uBrowser and Ogre

callum · Post by **callum** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 6:46 pm

Hi guys - I'd had quite a bit of mail from folks asking about using Ogre and uBrowser - my software that renders web pages to memory and figured you might be interested in the latest news.

I just released a new version that now supports multiple browser windows and has a much improved update scheme - pages are now only updated when they change. The big win - especially for developers - is the new library. You can now build C++ apps against a single (small) header/lib - much less daunting that patching/building Mozilla and building against that. There is one (annoying) Win32 dependency which I'm hoping to get rid of soon.

I love to see it being used here - if I get chance I'll try to put together a native Ogre demo.

Details and source/pre-built files at http://ubrowser.com

Cheers.

Cal.

Post by **pjcast** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 6:51 pm

Wow

Multiple webpages inside an Ogre application would completely rock

I look forward to watching your project, and will likely use it... Hmm, it might make a great GUI system for Ogre too.

callum · Post by **callum** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 7:13 pm

>> Hmm, it might make a great GUI system for Ogre too.

Agreed. The XUL stuff - there are some sites bookmarked in uBrowser - would work pretty well as the basis for application UI - skinnable too.

CaseyB · Post by **CaseyB** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 7:23 pm

GAH! It looks AWESOME, but I can get anything to load because of the proxy here at work so I'll have to wait until I get home! Good work though!

callum · Post by **callum** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 7:30 pm

Thanks for the reminder CaseyB - a lot of people have asked about proxy support. I'll add it to the list - there might be a way to do it in the short term by messing with the config file in uBrowser\Release\greprefs\all.js although I doubt you'll be able to put your password in there.

syedhs · Post by **syedhs** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 7:33 pm

Definitely cool!

Post by **jacmoe** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 9:04 pm

Extremely cool!

Lemmings in DHTML. In a browser. On a ball. Why?

Post by **pjcast** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 12:25 am

jacmoe wrote:Extremely cool!
Lemmings in DHTML. In a browser. On a ball. Why?

Haha, I've seen a Wolf3D renderer written in Javascript and DHTML... That would be awesome to run inside uBrowser, while it is embedded in Ogre - just for the leetness factor

callum · Post by **callum** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 12:27 am

Haha, I've seen a Wolf3D renderer written in Javascript and DHTML... That would be awesome to run inside uBrowser, while it is embedded in Ogre - just for the leetness factor

You mean this one?

http://www.abrahamjoffe.com.au/ben/canv ... xtures.htm

There is a bookmark to it in uBrowser - works quite well

Banthia · Post by **Banthia** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 2:09 am

Oh my. Thank you so much for sharing uBrowser with the Ogre community--you just filled in a very nice checkmark on my huge wish list, too! The screenshots are beautiful--I downloaded it all, and will take it for a spin this weekend. I'll mail constructive comments soon.

callum · Post by **callum** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 2:38 am

Thanks so much Banthia - I'm hoping that by releasing the source code, they'll be lots of comments, suggestions and most of all help

Cheers.

CaseyB · Post by **CaseyB** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 5:33 am

Looking through the code, the only thing that I see that makes it Windows only is the need for a native window handle. Is this right? If that's the case then you can have a look at how Ogre does it in its different RenderWindows. For example:
In OgreWin32Window.cpp

Code: Select all

*pHwnd = getWindowHandle();

This is also how you do it.

In OgreGLXWindow.cpp

Code: Select all

mWindow = XCreateWindow(mDisplay,parentWindow,left,top,width,height,0,visualInfo->depth,InputOutput,visualInfo->visual,mask,&attr);
*static_cast<Window*>(pData) = mWindow;

In OgreGTKWindow.cpp

Code: Select all

mGtkWindow = new Gtk::Window();
*win = mGtkWindow;

callum · Post by **callum** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 5:52 pm

Looking through the code, the only thing that I see that makes it Windows only is the need for a native window handle. Is this right?

Yah - you need a native window handle but that's (sort of) cross platform ready. There is a little bit of code in LLEmbeddedBrowserWindow::NotifyInvalidated() that is Windows specific - when a "something changed" event comes in, it has a pointer to the widget that caused the change. This needs to be converted to a browser window pointer so that the relevant window can be notified. I wasn't able to get this working in "Mozilla space" and had to go native... If you only have a single window or don't care if all the open windows get updated when any of them change, you could replace that code with something more generic.

Cheers.

Cal.

ryandeboer · Post by **ryandeboer** » Fri Nov 17, 2006 11:57 am

YEY! I've wanted to incorporate UBrowser into an engine for a while now and I even decided if I did have time, Ogre would be where I would do it. I just never got though the previous complex compilation stages. Hopefully I can get it to compile now. That testgl.cpp looks nice and simple, shouldn't be too hard to get it working in Ogre.

