Mozilla to bring console-quality 3D games to Firefox browser

By Mariella Moon Published March 29, 2013

3D gaming on a browser? Count us in. At this year’s Game Developers Conference, Mozilla revealed that it’s working on a technology that could have us playing high-end, console-quality games on the Firefox browser without the need for any plugins and installations. Making this possible is OdinMonkey – an optimized version of JavaScript currently found on Firefox Nightly that are browser builds for testing purposes.

A blog post from Mozilla announcing the project describes the highly optimized JavaScript as something that “supercharges a developer’s gaming code in the browser to enable visually compelling, fast, 3D gaming experiences on the Web.” The project is being developed along with game developer Epic, so it’s no surprise that Mozilla ported Epic’s Unreal Engine on Firefox to demo a game called Citadel (shown in the video below). It took Epic a total of four days to tweak the gaming engine to work on Firefox. The demo will be available for download online, but the company didn’t mention whether it will commercially release the Unreal Engine for Firefox browsers in the future.

Recommended Videos

Mozilla hasn’t only been building this for its desktop version of Firefox, it’s also planning to bring the technology over to the browser’s mobile version for iOS, Android, and of course, Firefox OS. That means you may soon be able to play Web-based 3D games – along with your arsenal of app games – on your phones and tablets. Good luck getting any work done!

In addition to Epic Games, Mozilla has also been working with EA, Disney, and ZeptoLab to port games to Firefox browsers. The features are expected to roll out bundled with a stable build sometime in June, so we’ll probably hear more about what games will be available from the get-go as the launch date approaches.

Former Contributor

Mariella loves working on both helpful and awe-inspiring science and technology stories. When she's not at her desk writing…

Topics

Computing

As iPads get pricier, Motorola’s Pad 70 Pro arrives as a solid option… just not for US buyers yet

Great specs, a stylus in the box, and no US launch date: the Moto Pad 70 Pro sounds both impressive and disappointing.

Computer, Electronics, Laptop

If you don’t know about Apple’s recent price hike, which affected all the products in its lineup except the iPhone and Apple Watch (for now), you’ve got to be living under some sort of a rock. The revision made all the iPads much more expensive.

Motorola, however, has just launched a 13-inch tablet that actually sounds good on paper. It’s called the Moto Pad 70 Pro, and it costs around $440 for the baseline model. The catch, however, is that the device isn’t available in the US yet.

Computing

The refurbished MacBook Neo may be your best way around Apple’s price hike

MacBook Neo has hit Apple’s refurbished store after its price increase

Student using MacBook Neo in classroom.

The MacBook Neo launched in March as Apple’s most affordable notebook, but it has already been caught in the company’s recent price hike. The base model with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage now costs $699, while the 512GB version with Touch ID is priced at $799.

Just days later, Apple has already listed refurbished MacBook Neo models on its online store, giving buyers a cheaper official option, though the savings are not as generous as you might expect.

Computing

This cross-device clipboard app solves the copy-paste problem I keep running into on my Mac

ClipboardAI keeps a searchable history of everything you copy

Text, Electronics, Mobile Phone

I have lost count of how many times I have copied something important, copied another thing before pasting it, and then realized the first item was gone. It is a small frustration, but it happens often enough to become annoying. I recently came across ClipboardAI, which caught my attention because it goes beyond Apple’s built-in clipboard by saving copied items into a searchable history.

Instead of replacing the last thing you copied every time, ClipboardAI keeps a searchable record of copied text, links, codes, email addresses, phone numbers, addresses, and images across iPhone, iPad, and Mac. That means an older clip does not disappear just because you copied something new.