Xbox 360 'Internet Explorer' App & HTML5

I just wanted to share my excitement with you all. Here's a photo of a current build of my HTML5 game running on my Xbox 360. It's a drag and drop, touch controlled, tower defense game, so it functions as I expected using the controller as a cursor.

<img src="http://howardconcepts.net/internets/construct2/xbox360_screen.jpg" border="0">

The Internet Explorer app is currently only available in the dashboard beta preview program. It'll push out to everyone sometime this fall, so hopefully others in the community will be able to test theirs out soon as well. It was pretty awesome seeing my game running on my TV and play it with a controller. It was running fairly smooth too! The only problem I noticed was some stuttering every time it tried to reloop the music.

Has anyone else in the beta had a chance to test their game out? If so, what have your experiences been?

Very interesting! Could you try running this performance test and let me know what the result score is? (Wait for it to say 'done')

http://www.scirra.com/labs/sbperf/

Also, how exactly does input work? I don't suppose the Gamepad plugin works...? Do you just have to move a cursor around the screen? If so that would kind of limit a lot of games.

I'll be sure and give that a test after work tonight, ASHLEY.

The input was, as you said, just moving the cursor around the screen with the left joystick. The 'A' button functions like a mouse click or tap, so you can just "mouse over" and click on objects by pressing 'A' or pressing and holding 'A' to click, drag and release.

I'm not sure if and how well the new Gamepad plugin works. This successful test inspired me though, so I'll try and implement some and see if they function at all.

Test Score = 27

Now, that�s some good news ;o

Wow, Xbox 360!

Really insteresting.

I hope gamepad plugin can work with this, so spesifically the game input can work. :)

Good share :)

Very Good News - Testscore here on PC is 58.

KMag

That's pretty good - it means it averaged 27 FPS, which is definitely playable. Seems like performance is good!

Played around with the gamepad plugin. It does not appear to work for the Xbox. I just changed a function that was activated on touch to an on 'X' pressed event, and it didn't work. It did work with a wireless 360 controller on my PC in Chrome.

What I did discover is that the D-Pad corresponds to the keyboard Arrow keys, so if your game uses keyboard events with the arrows, then you're set. The start button acts as a keyboard key, but I didn't test which one yet. I'm assuming maybe the Enter key? Otherwise, the 'B', 'Y', 'RB', and 'LB' are already being used as shortcut functions for operating the IE app, so those would be taken up even if the gamepad plugin worked.

I have a side question though. I noticed my HTML5 was creating saved data on the Xbox 360 storage, much like Chrome stores it as HTML5 appdata. Unfortunately deleting it didn't clear the cached website, so I always had to upload to a different directory for the browser to realize it was a new version. Is there a method to clear website data? You know if you want to update your HTML5 game on your website and keep it in the same location. At the moment it seems I have to manually delete any cookies or appdata in my browser for it to recognize it's updated.

I don't find a 27 fps average for something as simple as space blaster to be a good result. At all. On mobile: understandable, but on a 360? It's terrible, even if it's through a browser. It seems the performance should be better even if MS is too stubborn to support WebGL. Watch them come up with "DirectX: Live" soon, just to stay relevant.

There have been games released in the past that averaged 30fps. I don't see 27 being to bad, that's if it holds 27. Battlefield 3 and Forza horizon's both are limited to 30 fps if memory serves. This should not be a problem. I for one am very excited.

I do have one question, is the xbox Program opened to anyone or is it a closed beta?

I don't find a 27 fps average for something as simple as space blaster to be a good result. At all. On mobile: understandable, but on a 360? It's terrible, even if it's through a browser. It seems the performance should be better even if MS is too stubborn to support WebGL. Watch them come up with "DirectX: Live" soon, just to stay relevant.

Remember the XBox 360 hardware is from 2006. 6 year old hardware is pretty old by today's standards, and in fact modern mobile phones and tablets are probably actually comparable. So I think it is to be expected that XBox 360 performance is roughly what modern mobile performance is.

I wish they'd just bring out the next console generation instead of prolonging this one, it's so dated now. I remember when consoles were cutting-edge.

There have been games released in the past that averaged 30fps. I don't see 27 being to bad, that's if it holds 27. Battlefield 3 and Forza horizon's both are limited to 30 fps if memory serves. This should not be a problem. I for one am very excited.

I do have one question, is the xbox Program opened to anyone or is it a closed beta?

It was open for a limited amount of slots. Though, it did open a second time and perhaps it still is? You'll have to register at Microsoft Connect to apply for any Xbox dashboard beta they host.

What I can?t understand is if microsoft isn?t going to support webgl, why haven?t them integrated their own solution yet?