[SC] Google Chrome (The Current Future Looks Dark For The Orbit)

Google Chrome (The Current Future Looks Dark For The Orbit)​

(You can verify which plugin you are using by visiting chrome://plugins and clicking the "+ Details" in the top right and scrolling till you find your Flash Player(s), if 2 are enabled, you are most likely on PepperFlash, as Chrome favours this more and defaults to it)​

Those who don't use Google Chrome as their primary DarkOrbit browser, or don't expect to move to Google Chrome, you will not need to read this post.​

Firstly, those who run DarkOrbit fine using Chrome's built-in PepperFlash, you will most likely not need to read on, but for those who rely on disabling PepperFlash and enabling Adobes NPAPI Flash Player, I urge you to read on.

In January 2014, Chrome blocked NPAPI plugins by default and allowed the user to answer the question whether to run the Adobe Flash Player plugin "Always run on this site" or "Run This Time" or you went through the Chrome settings page and set it to always run by default. This sadly, is slowly turning bad for Chrome and Flash Player users who play games of other variations which solely depend on Adobe Flash Player and not PepperFlash to run optimally.

In Mid-2014, they moved onto the Puzzle Piece graphic which replaced the Flash animation or game, this caused a Plugin Blocked button to appear in the address bar to the right, of which you had to click to answer "Always allow plug-ins on www.site.com" or "Continue blocking plug-ins". This again, was the slow journey to the loss of NPAPI support in Google Chrome, which was designed to discourage admins and developers from using such Plug-ins for their content.

In January 2015, Chrome still supports NPAPI plugins, but will show the user messages to allow or block the plugin (run it or not). This stage is to encourage developers to move away from NPAPI plugins and move onto other platforms, such as HTML5.

In April 2015, the NPAPI support was disabled completely, and was only able to be enabled via the chrome://flags page by enabling "#enable-npapi" to force chrome to load Adobe Flash Player aswell as the PepperFlash plugin, and then disabling PepperFlash via the chrome://plugins page.

Now the killer.

In September 2015, ALL NPAPI support will be removed and blocked permanently by Chrome, meaning, if you havent guessed already, Adobe Flash Player (NPAPI) will be useless, and you will be forced to use the ever disgusting PepperFlash. (This is true at time of this post, and is verified in the Google Developers Blog).

So, what does this mean for us? Well, for those who have no problem using PepperFlash (You can verify which plugin you are using by visiting chrome://plugins and clicking the "+ Details" in the top right and scrolling till you find your Flash Player(s), if 2 are enabled, you are most likely on PepperFlash, as Chrome favours this more and defaults to it), it will not effect you, and if your game is stable and smooth on PepperFlash, your fine. But for those of us who completely rely on Adobe's NPAPI Flash Player to make our game completely playable and smooth with good FPS, we are in trouble.

The only thing we can do at this time, is migrate to another browser. Google Chrome has around 2 months left of, basically, DarkOrbit compatibility. But we never know, an uprise of Chrome users may change this outcome, or BigPoint will change their coding or platform to meet Chrome's demands.

I have also read that FireFox MAY move down this same road. Currently, it is uncertain this is true, as Google have publicly made this announcement, but Mozilla are yet to make any kind of blog or post.

Thank you.

 

Ugg, its stuff like this that make a person wish they could control what updates they get for software.

 

Hopefully Mozilla Firefox will remain the Peoples Free Browser.

 

In true definition it's google's way of saying: Flash is dead, look at this shiny HTML5 standard that's been around for a while now. Yes it may be a bit abrasive but Developers have had plenty of time to get with the program or start working on a universal desktop client in C++/Java. Companies that maintain the flash-only mindset will be devastated by this, whereas those that adopt HTML5 / Universal Desktop Clients.

The time has come for flash to go bye bye, and the rise of new standard and universal Desktop Support (Windows, Mac, GNU/Linux) to take foot in the common user's collection.

 

Dark Orbit adapt to changing player needs from a technical standpoint? We're doomed.

 

The DO dev team have been looking to abandon flash (and browsers) for quite a while now. The 3D mode will almost certainly be running on Unity3D (or almost certainly not xD turns out it's Flash3D), a great amount of time has been put into it, I think there will be a lot of the DO player base who will switch to the 3D version and never really want to go back - it looks far better than 2D and I am told it runs better as well, so just have to wait and see for that one.

Then following the 3D mode work will continue on the download client for DO, so I don't think dev team is too worried about this since their end goal is to not rely on browsers at all.

 

Sooner everything's off flash and onto Native C++ or C#/(Linux:Mono) w/ Unity 5, or heck even a Java based client from LWJGL, the better off we are as players. (Heck if they even went the evil way of Steam they could integrate to allow a bigger way to connect into playerbases)