OSAKit relaunched (now free!)
Miscellaneous Forums/General Discussion/OSAKit relaunched (now free!)
Hi Guys, I am very pleased to announce the relaunch of OSAKit!
For those of you who don't know about it, its a very simple system that will allow you to wrap up your games and programs and embed them into a browser. So you can use your normal tools and engines to make games that can easily go onto your web pages and works on all Windows browsers (IE, Firefox, Opera, Chrome, Netscape......you name it). You can do all this without having to alter any of your code!
Best of all we have made the standard version of OSAKit now FREE!
To get it just go here:
http://www.osakit.comI hope everyone has fun putting your games onto your sites :)
Sphinx
http://www.osakit.com hey this is pretty cool! downloading now...
thats very good of you sphinx, i will grab a copy of this later.
thanks
kev
..great!..im really going to mess with this.. ;) thanks man..
The plugin doesn't work with google chrome :-(
Hi,
Thanks for letting me know, I have had a few people tell me it did, and it works on my PC. Could you give me some more details? I have changed round a few things so there might be a little weirdness. I have been developing OSAKit for 3 years now, but they keep releasing new browsers :)
When I click on a game, it asks me to install the software. Which I do.
Then it asks me to click OK to refresh the browser once it is installed.
On clicking OK the browser just crashes.
Trying to click on it again causes the new window to open and crash straight away.
The error message says: -
"The following plug-in crashed : MeadCo's Neptune"
You have no idea how long I've been waiting for this day. Thanks a million!!
I know it's on the site, but just to clarify (in case I'm reading this incorrectly), the embedded games will only play in browsers running on Windows?
If so, what happens in other OS's? If I have time, I'll boot into Linux and answer that myself.
[edit] Aaah yes - it uses an .exe for the plugin. No-one but Windows is gonna get much joy out of that, obviously. As far as what Linux (Ubuntu 8.04) does if you try to run it... well, it downloads the .exe file, but obviously you can't run it (not easily, anyway), and then the game you've tried to play tells you to click on this button if you've installed the plugin. Do that, and you get stuck in an infinite attempt by the program to download/run the plugin again - which is rather unfortunate, and requires the forced killing of the browser.
Still... worked great on Windows.
Here's a test game I just put up:
http://jgoware.com/bugshoot.htmWhy is it saying 5 min demo?
Why is saying something about un licensed?
MGE : Did you downloaded/install the latest SDK/player?
Surely you are using the old one!
Nope, downloaded it fresh from your site from here:
http://www.osakit.com/downloads/OSAKitSetup.exe Oooooooops I am so sorry... bad link... I 'll fix it right away
well blimey! :)
ok..ill run it through it's paces again and reply here. Thanks, I'm VERY interested in this!!!
http://jgoware.com/bugshoot.htmLooks like it's working! :)
How do stop the auto growth of the web page to full screen?
"Best of all we have made the standard version of OSAKit now FREE!"
It appears I'm running the pro version? If not, what is the difference?
Thanks for your help. I looked at IGLoaded a while back and could never get it to work. Yours worked the first time!!
Looks like it's running as is fine on XP, nogo on Vista. Says something about a property error.
I thought it might have something to do with other ads on the page, so I stripped them out and tried again on vista internet explorer and same thing. After it installs the plug in, it says something about a "property does not support this..".
Have you tested it on Vista? Can anyone else play the game on this page under Vista?
http://jgoware.com/bugshoot.htm Bump - hoping if a few Vista users can check out the page and see if it runs. Thanks!
http://jgoware.com/bugshoot.htm When I went to MGE's page it seemed to do everything properly except for some reason I had to click OK that I had downloaded the player before it would actually download it.
Thanks JA! What OS are you running?
Windows XP Tablet Edition.
Ahh.. ok, thanks. I've verified it on 3 XP boxes, my vista box won't run it. And if it doesn't run on Vista.... :(
It doesn't run on ff, but it does on ie, I think your insertion script is wrong.
Is the vista machine you testes it on using firefox? try on ie in vista if thats the case :)
The standard version does not require a license file and therefore a 'Powered by OSAKit' is shown! more differences can be found here :
http://www.osakit.com/pages/pro-version.phpI tested it on Vista on different machine and all is ok, I will test your game and maybe make a custom page specifically for you because I think you has something wrong in your page code!
