Interactive film built with Three.js and WebGL | Hacker News Reader

Interactive film built with Three.js and WebGL

thecarpandtheseagull.com

30 pointsmhax21 comments

Hi, the director / coder here. Crazy to see on hacker news. We had to have it on just Chrome because of the twin pains of time (never enough) and money (added code, more testing, etc). For most of the project there were only myself and one other coder doing the work.

If it isn't working for you or have questions, feel free to let me know...

What aspects of this are not compatible with other browsers?

WebGL isn't supported by IE. Firefox and Safari have patchy WebGL service.

Firefox works but grinds to such a slow pace, so we disabled it.

2002 "This site is best viewed with Internet Explorer"

2012 "The film is optimised for viewing on Chrome."

Not interested in a browser-specific web experience.

Microsoft hasn't bothered to touch WebGL, clearly more interested in their own proprietary Direct3D and Xbox ecosystem.

Apple has had partial WebGL support for years now (started with iAds), but has never switched it on by default, not on OS X or iOS.

What exactly do you expect web developers to do? Keep making the same shitty sites?

It's the only way this could have been shown. This story couldn't have been told if it wasn't browser-specific.

There's no room for learning, if we don't go about it this way. But hey, please carry on.

Maybe it'll make you happier to know that I can't run it on Chrome because of driver issues I assume.

On a more serious note, WebGL is pretty new and this is a demo.

Is there some reason you think your browser of choice would bother to implement new technologies if people weren't taking advantage of them on other platforms? This comment doesn't need to be posted every time a bleeding edge demo gets posted on HN.

How can you not care about innovation and the future of your industry?

Wow that was incredibly trippy, a great mix of technical ability with an artistic side, it's nice to see..

Pretty disappointed by the top comments here.

IMO, this is a pretty cool "interactive film" (I'd call it a video game) that is extremely well done via Three.js (and therefore WebGL). Good job to the developers.

I will say that due to time, I didn't figure out what to do in each chapter. Instead, I clicked a few things and then moved onto the next chapter.

WebGL is really the trend at this time! Good job. Really liked the interactive part.

I think trend is the wrong word, possibly shift?

It's been pushed more mainstream than other new elements for the web because of the visual appeal.

This is trippy and awesome :))

Here's hoping we see a lot more interactive experiences soon!

If anyone is inspired to try to build something of their own using Three.js, we're working on tools that will help. More here: http://verold.com/blog/2012/11/6/threejs-needs-a-cms

Hi guys great job on the technical aspects!

I feel like the emotional and film aspects are still slightly a leap. I didn't really feel much for the fisherman or the seagull, I was just banging away on my spacebar.

The initial description got me interested, you are definitely trying to explore a new concept and for that I give you props!

No, I don't want to download Chrome.

why not?

latest version of Chrome, on OS X 10.7.5 and it's only rendering wireframes.

It supposed to be wireframes. There should also be some fog that's not? Try chapter 3. Has loads of colour once you get started.

I love these artsy indie video games I seem to be noticing more and more of lately. The graphics and music are really cool!

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