Tim Anderson's ITWriting » gaming

Google Native Client: browser apps unleashed, or misconceived and likely to fail?

tim — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 08:23:18 +0000

Last week Google integrated Native Client into the beta of Chrome 14. Native client lets you compile C/C++ code to run in the browser. It depends on a new plug-in API called Pepper. These are open source projects sponsored by Google and implemented in the Chrome browser, and therefore also likely to turn up in Chrome OS which is an operating system in which all apps run in the browser.

Native Client is cool. For example, NaCLBox lets you run old DOS games in the browser by porting DOSBox to Native Client.

Another project is Qt for Google Native Client, a project currently in development. Qt is an excellent and popular GUI and application framework which would speed development of Native Client apps as well as enabling many existing applications to be ported.

It is also worth mentioning that Native Client provides another way to run .NET code in the browser, via Mono with NaCl support.

Why Native Client? Google’s vision, or at least the part of it that focuses on Chrome OS rather than Android, is that everything runs on the Internet and in the browser, making the local operating system unimportant and easily replaced. Native Client removes any performance compromises in managed languages such as JavaScript, ActionScript or Java, as well as easing migration for businesses with existing C/C++ code.

Writing native code for the browser is nothing new. Both Microsoft’s ActiveX and the NPAPI plug-in API used by non-Microsoft browsers let you extend the browser with native code. However Native Client is seamless for the user; you do not have to install any additional plug-in. The main limitation is that Native Client applets do not have access to the local operating system, for security reasons.

It is also worth noting that Native Client apps are not altogether cross-platform. They must be recompiled for different CPU instruction sets, with the current implementation supporting x86 and ARM though you have to compile two binaries. Google says it will support LLVM output to enable cross-platform binaries though this will impact performance.

But is Native Client secure? That is an open question. Google was aware of the security challenge from the beginning of the project. Unlike the plug-in mechanisms which rely mainly on trust in developer competence and signed code to verify the origin of the plug-in or ActiveX control, Native Client inspects the actual code for unsafe instructions before allowing it to run. There is also an “outer sandbox” which intercepts system calls.

However, adding any new way for code to run makes the browser less secure. Google ran a Native Client Security Contest to help identify vulnerabilities, and the contestants did not have any problem finding security flaws. Of course all of these discovered flaws will have been fixed, but there may be others and likely will be.

And is Native Client necessary? The latest JIT-compiled JavaScript engines are fast enough to enable most types of application to run at a satisfactory speed. This is not just about performance though; it is about reusing existing skills, libraries and applications. There is no doubt that Native Client is nice to have; whether its benefits outweigh the risks is harder to judge.

The last question, which may prove the most significant, is political. Google has forged ahead on its own with Native Client, saying as vendors always do that it hopes it will become a web standard. In the early days of the project, it looked like a Native Client plug-in might enable the feature in other browsers, but abandoning NPAPI for Pepper makes this difficult. Will other browser vendors support Native Client?

Here is a comment from Google’s Ian NI-Lewis that I find remarkable:

As you probably know, the rule in Web standards is "implementation wins." So we’re concentrating on getting a good quality implementation out the door. We’re doing that in Chrome. That doesn’t mean that NaCl is intended to be "Chrome only," just that we have to start somewhere.

So Native Client is non-standard, and therefore less interesting than HTML 5 until either Google has a Microsoft-Office-like de facto monopoly of web browsers, or it persuades Mozilla, Microsoft and Apple to support it.

That said, you can think of Chrome as an installable runtime in the same way as the Java Virtual Machine or Adobe Flash, just a potentially more intrusive one. Here is our app, you have to install the free Chrome browser to use it. If this happens to any great extent, I can foresee other browser makers hastening to support it.

Flash to get 3D acceleration with “Molehill”

tim — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 00:45:49 +0000

One of the demos here at Adobe Max was a 3D racing game, running in Flash with 3D acceleration. It was enabled by a new set of GPU-accelerated APIs codenamed Molehill. Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch remarked that with GPU-accelerated 3D, Flash games could come closer to console games in the experience they offer. Lynch also demonstrated using a game controller with a Flash game.

