NW.js 0.13.0-alpha7 released

Download NW.js 0.13.0-alpha7 for Construct 2 here: https://www.scirra.com/nwjs

This requires r217 or later (currently only beta releases).

Alpha 7 is updated to Chromium 47. It looks like NW.js updates to new stable Chromium versions very quickly now, which is great. Alpha 7 also includes more missing features which are gradually being added back with the alpha releases. The status of supported features are listed by the NW.js developers here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fy0-BBZaslqsEhgC0pFZmAloqRUSw3yO0taucskSCj8/edit#gid=0

Let us know if there are any issues with this release. It may also fix some bug reports if the report was simply that a NW.js feature hadn't been ported yet.

Great stuff.

I'm happy to report (for my game on Steam) that 0.13.0 alpha 7 is excellent. Pretty much all the issues with performance, jank, memory leak are all gone.

There's also a bonus: It's around 20-25% faster than older NW, since the recent Chromium is improved with better JS engine.

Another huge bonus: Improved WebGL compatibility with Intel GPU. We're talking a game changer here. Before, as many would know, Intel HD3000 or 4000 would lag on C2 NW games which uses some WebGL shader/effects. Now it's butter smooth.

Here's the real kicker: Even HD2000, and Intel Express Chipset 4 graphics (we're talking from 2006), runs it butter smooth. Which is crazy good.

However, not all is rosy. Here's the major fail: MAC export will not function for games with a lot of assets. The red bar loading stuck bug is still there.

As for Linux, I don't know, no experience in it to test.

ps. Looking forward to Greenworks for the new next-gen NW! Just need achievements. :p

I just closes part of a little job today, and was warming myself up to continue my game. With improved performance on intel gpu it sounds like great news all around!

Great stuff Ashley

Our game, which is a massive open world, runs better with NW 0.13, and alpha7 is a pinnacle.

Over the past year Google did a lot of work with the compositor to reduce the fillrate, which I think might explain the improvement on Intel GPUs. I think previously it might have done something like rendered everything to a texture, then copied that to the window, whereas now it can render directly to the window. Still, good to hear the performance is better!

—, that's excellent news. Quick question - which greenworks plugin are you using and have you encountered any compatibility problems with the new nw engine? Thanks.

— Glad to see the improved performance.

Question about the Mac export red loading bar: is there a work-around or are you just not offering a Mac build? I believe The Last Penelope and Airscape got around it by using Mac exports from NodeWebkit.

I just released a retro-platformer demo (entire 1st level) and had no red loading bar issues on my Mac builds; granted there weren't a ton of assets. I'm just trying to think proactively here as my game will get larger

Colludium

I'm not using any greenworks plugin atm since none is available for 0.13 alphas. Steam cards, overlay, cloud don't need plugins. Only achievements do and I hope Ashley will now work on updating greenworks now that we got a good NW to build upon.

bclikesyou

There is no work around, if you got over ~1000 assets, even the older NW does not work. I tested it recently on 0.10.5 - 0.12 and this alpha.

Great news.. NW needed a win...

thanks Ashley!

— Bummed to hear that. How exactly do you know the # of assets a project has? I just spent 10 minutes looking but I feel like I'm missing the obvious answer here...

v0.13.0-alpha8 released~~~

How exactly do you know the # of assets a project has?

The only way I'm aware of is to export the game, then unzip the package.nw and check how many files there are.

Just gonna share what I wrote in a different post here:

the new NW.js finally works with Klang, and oh boy does it work as advertised! Way smoother performance, and areas I felt needed optimizing now runs butter smooth. Don't seem to notice any lagspikes after prolonged play.

HOWEVER... I keep getting the occational 100ms (approx) lagspike consistently. I can only guess this is due to the more aggressive garbage collection? I really love the fact that the game now won't turn into a slideshow after playing for too long, but these lagspikes will ruin the player's sense of rhythm. It's crucial that I find a way around this, or that the garbage collection becomes more flexible.

I'm curious if anyone knows what's usually the biggest offenders with gathering garbage for construct games? Does continiously creating and destroying objects matter for instance? If I know what to look out for I can maybe work around it myself.

-----------------------------

Did some more testing. This time on my laptop. The results were interesting to say the least.

The first thing is that I couldn't get the game to boot choosing the nVidia GPU (630m) even with the latest driver installed. This used to work before on NW 12.

Running the game on the intergrated card worked fine though. However the loading times was greatly increased. in-game videos wouldn't play properly etc. I noticed lagspikes even where I'm 100% certain there ain't any new items loading in. When I played long enough though things started to change. When playing for long enough for the stutter to kick in on NW 12, I now experienced that everything ran smooth, way less lagspikes, and no loading issues. The videos that previously didn't play properly now worked as intended etc.

— Thanks. I'll try that out.

Great stuff.

I'm happy to report (for my game on Steam) that 0.13.0 alpha 7 is excellent. Pretty much all the issues with performance, jank, memory leak are all gone.

There's also a bonus: It's around 20-25% faster than older NW, since the recent Chromium is improved with better JS engine.

Another huge bonus: Improved WebGL compatibility with Intel GPU. We're talking a game changer here. Before, as many would know, Intel HD3000 or 4000 would lag on C2 NW games which uses some WebGL shader/effects. Now it's butter smooth.

Here's the real kicker: Even HD2000, and Intel Express Chipset 4 graphics (we're talking from 2006), runs it butter smooth. Which is crazy good.

However, not all is rosy. Here's the major fail: MAC export will not function for games with a lot of assets. The red bar loading stuck bug is still there.

As for Linux, I don't know, no experience in it to test.

ps. Looking forward to Greenworks for the new next-gen NW! Just need achievements. :p

That's great news for our game on steam and hopefully will improve peoples game as we had to turn off the shader effects to help lower end PC's.

Will have to have a play with the Mac build of our game and see if the external code we had wrote bypass the red bar of doom issue still!