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Half-Life 2 in a Browser

hl2.slqnt.dev

101–110 of 283 posts

Re: Half-Life 2 in a Browser

#101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't Godot kinda flawed for deploying to the web? For example, no C# as of now, although there have been plenty of efforts to make it work. Or AFAIU audio being forced to stay in the main thread which can cause glitches. I just mean that it's not all fun and games as soon as you want to make a more ambitious game and not just a quick demo or game jam thingy.

I found GDScript to be quite powerful in terms of functionality. I don't have experience in professional game Dev to be aware of the benefits of C# beyond it being the industry standard for Unity. Single threaded audio is a big concern. I haven't implemented music in my game yet to know if it is a deal breaker. The main problem that I have run into is shader compilation stutters on the compatibility render. Makes the…

Of course it's a matter of perspective and I can totally get how one would be happy with GDScript. Tbh, it's hard to beat GDScript when it comes to making small games. It's quite evident that only GDScript has first-class integration into the Editor, C# comes second and all the other serious language bindings come third.

I might state the obvious here, but static typing, null-safety, being able to refactor and such things make C# much much better for bigger games. Slay the Spire 2 has been made with Godot + C# and people have already decompiled and peeked under the hood (for example here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpB4-W9L4ec) and imo it shows quite well how certain patterns simply require a more powerful language than GDScript or would at least be very painful and fragile to make in GDScript.

Your workaround for shader stuttering sounds quite hilarious :D I don't mean it's bad. It seems pragmatic in a good sense. But yeah, it's those limitations that pile up when making Godot target the web...

Re: Half-Life 2 in a Browser

#102
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a time to be alive

What a time, but at what cost ? Interestingly, these Wasm ports are all about nostalgia games. I sort-of wish we would live in 1998 (when HL1 was released). Less social network, a more creative internet, LAN parties, IRC / ICQ, easier new connections. We now have tailwind / material UI, a locked-down Apple ecosystem, Photoshop with millions of nagging screens, centralized mega-corps like OpenAI, and the first bits of…

Your comment is jarringly out of place, which is why it's getting downvoted.

Re: Half-Life 2 in a Browser

#103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was more Apple's doing rather than Valve's. Valve wanted steam to co-exist on the mac in the early days and John Sculley of Apple didn't want Apple to be seen as a gaming device or a "personal home computer". So they ceased contact with Valve and the rest is history. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPTLPXNtb2I Apple refused to license joysticks so they could prevent customers from considering early mac's as game…

Your timeline doesn't make sense. Steam launched in 2003. Scully was forced out of Apple in 1993.

Most valve games are 32bit macos binaries I assume for powerpc or Intel or something but they flat out refuse to run on modern ox

Re: Half-Life 2 in a Browser

#104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your timeline doesn't make sense. Steam launched in 2003. Scully was forced out of Apple in 1993.

Most valve games are 32bit macos binaries I assume for powerpc or Intel or something but they flat out refuse to run on modern ox

If they were Intel 64bit binaries they'd still run due to Rosetta 2, however the majority of their games did not get a 64bit upgrade on macOS.

Re: Half-Life 2 in a Browser

#106
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a time to be alive

What a time, but at what cost ? Interestingly, these Wasm ports are all about nostalgia games. I sort-of wish we would live in 1998 (when HL1 was released). Less social network, a more creative internet, LAN parties, IRC / ICQ, easier new connections. We now have tailwind / material UI, a locked-down Apple ecosystem, Photoshop with millions of nagging screens, centralized mega-corps like OpenAI, and the first bits of…

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/memepediadankmemes/images/...

Re: Half-Life 2 in a Browser

#107
post #37

Interesting, I am not able to play HL2 on Steam because macOS no longer has 32-bit support and Valve never compiled if for 64-bit but here we are, it’s playable on the same OS in the browser. BTW IIRC there was some method to convert the 32-bit game binaries to make them run on recent macs. I remember doing it.

How is that possible? 32 bits should be compatible with a 64 bit machine. You can always use less bits for your memory addresses.

Are there any other architecture changes that are preventing 32 bits binaries from running? Does that also mean that old software no longer runs unless there is a 64 bit version?

In windows you can run x32 and x64 executables in a 64 bits machine

Re: Half-Life 2 in a Browser

#108
post #31
post #2

[flagged]

Valve already gave Half-Life 2 away for free, and released the source code of the HL1 engine. Is it technically illegal? Yeah, but Valve isn't losing out on any money, and there's no way they're going to risk the negative PR blowback they'd get for a takedown. Besides, IP law is dead. The rise of AI made it pretty clear that you can steal literally anything without consequences.

> Yeah, but Valve isn't losing out on any money, and there's no way they're going to risk the negative PR blowback they'd get for a takedown.

So that makes it okay to pirate and steal games developed by your fellow indie game developers as well?

> Besides, IP law is dead. The rise of AI made it pretty clear that you can steal literally anything without consequences.

Try doing the same thing to Nintendo.

Even large companies like Anthropic were not going to risk going to trial and getting bankrupted of over $120B+ in damages in using pirated copyrighted eBooks for training. The best case was a settlement for $1.5B which that is a record settlement in copyright law.

Re: Half-Life 2 in a Browser

#109
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I admit that Valve’s approach to Steam on macOS has never made sense to me.

This was more Apple's doing rather than Valve's. Valve wanted steam to co-exist on the mac in the early days and John Sculley of Apple didn't want Apple to be seen as a gaming device or a "personal home computer". So they ceased contact with Valve and the rest is history. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPTLPXNtb2I Apple refused to license joysticks so they could prevent customers from considering early mac's as game…

Apple is so obsessed with how their product is marketed and perceived that they all but eliminated gaming on the platform. It's hard to argue that it hasn't been effective, but I'll never understand why people accept that the people who make the computer should decide how you use it.

Re: Half-Life 2 in a Browser

#110
post #37

Interesting, I am not able to play HL2 on Steam because macOS no longer has 32-bit support and Valve never compiled if for 64-bit but here we are, it’s playable on the same OS in the browser. BTW IIRC there was some method to convert the 32-bit game binaries to make them run on recent macs. I remember doing it.

How is that possible? 32 bits should be compatible with a 64 bit machine. You can always use less bits for your memory addresses. Are there any other architecture changes that are preventing 32 bits binaries from running? Does that also mean that old software no longer runs unless there is a 64 bit version? In windows you can run x32 and x64 executables in a 64 bits machine

Apple goes way out of their way every few years to ensure old games stop working
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