There are no precise dates for availability, but Adobe expects to offer a public beta in the first half of 2011. The APIs will be available in a future version of the Flash Player. Under the covers, the 3D APIs will user DirectX 9 on Windows and OpenGL 1.3 on MacOS and Linux. If no supported 3D API is found on a particular platform, Flash will fall back to software rendering.

One interesting aspect is that Molehill will also work on mobile devices, where it will use OpenGL ES 2.0. Apparently GPUs will be common on mobile devices because they enable longer battery life than relying on the CPU for all processing. I heard similar remarks at the NVIDIA GPU conference last month.

This will be a significant development, especially when put in the context of Flash appearing in the living room, built into a TV or on Google TV.

Review: Wii Sports Resort and MotionPlus

tim — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 19:32:05 +0000

Nintendo’s Wii Sports Resort with bundled MotionPlus accessory is just out, and I tried them out today. Sports Resort is the same concept as the original Wii Sports that is bundled with the console, with a mostly different selection of games and more advanced gameplay, while the MotionPlus accessory clips on to the Wii remote to make the motion sensing more accurate and sensitive.

I was interested in the game as the original Wii Sports was groundbreaking and for some time the best game on the Wii. While Microsoft and Sony beat themselves to a loss-making pulp by maxing out processing power and graphics performance, Nintendo introduced what was really the next generation of gaming, something that is closer to the real thing than using a conventional controller, and the company is now reaping the reward. Other factors are the high quality of the software, and that it targets the entire family rather than hard core gamers.

The MotionPlus is a hard sell, in that it seems on the surface to do essentially the same thing as the original controller, it is annoying to have to buy more than one if you want to go multiplayer, and it increases the price of the game (though your next MotionPlus game will not be so expensive). It also drains the battery a little faster.

In reality, MotionPlus is a significant advance, adding a gyro sensor to the existing accelerometer. This enables games to respond to rotational movement as well as movement in straight lines – see this interview and this video for more detail. Games like Swordplay and Table Tennis – both in Sports Resort – would not be possible without it.

In fact, Table Tennis was one of the first games I tried, and it was extraordinary. I held the controller, pretended it was a bat, played table tennis – and it worked, more or less. Admittedly the game is a bit more forgiving than the real thing (at least on the beginner levels), but it’s still remarkable; and I don’t have room for a real table in my house.

Sports Resort is a lot of fun. There are 12 games:

Swordplay
Wakeboarding
Frisbee
Archery
Basketball
Table Tennis
Golf
Bowling
Power Cruising
Canoeing
Cycling
Air Sports (Flying, Skydiving)

Of these, only bowling and golf repeat games in the original Wii Sports.

The games are pretty simple; the Wii is all about fun and accessibility. They are still challenging though, and have that “just one more try” quality that is characteristic of the best games. In cycling, for example, you pedal with your hands, but frenetic hand waving does not work since if your cyclist runs out of breath, he stops for a swig of water, losing you the race. If you want to do really well, you need to master steering, which is fairly tricky, in order to ride in the draft of cyclists ahead of you, as well as pacing the pedalling correctly.

Archery is in some ways a similar concept to golf – judge where to aim taking into account the wind and the arc of the arrow. There are also some secret targets.

Swordplay is a real workout. You can parry, stab and swing, and its difficult to avoid edging forward towards the TV screen – it would not surprise me if one or two accidents occur – but this is an involving and energetic game, and a highlight of Sports Resort.

I love the Table Tennis as I’ve already mentioned.

Basketball is disappointingly simple – a team game is much harder to execute successfully.

Bowling is great but a bit too close to the earlier version.

Overall the game displays Nintendo’s usual skill and attention to detail – recommended for indoor fun.

Technorati Tags: gaming,nintendo,wii,microsoft,sony

Farewell to Ensemble Studios and thanks for Age of Empires

tim — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 12:55:51 +0000

Saw this sad note on the Ensemble Studios site today:

Ensemble Studios created the Age of Empires series of games; I’ve played these since the first release and had a huge amount of fun. Some of the best times have been with multiplayer with friends and family on a home network. The games combine strategic interest and challenge with rich graphics, which of course have evolved remarkably in line with increasingly powerful PC graphics cards.

