Well, what's the point in a Dreamcast when the PS3 can do all that stuff but better? For one, Jet Set Radio isn't available for the PS3. :P

But seriously, as I understand it, the point is that Flash doesn't do all that stuff.

Firstly, Silverlight is a totally different development environment, toolset and language; since .NET is used outside of the browser-hosted-mini-app domain and ActionScript isn't, that automatically opens development to a whole new audience. (I know I for one would never really consider writing anything in Flash, but Silverlight interests me.)

Secondly, Flash apps reside entirely within a compiled lump, so as far as the containing page and the user's software is concerned, they're just a binary chunk of unintelligible data; Silverlight is delivered over XAML, which is text-based, meaning that it's theoretically a lot more plausible for accessibility applications and the like to interact with it, it can be searched and indexed by Google or whoever, and so on.

And hey, even leaving that aside, why is it a bad thing for there to be more than one product in the same space? Only a few years ago the same people who complain today about Silverlight were complaining that Flash sucked on FreeBSD or that Adobe were trying to *gasp* make money from it. Unfortunately, Silverlight has the problem that it's by Microsoft, which means that the vocal anti-MS crowd are up in arms against it, and a lot of people seem to be 'researching' the product by going and reading about it on Slashdot. Which makes about as much sense as asking Playstation Magazine readers what they think of XBox Live Arcade.

Bichatse

Flash by itself costs a lot of money. FMS is even more expensive. So, I found the open-source alternative, Red5. When I could get the damn thing to work properly I couldn't get any Actionscript 3 based files to connect to it. It only works with Flash files created with AS2 code (as of 0.6.3), which is frustrating because I wanted to use some of AS3's new features to design a nice audio equalizer interface. Eventually, I just scrapped all the work I had done. I love Flash for the things it can do, but it fails hard when it comes to certain simple things like recording little bits of audio.

Silverlight, on the other hand, has absolutely no problems with this. It runs any .NET language, so writing code to record audio won't be tough. It's also nice to have a choice of languages to choose from for creating stuff. Plus, Silverlight has a locally stored isolated protected cache with a limit of 1MB per URL. That's perfect for storing a tiny bit of audio, like I was planning to do. It can be recorded and played back with no streaming and wasted bandwidth on our part, and doesn't require our server to have a cron job running to clear out the old audio files. Silverlight 2 is still a beta, but it already allows me to do something incredibly simple that Flash just wouldn't allow. It still has problems, since it's still a beta, but so far Microsoft is implementing some really good ideas in this technology.

For the record, I'm not a developer. I usually do multimedia (video, audio, image editing) and web-based work for my job. I've got the basic level of knowledge needed for simple developer tasks, so occasionally I do that kind of thing.

天雷

lincch01

Supported browsers: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari

Supported OSs: Windows XP & Vista, OSX
*Linux is NOT supported, but supposedly works

Silverlight is not in Beta - Silverlight 2 is in Beta.

Silverlight is NOT a game format or engine. It is designed for all sorts of lightweight webapps using XAML.

Why rely on Wikipedia for your information when you can easily go onto MSDN and take a look at the Silverlight SDK.

lincch01

(Also, Microsoft didn't release it at all for Linux, though I guess you could call it available through a third party, on an earlier version?)

Taking a look at Wikipedia, maybe that was version 2.0 or some such? I don't know... but that was what I got from looking around earlier this year

So, yay for being wrong... but please don't just go around calling people un-intelligent because they have their facts wrong. >_>

[I also guess I'll check this out, now that my only reason not to appears to not even exist. xD]

Aprocalypse

And thank you for bringing some respect to this comments page.

DARTH_TIGRIS

I hate to break it to you three and others in this commenting thread, but Silverlight is available for Windows XP/Vista, Mac OS X, and Linux. If you want to hate on Microsoft, then at least do it correctly and intelligently - thanks!

Thanks for the heads-up on this Kotaku, I will check it out, but I will probably stick to XNA as it is more robust and I know programming well enough to use it. Popfly sounds better for when I have less time to work on something.

Lstormy10

Reetesh

j14rk1n

cybereality

Rhuno

SubKamran

ego531

zonetrooper5

It sucks.

