Even “modern” internet based games in the year 2010 are at best, current up to 2004 specs graphically speaking. The shortcomings are accepted though seeing as how browser support for advanced graphics simply aren’t implemented in web standards. These little things called plugins however are on the verge of creating a new generation of web-based gaming. And I’m not talking about some hokey enhancements such as slightly less block faces and/or more shades of color. No, I’m talking about full blown DirectX11 gaming, multi-core support, and PhysX integration — all in your browser.
The ocular eye candy will come compliments of Trinergy’s new “Vision Engine 8″, promising everything above and then some. The plugin that will actually bring said features into the browser will debut in the form of a browser plugin called “WebVision”. Everyday more and more services move online. It only makes sense that one of the primary reasons for owning a computer also moves online.
Don’t go selling your multi-thousand gaming rig in favor of a lighter model just yet. For one, you will still need a beefy graphics card to fun demanding games, even through WebVision. Therein lies the problem — not everyone will have a high end graphics card who visits the gaming website. Getting around such things seems as if a simple hardware check would clear things up, preventing those without the necessary muscle to actually enter/run the web game. According to company spokesperson Eric Schumacher:
“It checks system requirements, downloads content and validates it before executing it, and handles versioning of critical DLLs. The backend, in turn, is built into the game itself, which is executed by the frontend after download and verification.”
Besides the hardware limits, bandwidth limits also pose another hurdle. Any and all traffic consumed during current online gaming is relatively small, certainly not anywhere close to the traffic that would be required to pump full on 1080p+ graphics via the web, in real time. If the FCC and Google have their way however, bandwidth issues won’t be too much of an issue for too much longer.
Once the Vision Engine 8 SDK goes live this April, expect developers to start actively working on bringing modern gaming into the browser. I can’t wait. I’m sure you can’t wait. Imagine being able to not have to worry about game saves and progress dependent on hardware or physical location. Soon, any computer you sit down at will be more or less the same for online gaming enjoyment. Awesome stuff!
It’s worth mentioning that Atari, Firefly, and Ubisoft are already employing certain aspects of the technology. The latter, Ubisoft, has come under fire as of late however for one of their latest titles — Settlers 7 — uses a large chunk of what comprises “WebVision”, albeit with an extremely annoying piece of DRM attached. Let’s hope that moving foward, the “always-on” requirement isn’t always required.
For those scratching your head, wondering how you could drop the “always on” part and still play a browser based game. Simple: local cached information of anything and everything that is sent to the game providers’ servers. Even better: seamless transition between browser based and local/disc based gameplay when the internet connection fails. How developers would work that last one out is beyond my level of coding expertise (read: none). With that said, it’s an intriguing development no less and one that I will anxiously sit by and watch as it matures.
Gamers: What’s your take? Will you look to the cloud for future gaming if it is current with the modern specs at any given time?