If anyone from Ensemble reads this – thank you.

We can still enjoy playing the games but the studio is a victim of Microsoft’s cost-cutting. This particular closure was announced in September 2008, though the closure was delayed to enabled the completion of Halo Wars. While I have no idea what the spreadsheets say, I’m surprised to see Microsoft wielding the axe in this area of its business. We’ve recently been reading how video games are surpassing music and video in turnover and that they are relatively resilient in a recession since they are for evenings in rather than nights out. High quality PC games have a spinoff benefit for Microsoft by making Windows a more attractive platform.

The recently announced closure of Aces Studio, responsible for Flight Simulator and the ESP simulation platform, seems even more short-sighted. As James Governor observes, virtual worlds and simulation have huge business potential and environmental benefit.

Crispygamer.com has an extended Ensemble tribute.

PS on a happier note, Ensemble’s Bruce Shelley noted in his last blog entry (which seems to have gone offline):

There are at least two new studios being formed by ES employees and I expect both to do very well. There were a lot of outstanding game developers here and it will be interesting to see how and what they do, both individually and as new groups, in the years ahead.

Technorati tags: ensemble studios, age of empires, aces studio, flight simulator, microsoft

Microsoft fixes Xbox 360 license transfer

tim — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 10:12:18 +0000

Microsoft has finally fixed a long-standing irritation with the Xbox 360: the inability to transfer licenses for purchased games from one console to another. The new license transfer tool lets you consolidate all your download purchases to a specific Xbox 360, even if some were downloaded onto a console that no longer works or was sold on.

I’m personally grateful as I ran into exactly this problem and had an argument with support about it.

There’s a wider point here. If I buy virtual property, like software, music or an ebook, it makes sense to record that ownership in the cloud so that there is no need to keep backups and it cannot really be stolen (other than by hacking the online account, I guess).

Technorati tags: microsoft, xbox 360, drm

Ninja Gaiden 2: great but not quite finished

tim — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 17:27:27 +0000

Today I completed my run-through with Ninja Gaiden 2. This is the successor to what is in my opinion the finest game on the Xbox, Ninja Gaiden Black. I used the Warrior difficult, on the grounds that Acolyte (the introductory difficulty setting) is not how the game is intended to be played.

This is an old-school game: single player, third person view, clear focus on one thing, which is combat. The enjoyment of the game (and it is very enjoyable) is in the intensity of the battles. The depth of the game is in the combat system, which features multiple weapons with many different attacks. You also need to keep your character on the move, rolling and jumping; much of the fun is in working out the best strategy for each enemy or boss.

One word to describe the game experience: drama. Everything is larger than life; the bosses are fantastic creations; the architecture is soaring; the sound effects are thunderous; the special effects are gorgeous.

However, this is a game which sticks closely to the formula of its predecessor. In some ways it has gone backwards. Ninja Gaiden Black is more or less free roam in its later chapters; this one is linear and you can rarely retrace your steps. Other things have improved. There is more variety in weapons; the scenery is even richer; the health system is a little more sophisticated, distinguishing between long-term and short-term damage.

Some reviewers have complained about the shallow plot. It didn’t bother me. Ninja Gaiden 1 also has a weak plot, in which you discover after fighting through numerous tough chapters that you are back where you started. That’s not the point; both games are about a sequence of combat challenges. The replay value is great; simply start again on a higher difficulty and face new enemies and much tougher challenges.

Unfortunately there are flaws. The one that everyone will notice is slowdown when the action is particularly busy. This is not as bad as it sounds; mostly the game plays fine provided you have the "cinema" feature off (this saves a video of your game so you can show it off later). It’s still disappointing; occasionally it’s like playing in slow motion. Maybe there will be a downloadable update to fix this.

Some players have discovered glitches which prevent progress, forcing a return to the previous save. I didn’t hit any of these. I did however miss a crucial item in chapter 2, which means I have to replay the game to use a feature called “Tests of valor”. The reason I missed it: a bug which stops a cut-scene appearing if you happen to kill certain enemies in the “wrong” place.

