Goodbye Unity Web Player ~_~

is anyone else sad about the impending doom of Unity Web Player?

April 2015 Marks the date when NPAPI support will be disabled by default on Google Chrome!
(no more allow plugin option)

http://venturebeat.com/2015/01/21/c...locked-by-default-removes-ssl-3-0-completely/

I'm very curious as to where Unity 5 and WebGL will be by this time... as my upcoming game will be totally dependent on Unity WebGL at that point. I haven't even begun testing with WebGL yet as I need Photon Cloud Networking Support which is also in Beta I believe.

Crossing my Fingers for the Best! I knew the time would come, but it's definitely a scary transition we don't seem to be fully prepared for, not that it's anyone's fault. I'm sure Unity is doing their best. I'm curious where we will be by April and how many Websites, Businesses, Games etc will be effected by this.

 

I would hope Unity 5 would be out by that point. I'm expecting they will have it ready by early March when GDC takes place.

 

There's been how many threads about this?
Like we needed another one.

 

Lets Hope!

 

You don't need to reply, if you don't like the topic... just move on and ignore it.

 

Since you posted it in a public forum you can ignore my reply also.

 

By the way do you know if Unity is going to Open up a dedicated WebGL Support Forum? This way I don't bother Nubz with my posts about WebGL.

 

Thanks for the Tip! ^_^

 

Surprised they don't have one for the existing web player.

 

Now that you mention it... hmmm yea whats that about? Oddly enough they still have a Flash Development Forum, but no Web Player Forum? sooo weird... http://forum.unity3d.com/categories/platforms.77/

 

What I'm curious about is how time consuming it will be to bring old Unity 4 webplayer projects over to Unity 5 for the purpose of a WebGL build.

 

The bigger question I have is, how many of us will have to do some monkeying in about:config to get it working again (if any one will care)?

 

The only option is accept this, i see the major disavantage of webgl in that is a client tecnology with open data (models, textures, etc.) then if you make a good game is more easy for "others" stolen your assets and make a copy of your game, and is strange for me that principal game dev tools developers say that this is not a problem.

 

It was already simple enough to do that with the Unity webplayer. In fact WebGL is more secure since code is IL -> C++ -> JS, which makes it hard to reconstruct the original Unity scripts.

--Eric

 

Goodbye and good riddance. Webplayer was fine for regular gamers. But the number of casuals who choose not to play because they don't want to download the plugin is pretty significant.

I've also had multiple reports from players that the web player already does not work on their browser.

It will level the playing feild with flash considerably. If WebGL works.

 

I agree, i'm looking forward to the WebGL. I have always predicted few years ago that WebGL would be the future for Games in the Browser, and here we are! It's just a scary time, and transition especially for those of us who actually depend on Unity Web Player for our Business.

 

People Rip Assets from High End Console Games like Grand Theft Auto and More... so Ripping, Stealing Content is never going to be 100% preventable. Just like Hacking / Cheating... we just have to do our best to implement as much security as we can so we have less of the common methods of Hacking or Ripping to Worry about. We'll have to Manage it regardless.

 

Yea, I wish it would just be a smooth transistion, as smoother as Click Build! and it Works.... but that's not the case currently with the Beta state, many Bugs I think currently. Hopefully we can reach a point where it is a very smooth build process with minimal migration effort.

 

What we really have to do is figure out a strategy to make money even if the game is pirated. You will never win the battle against piracy. You may have a shot at turning pirated games into a valid income stream.

 

Offer free copies in exchange for marketing (YouTube Let's Plays, Reviews, etc)? Trying to find ways to make money from piracy will likely cost you more than it is worth though.

 

Well one thing for sure is if you develop a Browser game that is stolen and hosted on multiple Web Portal Sites you didn't Authorize. If the game has in-game purchase items, monetization built in, then it really won't matter who steals your game.

I recall one time many web portal sites trying to iFrame one of my Browser games. I updated the Website to include an iFrame Breakout Javascript, and now I had tons of Free Traffic hitting my main page where I Monetized through Google Adsense Leadeboard Ads.

Also, if we implement the right security for Browser Games... we should be able to re-direct the traffic our pirated game is getting back to our websites. Like using the Absolute URL method in Unity that checks if the Game is loaded from the exact URL it should be hosted at, otherwise breakout and redirect the traffic.

 

My webplayer game displays ads if its not on the portals I've specifically authorised it for. Maybe not the best strategy, but its not that hard to do something like that. Certainly less difficult to implement then preventing piracy altogether.

So far no one has bothered to pirate it.

