Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: GodotOS – Fake operating system interface made in the Godot engine

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 292 posts

Re: Show HN: GodotOS – Fake operating system interface made in the Godot engine

#111

Post by ronyeh »

jarboot wrote: post #94

I've been thinking about making a cross-platform mobile app but don't want to think about react native, touch javascript, or fiddle with xcode any more than I have to. Is it accurate to think that I could instead use godot to create a cross-platform app to eliminate complexity from react native while creating something that is performant/native across ios/android?

I’ve worked in both Godot and React Native. I wouldn’t say you are eliminating any complexity.... You are just trading one UI system for another. UI by its nature is complex and requires a lot of “code”. In the Godot case you might be doing less coding in the “typing letters on a keyboard” way, but you still need to figure out the UI controls and fiddle with the settings in the properties panel until you get it juuuust right. The final product is still saved as code, in tscn scene files.

Re: Show HN: GodotOS – Fake operating system interface made in the Godot engine

#112

Post by FireInsight »

Gormo wrote: post #51

This is actually a great proof of concept for using Godot as a cross-platform framework for desktop applications. The distribution package is incredibly simple -- just a single executable and a data file -- and performance is excellent. This seems much superior to Flatpak and the like as a way to offer fully self-contained distro-agnostic binary packages, and vastly superior to Electron in the performance department.…

I don't get why people in this thread are conflating Flatpak with different ways to do desktop UI. Even if your app is a single self-contained binary, it can benefit from Flatpak. Sandboxing, permissions management, separation from system (needed on 'immutable' and image-based distributions), unified package format (don't need to create deb, rpm, etc. for a simple GUI app), and many other Flatpak's features can benefit the devs and the users alike. That has not much to do with what you use to write UI. Flatpak can't be entirely replaced by self-contained binaries.

Re: Show HN: GodotOS – Fake operating system interface made in the Godot engine

#113

Post by tmpdbejdhejd »

654wak654 wrote: post #62
jadtl wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was trying to think of arguments against it, so I thought about the fact immediate mode GUIs might not always be suitable, before I stumbled upon this post: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/47444189/what-are-the-pe... The only other downside I can think about is from a design standpoint, the application has to have the same design language across platforms, so it cannot have a native look for each. Any other con…

Some quick googling tells me Godot doesn't have native tray icons/notifications support or access to peripherals like webcams & printers. Buut if you're using Godot over electron/flutter/QT your app is probably focusing on 3D / physics topics. You can implement plugins for those other niche desktop features as you need them.

There is some ongoing PR, so it might come at some point :

https://github.com/godotengine/godot/pulls?q=is%3Apr+is%3Aop...

Re: Show HN: GodotOS – Fake operating system interface made in the Godot engine

#115

Post by [deleted] »

mysterydip wrote: post #2

Reminds me of all the "OSes"/GUIs that got made back in the QBasic days: http://qbasicgui.datacomponents.net/ Always a fun project to do. Thanks for carrying the torch forward in something modern! ps, my favorite of the QBasic ones is probably M-GUI: http://qbasicgui.datacomponents.net/95_mgui.html which even included its own programming language to make apps in!

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: GodotOS – Fake operating system interface made in the Godot engine

#117

Post by FinalDestiny »

LSRegression wrote: post #99
Gormo wrote: post #51

This is actually a great proof of concept for using Godot as a cross-platform framework for desktop applications. The distribution package is incredibly simple -- just a single executable and a data file -- and performance is excellent. This seems much superior to Flatpak and the like as a way to offer fully self-contained distro-agnostic binary packages, and vastly superior to Electron in the performance department.…

It's already being used for that! I use a program called Dungeondraft[1] for easily creating maps for TTRPGS and it's built on top of Godot (see the modding API page[2] where they mention Godot). [1]: https://dungeondraft.net/ [2]: https://megasploot.github.io/DungeondraftModdingAPI/

To add to the list, Pixelorama[1] is a pixel art sprite editor built on Godot.

[1]: https://godotengine.org/showcase/pixelorama/

Re: Show HN: GodotOS – Fake operating system interface made in the Godot engine

#118

Post by themerone »

Gormo wrote: post #51

This is actually a great proof of concept for using Godot as a cross-platform framework for desktop applications. The distribution package is incredibly simple -- just a single executable and a data file -- and performance is excellent. This seems much superior to Flatpak and the like as a way to offer fully self-contained distro-agnostic binary packages, and vastly superior to Electron in the performance department.…

Electron apps work with screen readers and os accessibility feature.

Unless accessibility becomes a first class concern, game engines are not going to be good choices for desktop applications.

Re: Show HN: GodotOS – Fake operating system interface made in the Godot engine

#119

Post by freshnode »

This reminds me of a time circa 2005 where "Sub OSes" were somewhat popular in the GameMaker community. Seems that given enough time someone will try to make an OS-like interface in a given game engine.

It was a great way to understand UI and usability paradigms beyond building game mechanics.

This definitely triggered some pleasant nostalgia for me.

Re: Show HN: GodotOS – Fake operating system interface made in the Godot engine

#120

Post by dekerta »

bufio wrote: post #75
ladberg wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This would be sooo much worse from a UI point of view. All nice OS features (good text rendering, uniform text editing interface, accessibility, transparency) would all get chucked out the window. I also don't think Godot is inherently more performant for any random UI than Electron is. It happens that most Godot apps are performant because they're made by the type of people who want to use videogame engines and thus…

I have never encountered an Electron app that can even display the results of keystrokes in a timely manner, and that includes vscode. All Electron apps waste system resources to an obscene degree. Also, Electron apps have already thrown away OS conventions to the point that user interface consistency has become a thing of the past. I don't believe that either choice is ideal, but if Godot were ubiquitous instead of…

Are you running a 15 year old netbook or something? I've never noticed any input lag in VSCode or Slack (or any other Electron apps I can think of)
Post reply on HN