Multiplatform C++ on the Web with Emscripten

Apr 5, 2013 - c++, emscripten, slides

[This post is also available at the IMVU engineering blog.]

At GDC 2013, IMVU shared the analysis that led us to using Emscripten as a key component of our technology strategy to bring our rich 3D virtual goods catalog to new platforms, including web browsers.

Here are the slides from said presentation.

Multiplatform C++ on the Web with Emscripten from Chad Austin

View-Independent Translucent Triangle Sorting - NextPrevious - C++11 on Windows (Hah!)

Have a comment? Send me an email or tweet.

Imported Comments [?]

Jeremy Cowles on Oct 30, 2013

How have you dealt with the code size and compile time issues? Is steady-state performance currently acceptable in chrome and Firefox?

This is super helpful, thanks for posting!

Chad Austin on Oct 30, 2013

In the slides there's a bit about how we have an "iteration build" which can do a very unoptimized/unreadable build in just a few seconds.

Regarding code size: Our engine, compiled, minified, and gzipped, works out to about 700 KB. We generally show a spinner and dynamically load that JS so the page loads quickly for people in the first place.

Performance is actually great in Chrome and Firefox, and improving over time. The newest version of Chrome actually made our stuff substantially faster.