Hard-core Ninja Gaiden players are complaining about flaws which casual players will miss. For example, there is an online leaderboard where you can upload your score. The way this works is that you get points, called karma, for each enemy you kill. More stylish kills win greater points. Unfortunately there is a point in the game where you can kill the same enemies again and again racking up unlimited points. That’s a major bug if you are trying to compete.

The other common complaint is about the balance between what is difficult and what is just annoying. Ninja Gaiden is known to be a tough game; I certainly found it so. That’s OK if it is a matter of skill; not if you just have to be lucky, die nineteen times but succeed on the twentieth go when the AI finds a favourable sequence. In my opinion there is far more skill than luck in this game, but there are times when it seems impossible to survive other than by good fortune, or perhaps resorting to magical attacks that are blunt instruments.

What this means is that to fulfil its potential Ninja Gaiden 2 needs a process of refinement like that which worked so well in the Xbox Ninja Gaiden. Unfortunately designer Tomonobu Itagaki has left the development company. Still, this is not a one-person effort; let’s hope the team releases updates that fix glitches and fine-tune the combat.

None of this should put you off if this is the kind of game you like. I’ve enjoyed it more than any other 360 game to date.

Is the game in good taste? Ninja Gaiden delivers extreme gore. Limbs fly in all directions; blood gushes. It is a kind of gaming grotesque; it is too gory for my liking yet something you soon hardly notice as you concentrate on winning battle after battle. You are of course on the side of good against evil, if that helps.

Amazon links:

US: Ninja Gaiden 2 360

UK: Ninja Gaiden 2 360

Technorati tags: ninja gaiden2, xbox 360, gaming

End of an era: Ninja Gaiden designer Tomonobu Itagaki departs Tecmo

tim — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 10:31:26 +0000

He’s not happy either; he’s suing his former company:

I have filed this lawsuit with a strong intent to question the social responsibility of Tecmo Co., Ltd. and its President Yoshimi Yasuda, as well as condemning them for their unjust acts. Today, in addition to announcing the reasons for this lawsuit, I make clear my reasons for resigning.

Itagaki is an outspoken individualist so I guess this kind of drama is in character. The move is worth noting though, simply because of the exceptional quality of the Ninja Gaiden game (I’ve not yet seen Ninja Gaiden II). There were several releases of Ninja Gaiden for Xbox: the original; two major downloadable called the Hurricane Pack I and II; and Ninja Gaiden Black which added a new Mission Mode with as much play value as the game itself. The point here is that Itagaki is a perfectionist; he took a game which was already excellent and honed it over several iterations, seemingly putting the pursuit of quality ahead of commercial considerations. The Hurricane Packs were free, and Itagaki is said to have opposed ports to other platforms despite the lack of acceptance for Xbox in Japan.

To understand the game itself you have to look beyond the reviews, to things like this fan-written advanced combat guide. Known to be a challenging game, it is loved by hard core gamers for its sophisticated, nuanced combat system with huge numbers of different moves and many surprises. I know nothing like it for intense combat and replayability, though spoilt by unnecessary gore.

Ninja Gaiden II is just about to be released; it’s a shame that Itagaki won’t be around to further develop it as it did for its predecessor. Unless he makes up with Tecmo, that is.

Technorati tags: ninja gaiden, xbox, Tomonobu Itagaki

UK Rock Band prices strike an ugly chord

tim — Sat, 24 May 2008 09:45:05 +0000

I was surprised to see that the highly-regarded Rock Band game has been rated only a two-star game by customer reviewers at Amazon.co.uk.

The reason: not the game, but the price. The Band in a Box package, which costs up to £129.00, neglects to include the game itself: buy it separately for up to £49.99.

Amazon’s prices are a little less; but in the USA Amazon.com offers the whole lot for $149.99 (list price $169.99). I’m using the Xbox 360 versions for this example.

The problem for Electronic Arts is that buyers are only a click away from checking out the prices in other countries. “The price is a joke. No purchase,” says one UK customer review.

Will it seriously affect sales? Only if people really do refuse to buy; then of course we’ll see the price lowered. However, it is currently occupying positions two and three in Amazon’s all-format bestseller chart, so maybe not.

