astlouis44

Very good point.

While we're throwing ideas out there - why doesn't Microsoft just take a huge swing to try and buy Disney?

They would instantly cement themselves with onbtaining get one of the world's largest media conglomerates with an extensive library of beloved IP, and they could leverage all of that content in movies, gaming, and the metaverse like you mentioned.

Slightly on topic - has anybody here ever used Unity's WebGL export? Was it viable for your game or real-time 3D app? If not, can you provide reasons why?

Been thinking this as well. At this point, it will either be Meta, Apple, or Google.

Unreal Engine games on the web soon as well :)

https://venturebeat.com/2022/05/12/wonder-interactives-the-i...

This.

Was hoping to see WebXR and WebGPU show up, these two technologies are going to allow an alternative distribution channel for game and app developers, which comprises the vast majority of Apple's services revenue from their app store tax.

Apple is going all in on the metaverse.

How about an Emscripten WebAssembly port of 0 A.D.?

(Hint, have done it)

Think this makes the most sense for Amazon, out of any potential acquirer. They get IP they can use for TV/movies on Prime Video, and they get their foot in the door of the gaming industry. Useful for the coming metaverse too.

Not to mention they get a huge client in EA moving over to AWS, if they weren't using it already.

Great take, I agree. Thoughts on a Fastly or Cloudflare acquisition by one of the tech giants?

Great points. And regarding it not being a technology problem, you're referring to the obstacle of getting users to go to the web as a platform for discovering software, rather than the App Store or Google Play, right?

Yeah Fortnite could run well in WebAssembly and WebGPU for example, cloud streaming isn't necessary to get Fortnite on the mobile web.

My team is actually developing a suite of tools and platform to enable Unreal Engine game developers to deploy their games to HTML5, bypassing walled gardens and 30% fees entirely.

True.

Anybody here think they'll be a buyout target from a tech giant wanting to jump into the metaverse space? My bet is on Meta or Amazon scooping them up.

This is huge. The web is clearly the alternative to the walled garden app stores, and Epic is clearly realizing the potential via this partnership with Microsoft.

I'd go as far as to wager that any "metaverse" will be browser-based, enabling anyone, anytime, anywhere, to access it without middlemen interference and 30% taxes.

Yeah exactly this, Plaid is probably in for a rough ride long term. Stripe will likely steamroll them.

Baldur's Gate 2 (demo) in WebAssembly. You're welcome!

https://personal-1094.web.app/gemrb.html

This x 1000. Couldn't have said it better myself. Apple is greedy and doing everything it can to preserve it's precious App Store riches powered by their 30% tax.

Safari has pretty high market share, something like 90% or something. However, I have a feeling Apple will want to compete with Google by if it becomes known that updated Chrome can play actual games on iOS through a mobile browser.

Exactly, this is what we're doing with our asynchronous asset fetching system.

We have our own asset fetching system which only loads in what is absolutely necessary, for example you don't need the entire game and can often get away with loading the first 5% or so. Everything else (assets) gets streamed in at runtime in the background.

Very excited for this. My team is bringing Unreal Engine to the browser, and it works great on computers but not so much on iOS due to the restrictions that iOS brings. Being able to use a Chromium browser together with WebGPU will enable a whole new distribution path for game developers who don't want to fork over a 30% tax to Apple. The open web allows for direct online distribution with no middlemen, that's always been the beauty of it.

Video demo of our platform: https://youtu.be/WSIFyz-2PeY

Thoughts on WebGPU?

No actually it’s WebGPU, WebAssembly, and WebXR

WebAssembly, WebGPU, and WebXR are the new VRML and will pave the way for an open, platform-agnostic metaverse where sites becomes worlds, hyperlinks becomes portals, profile pictures become avatars, and profiles become personal homes or spaces others can visit.

Interestingly, Meta's CTO just let slip yesterday about a web version of Horizon:

https://www.theverge.com/2022/4/14/23025899/meta-horizon-wor...

Anyone here think this will be the Unity client powered by WebAssembly, WebGPU, and WebXR?

Yeah for sure, proper WebXR exporters for both Unreal and Unity would go a long way to paving the way for an open metaverse.

Yeah and did you know there is a WASM version of the demo? https://personal-1094.web.app/scummvm.html

Curse of Monkey Island demo that was ported to WebAssembly and running in the browser, for anyone interested: https://personal-1094.web.app/scummvm.html