Live data from Hacker News

Flash vs HTML - Waste Invaders

flashvhtml.com

51–60 of 74 posts

Re: Flash vs HTML - Waste Invaders

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And why bother? If you have the choice, why not go with HTML5 which already has some good and very fast free implementations available? Well, I think this demo kind of proves why not: it doesn't work the same way on everyones browser. We've been talking for years now about html5 games obsoleting flash, but it doesn't seem to be coming together does it? My opinion on why not? We've got some serious problems with the…

As someone who built and maintained a large-scale Flex app for 5 years, none of Flash's advantages are worth the countless unpredictable difficulties you WILL encounter. It's not a stable platform. Move on. Maybe the story is entirely different for games, but I can't see how it could be that different.

> built and maintained a large-scale Flex app

I see your problem right there :)

Also, I am not aware of any stable platform for game development. Browsers and iOS have both changed a lot in the last 5 years as well.

Re: Flash vs HTML - Waste Invaders

#54

Game ran like complete garbage in HTML5 (Firefox 19, Windows7 i7 2600, 12GB ram). It had a very low framerate, did not respond to mouse in a timely fashion and had no sound. Ran completely smooth and flawless in Flash. Isn't progress (HTML5) great.

It ran great for me in HTML5 (Firefox 19, Windows7 i7 Q720, 16GB RAM) + Firebug, et al open.

Re: Flash vs HTML - Waste Invaders

#56

Game ran like complete garbage in HTML5 (Firefox 19, Windows7 i7 2600, 12GB ram). It had a very low framerate, did not respond to mouse in a timely fashion and had no sound. Ran completely smooth and flawless in Flash. Isn't progress (HTML5) great.

Your anecdotal experience says absolutely nothing about the progress of HTML5. Other folks with lesser setups aren't having the same issues as you (me included) so I suspect there is a problem with your rig.

Re: Flash vs HTML - Waste Invaders

#57
I tried this on slightly older hardware [1] running Linux Mint 13 x86_64 and here's what I found:

First, even scrolling the website itself was slow and jerky in Firefox 19.0. When I switched to Chromium 24.0.1312.56 the website scrolled nicely. The Flash version of the game ran somewhat choppily with Flash 11.0.1.152 and I could see distinct seams in the scrolling background [2]. However, it had sound and was overall playable. When I tried the HTML 5 version it ran smoothly but felt too fast (seemingly faster than the Flash version would have been with a good frame rate) and had no sound.

The total memory/CPU usage as reported by Chromium's task manager is higher with Flash [3]. Unfortunately, it doesn't report the frame rate for Flash.

Edit WRT the game's design: when I first played the game I went to grab a power-up and my ship apparently got enveloped in some sort of a bright and colourful energy ring. I couldn't tell whether that was a good thing that happened because I picked up the power-up or a bad thing caused by an encounter with a nearby enemy bullet. I had to watch the life counter in the top right until it happened again to know for sure that that's what it looks like when my ship explodes. The explosion looks bright, colourful and pretty, and it's not immediately clear it indicates failure.

[1] http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:X61s; mine has an L7500 CPU.

[2] http://imgur.com/qpOIwUt

[3] http://imgur.com/gRfi5KV,E6B1oeG

Re: Flash vs HTML - Waste Invaders

#58
Tested on macmini 2009 (or 2006? the one without hdmi anyway , 2GB ram, Core2 T7200@2.00GHz, Intel 945GM onboard GPU >_Obligatory htop screenshots: http://666kb.com/i/cc6jh5a4d3wqopmqu.png http://666kb.com/i/cc6jhhh5ywa8qrlgm.png Browser in use: Chromium 24.0.1312.68

Not sure if the compositor (compton) is responsible for the lag or something else entirely. I don't really have the time to test any further :S

Re: Flash vs HTML - Waste Invaders

#60
post #4

Two problems with the HTML5 version in Chrome: 1) No audio 2) If my mouse cursor moves off the window it loses control of the ship Flash version has neither of these problems. No idea why audio is broken. I tried a couple HTML5 audio test pages and it works there. I'm using Chrome beta 26.0.1410.28 on both Windows 7 and OSX Lion, broken on both. I didn't notice any other differences.

Try using this library for audio:

http://howlerjs.com

Post reply on HN