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Comment by vunderba | Hacker News Reader

I really really really want to use Godot, but sadly, the support for web exports just isn't there in Godot 4:

- Can't use C# at all

- Has issues running on MacOS / iOS

Meanwhile as much as Unity irritates me, they're working on even better web platform support in Unity 6 and smaller runtime bundled deployments.

https://unity.com/solutions/web

I think if I was predominantly focused on traditional console/platform gaming it would be a different story.

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Yeah it does have issues, but I managed to pump out my own game very recently called Atlas Fury (Also on Android) [1]. Runs pretty well, but had to tamp down some things/effects I wanted to do. Your other option is Defold engine.

[1] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/atlas-fury-space-arcade-game/i...

C# is a language but not a limiting factor to making a game. GDScript is for the most part fine to work with. Issues on other platforms is also something that will improve over time. Unity has not shown good faith in the least.

I'm not so confident that it will be fixed. It's been a known issue for nearly a year now:

"Godot 4's HTML5 exports currently cannot run on macOS and iOS due to upstream bugs with SharedArrayBuffer and WebGL 2.0. We recommend using macOS and iOS native export functionality instead, as it will also result in better performance."

I've run Godot games on MacOS this week in a Chromium-based browser. Try some of the browser-based ones here; https://itch.io/jam/pirate/entries , eg https://tobble.itch.io/dungeon-cleaner

These were probably built on Godot 3 which supports full web export.

Additionally that game spins indefinitely on my iPad for which all browsers (including Chrome) are WebKit based.

https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/tutorials/export/expo...

It's a known issue - Godot 4 web exports 100% do not work properly on MacOS Safari / iOS.

What they said was that they had run Godot games on macOS in a Chromium-based browser, which...does not contradict the listed export limitation at all. Why would that mean that the games were built on Godot 3?

Shrugs. I don't know what you want from me.

There were two links that were posted. The vast majority of Godot devs are well aware of the limitations around web export in Godot 4, and the Godot devs themselves have said that you are better off sticking to Godot 3 if your intent is to release an HTML5 game.

That first link is a collection of web games (ostensibly in Godot). It would therefore be reasonable to assume that most of the developers behind those WEB BASED games were savvy enough to build them in Godot 3.

I feel like you are so focused on the fact that Godot 4 has web export limitations that you haven't realised that nobody is disputing that with you.

An export limitation that affects Safari by definition does not affect Chromium-based browsers. Repeating that Safari is unsupported when someone explicitly asks/talks about Chromium-based browsers just sounds like you aren't really listening to what you're being asked.

Also if you think developers knowingly releasing web apps (of any kind, not just games) that only work in one browser and/or straight up don't work on mobile at all is somehow remarkable, you might be very new to the web.

Find me a line where I disputed Chromium browsers on Macs can or cannot run Godot 4 based web games. I'm not sure why you are so hung up on this, the original point still stands. And that is Godot 4 is not currently web ready, and due to limitations upstream according to the Godot devs themselves, it is recommended to stick with Godot 3 until such a time.

Furthermore, juvenile personal attacks are not appreciated (such as insulting comments like "you are very new to the web") and go against the spirit of HN. I'm done with this conversation because I feel like you are deliberately being antagonistic and are acting in bad faith.

WebKit has awful SharedArrayBuffer memory leaks. Awful awful awful.

But I think the weird part was that it was working okay in 3.5. In general c# support and cross platform saw regressions in 4.0 though it's slowly getting better as of 4.3

Last time I tried Unity I felt like the web builds were awful... ran super poorly in browser even for a super basic scene and also had some compatibility issues with certain core Unity features. That was 2 or 3 years ago so maybe they've gotten better, but in general I think if you're trying to make web games specifically you should go direct to developing for web instead of using Unity or Godot.

I thought godot does have c# support? Isn't that what godot mono is?

I had the same thought as you, but then I saw this:

>Currently, projects written in C# cannot be exported to the web platform. To use C# on that platform, consider Godot 3 instead.

https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/tutorials/scripting/c...

Ahh I see. That's quite disappointing.

I know nothing about it, but I wonder if web assembly could help out here.

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