Developing an In-Browser Plugin
by Rob Sandbach · in Torque Game Builder · 04/09/2008 (3:21 am) · 8 replies
Hi folks,
I know this has been discussed before, but it's been a while and I have a couple of questions. I'm now heading up the redevelopment of a commercial games portal and looking to invest in a new technology to form the platform of our online games. I personally hold an indie license to TGB Pro and absolutely *love* it. Moreover I'm fully intune with its feature set and consider myself wuite an experienced and competent user. I am desperate to bring this skillset and TGB into my new company and to form the basis of the portal.
The company requires that the games operate online, in the browser, communicating between each other via an XML server. Most of this I can achieve, but before we can adopt TGB I need a reliable solution to getting it into a browser via plugin. Essentially the plugin just needs to be the TGB download, modified to run inside a browser window, with the /game/ directory streaming in for each different title as it loads. It would need to support Firefox/IE on Windows and (preferably) Safari on Mac.
We obviously have a budget we can throw at this, but I have no idea about the workload required to complete such a plugin. Would it be a $500 project? $1000? $5000? More? If anyone can help me shed any light on the feasibility of this, It'd be greatly appreciated. I'm really desperate to bring TGB as our2d editor of choice, alongside Unity for 3D development and this is the only hurdle.
Thank you all for your time,
Rob Sandbach
I know this has been discussed before, but it's been a while and I have a couple of questions. I'm now heading up the redevelopment of a commercial games portal and looking to invest in a new technology to form the platform of our online games. I personally hold an indie license to TGB Pro and absolutely *love* it. Moreover I'm fully intune with its feature set and consider myself wuite an experienced and competent user. I am desperate to bring this skillset and TGB into my new company and to form the basis of the portal.
The company requires that the games operate online, in the browser, communicating between each other via an XML server. Most of this I can achieve, but before we can adopt TGB I need a reliable solution to getting it into a browser via plugin. Essentially the plugin just needs to be the TGB download, modified to run inside a browser window, with the /game/ directory streaming in for each different title as it loads. It would need to support Firefox/IE on Windows and (preferably) Safari on Mac.
We obviously have a budget we can throw at this, but I have no idea about the workload required to complete such a plugin. Would it be a $500 project? $1000? $5000? More? If anyone can help me shed any light on the feasibility of this, It'd be greatly appreciated. I'm really desperate to bring TGB as our2d editor of choice, alongside Unity for 3D development and this is the only hurdle.
Thank you all for your time,
Rob Sandbach
#2
In truth we'd probably be looking at hiring a professional developer to do the work for us. We don't possess the skillset ourselves in house.
If you're offering you can send me an email!
Rob
04/09/2008 (9:29 am)
Thanks Aun,In truth we'd probably be looking at hiring a professional developer to do the work for us. We don't possess the skillset ourselves in house.
If you're offering you can send me an email!
Rob
#3
Dave
04/09/2008 (9:54 am)
I tried Aun's game and the plugin and it worked great. The process could be a hair smoother for the average user but it definitely works.Dave
#4
The biggest flaw that has yet to be solved in the resource is getting multiple plug-ins going/one plug-in for multiple games.
04/09/2008 (11:27 am)
I wasn't able to get it to run. When I launched it Stronghold was launched, I've been doing some work with Neil's resource as well, uninstalled my plug-in and now it just crashes when trying to launch Aun's.The biggest flaw that has yet to be solved in the resource is getting multiple plug-ins going/one plug-in for multiple games.
#5
I hadn't polish the work at all, been busy with a whole lot of things but will get back to it soon. ( I really want to get this working good and submit it as a resource )
I think the idea behind it has potential. Putting games on web browsers could create some new revenue structures that would be interesting for indie developers.
Aun.
04/09/2008 (11:38 am)
I think I was using Neil's old registry variable thus was the reason that the game was loading Neil's previous mission (Stronghold).I hadn't polish the work at all, been busy with a whole lot of things but will get back to it soon. ( I really want to get this working good and submit it as a resource )
I think the idea behind it has potential. Putting games on web browsers could create some new revenue structures that would be interesting for indie developers.
Aun.
#6
04/09/2008 (11:54 am)
We've been discussing using it for some stuff at Zombie Shortbus, specificially I was going to be working on it again this weekend to see if it would work in TGB. At least you've already confirmed for me that it will work.
#7
http://www.urban-games.net/ig/ (windows only)
It was easy enough to setup and run, but I believe the current version is a little buggy with a couple of the newest browsers (Opera in particular crashed). However the creator Steve said he might be able to sort me out with a copy of the new version to evaluate, which is capable of using "packages". So you'd have a core engine package and then a package for each game thereafter containing /gamedir1/. The plugin downloads the relevent game package, then just calls TGB.exe -game gamedir1 or whatever as a command line switch.
What's more is it's free to use if you're only hosting your own games, and you can plugin advertising for free as well.
Hopefully I'll have a BETA build to play with and report back on soon.
Rob
04/10/2008 (1:34 am)
I've also had some success with igLoader:http://www.urban-games.net/ig/ (windows only)
It was easy enough to setup and run, but I believe the current version is a little buggy with a couple of the newest browsers (Opera in particular crashed). However the creator Steve said he might be able to sort me out with a copy of the new version to evaluate, which is capable of using "packages". So you'd have a core engine package and then a package for each game thereafter containing /gamedir1/. The plugin downloads the relevent game package, then just calls TGB.exe -game gamedir1 or whatever as a command line switch.
What's more is it's free to use if you're only hosting your own games, and you can plugin advertising for free as well.
Hopefully I'll have a BETA build to play with and report back on soon.
Rob
#8
04/10/2008 (6:09 am)
Hmm, I may have to look into that one. I'd prefer it to be cross platform on the OS side, but I also don't have access to any Macs. So I wouldn't be able to compile it for Mac to begin with. 
Torque 3D Owner Aun Taraseina
I suggest you start from Neil's work it shouldn't be that hard.
Aun.