Does this kit use a sandbox?
Here's the code to the page.. I really don't think I did anything on my end?
<html>
<head>
<title>BugShoot! - Online Game</title>
<meta NAME="description" content="BugShoot!">
<meta NAME="keywords" content="online game, arcade, bugs">
<meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 4.0">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style.css">
<script>
function IsPlugInstalled(name) {
navigator.plugins.refresh( true );
for ( i=0; i<navigator.plugins.length; i++) {
if ( navigator.plugins[i].description == name )
return true;
}
return false;
}
function RefreshPage() {
con=confirm('Reload the page? \n\nPlease click Ok if you installed the OSAKit Player.\n ')
if ( con==1 ) { window.location.replace ('UniFootbal.html'); }
}
if (window.navigator.appName != 'Microsoft Internet Explorer')
{
// The browser is Netscape!
if ( IsPlugInstalled("MeadCo's Neptune") )
{
// The plug-in is installed
window.location.replace ('UniFootbal2.html');
} else {
var con=confirm("OSAKit Player ( ~140KB ) is required to play this game, please follow these steps: \n\n\n1. Click the Ok button below. \n\n2. Click Save when the save dialog appear. \n\n3. Run the downloaded file to install OSAKit Player. \n\n4. Reload/Refresh this page again after installing the Player.\n \n ");
if ( con==1 ) {
window.location.replace ('http://jgoware.com/OSAKitProPlayer.exe');
setTimeout('RefreshPage()',5000);
}
}
}
</script>
</head>
<body onload="OSAKit.StartIt();" onunload="OSAKit.StopIt();">
<center>
<OBJECT ID="OSAKit" CLASSID="CLSID:2D0280B1-DC42-4DFA-9525-09BD48838539" CODEBASE="OSAKitPro.CAB#version=1,0,0,0" width=" 640" height=" 480">
<param name="Enabled" value="-1">
<param name="BackColor" value="14737632">
<param name="FillColor" value="8388608">
<param name="ForeColor" value="-2147483630">
<param name="BorderColor" value="0">
<param name="Caption" value="Loading...">
<param name="CaptionX" value="76">
<param name="CaptionY" value="42">
<param name="ProgressBarX" value="75">
<param name="ProgressBarY" value="59">
<param name="ProgressBarWidth" value="100">
<param name="ProgressBarHeight" value="14">
<param name="ShowProgressBorder" value="1">
<param name="ProgressBarType" value="0">
<param name="ProgressBarBorderSpace" value="1">
<param name="ProgressBarBorderColor" value="0">
<param name="FontBold" value="False">
<param name="FontItalic" value="False">
<param name="FontSize" value="8.25">
<param name="FontUnderline" value="False">
<param name="FontName" value="Tahoma">
<param name="ProgressBarPicture" value="">
<param name="BackgroundPicture" value="">
<param name="FileToDownload" value="http://jgoware.com/onlinegames/osa-bugshoot.osa">
<param name="WindowTitle" value="bugshoot">
<param name="CommandLineParameters" value="">
<param name="Embed" value="True">
<param name="GameMaker" value="False">
<param name="AdsURL" value="">
<param name="AdsLeft" value="0">
<param name="AdsTop" value="0">
<param name="AdsWidth" value="256">
<param name="AdsHeight" value="95">
<param name="PatchingFile" value="">
<param name="ShowPatchingProgress" value="True">
</object>
</center>
</body>
</html>
What about the auto full size browser? Can we disable that?
I'm testing this out now myself and for some reason my little background image isn't coming up. I'm testing it on Windows XP Standard Home Edition and Fire Fox.
Get this working reliably on Vista and IE and I will purchase a site license for sure.
@MGE bugshoot runs fine here under vista and ie7.
Thanks Kev! That's good news. But I'd still like to see it for myself. :) lol..
We have been playing with this at work for a while now and have a branded license. works in everything we have tested it in.
Any common sense reason why my background image doesn't pop up while the game is loading?
Another thing ... does anyone know how you'd "Turn off advanced text services" through the command line? Blitz .exe's won't run with this enabled on my Tablet yet it seems difficult to tell a player that they'd have to search for the .exe to turn it off.
And ... My game doesn't seem to save things such as the user preferences or level unlock information (as it normally would). Any word on this?
MGE: after loading osakit from your site, then refreshing the page, I just get The file you requested was not found.
