"During GDC, several developers presented some new and upcoming games for the Chrome Web Store. From AirMech to the highly anticipated From Dust, these games provided a sneak peek to the future of browser-based games.
Besides being able to use the latest technology the web has to offer, creating a game for Chrome means you can distribute and monetize your game successfully. This is evidenced by our 4 brand new case studies with Kabam, Hlafbrick, Game Salad, and Limex Games."
"Today we are releasing version 7 of the V8 Benchmark Suite. This new version adds Oliver Hunt’s2D Navier-Stokes fluid dynamic simulation, which stresses intense double array computations. These complex double array computations are today common in games, graphic and scientific applications.
The new test shows the recent improvements V8 has made in handling advanced physics computations: the current Chrome 18 (today in beta) delivers a 5% score improvement compared to the current Chrome 17. Chrome 19 (today in canary), where the full set of improvements is being released, delivers a whopping 25% score improvement compared to Chrome 17."
"Standards-based open Web technologies are increasingly capable of delivering interactive multimedia experiences; the kind that used to only be available through plugins or native applications. This trend is creating new opportunities for gaming on the Web.
Google has also been active in the effort to advance gaming on the Web. Google's Christian Stefansen recently wrote an entry about the topic at the official Chromium blog. Like Mozilla, Google is collaborating with standards bodies to advance new Web APIs. The company even created a special page on its official Google Developers website that describes how various Google services and technologies can be used to accelerate and monetize the development of Web-based games."
"Further showing its commitment to HTML5 as the way of the future, Adobe has released a preview of a
Shadow, a tool to allow developers to remotely control and inspect Web pages in multiple phones and tablets simultaneously.
Shadow uses a Chrome plugin on the developer's Windows or Mac OS X machine and apps on iOS and Android phones and tablets. The portable devices are registered with the developer's machine, and subsequently can have their browsers remotely controlled by the computer. Every page visited on the desktop will appear in tandem on the phones and tablets."
"But the HTML5 video element has yet to live up to its full potential, because a dispute over video encoding has prevented the standard from being implemented consistently across all Web browsers. Mozilla, which has long resisted adoption of H.264 on ideological grounds, is now preparing to support it on mobile devices where the codec is supplied by the platform or implemented in hardware.
"'We will support decoding any video/audio format that is supported by existing decoders present on the system, including H.264 and MP3. There is really no justification to stop our users from using system decoders already on the device, so we will not filter any formats,' [Gal] wrote. 'I don't think this bug significantly changes our position on open video. We will continue to promote and support open codecs, but when and where existing codecs are already installed and licensed on devices we will make use of them in order to provide people with the best possible experience.'"
