It's very early stage -- just last month there were arguments about how to handle permissions around this even. It's at least 6 months from being mainline, if not longer.
So.. It looks like we are going to direction, where browsers will be used to play action games in (probably, not really near) future.. Same direction mobile development..
Yeah. And that's where it moves - centralized hosting, with ability to quickly iterate through in-game and software changes. With ability to access it from (in future) any browser. I definitely like it.
For my work, I'd be very interested in something that can do a decent job of rendering atomic structures in a ball-and-stick view. Say, hundreds of balls and a similar number of sticks. Is this within the capabilities of WebGL?
That has some features along the right lines, but I see that the 3D modelling bits really slow down when given more than twenty atoms to draw. Is that a limit of WebGL, or could I get better performance out by using lesser shading... or something?
I've only started Team Fortress Classic a few times. It feels really outdated. That said, how can that old game be more fun that TF2? TF2 is shock full of funny sounds, signs, taunts and so on!
> I've only started Team Fortress Classic a few times. It feels really outdated.
Well yeah, it's an old game. It is by definition outdated (even has "classic" in the title).
> That said, how can that old game be more fun that TF2?
I'm guessing you're a pretty young guy. How fun a game is does not depend on when it was released. I used to love playing TFC. TF2 is a lame cartoon game to me. It's a bunch of Reddit memes to me. It's 15 year old kids yelling over microphones to me.
No, I'm 40-ish. I grew up with VIC-20 and C64 being state of the art in home computing. I both played games and programmed stuff. I still do but on computers a zillion times faster.
I never liked games that try to be realistic, what's the point, trying to make me sleep bad because of gory headshots with blood everywhere?
So I prefer the semi-cartoonish style and hats. Several times every evening I laugh out loud because of the silliness in TF2. Give it a try. It's not easy because it's not realistic, but you can always go medic and follow better players till you know the maps.
Ahh I just assumed. I hear that from my younger brother a lot. He can't play any old games because "there's not enough twitch factor" and the "graphics suck." I've played it a few times, just wasn't for me.
Right on. I'm a die-hard Left4Dead2 addict. I play almost nothing else anymore. Even then, I only play a little bit on the weekends. Not enough time anymore to really enjoy a game. It has to be something I can dip in and out of in bursts.
If you haven't played for more than a few minutes, you really should try TF2. Besides being free- The cartoonish style will cease to matter completely in an hour or two, the children can be muted in 2 clicks, and there aren't any memes. (though some hats are a little silly, some weapon names are punny, and some taunts are also puns. Example: "Your Eternal Reward", a Spy knife. Example: "I will kill you with bear hands!", Heavy, equipped with Warrior's Spirit http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Warriors_Spirit)
Oh, also, don't play 2Fort, and turn off sprays. Options -> Multiplayer -> Do not download any custom files.
It takes a little while to get competent, but it really is a pretty good game, and twitch-reflexes are not important for anybody but scout and perhaps sniper.
Ok, nothing with EMP in TF2 except for some anti-sticky bomb weapon the Engineer use. Looking for TF EMP grenade in Youtube gave me videos of jumpers. You know the demo man can do all that and probably more?
Awesome project :)