As the most experienced gamers out there probably know, the modern 3D games are very demanding, meaning that they need a lot of processing power in order to look as good as they do and most importantly to respond adequately to players input. This is basically the main reason that these kind of games are not possible to run in the web browsers and why those that can be played in the web browser look like stripped down versions of their PC or console counterparts.
But the winds of change are blowing our way, and the team that is behind the Firefox web browser works hard to try and change that. Mozilla just recently released a version of Firefox that has WebAssembly – a new technology that enables high-res apps like games, computer-aided design, video and image editing and scientific visualization to run cleanly in a browser and almost as fast as they do on your local computer.
They intended the WebAssembly to speed up the existing web apps that use JavaScript as well. This tech will allow developers to code a game or an app and instantly know that it will run in the same way in any supported browser, regardless of platform. Consumers, on the other hand, will get to use a browser to run any WebAssembly-enabled game or app, regardless of platform or operating system which is just remarkable!
The gist of the WebAssembly is that it is a very simple low-level programming language that allows for higher-level computer languages like C or C++ to run in a web browser. What makes this one different than anything else like it is the fact that its apps are parsed and compiled before they get to your browser, meaning that the most difficult part is already done.
Just for comparison purposes – JavaScript app takes a bunch of code into the browser, then determines how best to run it on your system which leads to slowing the whole process down. As we found out Google and Microsoft’s browsers will support WebAssembly, although Firefox will be the first to include the technology, mainly because of Mozilla’s lead role in the research.
As the time passes and the WebAssembly gets mature the Mozilla team intends to bring it to the mobile as well. It is mind blowing when you imagine you can load up any of the latest games on your PC and Mac using a CAD app, and transferring it to your smartphone while you head to your workplace. All of this available without any plugins or the need to trade off speed for the convenience of the web. The Firefox beta is available today for Mac, PC, and Linux, and it also includes improvements to Wi-Fi portal detection and better warnings for insecure logins.