DarkMirage

It's a fairly simple concept: Use what works and what works consistently.

Tepoz

On a side note, Flash is not some single executable that "just works" on any platform. Each platform has to have a special plug-in or installer to make it work. The same is true of any browser plug-in and in most case, it has taken years or close to a decade for that plug-in to even work correctly to the point where a web install is seamless. Nothing in the computer world "just works". If you're an IT guy and you believe in the "just works" mantra, then I feel sorry for your employers.

Tepoz

Not to mention that it took them nearly a -year- to fix a silly bug that prevented nforce users from controlling the volume from silverlight videos.

realyst2k

Silverlight is an excellent revolution to highly graphical, lightweight, and deep online apps. Try to avoid making assumptions because you hate Microsoft.

lincch01

Lov3

Monopolies are bad unless they are NOT Microsoft, which make them cool like Google and Adobe?

Did I get it right?

hoos30

John-irl

John-irl

But that said popfly revived an repressed memory of a game idea from my Amiga days.

So are there any alternatives for making a browser based game?

Zoobear

sc00t420

The pdf reader is free, but to make a pdf you have to shell out big bucks (or use an open source alternative). The same with all their tools. Try getting a decent open source alternative for flex (adobe's 'silverlight). The sdk is free, but the builder costs 250 dollars.

The point here is not 'company x sucks', rather that they all are companies and try to make money. If microsoft has a new format, it is normal that they try to force it on you. Don't like it? Don't install it :p.

You even pay for your google services. I'm a big google fanboy, but they don't charge you cash, they charge you privacy. Every service you use gives them more information. And information equals money too.

Now back to the topic: While this is a bit cool, I'd rather see an update of the xna framework. Maybe so it will finally work with vs2008, and not only with these express editions.

marlblank

Walker

I like Silverlight, but its viability as a gaming platform has just been shaken. If the performance is improved, then I'd love to mess around with Silverlight in the future.

kubevubin

@Achenar: Well, you understood wrong. Silverlight is also available for XP.

Rectangle

I'm a web developer and I've been looking at Silverlight as it has integration with .NET but just like flash i don't think it should be used on a website, until they can fix Accessibility issues for impaired users my hands are kinda tied.

GingerMohawk

Achenar

Achenar

freakout

"Microsoft Popfly Welcome to Popfly!
You must sign in to see this content.

Sign in to Windows Live ID
Microsoft Popfly doesn't support your browser at this time

Please use Internet Explorer 6.0 (32 bit) or newer, or Firefox 2.0 or newer to access Popfly.
Learn More
©2007 Microsoft"

So seems you need a 32 bits browser. How 90's!

Tei

MistahJGM

Kempatsu

db2

As a developer, this is really cool to see. MS has been given individuals a lot of great game development tools these past few years. People complain that they are too restrictive, but as it is, the 360 is the only console that allows users to put their own games on it without hacking.

Rhuno

enewtabie

Archavious

John-irl

Sure, companies want you to use their stuff, and benefit from you doing it - but that's true even for individuals. When you look at the specifics, though, Microsoft just isn't a good company to hand control to. IE dragged its feet when it came to web standards, and OOXML is a dumpsite of Word-specific rules and general confusion when it comes to being a document filetype.

Other companies, such as Sun, and Adobe, at least know that everyone can benefit by opening up a bit, and allowing others to write tools and patches that build on what they've written. And, the challenge to Flash comes just fine from things like Java, proce55ing, and XULRunner.

Kinsman

Snappywave

Aprocalypse

Look, I'm not a big Silverlight fan but am even less of a fan of unchallenged monopolies. Listen, don't forget that regardless of who it is, Google, Microsoft, Apple, or even Sun, when it's all said and done, they want you using as much of their stuff as possible. If you think their's companies out their with your best interest in mind then you've been deceived already.

okenny :)

when it's something that sony's doing......

sorry, playing GTA4 all night and having to go to work soon has me cranky.

jfx316

okenny :)

Aprocalypse

SupaPhly

Archavious

db2

That'd be cool!

OgdenShire

John-irl

psychobaka