Feasibility of MMO 3D game on HTML5/WebGL [closed]

Question

I don't know if anyone thought about this but are games like World of Warcraft, Lineage II, or Aion, feasible with a browser front-end through WebGL? What are the things I would have to consider if I want to make a full fledged game with these new technologies? Also, what would be a good place to start?

Answer 1

This may be too open-ended, but I will take a stab.

First, there is no modeling programs that will output what you expect, as far as I know, since you will need javascript outputted.

Some browsers will use the hardware to accelerate the graphics, but that isn't a guarantee, and your only getting a bit of the cpu, sharing with the other tabs, so it may not be as smooth as you like.

If you have to download a large amount of data to run your program that will be a problem for the user.

I think the modeling program is the real challenge though, as you will have to basically do everything by hand, and the fact that it won't be very smooth will be an issue, unless you design for this.

But, for some game designs WebGL should be a fantastic choice.

Answer 2

I don't believe it's possible if your game must go beyond some cubes on heigtmaps.

• Large amounts of coding in JS multiplied by browsers quirks. (Yes, I'm aware of JQuery, but it's not panacea)
• Large resources hanging on tiny thread of browser cache
• Ready-to-be-hacked client code exposed to a lot of browser tools like Firebug

Such game is much more realistic on Flash, especially with upcoming 11 version of player with hardware 3D.