Flash Vs HTML5

Development, Our Work, Technology | 12:54 pm

Flash Vs HTML5The Flash Vs HTML5 debate has caused much discussion over the recent months and it certainly got us thinking here at Code.  We believe the two technologies are not in competition and each have their purpose, but thought it might be amusing to actually put them in direct competition.

On first view, you might think that this is just a simple re-make of the classic game “pong”, you wouldn’t be wrong in coming to that conclusion. However, on closer inspection you’ll see that the left side of the game uses Flash, where the right hand side makes use of HTML5′s Canvas.

Check out our little experiment and leave us your thoughts.

http://labs.codecomputerlove.com/FlashVsHtml5/

We know there might be issues and as part of the experiment it is good to get user feedback, so please feel free to help us out.

Part 2 of this article will explain how me made it and what issues we came across, so check back to see what we made of the whole process.

- Branny & Jono

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 26th, 2010 at 12:54 pm and is filed under Development, Our Work, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

32 Responses to “Flash Vs HTML5”

  1. Chris on October 26th, 2010 at 2:13 pm

    Brilliant stuff.

  2. J on October 26th, 2010 at 4:02 pm

    Cool experiment- I can hardly tell the difference. In fact, I actually think the right side (HTML5 game) runs better. Awesome idea!

  3. Tim on October 26th, 2010 at 4:25 pm

    Amazing stuff!!! Loving it!

  4. Bontampis on October 26th, 2010 at 11:11 pm

    are you trying to make flash look bad by making it run @ 1 fps xD ?

    you know, flash was thought out in a certain manner, and has a different “coding philosophy” than something done the html/javascript way

    i don’t get why the flash part is so laggy, i could make the bitch kick the shit out of html5 anytime XD

    Cheers

  5. John on October 27th, 2010 at 9:50 am

    HTML 5 shows better performance on my Mac, by quite a large margin. Adobe still have a hell of a lot of work to do, to bring flash up to the same standard on Mac as PC.

    It would be interesting to see a particle demonstration side by side to see whether Flash or HTML5/JS perform better with large amounts of objects with the same standard/quality of coding for both.

  6. Shae on October 27th, 2010 at 3:18 pm

    really sad the “pro flash dev” comment i made yesterday was not published :)
    but, good point john, the real comparison would show better that way

    cheers

  7. Ben on October 28th, 2010 at 2:38 pm

    Your comment was caught in the spam filter for some reason, it’s on now. I haven’t experienced what you’re describing though, the Flash side runs fluidly for me on Chrome.

  8. Jamie Billingham on October 28th, 2010 at 9:02 pm

    I’m using Opera on Windows and the HTML5 version runs better by far. It also seems to have heard of anti-aliasing, whereas the Flash version is a bit fuzzy.

    Nice job getting them working together though. :)

  9. Seth G on November 2nd, 2010 at 2:38 pm

    On my machine (Ubuntu Linux 10.04, 32-bit, Google Chrome browser 7.0.517.41 beta), both sides were equally responsive to controls and video quality was equal. However, on the Flash side, the ball moved faster than on the html5 side. As soon as it crossed the centerline, you could see a noticeable difference.

  10. Kris on November 2nd, 2010 at 8:28 pm

    In Firefox 3.6.3 on Windows, the HTML 5 side runs better for me hands-down. The Flash side is laggy, not to mention a bit buggy, though that could just be a coding issue. Specifically, if the ball is moving down and you move the paddle down with it, under certain circumstances the ball with shake and pass right through the paddle.

  11. bytemangler on November 2nd, 2010 at 8:47 pm

    Both sides run fine for me on Ubuntu, FF3.6, Chrome 7, and on the Mac with FF3.6, Safari 5. Chrome 7 on the mac doesn’t start the game with L.

  12. Oscar on November 2nd, 2010 at 9:08 pm

    Tested it with opera and safari on my imac and cannot tell any difference in performance between those two browsers: in both cases the html 5 side runs much better, the ball is faster and runs smother.

  13. Rek on November 2nd, 2010 at 9:37 pm

    Used Google Chrome on a MacBook Pro.

    The flash side is laggy, the HTML5 side runs perfectly smooth.

    No comparison – flash is a cpu hog and needs to go away.

  14. Flash versus HTML5 en competición de Pong on November 2nd, 2010 at 10:12 pm

    [...] algún problemilla con Safari. Flash (izquierda) versus HTML5 (derecha), Mas información (ingles): blog.codecomputerlove.com/2010/10/26/flash-vs-html5  sin comentarios cultura, cibercultura karma: 10 etiquetas: pong, html5, flash [...]

  15. Streaky on November 2nd, 2010 at 10:21 pm

    Hate to say it, but where’s the source…

    Can’t compare anything without showing people your working.

    Nice toy that being said.

