JavaScript Remake

[Rian]

Java would be nice. I'd like to see a group effort for some sort of mobile phone version.

I don't really program at all anymore. I've filled gap in my time, formerly known as Mirage Source, with one too many hobbies over the past three years

[Rian]

Browser based would be pretty sweet. How would editors for something like this work? And I guess there wouldn't really be a 'server'? Just a database?

[JokeofWeek]

I think this definitely could be done with websockets and canvas. The back-end could be done using Node.js, and the websockets stuff using Socket.io.

An in-browser version would be sweet. I miss the good old days of having a project to work on..

[William]

I miss the good old days of having a project to work on..

well if you want, I'll toss up a bitbucket repository public and we can get to work

Thats the spirit!

[JokeofWeek]

Well, while there are PHP Websocket libraries, I think that it would be very interesting to use Node.js as it could lower the 'barrier of entry' for new programmers, since they don't have to learn two different languages.

As for the editors, I think either a seperate version of the client or stand-alone editors would need to be made. Since the entire client source is visible, it could easily become vulnerable, and the client would need to be bulletproof.

The database part could be very interesting depending on if you want a standard SQL database, or some NoSQL solution like mongo.

Hmm.. could be very interesting!

[JokeofWeek]

Haha, I'm looking into it now and am curious if binary data is supported by Socket.io.. all I've ever done before is used it for JSON. It'd definitely be preferrable if we could start with binary packets, rather then converting it all later.

Edit: This might be an interesting library to use.

[JokeofWeek]

yeah looks good; I won't be able to work on it until tonight..

I have some like.. real life projects... that I am paid for... to work on right now

Haha yeah, I definitely feel that. I'm all excited now, but I know the fist of reality will be punching me in a few minutes

[Matt]

Honestly, I think the real market for this would be Android and iOS. Mobile gaming would generate much more players and much more revenue for those who wish to make their game not F2P or make it have a cash shop.

Just sayin'.

That would make it Java for Android. Not sure about iOS, though. Don't like it. Lol.

[Matt]

Won't run the same, though. It won't be native to the device.

Me and Rian were discussing this. If I were to reprogram FADE into anything, it would be an Android app.

[William]

Was just googeling for fun, is this anything your talking about:

Client: http://github.com/BonsaiDen/NodeGame-Sh ... .client.js
Server: http://github.com/BonsaiDen/NodeGame-Sh ... odegame.js

[JokeofWeek]

I've worked with Websockets, but they are indeed a bit meh. Socket.io provides a nice interface for it but it's still not perfect.

I've been hacking around for part of the afternoon to make at least a small prototype, but there are some annoyances with Node - it's callback hell lol.

[William]

You have some deciding to do

[Matt]

How is android's socket interface? Oh would we be stuck doing it over http anyways with android? All the networking I've done with android has been http requests.... if we develop an http API, it would be easy to make a client in both Java for android and JavaScript for web... bit of latency and higher bandwidth that way, but come on, its 2012 and bandwidth is cheap .... and we can reduce it using clever tricks

Webpage wise, I pay $7/mo for unlimited space and bandwidth. Lol.

[Matt]

But rest assured, if you suddenly started using a lot, you'd be getting a call :-)

And if need be, I'd be getting a lawyer. It states I have unlimited bandwidth. They can't change their mind just cause I'm actually using it. Lol. That's false advertisement.

[unknown]

Take a look at BrowserQuest .. They have a github which you could fork and make your engine off of

[Rian]

Take a look at BrowserQuest .. They have a github which you could fork and make your engine off of

This game was so fun. I found it, got nostalgic of Mirage, and basically beat it (earned every achievement and got the best gear) in one sitting. Only took two hours tops, but still, tremendously fun.

[Anthony]

Wasn't Liam/Fox working on a Java port of MS? Can't remember the project name or find a URL atm..

[William]

Wasn't Liam/Fox working on a Java port of MS? Can't remember the project name or find a URL atm..

That was shutdown some time ago. And I think he was just making his own game, nothing related to mirage really.

http://www.mirage-realms.com/community/newspage.php

[JokeofWeek]

So I've started working on a super basic prototype, but I've hit my first kind of big snag - UI's using the canvas. I'm looking into it now, but there doesn't seem to be many good UI frameworks for the tag, and re-implementing all of the UI functionalities that you'd expect (caret, text selection, copy / paste, etc.) is a huge pain in the ass.

Lame.

Edit: Now that I'm looking at it, it seems that doing this is against best practice, and it's better to render DOM elements above the canvas. This could save quite a lot of hassle.

[JokeofWeek]

Well, the system I've made so far allows you to create UI components either canvas-rendered or through a DOM element, while wrapping it all in a common interface (for things like positioning, dimensions, and focus) and it seems to work fine so far!