Mozilla Sponsored The Godot Game Engine To Port Their Editor As An HTML5 Web App

[sarmad]

Not written in Rust?

I am semi-serious. Obviously you cannot rewrite a game engine in Rust on a whim ( it is a lot of work ). But we are talking about Mozilla sponsoring the job...

Also, I am currently studying Rust, and I am uber impressed. I don't understand why a lot of people whine about it. Yes it is difficult to grasp its programming model. But its point is exactly this. You cannot write good software, without good practices. So yes, I am impressed.

What you're calling for is an example of the "this is a nice tool, let's use it for the sake of using it" phenomena that is wide spread among developers.

[ids1024]

What you're calling for is an example of the "this is a nice tool, let's use it for the sake of using it" phenomena that is wide spread among developers.

I like Rust but this is probably right, in some sense. In particular, Mozilla's use of Rust is a good example of when to rewrite in a new programming language: they already recognized a need to more or less completely rewrite some fairly old components, to be able to take advantage of modern multi-core architectures (and probably address other technical debt). And Rust made that easier than their attempts to do so in C++ (which, apparently, they first attempted to do).

But in this case, while there might be advantages, it isn't clear that it warrants the effort for a rewrite currently. Perhaps if Godot runs into some issues where a rewrite and/or certain Rust features would substantially help, and/or the Rust library ecosystem for game development has some impressive offerings, this situation could change.

Nevertheless, if someone wants to work on a Rust game engine and editor that's similar in aim to Godot, it sounds like a cool project! I'd love to see such a thing.

[Jabberwocky]

there's already an operating system you know.

Do you know of any other 3d game editors that runs in WebAssembly?

[Jabberwocky]

I like Rust but this is probably right, in some sense. In particular, Mozilla's use of Rust is a good example of when to rewrite in a new programming language: they already recognized a need to more or less completely rewrite some fairly old components, to be able to take advantage of modern multi-core architectures (and probably address other technical debt). And Rust made that easier than their attempts to do so in C++ (which, apparently, they first attempted to do).

Most people that hate Rust refuse comprehend this. The reason why I say refuse is because I find it fairly simple, conceptually speaking. I like the wording that you've used though. Still I wonder if the limited perspective is due to bias or lack of experience.

But in this case, while there might be advantages, it isn't clear that it warrants the effort for a rewrite currently. Perhaps if Godot runs into some issues where a rewrite and/or certain Rust features would substantially help, and/or the Rust library ecosystem for game development has some impressive offerings, this situation could change.

Perhaps when they try to implement this rendering pipeline in a multi-GPU-HSA-vendor-neutral-architecture? I don't think any open engine will do this before 2035+ (I hope I'm wrong).

Nevertheless, if someone wants to work on a Rust game engine and editor that's similar in aim to Godot, it sounds like a cool project! I'd love to see such a thing.

I would really like to see something like that too. Piston is trying, but it has a long way to go. Veloren looks awesome, but is using really an old rendering architecture.

[log0]

they are pursuing this effort to lower the barrier for new users

I don't get it. Is having to download the editor manually and running it such a huge barrier? The wasm has to be downloaded by the browser too before executing it. Even worse it has to be downloaded (assuming it is not cached on the hard drive) and compiled every time you want to run the editor.

[pabloski]

What you're calling for is an example of the "this is a nice tool, let's use it for the sake of using it" phenomena that is wide spread among developers.

Only if you think that writing secure, robust software is totally useless. From the other comments, it seems like people think of Rust just as another multicore/multithread friendly language. But the main selling point of Rust is the elimination, by design, of entire classes of bugs.

[ssokolow]

I don't get it. Is having to download the editor manually and running it such a huge barrier? The wasm has to be downloaded by the browser too before executing it. Even worse it has to be downloaded (assuming it is not cached on the hard drive) and compiled every time you want to run the editor.

They're specifically excited about its potential for making Godot more available in academic situations where it may be very difficult (or at least discouragingly onerous) for a teacher or professor to get permission to have new software installed on the machines in a computer lab.

[skeevy420]

They're specifically excited about its potential for making Godot more available in academic situations where it may be very difficult (or at least discouragingly onerous) for a teacher or professor to get permission to have new software installed on the machines in a computer lab.

Exactly. It's already in use in at least one school. A version that's able to run in a browser, e.g. the cheap ass Chromebooks a lot schools provide for kids, makes it a lot more accessible in an educational environment.