Are AAA 3D Games for the Web Possible?

Posted on August 1, 2012 | 7 comments

I will be talking about this question at PAX Dev in Seattle on Aug 30th.

Here is the description:

Building AAA 3D games for the Web require many features, including GPU hardware acceleration, shader languages, audio, input, content loading, content caching, and full screen support. This presentation will cover feature comparison of WebGL/HTML5, Flash, Unity and other supporting technologies and their potential in enabling developers to create AAA 3D games on the Web, as well as show examples of AAA 3D Web games.

Here is the list of some of the major technology and features that are required to consider building an AAA 3D game for the web from the description above.

  • GPU hardware acceleration
  • shader languages
  • audio
  • input
  • content loading/streaming
  • content caching
  • full screen support

What technology and/or features do you consider are required for AAA 3D games?

What games on the web (Unity, WebGL, and/or Flash) do you consider are AAA 3D games?

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  • A Dababneh

    Flash or Unity, I guess there is no plans for supporting for WebGL in ie.

  • Gil Amran

    Flash, why go Unity if you have the GPU at your hands?

  • Alan Klement

    Chrome’s Native Client has a great deal of potential.

    The most popular example is Bastion:
    http://chrome.supergiantgames.com/

  • Anonymous

    Thanks for comments, I am aware of Native Client and planned to add that to the discussion.

    So this post was more about not why choosing one over the other but more of define what AAA 3D web games require and the potential of AAA 3D games on the Web. Thoughts on the tech/feature list?

  • http://blog.bwhiting.co.uk/ benw

    UDP or some sort of fast network shizzle is a must for responsive multiplayer action.

    speeeeed, physics and game logic will be limited if the platform cannot deliver on speed, a big shortfall of flash at the moment but I am hoping flash player next will bring huge improvements in that area.

    access to shader models above 2.0 would make a difference, texture reads in vertex shaders can really help get the most out of the GPU not to mention instancing and geometry shaders.

    a form of multi-threading for running tasks in parallel.

    am sure there is more but mind is now blank – was a long day

    • Anonymous

      Great feedback thanks.

      FYI flash player 11.4 introduces concurrency. And performance is key goal for flash player next.

  • Joe

    On the web (of a desktop) Flash is still supreme for up to 2.5D games. unity for 3D and soon Unity will lay in Flash.

    More importantly, on Mobile, I’m hearing good things about Unity3D, performance is good, and Corona for 2D.

    I wouldn’t think of a framework that is not cross-compiled platform.