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I usually code cross-platform, to build as native code for Mac Linux and Windows, but I clearly see the value in being able to display my game in a browser.

Could you guide me in doing such a task? How could i have something like Unity Web Player? Cross-browser is preferable, but Chrome would already be great :)

I use technologies such as SFML, libRocket, Box2D and more.. If that is pertinent to the question!

Thanks

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First of all, the standard interface for browser plugins is NPAPI (Netscape Plugin API). More recently, there's been a move towards Pepper. However, I would strongly discourage you from making a browser plugins. Users hate it and it's generally really suspicious since plugins let you do more or less anything with a user's computer.

If you're really set on using native code, your best bet is probably Google Native Client (NaCL). This lets you run native code at near native speeds within a sandboxed environment. It's already been used to port Bastion to the Chrome web store thingy. This also has the advantage over a normal plugin of being at least somewhat cross-platform. It requires a specialised compiler toolchain which (from memory) currently uses GCC/G++. Mono has also been ported to NaCL, so you can run C#, F#, Java (via IKVM), etc.

That said, it still requires your users to install a plugin if they aren't using a very recent version of Chrome, but at least they only need to trust Google as opposed to some random developer they've never heard of before.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ If you strongly discourage that, i will certaintly take it into account. I enjoyed the NaCL solution, and i will leave it in the table for the future. For now, i think i will drag myself into mobile phones more than browsers. Why try to copy flash if i could have just started with it? If i am using C++, it must be for a reason! Thanks for the answer! :) \$\endgroup\$
    – Grimshaw
    Commented Feb 24, 2012 at 1:21

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