Reply to Re: Play Dink Smallwood HD, FreeDink, and D-Mods in your Web Browser!
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@Seth and redink1:
First, let me again thank you both for your efforts.
I have just attempted to play 'All that Glitters' using the web [Play] button.
OS & System Information
OS: Ubuntu 16.04
model name: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E8300 @ 2.83GHz
MemTotal: 4 Gigabytes
VGA compatible controller
Intel Corporation 82G33/G31 Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02)
BIOS Information
Vendor: Dell Inc.
Version: 1.0.13
Release Date: 03/20/2008
Browser
Google Chrome 67.0.3396.87 (Official Build) (64-bit)
The player experience was, well to put it bluntly, pretty awful.
What is supposed to happen in the start of the dmod, is that text comes to a simple black screen, scrolling up (at the press of a [space bar]) while explaining a few things about game-play and introducing the player to the story. While this did (sort of) take place, what happened is that no text really scrolled up smoothly, and as I pressed [space bar] to get the next line of text, it would often be the case that one or more lines of text were skipped, making a semi-coherent series of statements.
As the next scene in the Terris bar unfolded, the same problem continued, parts of dialogue were occasionally missed, though eventually things "smoothed out" and I lost fewer points of dialogue. However, when it came time for the scene to shift to the interior of Martridge's house, it seemed that the game, just "locked up" as I waited more than 10 minutes trying to get the browser to take the game forward.
All of this took place without any swapping starting on this Pee Cee.
Now, I'm a pretty patient guy. I think it is safe to say that I can tolerate slow performance in software that might be over-burdening hardware much more than the average computer user. So, (to a large extent) this means that as long as everything eventually works, I don't mind. But my experience here was rather flawed in that things seemed so sluggish as to significantly reduce "playability". I strongly suspect other people experiencing what I did would discourage them from ever playing any dmods again.
My point here is that it might be wise to label that [Play] button as experimental, or to have some message pop up suggesting what kind of system requirements are necessary for a good player experience. I may just be seeing myself in all of this, but I suspect that many who decide to play Dink Smallwood are drawn (at least in part) by the price (free) and probably do not necessarily have the latest in computer hardware to run software on.
Of course, I could be wrong about assuming that those with less money to spend on hardware are attracted to the DN site, and I admit my system is over 10 years old. But, I think we can assume that everyone would prefer the [Play] button experience to be as slick and fast as any other method of playing a dmod.
First, let me again thank you both for your efforts.
I have just attempted to play 'All that Glitters' using the web [Play] button.
OS & System Information
OS: Ubuntu 16.04
model name: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E8300 @ 2.83GHz
MemTotal: 4 Gigabytes
VGA compatible controller
Intel Corporation 82G33/G31 Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02)
BIOS Information
Vendor: Dell Inc.
Version: 1.0.13
Release Date: 03/20/2008
Browser
Google Chrome 67.0.3396.87 (Official Build) (64-bit)
The player experience was, well to put it bluntly, pretty awful.
What is supposed to happen in the start of the dmod, is that text comes to a simple black screen, scrolling up (at the press of a [space bar]) while explaining a few things about game-play and introducing the player to the story. While this did (sort of) take place, what happened is that no text really scrolled up smoothly, and as I pressed [space bar] to get the next line of text, it would often be the case that one or more lines of text were skipped, making a semi-coherent series of statements.
As the next scene in the Terris bar unfolded, the same problem continued, parts of dialogue were occasionally missed, though eventually things "smoothed out" and I lost fewer points of dialogue. However, when it came time for the scene to shift to the interior of Martridge's house, it seemed that the game, just "locked up" as I waited more than 10 minutes trying to get the browser to take the game forward.
All of this took place without any swapping starting on this Pee Cee.
Now, I'm a pretty patient guy. I think it is safe to say that I can tolerate slow performance in software that might be over-burdening hardware much more than the average computer user. So, (to a large extent) this means that as long as everything eventually works, I don't mind. But my experience here was rather flawed in that things seemed so sluggish as to significantly reduce "playability". I strongly suspect other people experiencing what I did would discourage them from ever playing any dmods again.
My point here is that it might be wise to label that [Play] button as experimental, or to have some message pop up suggesting what kind of system requirements are necessary for a good player experience. I may just be seeing myself in all of this, but I suspect that many who decide to play Dink Smallwood are drawn (at least in part) by the price (free) and probably do not necessarily have the latest in computer hardware to run software on.
Of course, I could be wrong about assuming that those with less money to spend on hardware are attracted to the DN site, and I admit my system is over 10 years old. But, I think we can assume that everyone would prefer the [Play] button experience to be as slick and fast as any other method of playing a dmod.
