Is HTML5 fully supported? Why does launch fail?

[rich0550]

Hi,
I am trying to do a product demo in UE4. Packing to HTML5 , needs to work in Chrome,IOS most platforms. Is this a bad idea to try this? It needs to look nice, but cross platform blah blah. All of that. Advise appreciated.
Thanks!

[mr_pinc]

HTML5 still remains experimental and I believe there are a lot of problems with it working on Mobile. If you need to package for mobile I'd recommend the native app route which UE4 is fine at. If HTML5 is your primary target I'd consider something other than UE4. I've been using Babylon.js and it is great. Obviously the tooling doesn't compare but it's a very easy to use, stable and robust library.

[chuan_l]

Hi Rich ,


This remains a " really bad idea " —
Until somebody at Epic comes up with a better HTML5 pipeline !
I had a pretty bad experience last year trying to package a project
created in UE4.12 and we ended up recreating the whole scene
inside WebGL as it was faster , and worked.

The problem is with the HTML5 support using " Emscripten " to
try and auto -magically " transcode " Unreal's C++ native code into
Javascript which ends up being a real mess. I had a static scene
that would not cook and would not display.

--

Better options : grab your assets and bring them over into
a proper HTML5 / WebGL / Three JS based framework. It'll be
quicker , faster at runtime and most importantly it will work ! They
really should remove the HTML5 export from both Unreal and
Unity 5.x as they don't work well and get no support.

--

This is interesting —
Though still exports to UE4 runtime :
[ https://github.com/ncsoft/Unreal.js ]


Cheers ,


— Chuan

[kengeary]

Hello all, I ran into the same roadblock trying to export WebGL from Unity, ONLY works on Firefox on mac/PC. iOS NG. File sizes are large. So I tried (today) to see if UE would be the solution, it was worse and the basic FPS shooter project weighed in at 500 MB! in the HTML5 folder. All kinds of errors trying to play. So, I returned to Playcanvas.com, it's the closest thing to using Unity to develop and instantly you see your final published demo (game/etc.) in another web browser window, no compiling. The catch is you now have to bone up on the pure version of Javascript if you want to go beyond the many sample scripts available. You will have to export all your meshes as FBX (which you probably did already to get into UE) and upload to playcanvas editor. There is a short learning curve on using interface and it works with PBS and HDR lighting, very nice output with small file sizes. End product is either a link to your playcanvas account (free) or you can pay $15/$50 a month to have more control and download your projects as a self running package (well, actually the package has to be hosted on your webserver to run). Check it out-you won't be dissapointed. good luck, Ken

[PIOTRMRG]

Hello everyone,

I have the same issue. I couldn't launch my html5 loucher properly. I will send you some screenshots first , so it will be much easier to figure out the issue. I have to export this game to HTML5. Any help will be highly appreciated.

[PIOTRMRG]

It is weird. It seems that it start downloading the content but maybe few seconds later it stops and inform that it is not able to us be web browser. Here we have full logs

[PIOTRMRG]

If someone had in the past similar issue please do not hesitate and sher with me an another UE4 engine users how you solved this issue. Have a great night guys. I am looking forward to hear from you.

[hubjohn]

HTML5 still remains experimental and I believe there are a lot of problems with it working on Mobile.

[justinraj]

But Most of the website development by HTML5

[David Ee]

I assume you are running straight from double clicking the html file from UE4 output (This will not work unless you are running it on firefox with uncompressed assets).

1.Firstly use only chrome/firefox to open the file (AFAIK only work on this two browser ATM).
2. Run HTML5LaunchHelper.exe in the folder(leave it running, this act as a "Server")
3. You should be able to see "Starting Server at http://localhost:8000/" in the HTML5LaunchHelper command prompt(change the number of the localhost in step 4 if yours happen to be different)
4. In browser type in http://localhost:8000/
5. Click on your html file to run.

Hope it helps!

[jakwarne]

Thanks for the info David Ee

Do you also know how to run the Html5 on mobile?

[David Ee]

Thanks for the info David Ee

Do you also know how to run the Html5 on mobile?

Never did much testing on mobile browser but i believe it does not work, with still so many things not working in desktop Html5 i do not expect it to work. Html5 development in UE4 is kind of dead currently compare to their desktop and mobile. Looking at the UE4 roadmap there are no mention of anything for HTML5 and bug-fixed priority for Html5 is always very low, I would suggest going with other game engine/development software if your focus is purely on web.

[jakwarne]

...Yeah I see your point, thanks for the information!