Html 5

[Karlos94]

Here is a debate I would like to bring to MakeWebGames, HTML 5. I personally have a few questions about it, which I shall list below, despite my questions I would like to know your opinions about HTML, what you believe the advantages and/or disadvantages of it is. I would love to sit here and write more but I am in a rush no, so sorry for being short, but it is sweet!

 

• Why should I develop with HTML 5 when it's not going to be completely ready until 2022?
• What are the benefits of developing with in now?
  

[Zeggy]

Modern browsers already support part of html5 so it is okay to start developing with supported html5 tags in general.

As for game dev in particular, more ways of directly and dynamically drawing straight to the browser, without needing plugins! There are so many creative uses for it for web games.

I wouldn't recommend converting your games to use html5 at this time though.

 

Edit: Here's what I think html5 could be used for:

Canvas tag or svg (already supported) - display maps, minimaps, customized character images with equips

Local storage (already supported) - cache game data on the local side, possibly huge loading time speedups

Drag and drop - many uses, use imagination

Most of that can already be done with javascript right now though, so I don't really see too many people taking advantage of the features in html5.

[CJ - Twitch]

I Agree with the above post... I also like the fact that you can display videos without flash. (Good for iPhone or iPod Touch users)

[Zeggy]

I just thought I'd share this link, it's a pretty cool interactive demo of lots of html 5 features:

http://apirocks.com/html5/html5.html

[Djkanna]

It's a lot more semantic than what is achieved at the moment in XHTML;

<header> : <div id="header">

<nav> : <div id="nav">

<section> : <div id="section content">

And so on..

Then offcourse there is the new features I'm a big fan of the geolocation/google maps one :P

The same questions could be said for CSS3 yet people are *now* beginning to use it.

[a_bertrand]

Sadly a lot of those "HTML5" demo are Chrome / Safari only (all those CSS with webkit-*)

Safari & Chrome have a very small market share (yes greater than Opera but still small), people still use IE or FF. Until there is a true standard and all the major browser will support it, then for me it's mainly useless.

Canvas / SVN support, I tried to code some stuff not too long ago, again, support for IE was not there (maybe now it will be), and on top of that, it's WAY too slow for a true game experience, sure you can have a line or 2, an image or 2, but forget to make much more.

[DigitalGerm]

http://www.quakelive.com - FULL html5

HTML5 is sexy

[Zeggy]

Quake live is flash with its own plugin, it's been around for longer than html5 has been in browsers.

a_bertrand: There are already some html5 games that run pretty smoothly in chrome. I don't know about IE though.

[Spudinski]

HTML5 will make our lives easier, but it won't change it.

Most HTML5 elements has already been hacked by JS or Flash, example: Slider used to be CSS + JS, now it's HTML5. Also, most elements would still require JS so I for one would stick with my XHTML traditional for time being.

I like HTML5, but I just think it should be less dependant on JS to make it actually be functional.

[rulerofzu]

With things like this I prefer to sit on the fence for a bit longer.

Cross browser issues are bad enough at the moment. Its a wait and see what each browser devel company decides to implement and how.

[Zeggy]

I like HTML5, but I just think it should be less dependant on JS to make it actually be functional.

Thats a good point.

Although, part of html5 is the new dom apis for javascript. Some of it may have a big impact on the way javascripts are written, like what ajax did years ago, such as being able to push messages to the browser, and web sockets.

[a_bertrand]

- HTML5 is mainly new things for JS, like isolated storage and canvas / svg dynamic images.

- http://www.quakelive.com/ => not HTML5 as pointed out

- Smooth games in HTML5 with images? You must show me, as I never saw any.

[Zeggy]

http://www.freeciv.net/

Port of civilization game to browser. Last time I played (several months ago) it was pretty buggy though.

http://ptdef.com/

Tower defense game, simple graphics.

http://www.kesiev.com/akihabara/demo/game-tlol.html

Zelda-like RPG

http://www.pixastic.com/labs/digg_attack/

More impressive graphics with special effects. (Uses flash for music)

 

I viewed these in chrome. There are also several canvas game engines popping up and they seem okay. I tried canvas myself and it seemed to run pretty smoothly. I only tried simple graphics though, but from the above examples it seems to do okay with a bit more processing going on at the same time.

[a_bertrand]

Well... still... not much...

[Karlos94]

I think we should being this topic back from the dead now.. The reasons why I use HTML5.

Well first off, the tags are more semantic which is a relief, I mean I hated using markup like:

<div id="wrapper">
<div id="header">

	<div id="top_nav">

	</div>
</div>

<div id="sidemenu">

</div>
<div id="content">

</div>

<div id="footer">

</div>
</div>

 

Whereas with HTML5 I can make it shorter and more semantic with the new tags.

<div id="wrapper>
<header>

	<nav>

	</nav>
</header>

<aside>

</aside>
<section>

</section>

<footer>

</footer>
</div>

 

Of course I use the HTML5 markup with the HTML5 Shiv script or another script with the same functionality. But I believe we should start using it NOW.

[bluegman991]

google chrome is like 90% done with html 5

use google chrome in any html5 show off and 90 - 100% of the stuff will work

next in line i would say would be safari with 60 - 80%

next opera with about 40 - 60% (uses a lot resources)

next firefox with about 30 - 50%

last internet explorer with 0 - 20%

these are rough estimates based on the html5 show offs i tried in all browsers

[Djkanna]

- HTML5 is mainly new things for JS, like isolated storage and canvas / svg dynamic images.

- http://www.quakelive.com/ => not HTML5 as pointed out

- Smooth games in HTML5 with images? You must show me, as I never saw any.

http://html5games.com/