 

Why on earth would anyone be sad or even care with WebGL support covering it? This is a great move on the internet.

 

How about displaying a little nag screen at some point that refers the user back to the authorized portals?

 

Maybe because WebGL does not cover it yet?

It doesn't matter how great WebGL is until Unity 5 is out.

 

Because not all of us plan on upgrading to 5 anytime soon! Are they going to add it retroactively to previous versions?

 

Highly unlikely. The amount of rework the engine requires to support WebGL means it will never make it to 4.x. Changing from 4 to 5 implies some major breaking changes inside the engine.

 

I know that. It was a sarcastic question.

 

It's hardly Unity's fault chrome are phasing it out. I'd suggest you upgrade to Unity 5 when you can though - it has some pretty amazing features and benefits all round for your game.

I imagine it will be here before you know it

 

Yeah, but is it worth it to go from 4 pro to 5 free? I only upgrade when I earn enough with my current version.

 

Why not simply use both? Unity 5 Free for web development and Unity 4 Pro for everything else. Unless I'm mistaken you should be able to use them for separate projects.

 

Well the upgrade price is discounted, and given I among others campaigned well for WebGL to be a free addition, it'd be a shame if you didn't take advantage

I do respect if you can't afford the upgrade difference though, so apologies in advance.

 

LOL! That's too bad...

 

+1

 

Problems is I don't make separate projects. I have enough trouble trying to make one at a time!

I'll only upgrade when I've earned enough with the current version to pay for it. I got lucky and had a freelance gig making a map for someone which bought pro for me. Now I'm putting the final touches on my first legit game so perhaps in a year or two when enough people have stumbled onto it and bought it, I'll be able to upgrade to 6 or 7!

 

Interestingly enough this is not the first 'final deadline' the webplayer has been given by chrome.

 

The pre-order discount ended a while ago actually.

--Eric

 

simply because I don't personally think WebGL is ready yet, and probably won't be in 2 months... i'm not yelling at Unity for it not being ready it, as i'm sure they are doing their best. I just wish Chrome would extend their support for NPAPI for atleast one more year so it gives Unity WebGL a bit more time to be fully prepared.

Anyone making simple casual games can probably make WebGL games now without a problem, but for those of us who are actually working on abit more complex projects like full 3D Multiplayer Browser Games... yea it's going to be a bit of a tough transition for us in this moment.

 

Isn't there a perpetual discount for upgrading?

 

Didn`t they went that way because chrome will cancel support for Unity web player?
If yes, than this seems as normal move.

 

Well, with 90% of my Game's Traffic coming from Chrome Browser, it's really hard to believe that statment of "Unity Web Player isn't going away just yet" with analytic like that, as far as i'm concerned Unity Web Player is dead as of April. With the amount of Users and Traffic I have lost over the course of last yea when Chrome began Blocking NPAPI by default, at this point I don't have any chance of convincing them to go use Internet Explorer or Firefox. Usually when something doesn't load if at all on my favorite web browser, i'm not going to use another Web Browser just to load a Plugin. I simply won't return to that website thinking there must be something wrong with that website. More than likely that's the thinking of most people surfing the web with their Favorite Web Browser.

 

Although this is one interesting thing I have read on the Unity Web Player Download Page. You guys mention something about 360 Safe Browser in China, how Unity Web Player is Built in. Does anyone have any Analytics Data on what the Browser Gaming Market looks like in China with 360 Safe Browser and Unity Web Player?

Additionally i'm curious why Unity never established a Partnership with Google to include Unity Web Player as part of the Chrome Browser the way they did with Qihoo for their 360 Safe Browser?

See Press Release about the Partnership with Qihoo:
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-rele...ership-with-unity-technologies-148238985.html

I guess at this point it's too late, but I find it very odd that Unity never got a partnership deal with Google to do exactly what Adobe has done to secure their Browser Plugin into the Browser.

 

Because there is still a lot of older material/examples/demos that will never get rebuilt with the new tech.

So a lot of those examples of how a mechanic works, etc... are going to die horribly.

I am not advocating that we keep the old, but, it is somewhat jerkish to just pfffft a lot of material that can no longer be run just for the fact that someone gave up trying to keep in place something that was there for over half a decade.

I think it would have/can be keen to have some "upgrade exporter" to convert all those older player outputs, especially, as we know, they are easy as heck to hack.

But that is an obvious resource drain.

But again, just waving the hand and saying tough crap, that is pretty crap in itself.

 

Blame those who never provided the source to those resources. Otherwise you could simply re-publish them to WebGL.