Aside: why does Amazon say this has a PEGI rating of 16 for the instruments, but only 12 for the game? If the problem is risqué lyrics, you would have thought it would be the other way round.

Technorati tags: rock band, xbox 360, electronic arts

Popfly Game Creator – programming online with Silverlight

tim — Sat, 03 May 2008 10:26:33 +0000

This looks great: Popfly Game Creator.

Interesting on several counts.

First, casual gaming will help get Silverlight runtimes deployed.

Second, it’s Microsoft doing one of the things it does well: opening up programming to a new group. Another example: Microsoft promotes its XNA gaming framework to universities, where it helps them to entice new students into computer science.

Third, it’s from Adam Nathan, author of the definitive work on .NET interop, .NET and COM. Popfly gaming must be welcome light relief (though I don’t mean to imply that this stuff is easy to do).

Fourth, is online programming – I mean, programming that you actually do online – coming of age?

Technorati tags: popfly, .net, gaming, silverlight, microsoft

XBox 360: nearly great

tim — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 19:40:17 +0000

Unhappily, I have joined the ranks of those who have suffered more than once from the XBox 360 red lights of death. It’s a known design fault, so hardly surprising, but annoying none the less. Mine was a launch console, and lasted over a year before succumbing. Ten months later, and it’s failed again. I don’t blame the repairer; it’s even a different error code (0103 vs 0020).

The 360 story resembles that of a Greek hero: great, but tragically flawed. I love the console and would hate to be without it. Pre-launch, there was much debate about whether a narrow disadvantage to the PlayStation 3 in graphic power would damage it; Microsoft said that the quality of the software was more important, and has proved its point. Few complain about the 360′s graphics. There are plenty of high-quality games; XBox Live is a strong service; the downloadable arcade games are compelling and good value; it does a decent job as a media center; it has the best wireless controller; and now you can even purchase movies through XBox Live.

But the flaws. Most notably, the fact that you know the thing will fail prematurely. Well, the current crop is said to be better, but how much better? It is unknown, though I guess I’ll find out because I’ve just gone out and bought an Elite at the new reduced price, tempted by HDMI, a larger hard drive, and the hope of longer intervals between red illuminations. Good money after bad? Not really, because the console has delivered value. It is just flawed, that’s all.

There’s also the noise of the fans and DVD drive, and I must mention a third problem, which has caused me some aggravation. This concerns the DRM. If you purchase a game from Live Arcade, it is fully unlocked for all the profiles on that console. However, if the console breaks and is replaced, and you re-download the game, it is only unlocked for the profile which made the purchase. Sounds a small point; but if you replace your console and have a family member who enjoyed playing a particular game under their own profile, it is annoying to find that it is now only a trial.

I thought I should check my facts, so I called Microsoft’s customer service and asked if I could transfer the licenses from my doorstop (formerly a 360 Premium) to the new Elite. No, I was told, the games were tied to the doorstop. Rubbing salt into the wound, the service representative said she would have helped, but I had violated my terms of use by tampering with the machine. In other words, it was my fault.

My crime, it turns out, was in sending my 360 (which failed before Microsoft extended its warranty to three years) to a third-party for repair. Not only did this void the (then-expired) warranty; it also meant that Microsoft would not help me recover the full rights to my purchased games.

I am sceptical about how much difference this actually made, since my understanding is that Microsoft never transfers licenses to those upgrading to an Elite.

Fortunately there is a workaround, discovered not from customer service but from my own research. If you have several controllers, it is possible for each controller to be signed in under a different account. Just press the XBox button on the controller and select a profile. Provided that one controller is signed in as the profile which made the purchase, other profiles can play the unlocked arcade game. Not ideal, but better than nothing.

It is interesting to speculate just how much the 360′s quality problems have cost Microsoft. There is the cost of constantly and repeatedly fixing consoles; even more serious are the sales lost to those reluctant to purchase a machine likely to break prematurely. I would likely be one of them, except there is a row of 360 games on the shelf. It’s called lock-in.

We like the Elite. The graphics seem a little better; it is quieter and even feels slightly more responsive than the old box. A great console. But flawed.

Technorati tags: xbox 360, red lights of death, xbox 360 elite, live arcade