» Fri Oct 14, 2011 12:38 pm
We can't use a JScript compiler: the games need a full-blown browser engine to run, not just the javascript bit.
It's possible to embed HTML5 games to an EXE by embedding a browser engine in to an EXE and just have it load the HTML5 game. This is what the phpexe program appears to do. However, there are some problems:
- if IE9 is embedded, you lose all XP users since IE9 doesn't run on XP
- browsers are moving fast these days, so you'd have to regularly update the embedded browser
- it can be difficult to come across up-to-date browser engines for embedding, since they're a little obscure and many embedding projects aren't regularly updated
- you don't get any of the performance or feature benefits
- IMO, you may as well just play it in a browser anyway. You have to go through a bunch of security warnings to run an EXE, and some users are simply not allowed by their system permissions. HTML5 games run for everyone without any security or permission worries at all. Plus EXEs are tied to Windows, and HTML5 in a browser runs on Windows, Mac, Linux and most phones and tablets.
Because of this, we don't want to develop an official HTML5/EXE "wrapper". We'd rather develop a real EXE runtime, even if that's a long way off in the future. However, in the mean time, we're happy for third parties to have a go at coming up with something, or you can play around with tools like phpexe if you really want it in an EXE, given the above shortcomings.Ashley2011-10-14 12:39:31