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64-bit WebPlayer availability

Discussion in 'Announcements' started by CreativeChris, Oct 4, 2012.

  1. CreativeChris

    CreativeChris

    Unity Technologies

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    As the title says this post is related to our 64-bit WebPlayer plugin support which does actually exist, it's not a myth! We have had this around for sometime, it's just we haven't made it widely available to the community. Hopefully this post will make it easier for people to find out info on 64-bit WebPlayer.

    A little history to start off with, we introduced the 64-bit WebPlayer to Unity 3.4 release (sometime ago now) and is available for Windows only users. At first we were kind of experimenting to see if this would get any buzz or actually be useful for anyone at the time. The popularity of 64-bit browsers was nothing for us to worry about back then, they weren't widely used, only IE and Firefox appear to have 64-bit browser versions (please correct me if I'm wrong), so we gave this feature to you guys to all test with, play around and to the hardcore guys who actually needed 64-bit browser support. At the time and still current we haven't made the 64-bit plugin available on our main WebPlayer download page, it's also still not linked through our default JavaScript which is used to embed Unity content.

    Without further a do, here is our slightly hidden 64-bit WebPlayer related blog post:

    http://blogs.unity3d.com/2011/07/28/unity-3-4-web-player-for-64-bit-windows/

    We include a link to download the latest version in the blog post, but here it is anyway:

    64-bit WebPlayer download

    To sum up, it is available, we do plan to introduce this as a fully supported product in the future, it seems / appears 64-bit browsers are growing (slowly) in popularity since then. That comment is based on a fair number of requests / enquires I've had over the past few months or so, I've not been able to attain any statistical fact on that.

    Enjoy!

    Thanks,
    Chris
     
    John3D and rakkarage like this.
  2. jmpp

    jmpp

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    Hi Chris!

    Thanks for this info. But it wasn't clear to me if 64-bit support for the web player is still a Windows only thing. On the Mac, Safari is also 64-bit.

    Here's hoping for increased 64-bit support from Unity, kudos!
     
  3. CreativeChris

    CreativeChris

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    Hi,

    Windows only at the moment, there is no good reason (yet) to do a 64-bit plugin for Mac as our 32-bit plugin runs fine in 64-bit Safari.

    Thanks,
    Chris
     
  4. jmpp

    jmpp

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    Right, the 32-bit PluginProcess. Just one question, though: doesn't translating from the 32-bit address space of the PluginProcess to the 64-bit address space of the rest of the Safari processes incur a performance penalty? Or is there no translation what-so-ever needed to get the Unity plugin to work with Safari?

    Well, in any case, here's hoping the 64-bit trial goes smoothly so that all of Unity keeps on moving forward toward a 64-bit clean full distro (yes, I'm looking at the editor right now ;)

    Regards,
     
  5. amity45

    amity45

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    It's good to see you guys realize 64-bit browsers are the way of the future ... or the way of now, depending on how you look at at.

    Battlestar Galactica Online and MechWarrior Online both have strong voices in the community promoting 64-bit browsers with 64-bit Unity 3.4

    There are many options now for 64-bit: IE, Opera, Waterfox and Pale Moon are the best examples that come to mind.

    Do they even make 32-bit processors anymore? Maybe for cell phones ...
     
  6. JohnCleese

    JohnCleese

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    But it wasn't clear to me if 64-bit support for the web player is still a Windows only thing. On the Mac, Safari is also 64-bit.
     
  7. Aras

    Aras

    Unity Technologies

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    Safari itself is 64 bit, but the plugins on Mac can only be 32 bit.
     
  8. AaronCammarata

    AaronCammarata

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    Hi Chris, Aras, and all -

    I'm looking all over for a table of supported OS/Browser combinations. For those of us trying to build commercial product, we need to know what the Unity Player supports, so we know what WE have to support.

    I have looked all over, and Unity has been completely silent on the topic. I understand what a nightmare it can be to support multiple configurations, but that's the business we're in. If you claim "Works on IE! Chrome! FF! MacOS! Windows! Even Linux!", well, could you be more specific? Will the plugin work on XP SP2 IE 6.0? What about Safari on Windows? IE on MacOS?

