Lacewing and java

[NG2]

Are there any plans to enable lacewing to be exported as a java application ?

I'm working on a small multiplayer game and I'd love to have it playable on a browser but I don't want to fork more money in the flash plugin.

[nivram]

NG2. I think the answer to your question is no.

Marv

[MattEsch]

I'd love to have it playable on a browser but I don't want to fork more money in the flash plugin.

Well there's always the do it yourself approach: if you want to hook lib lacewing you can do so through the JNI. If that's not an option then I would sincerely recommend the flash exporter; it is very reasonably priced and it is the best way (in my opinion) to write games for the browser with MMF.

[dragonguy]

You could make a Vitalize game that uses Lacewing, no seriously, there is something called Vitalize which is for web games that all versions of MMF2 have and all extensions work on it! WHY ARE YOU NOT CONSIDERING IT AS AN OPTION!?

[LB]

all extensions work on it!

Uhm.......no. An extension has to be Vitalized to be able to work in Vitalize; and Lacewing, among hundreds of other extensions, is not vitalized.

[Ravenius]

Plus Vitalize is generally a bad choice, since the user needs to install an add-on he has probably never heard about.

[James]

Consider Lacewing a selling point of the SWF exporter

[nivram]

?

Marv

[MattEsch]

Well its simple; there's a figure floating around that suggests about 97% of users have flash-ready browsers. The exact number isn't entirely relevant, just be sure that flash is ready on the the vast majority of browsers. Who cares if Apple digs their heels in? Vitalize is a good idea, it's just too difficult to get people to install a browser plugin. To date, flash is the best way (in terms of compatibility) to write apps in the browser, though this is very likely to be eclipsed by HTML5 when it becomes consistent and stable across all browsers (I am sure some people will argue HTML5 is ready now). Flash is considered by many to be the best choice now because it's considered "enterprise grade" technology, which despite all the enterprise nonsense really means that it's been around for a long time, which is always useful in terms of maintenance and stability. Java is also very versatile, but tends to feel too heavy for games when you can have a lightweight VM like flash doing the same things. Java is better for more advanced things, like if you want to render with OpenGL before WebGL finds its feet.

Simply put, Flash is a great way to reach the most number of users on the web, even if the technology is not the best.