In blocking autoplay videos, Chrome is breaking many Web-based games WebAudio change means HTML5 games won't work without developer action.

contentjunkie (73)in #technology • 6 years ago

From ArsTechnica

An update Google rolled out for its popular Chrome browser this weekend helps prevent those annoying auto-playing video ads on many websites from disturbing your day with unwanted sound as well. But that update is causing consternation for many Web-based game developers who are finding that the change completely breaks the audio in their online work.
The technical details behind the problem involve the way Chrome handles WebAudio objects, which are now automatically paused when a webpage starts up, stymying auto-playing ads. To get around this, Web-based games now have to actively restart that pre-loaded audio object when the player makes an action to start the game, even if that audio wasn't autoplaying beforehand. "The standard doesn't require you to do this, so no one would have thought to do this before today," developer Andi McClure told Ars Technica.

"With Chrome's new autoplay policies, developers shouldn't assume that audio can be played before a user gesture," Google told The Daily Dot in a statement. "With gaming in Chrome, this may affect Web Audio. We have shared details on what developers can do to address this, and the design for the policy was published last year."

While Google did warn Web developers of coming changes to Chrome autoplay back in September, McClure points out on Twitter that the WebAudio vagaries that affect game developers were only added to Google's documentation in February. This stealth change doesn't seem to have been heavily promoted by Google, forcing game developers to pay constant and precise attention to Google's documentation to see it coming.

Well this is a real bitch for game developers. It feels like Google should be offering some sort feature to enable auto-playing much like pop-ups for sites you trust. Seems like a small oversight but I'm sure it's causing major headaches for gamers and game developers alike. Some probably never play with sound on and have no clue though!

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6 years ago in #technology by contentjunkie (73)

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stimialiti (60) 6 years ago

As long as it blocks autoplay videos, it is good.
Google is a monopoly in the browsers selection, more than it is in search engines selection or in video services.
Google and Youtube have competition that is better than them.
Chrome has not.
All of its worthy competition is based on Chrome, and Firefox is not a worhy competition to Chrome unless one insists on downloading of videos through browser plugins and not in alternative ways.