WebGL Grand Theft Auto | Hacker News Reader

WebGL Grand Theft Auto

experiments.hertzen.com

62 pointsnthitz33 comments

I've been playing with WebGL via the THREE.js[1] library and I'm really gobsmacked. It's relatively easy, and a lot of fun to play with.

I've noticed that a lot of the demos people have created so far are rendering a simple scene, or trying to build a game engine. I'm looking forward to more people building user interfaces that make use of 3D for data visualization and user interaction. 3D has literally never been so accessible.

[1] https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js/

The 3D Globe WebGL library created by google is an awesome example of data visualization. With the blessing of the reddit folks, I populated some Google Analytics data into it. http://www.webgl.com/2012/03/webgl-globe-visualization-reddi...

That's very impressive, and I'm going to be playing with that globe this evening :)

Another aspect that makes WebGL projects like this even more useful is that you can right-click and save what you are currently seeing as an image.

I love that as well.

Do all browsers support that?

You made me curious, so I tried it. I could only get the option in Firefox, of which I'm running Aurora. IE, Safari, and Opera wouldn't load WebGL, I'm just running whatever the current mainstream version happens to be. Chrome, again current mainstream version, loads the WebGL but no save image option.

Three.js is great, but sometimes the performance isn't quite there for large sets of data. When I made this 3D Facebook connection plotter:

http://petercottle.com/friendMapper2/

I had to switch to barebones WebGL with GPU picking to get the right performance. It would be interesting if someone made a pure data-vis library for WebGL. Like d3.js + a webgl plotter

On Ubuntu 11.10 and Chrome 18.0.1025.168, this just completely killed the OS. As soon as the tab loaded, the mouse froze and the display stopped updating. I couldn't even enter a separate TTY session (ctrl-alt-F6 for example). At least this has apparently exposed a big security issue in the browser.

What video card do you have, and what driver are you using for this video card?

Works well here on 10.04 with a Nvidia GT530 (propr. drivers)

It's not really a browser security issue. It's just that Linux graphics drivers suck horribly, and so they create security issues and crashes everywhere.

Chrome and Firefox already wrap all WebGL calls through ANGLE to avoid real exploits. Of course the driver being retarded enough to lock up is not something that can prevent.

Grand Theft Walking Around A Bit

Using the latest Chrome dev (20.0.1123.1 dev, OSX 10.7.3), I've been stuck on a black screen for the past 15 minutes. I do see the number of FPS and there are some x/y/z values which change in the top right when I press the arrows on my keyboard. Rendering issue ?

Exactly the same on Firefox 12 and Chromium 18.

It loaded for me after a while. Ran around a bit. It's a cute demo / experiment.

The loading time could be significantly lowered if the files would be converted into a more accessible format for JavaScript. Especially the sprites/textures, if they would pre-processed into PNG's or something more understandable by javascript, the loading time could already be dropped by a second or two.

Works fine here, FF15 on Ubuntu w/NVidia, 60fps.

It worked for me after I clicked the screen, not sure why.

It's GTA1/2 rather than GTA3, if anyone was curious. Still cool, but slightly less impressive.

What kind of graphics card you got?

Integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000 512 MB (note that your demo does work here with the latest Firefox Aurora)

Chrome on OS X 10.6.8, worked with no issues after giving it a minute or two.

Played for 10min, couldn't find 1 car to jack.

Disappointment level = Huge.

(Seriously Very cool WebGL stuff going on though!)

There are 3 cars, none of them stealable though :(

This is just a demo, an AMAZING demo, where you expecting a completly playable game ?

OK: I also was, but I was not dissapointed, mainly because it's OpenSource, it'll become a complete game soon.

> "mainly because it's OpenSource, it'll become a complete game soon"

You must be new to open source game projects...

I still remember using NCSA Mosaic on my Mac Classic to browse the web in the '90s. Back then there were two ways to lay out your website: tables, or no layout at all. All I'm saying is, we've come a long way.

Works fine in OS X Lion and Chrome. There are some bugs, though. For instance if I walk off a ledge into the ocean, I just keep walking in mid-air suspended above the ocean. Pretty cool either way.

As it happens, this bug was somewhat in the original version of GTA. Whilst walking over water would kill you, if you tapped the jump button, you'd never fall.

This could allow you to reach areas otherwise impossible to reach - just find a high enough building, run off the edge and tap jump until you reach your desired location!

There is no physics implemented on the z-axis yet.

How do I get into CAR??

You can't

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