    We're not looking for you guys to support everything - but we really do need some clarity and understanding of where you draw the line, so that we can draw it in the same place (or maybe a bit further on, preferably. ;)

    Thanks,
    Aaron
     
  9. CreativeChris

    CreativeChris

    Unity Technologies

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    Hi,

    Here you go: This info is only relevant for our 32-bit plugin as our 64-bit plugin is not fully supported yet...

    Browsers:

    Windows:

    > IE 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
    > Firefox
    > Chrome
    > Opera
    > Safari
    > Chinese 360 Browser

    Mac OS X:

    > Safari
    > Firefox
    > Chrome

    Operating Systems:

    Windows:

    > XP SP 2 3
    > Vista 32-bit 64-bit
    > Windows 7 32-bit 64-bit
    > Windows 8 32-bit 64-bit

    Mac OS X:

    > 10.5
    > 10.6
    > 10.7
    > 10.8

    This is what we test on, therefore claim we support, however, there are other Browsers and OS's the plugin functions on that we do not test on such as Windows Server 2008 OS and a Browser called Camino on Mac for example.

    Thanks,
    Chris
     
  10. kenw8

    kenw8

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    I still can't play unity browser games even with this.. i have windows 7 64-bit laptop, and the game always says that
    "Failed to update Unity Web Player"
     
  11. jtrice

    jtrice

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    Kind of a sidetrack, but going forward, how affected is Webplayer on Chrome by the plans to drop NPAPI support?

    Thanks,
    Jason
     
  12. OmniverseProduct

    OmniverseProduct

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    I'm wondering this also. If I remember right, stuff that had support before the announcement (like the webplayer) will be fine. They will have to make the switch eventually but it will still work until they make the switch.
     
  13. prominentgamer

    prominentgamer

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    i have the same problem, what's the matter? i can't understand...
     
  14. kaheidt

    kaheidt

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    I know this thread is old, but I wanted to throw it out there that Chrome 64 bit just came out on 8/26/2014, and it doesn't support any 32 bit plugins. So a 64 bit unity web player would probably be more relevant to the general user now.
     
  15. Stefano Corazza

    Stefano Corazza

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    +1. If you install Chrome Beta you cant run Unity plugin... switching to FF in the meantime.
     
  16. Aras

    Aras

    Unity Technologies

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    My understanding is that 64 bit Chrome does not support any plugins?
     
  17. jonas-echterhoff

    jonas-echterhoff

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    Actually, I think Aras is wrong here (for once). The new 64 bit Chrome on windows does still support NPAPI plugins if they are 64-bit (for now, they still plan to fully drop plugin support). We have a Windows 64 bit plugin which is supposed to work in Chrome 64 bit here: UnityWebPlayerFull64.exe

    The only thing we need to fix is to make that the default download for 64 bit chrome browsers.
     
  18. Devil_Inside

    Devil_Inside

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    Try "Ballistic".
     
  19. Rinn

    Rinn

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    Is there a version for OSX? I'm having the same issue with x64 Chrome in that it won't load the 32 bit plugin and I don't want to switch to a different browser to play Unity games.
     
  20. zalogic

    zalogic

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    I know this is an old thread but hoping someone is still roaming around here. :)
    Google Chrome 64bit has taken over Mac OS and Google is apparently planning on retiring the 32bit version.
    Is there any "hidden" Unity WebPlayer 64bit plugin for Mac OS?
     
  21. jonas-echterhoff

    jonas-echterhoff

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    Are you on the beta or dev channel of Chrome? Because the release version Chrome 37 should still be 32-bit on OS X.

    But, yes Google is planning to switch to 64-bit soon, that is true - and we will not make a 64-bit OS X web player for this. All other browsers on OS X are 64-bit, but still handle 32-bit plugins fine. Google has announced their plan to drop support for plugins entirely by then end of this year, so working on a 64-bit plugin with such a short expected lifespan seems like a waste of time.
     