Please in the mean time, browse our current featured software titles.
Thanks. Too bad this obviously has alot of problems. :(
It seems to have quirks, I don't know if they are real problems or not. I worked out quite a few issues on my own that I initially thought were problems with the software itself.
BTW Does it stand for Open Services Access (or Systems Architecture).
JA - Can you elaborate on your findings? Also, can you post a link to an online demo of something running so I can test it? Thanks!
I think your background isn't coming up as that's part of the 'pro' features. The ability to customise the loading screen...?
I haven't found any problems with OSAKit itself, I think the JavaScript code that comes with it is a little quirky and could be a lot better.
MGE : Regarding the auto size issue, you can explicitly define the size of your game in the HTML code right after the <object......> tag!
Jermey : Could you please provide a link to your try. Also OSA stands for Online Software Activation!
Right now and to my surprise (bad luck) I have a problem with my certificate issuer and I am waiting for them to fix it!!
I will do my best to sort things out as soon as possible!
"MGE : Regarding the auto size issue, you can explicitly define the size of your game in the HTML code right after the <object......> tag!"
Ofcourse I realize that.
I'm talking about the >>BROWSER WINDOW<< resizing to full width of the desktop screen automatically right before the game launches.
This happens automatically and is a real show stopper.
Weird!! never heard of this issue from any of my customers/users!!!
I tried your game and it worked as expected on XP, gonna try it on Vista and get back to you.
wait...you're saying the auto resizing of the browser window to full width of the desktop is not builit into the plug in?
For anyone else testing this, can you verify that the browser is auto growing to full width when the game launches?
I thought about the loading screen thing after I posted it, thanks for confirming that. I've had a good experience with this so far and I think I'll be getting a pro license.
@JA - Can you post a test link?
Have you experiened the browser window auto resizing when you launch a game?
OK, the window does not resize. However, when launching in a small browser window I do see the Blitz window pop up before OSA embeds it.
I found a little program that fixes that in the blitz generated exe. Unfortunately I don't think osakit can do anything about that (as its a blitz3d issue).
but I ran it through the little program and it got rid of it :)
JA - "OK, the window does not resize."
I just want to confirm one last thing with you, thanks.
So when you tested my demo here:
http://jgoware.com/bugshoot.htmYour browser did not resize? What browser are you using and version number? Thanks again.
MGE : Surely he used IE as your demo will not work on any other browser not because OSAKit does not support but because you did not alter the javascript code to include the second page (should be generated automatically by OSA Kit web code generator) but you left "http://jgoware.com/UniFootbal2.html" instead!
http://jgoware.com/bugshoot.htmIt now works with Firefox and does not auto grow the browser. :)
However, on my XP machines:
IE 7.0.5730.11 and IE 7.0.5730.13 it is still auto growing the browser window. Weird!!
Now this works great on IE6, IE7, Opera and FireFox.... I'll try it on Vista shortly.
Sphinx, thanks for replying. So when you tested my page, it didn't affect the browser at all? No resizing?
Not at all!
"Not at all!" Sweet! I wonder why the hell it's happening on my machines? The 2 XP machines are 4 years apart so it's not like they have the same exact crap installed on them. When my son wakes up, I'll get his new Vista laptop out again and try it once more. frickin...weird!!! !@#$%^
My son's Vista Home laptop running IE 7.0.6000.16711 was finally able to run the plug in by lowering his security settings in the browser.
Unfortunately, the auto resize is still happening on his Vista laptop. Very strange.
The security issue is expected as I have a problem with my digital certificate and I am waiting for my issuer to fix it. Other non IE browsers have no problem though as the player is installed manually!
MGE : What country are you located? your windows regional settings?!
USA. Let's just chalk it up to something weird "in my house". I've yet to see any other user report that the browser was auto resizing. I wish you could see it though, it is so weird, right after the loading bar reaches 100% the browser window gets maximized and then the game starts.
I'm sure if this was a stable problem with your product, it would have been reported a long time ago. You can imagine my surprise when I tested your plug in for the first time and this happened. ;)
So with that in mind, thank you for you your replies. At least now I understand why YOU were so shocked to read about the auto sizing. I could have sworn there was code in your plug in to maximize the browser window.
So until another user reports this happening, case closed! :)
Confirmed. Another user has reported the auto size problem.
