Firefox plugin

One of the things I've been working on (and off!) in the past 6 months is a simple addon/plugin for Firefox, which allows you to embed a Warsow instance into a web page. I've never played QL myself but I guess it does something similar. Of course to be able to use this plugin, that is: to able to actually play, spectate matches and watch demos you need the game itself installed locally. Here's a short preview of the plugin:

This is how the plugin is listed among other installed addons in your Firefox:




A simple web page that embeds a streamed demo (that's another thing added to Warsow itself - it can now stream demos over HTTP without pre-downloading them first):




Hovering your mouse pointer over the play button actually highlights it:




Left mouse button menu:




Oops, looks like this is our first run of the plugin and we didn't use the windows installer:




All is set up, the demo is now loading:




Yup, it's running:




Console also works:




This is how HTML code that embeds a Warsow demo looks:

And this is how you can embed a Warsow TV channel stream:

Currently known issues:
a) it only works in Windows Firefox, there are no plans to port it to other browsers or operating systems, although you can reach a similar effect using the MozEmbed plugin in Linux

b) it requires the game to be installed first, perhaps it'll provide a direct download link in the dialog you can see on the fifth screenshot

c) due to DirectInput not working in embedded plugin windows the mouse input and feel seems laggy, this is a known limitation which I think can not be fixed

d) there's no fullscreen toggle button/shortcut

e) I'm not actively working on this thing so don't expect fast development pace of it, I'm also not sure if it's going to be included in the official distribution of the game

All in all, it's been fun to work on this plugin and a somewhat refreshing experience, I must say. Hopefull I'll be able to progress on it in the nearest future and I'll have something to report on this blog.

GG and HF!

:D

that came unexpected
i actually tried to click play on one of the images xD

This is very cool :}

nice :)

who no plans to port it tho?

learn_more: you mean, why?
the answer is: no time, no motivation

gj vic!

it's a DOUBLE RAINBOW!

kk.

oh, and quakelive does do it a bit different:
they converted the main .exe into a dll, and that is loaded through the firefox plugin, and IE .ocx

The goal of it wasn't to make it a Quakelive, anyway.

i never said such a thing jal, just elaborating a bit on it, seeing as vic said he never played quakelive

olè ! :D good job

where i can find it?

vic, did you consider using the html5 canvas tag? would increase portability across systems.
it sure is better in many other perspectives, too.

no, how would html5 canvas help here?

Very nice, Kokoro-Vic!

Yes it rocks

I hate to randomly bump things, but this wouldn't work without totally porting the quake engine in a way that would be usuable in javascript.
Sure they could try to do it with webgl, but then that removes Internet Explorer, and makes it super browser based, as people will have to pick the browser that works better.
It could be a bit unfair if everyone has to use just firefox, or Just chrome, or run it standalone.
that and the networking hoops that would be needed for online, Google's jake2 port doesn't work the best currently, so by proxy, using the canvas tag (and probably webgl, and maybe native client) would be harder.
Best bet is to just package a installer in the plugin, then opensource the plugin so people can port it easier.