You should be able to get it rendering the OpenGL quickly by using a RenderQueueListener, just do it before or after overlays. You could use raw OpenGL calls initially (but please don't leave them there). Once that works, then maybe it can use Ogres overlays properly. There is a wiki example on how to "manually blit" overlays and how to use RenderQueueListeners which you could use to replace all the control rendering. Wouldn't it be cool if you could mix Ogre's overlays with Ubrowser!

See: http://www.ogre3d.org/wiki/index.php/SpriteManager2d

But then there is the input system. I'm not quite sure how that can be hooked up. I suppose it doesn't even need to use Ogre's, maybe it can just use UBrowsers existing input system? I can't wait until the flash bugs are fixed.

Hopefully one day there can be an Ogre addon dedicated to ubrowser?

ryandeboer · Post by **ryandeboer** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 2:26 pm

I got ubrowser rendering to an Ogre window (using hacky OpenGL calls) as a first step. But I'm having trouble with the input (the other hurdle).

I was using http://www.ogre3d.org/wiki/index.php/Basic_Tutorial_5 and the SDK headers to do the key input.

As soon as I call initialise on the event processor I lose the mouse cursor. But I kind of liked having the mouse cursor.

Code: Select all

EventProcessor* mEventProcessor = new EventProcessor();
mEventProcessor->initialise(win);

I know I can do my own CreateWindow, MessagePump and WinProc and pass a hwnd to Ogre. But that code gets ugly and I want to have Ogre listeners.

I noticed that the latest version of Ogre has changed it's event system with a single WindowEventListener. I am hoping that doesn't capture my mouse too. I can't see any wiki tutorials on it though.

M · Post by M » Tue Nov 21, 2006 3:36 pm

OGRE in CVS has dropped all input support, WindowEventListener manages window related events only (move, resize, close, focus). Demos use an external library for input now (OIS).

ryandeboer · Post by **ryandeboer** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 3:53 pm

Wow made some good progress now. Decided to just go with the win32 CreateWindow/WinProc stuff and hooked up the input.

Got it rendering in the background render queue now, and got a robot.mesh rendering in front of it.

Its super fast framerate. Much higher than I have got with embedding IE in the past. 160 fps.

I'm using it right now for this post.

Here is an image of it:
http://www.ogre3d.org/wiki/images/b/b2/UOgreBrowser.png

Vectrex · Post by **Vectrex** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 4:46 am

hah! that's very cool

ryandeboer · Post by **ryandeboer** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 6:40 pm

Now it has a wiki page: http://www.ogre3d.org/wiki/index.php?title=UOgreBrowser

Its using Ogre dynamic textures using a rectangle background now. And all the web controls can modify a 3d scene.

voxel · Post by **voxel** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 4:41 pm

Is the source to the OGRE uBrowser plugin posted somewhere? I'm looking at integrating uBrowser support into my OGRE app soon - I'd rather not duplicate work.

ryandeboer · Post by **ryandeboer** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 12:29 am

I was waiting for someone to ask before releasing it, since it still isn't "ready".

This was the last work I was doing on it, fixing some strange bug:
http://www.ogre3d.org/phpBB2/viewtopic. ... highlight=

It isn't a plugin yet, but that is the next step.
I was planning on replacing the browser events with RenderSystem::fireEvent and making the user do the message pump stuff.

I've never written an Ogre plugin but I think I know enough to start.

I might just release it now.

ryandeboer · Post by **ryandeboer** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 12:02 pm

I would like the code migrated to cvs for ogre addons.

Can someone set up a ogre addon directory called "uOgreBrowser" so I can put it there?

The src+dependencies zip to 40meg. I might need somewhere to attach the dependencies so just the src is version controlled as small as possible.

Post by **Wolfmanfx** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 12:17 pm

You have to ask Sinbad for that.
btw iam looking forward for that nice plugin to play with

nice work

voxel · Post by **voxel** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 9:09 pm

Does it work with VC++ 2005 Express? (aka VC8)

I think LLMozLib doesn't link properly (lots of changes between 2003 + 2005). Could be wrong (please say I am). I tried to rebuild LLMozLib from sources and got far (half built!) until I hit a known Mozilla compile problem with VC8 - it's not officially supported either.

ryandeboer · Post by **ryandeboer** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 12:30 am

To begin with I had issues even linking in VS2003, but all that was fixed. Only debug mode works. I don't want to start using 2005 until I use it at work, I know they can run fine both installed but its easier just to use one sln format etc and therefore I use 2003.

The binary dependencies I was talking about would include LLMozLib and the 15megs of mozilla runtime stuff in the correct directories so compilation/link/run works without hassles.

I'll message sinbad and forward the addon request.