Please visit this thread:
http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=80686And also a user has reported the same problem here:
http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?p=172770#post172770 MGE are you talking about the quick flash just before it embeds or does it actually resize your Fire Fox window?
Hi JA, It's actually rezing the browser window so it covers the full screen, the game area and browser contents are still positioned correctly inside the browser (centered, etc, etc,) but the window grows till it's the full width of the desktop. Appears to only affect some versions of IE 7.
I'm also having trouble (although it seems to work!) In both IE and FF the game is not embedded but pops up in its own window?! (it is a little code by StevieG in the code archives)
http://mindstormss.googlepages.com/test.html mindstorms : I think you have a typo in the WindowTitle property as it is 'Testr' and I think it should be 'Test'!!!
Sphinx - what about the now verified auto browser growing thing?
I can not duplicate it, how come I can fix it!
Well, I can access your computer remotely if you want, to see what is going on exactly. If you agree then email me to give you the details.
Sphinx - Please read over this thread and the one at Indiegamer. It's not just "my" computer this is happening on.
Another user is reporting the problem. Check this thread.
http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=80686However, it appears to be a "blitzmax" thing. Because your games on your site are not causing the auto browser grow. So there must be something going on with internals of Blitzmax to cause this.
And that's going to be a bitch to find out why.
I found I had problems with blitz3d if i had a lot of code before setting the graphics window. Try moving your code to create the window and set the app title in blitzmax to the very start, and make sure your using windowed mode.
See if that works?
Thanks Boomboom, still no go. Here's the first few lines...
Strict
AppTitle = "bugshoot"
SetGraphicsDriver D3D7Max2DDriver()
Graphics(640,480,0)
I think I caught the bug but I will not upload any updates as long as the certificate issue still exists, still waiting for Comdo group :(
For whom it may concern (MGE,...), the bug is new with the latest release of OSAKit because of the new Advertising feature, well I am 50% sure though... time will tell!!!
@Sphinx - Well, at first I was convinced it was "your" fault, but after seeing your own stuff working 100% fine on my browser and the fact that it's not happening all the time made me believe there was something going on with Blitzmax. And it doesn't happen at all in Firefox. So it's probably more than likely a Blitzmax thing and how it initializes the window handle. Oh well, if there's an update I'll have a peek and see if it still happens. Thanks for looking into it.
Well, the Mario demo on the Osakit site worked a month ago.
Now when I try the same I get a message 'Windows has blocked this software because it can't verify the publisher. OSAKitPro.Cab'
Does _not_ inspire confidence.
Oh right, got it.
So now the user has to download OSAkitProPlayer.exe and run it, before hitting the link for Mario? (Now it works.)
I don't remember doing that last time.
Hmm. I created a website recently for a lady who kept entering the www name in the Google search box, instead of the address bar, since she thought Google "is the browser".
In much the same way, please bear in mind the lack of knowledge of the target audience.
A final thought:
It's not too much work if I have to create a web page which says:
Please click _this_ link to install 'the 3D player'-----.
Now click this link to see the game -------
Is that what you had in mind?
(BTW, after the apparent criticism, if you really have cracked this then it's a brilliant piece of work.)
John Blackledge : I have a problem with my certificate issuer as I lost my certificate and signed the latest OSAKitPro.CAB with an old certificate hence the 'Unkown publisher' message!
I will get my new certificate today or tomorrow at max and will upload the latest OSAKit Player and SDK and I am glad to say :
It now works on win98/Me/XP (SP1/SP2/SP3)/Vista with :
- IE 4.0 or later or any compatible browser
- Fire Fox (any version)
- Opera (any version)
- SeaMonkey (any version)
- Mozilla
- Google Chrome
- Safari for windows
No crashes for Firefox on Vista anymore :)
Will keep you all updated!
P.S. : the auto resizing problem is fixed too (MGE, do you copy that?!)
Also I forgot to say that the process of installing OSAKit is much easier now, the javascript will detect the browser , the existence of OSAKit and act accordingly! if it is not installed nice page (actually on same page) will be displayed with 2 steps 1. Download/Install OSAKit Player & 2. Refresh the page or click 'Here'
Hope this pleases everyone :)
Let us know (here) when there is another version to test out for you. Thanks for continuing development on it.
Yes, very much thanks for continuing development - we're rooting for you.
What a pain those certificates are.