Anyone know anything about the Cloud Game

[MonsOlympus]

Well steam certain supports some of that and Im not 100% sure but Games for windows live should as well. I guess the issue is there are so many different systems, which is a good thing as it promotes competition and doesnt lock down the market but it can be a bad thing as well.

I just assumed callbacks to facebook would be the same protocol and procedures on any device as thats what cloud-computing is truly about. In-game web view isnt really needed but hey if you want to I spose you can, the issue there would be with security.

I do wonder about that sometimes, how closely things are tied together would affect personal security no matter how locked down a single device is. If youre routing web-services through portals youre gonna get a rude awakening sooner or later when someone bounces there way in the back door.

My main issue here isnt with the iOS implementation but the lack of PC documentation regarding such features considering (as said) there isnt a single system so one has no idea where to even begin on such matters but the platform where its easier just got even easier by direct documented support and example code

[ffejnosliw]

Unfortunately, it's not the same on any device. On iOS, you can talk directly to the Facebook app (or Safari) on the device and it handles the authorization process and redirects back to the game (assuming you add the correct entry to the .plist file to tell that callback to go to your game).

I only know how the iOS part works because I am writing the docs for it right now.

For PC, from what I read on the Facebook developer site, they do not support authentication for desktop applications unless you can embed a web view in your app, which isn't supported in UDK.

[MonsOlympus]

Okay so stick with me for a second, cant you access the explorer native browser from C++? What is the Facebook app on iOS if not a desktop application? Im just curious why Facebook assumes an iOS device is more secure than a PC. (or did I get that back to front, facebook assumes people will try to hack PC's but not iOS)

[ffejnosliw]

Well, the Facebook app (or any app) on iOS is a mobile application, not a desktop application.

The different methods of authentication are explained here:

https://developers.facebook.com/docs/authentication/

And don't take what I am saying as there cannot be PC support, nor that there will be. That's not my department. I'm speaking purely on behalf of myself and not Epic here.

Basically, Facebook's mobile SDKs support authentication and those are used by UDK on iOS. They have no desktop SDK that I know of or authentication support other than going through a web browser or web view. And I believe that is a little more tricky and not something currently supported by UDK.

[MonsOlympus]

Yeah thats cool, Im just curious as to what the possibilities are from a PC standpoint. I do have some interest in mobile development but my current project is alittle bit above mobile hardware capabilities.

By webview Im guessing we are talking an application that has javascript, css and html support. It does seem alittle bit silly to do that inside udk when there are applications that can do it on PC already and most likely better. I think the issue here is making the game aware of whats going on outside of it, ideally a popup ontop of the game is whats required when asking for authorization to your facebook.

One thing Im curious about now is that with steams facebook integration that could be uses as the callback to the game as the steam interface is a webview. As I was saying about games for windows live, that also has a link ability to facebook but indirectly since xbox live accounts arnt the same as windows live accounts, you can use your windows live ID though. Windows Live does have SkyDrive and there are alot of people out there using Google Docs even some of my iphone using friends.

[ffejnosliw]

A web view would mean an embedded UI element that provides web browser functionality. iOS has these readily available. .NET, Adobe Air, and other frameworks also provide the ability to use them on PC. I wouldn't know, but I would assume there may be inherent challenges with using something like that in conjunction with Unreal.

[MonsOlympus]

You know its funny, thinkin back to the early days when there was glide, software, opengl and directX was just starting out and all of em were supported by so many people. Now its all about the interfaces to webapps, it started slowly on PC with gamespy and the like but alot of games used their own stats servers or direct connect interfaces. Now we have people actually using facebook as a means to store game stats, really though we always end up in the same predicament regardless of locking down platforms.

There will always be heaps of different system and whats hot currently wont always be, what will happen when the market shifts away from apple (it will happen sooner or later)? I know I might seem alittle pessimistic and Im not going to deny the good run apple are having but I looked at the numbers coming from Sony and Nintendo as well and iPhone saturation hasnt dented their market worth because apple dont own much IP at all (unless you think iPad could go up against Mario in sales).

Anyway Im always more inclined to make my own system because of this, because while these webapps are interoperable to some degree they will never let you share data that keeps a customer coming back to their portal. Lets say for instance, facebook shifts, no one uses it everyone goes to using myself(c) or some new site where does that leave games that rely on those services? Much can be said for steam or the like but I read a really interesting article about the future of gaming looking back and the way they put it was that there will be a huge gap in gaming history because of the way gaming has changed over the years.

You'll end up having to emulate facebook, icloud and ios just to play some of these games down the road when say AMD rule the world and run only Sun Solaris on their platforms.

I just think to games like Fury, the ones I cant play anymore because they relied so heavily on the cloud to not only survive but exist, my head might be in the clouds but I certainly wouldnt try standing on one.

[ffejnosliw]

I guess I would never look at Facebook integration as a core system a game would require to run. It's more an add-on that may open up other possibilities but wouldn't affect gameplay in any way. And even if you use Facebook for stats, you're still actually sending them to your own server and storing them there. Facebook just shows your own content in an iframe. They aren't hosting anything for you as far as I know. So you don't lose anything if Facebook shuts down.

[Crusha K. Rool]

Facebook is indeed quite a ridiculous trend when it comes to associating real desktop games with it. Tropico 4 is going to do that. But I honestly can't imagine why someone would want to read in everybody's Facebook profile that they just forbid the capitalistic faction or that rebels destroyed their farm since the game is going to broadcast the player's progress to his FB wall.

Facebook already knows too much about people anyway. So it should be none of their business what I currently play on Steam or other games or possibly my ingame nick name and profile name.

[MonsOlympus]

Yeah thats it hey, I think thats the best option for facebook integration, well any form of integration with webapps is to run the data yourself through to those applications who request it. This way you could even push local stats through to those services or any service you could choose to support in the future.

There are companies that do rely on facebook or other webapps to run and they operate entirely through the browser and they seem to do quite well with a micro-transaction free to play model.

Ofcoarse the odds on one of these big services shutting their doors is pretty slim Id imagine, someone will be there to pickup the pieces. If you could say to a game, oh put this screenshot on my live, my facebook, my photobucket, my flicker, tweet somethin and link to it, etc but I guess in the end you have to choose your battles and which services suit your requirements best.

All I know is Id be really sad if GWFL or Steam ever died cause I worked so hard for all those achievements

[Lexluthor1]

Thanks Mons ,Crusha K. Rool, Mr Wilson and ADF86 because now I'm more clued up on the cloudgame...

Its early days yet I suppose with this cloud stuff and UDK so like everything else, time will tell..

Thanks gents...