  22. zalogic

    zalogic

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    Thank you very much for your feedback!

    Yes you're right I'm using the beta version. I'll switch to the release version.

    But this is scary news. I agree with you about the fact that making a 64bit plugin version for Chrome is not worth it but if Google will drop support for plugins entirely by the end of the year and we have a Unity WebPlayer game due to release soon what other solution do we have to support those Chrome users? What will happen to all the WebPlayer builds out there? :)
    I'm guessing that Chrome has a pretty big number of users.
     
  23. popc

    popc

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    It seems Chrome 39 for Mac ditches 32 bit plugins! Of course, Unity Web Player doesn't work.
    Emergency.
     
  24. jonas-echterhoff

    jonas-echterhoff

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    Note that my statement above about us not making a 64-bit OS web player was wrong. It turned out to be very simple, and we have a working version of the web player for OS X 64-bit (which we expect to release within the next weeks). (Also see this blog post by Vilmantas: http://blogs.unity3d.com/2014/10/28/the-future-of-web-publishing-in-unity-an-update/)
     
  25. popc

    popc

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    Thanks god.
     
  26. wccrawford

    wccrawford

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    Have you guys considered having a standalone player for Unity games? It'd be like the webplayer, but launch a standalone viewer app when someone visits a custom URI scheme.

    The scheme would denote the unity3d file (or a manifest file?) and the player would download and run the associated code.

    Why? Similar to the webplayer, this saves the re-downloading of the Unity engine itself and gives easy access to games via the web. I think people would be a lot more likely to install the standalone player and play Game Jam games from it than actually have to download, unpack, etc etc for a standalone executable.

    It's be using most of the same technology as the webplayer already does, with a wrapper around it to give it some chrome.
     
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  27. Tortuap

    Tortuap

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    I dig that idea of a standalone player.

    Mainly because people are much likely to trust and run a .unity file than a .exe.
    And when it comes to ask people to try your stuff, you don't want to put obstacles on their way.

    Also IMO at the moment the WebGL does not appear as a good alternative to WebPlayer target (very long compile time makes it more painful to build/deploy/test, specific bugs you can't debug, very long load time, performance penalties on some browsers vs WebPlayer).
     
  28. wccrawford

    wccrawford

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    It's important to note that downloading a .unity file wouldn't be any safer than downloading a .exe file. They might think it was, but if there's code in it that can access system functionality directly, then it's not safe. WebGL is safer because the browser at least attempts to sandbox it. (But of course, there are always bugs, so it's probably not 100% safe.)
     
  29. Tortuap

    Tortuap

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    No the idea is that the .unity would be executed by a standalone player in the exact way the web player actually do. Applying the very same security limitations and sand boxing everything just as if run in a browser.
     
  30. I am da bawss

    I am da bawss

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    Suggestion : Can you guys please put a VERSION NUMBER for the webplayer download page? Right now you have NO IDEA if you should update your webplayer or not. It just tells you your own webplayer version but nothing else! There should be a version number for the latest version that you are about to download!
     
    wccrawford and ZJP like this.
  31. rbean

    rbean

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    Now that windows 10 has come out an the Microsoft edge . unity doesnot work an i need this for a game so were can i find the right unity player. am no pro.
     
  32. CreativeChris

    CreativeChris

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    Edge doesn't support Active X or plugins anymore. Use a different browser like Firefox.
     
  33. tomekkie2

    tomekkie2

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    Is the 64-bit WebPlayer supposed to run on Firefox 64-bit?
     
  34. QFSW

    QFSW

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    Will edge ever be supported in any way other than WebGL? I don't use it, I'm just curious, as I personally think a lot of people will be using it
     
  35. CreativeChris

    CreativeChris

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    Can't speak for Microsoft, but most major browsers are moving away from Plugins, Chrome has and so will Firefox eventually. Seems to be the internet future, WebGL is the thing now.
     
    yuliyF and QFSW like this.