    P.S. FYI the reason flash is useless on Mac is that Apple have a bunch of hidden APIs, hence why it will never get a third-party Java implementation.

  16. Ryan on November 3rd, 2010 at 5:07 am

    So I read about this on CNN and decided to give it a shot. The right side, HTML5, seemed more “fluid” than the opposite end. When the ball passed the barrier, it became more like a square with two curved ends. I agree with Bontampis however. I play around with Flash/HTML, and running at 1 fps is totally biased towards HTML5. Perhaps something a little more in the 24-30fps range would be a better comparison. I’m using Google Chrome 7.0.517.41 beta on a Lenovo ThinkPad (Windows 7 Professional 64bit/Intel core i5 CPU M 520 @2.4Ghz). Hope this helps

  17. Dan on November 3rd, 2010 at 1:48 pm

    Perhaps you should mention it breaks in IE?

  18. Mike on November 3rd, 2010 at 2:05 pm

    Using the Beta for I.E. 9 under Win7 64-bit – at first the HTML5 side wasn’t even displaying. Played with the Developer tools turning browser and document modes to IE8 standards, no difference. Back to IE9 standards on both and games suddenly appeared. Launched the first ball (from the HTML5 side and game froze as soon as the ball tried to cross the centerline.
    Will try the laptop next (IE8) to see if it’s IE9 messing things up.

  19. Mike on November 3rd, 2010 at 2:32 pm

    Further comments…was able to try on Win7 Home, IE8.0.7600.16385 and same response. Everything loads except for the paddle and ball on the HTML5 side. Tried various Developer settings including Quirky (?) and Compatibility mode. In all cases, I never see the HTML5 side’s playing field, just the score and UP/DOWN/START areas.

    Firefox 3.6.8 however, works fine.

  20. retiisi on November 3rd, 2010 at 10:05 pm

    This is one of the best geek pranks ever. Keep up the good working :)

  21. iVencees on November 4th, 2010 at 10:43 am

    Used Google Chrome 7.0 on Win 7

    both side can start(X and L) , but no response to up and down(A,Z ; M,K)

  22. Beaton Nyamapanda on November 4th, 2010 at 11:15 am

    Is it just me or Flash is smoother than HTML5 in Firefox on Windows 7?

    Maybe its just me

  23. Bill on November 5th, 2010 at 12:18 am

    The one on the right side works better. The ball isn’t rendered properly on the left.

  24. Flash and HTML5 Battle It Out Over Pong - Gadgets | Tech Buzz Blog on November 5th, 2010 at 7:30 am

    [...] “The Flash Vs HTML5 debate has caused much discussion over the recent months and it certainly got us thinking here at Code,” the company wrote in a blog post. [...]

  25. Flash Vs HTML5 (jugado en Pong) » Alambre. WeBlog de tecnología y sociedad on November 5th, 2010 at 10:35 pm

    [...] difícil responder esa pregunta, pero por mientras los chicos de Code Computerlove presentaron un juego de Pong, donde la mitad de la cancha derecha está sobre HTML5 y la otra [...]

  26. Jared on November 6th, 2010 at 5:40 am

    Too bad neither side, flash or html5, work on FreeBSD.

  27. Gaz Shaw on November 6th, 2010 at 1:51 pm

    Of course, there’s more to the argument than just ‘which platform performs best’.

  28. De ‘Flash vs. HTML5′-pong « Works of Time on November 7th, 2010 at 7:17 pm

    [...] On first view, you might think that this is just a simple re-make of the classic game “pong”, you wouldn’t be wrong in coming to that conclusion. However, on closer inspection you’ll see that the left side of the game uses Flash, where the right hand side makes use of HTML5′s Canvas. Bron [...]

  29. XTRO » Flash y HTML5 confrontados en un juego de Pong on November 8th, 2010 at 7:33 am

    [...] de pantalla de una implementación de Pong usando las dos tecnologías rivales. El objetivo de Code computerlove al hacerlo es lúdico a la vez que interesante: El debate Flash vs. HTML5 ha causado muchas [...]

  30. Damian Doherty on November 8th, 2010 at 7:21 pm

    the HTML5 version runs faster and smoother for me, don’t know if it’s because I’m on a Mac. Great to see what can be done with HTML5.

  31. Albert on November 8th, 2010 at 7:51 pm

    Ran into a bug on the left side where the ball hit the edge of the paddle, and it bounced around inside the paddle for a while until it reached the edge and then left.

    win xp, ff 3.6.12, flash 10.1.102.64

  32. Brian on November 8th, 2010 at 8:10 pm

    HA, it glitched while playing, I let it run its course and got this:
    Current Rally: 81025 Last Rally: null Best Rally: 81025

    it stopped @ that score on its own–why?

    Using Google chrome, the Shockwave Flash plugin had crashed… can still move the HTML5 paddle