Why not web player?

Online Player Public Beta
#1

It’s been haunting me for quite a time. Why online player client is a standalone app, ott the web app simply? I get that it must be an app for mobile devices, but otherwise? Wouldn’t it be easier to maintain one app instead of multiple for each platform?

I guess it may have something to do with streaming? Maybe channels in the browsers? Not sure. I think web browsers could handle it - especially since GM control panel is already web-based. But I am not an expert in the field of the apps development for sounds and music, so maybe I am missing something :wink:

#2

Syrinscape is a very powerful tool often playing 20+ samples at once each with their own parameters and settings. A web browser would not be able to handle the functions that the Online Player neeeds

#3

So Online Player Client is actually downloading and playing 20+ samples live? Not mixed? Ahhh… OK. Is this stored somewhere? I would rather prefer to warn my players it may eat up their drives :smiley:

#4

The samples are streamed and temporarily stored to the systems cache memory. They shouldn’t take up to much space as it’s temporary and compressed

#5

The Online player downloads the samples before playing them? That might explain why there’s such a huge delay before a music passage starts. Those files are surely much larger than a half-second sound clip.

I’m not sure how I feel about this architecture. It seems to make more send to have the heavy lifting be done on the GM’s control panel and have the receivers get a single stream with everything already mixed. That would also make the web app option practical — and in the interest of accessibility, I think that should be a rather high priority for this feature.

#6

GM control mixing would most likely require it to either send via proxy of the Syrinscape servers - may not be easy or direct connection - not always possible (public IPs and the like).

So samples are streamed separately to the client with configuration from GM. That makes sense.

#7

Note: there’s only a delay on playback for the FIRST time a sample is played. Yes, if the file is tiny then there is virtually no delay, but if the file is a big music track there can be up to 3 seconds delay (which in my opinion is not really that much).

That said, once the file has been delivered once, it is then used from the Cache every time.

We are also looking to put together features to be able to trigger pre-downloads of content that will be needed in the game… AS WELL AS the ability to see current Cache size and clear the cache and things like that.

#8

And yes, making a fundamental change to the essential architecture is not something we are looking at doing right now. :slight_smile:

The ability to play the sound locally on people’s devices is one of the BIG STRENGTHS of the way Syrinscape works.

I LOVE it when we are playing online and Zoom breaks up, the voices and video all go weird, but Syrinscape keeps plugging away playing beautiful full quality music and sound without missing a beat.

I do understand there’s a bit of a getting connected thing that needs to happen when you set up the FIRST time, but really, that would be the case with different kinds of architecture too.

Also: delivering the samples once and playing them from the Cache thereafter saves a LOT of data… and ultimately bandwidth as well.

Yes? :slight_smile: :smiley: