INBrowser provides a simple interactive web view for Unity:
- Pairs into Unity's Canvas system for easy integration via RawImage
- Built on Chromium's foundation to provide a fully interactive user experience
- Supports HTML5 to provide end user with a richer experience on the web view
- Currently supports 64-bit only. We will look into getting 32-bit support if there is enough requests. With the current Windows gaming environment, it seems 32-bit is no longer necessary.
- Currently supports Windows only, with added platform support in the near future
Download Demo Build
- Shows INBrowser in action. Set to Google's website to allow easy navigation for testing purposes.
- Alt+F4 to exit.
Watch Video
- How to video showing INBrowser in action and how to set it up.
Summary
When we began work on Imagine Nations, we also looked into a modular approach to our engine and how we could offer it piecemeal to the community. The largest portions of our game, the CellSystem and the SimulationSystem, are two modules that we would like to offer in the future for anyone that is building expansive voxel games, or just wants to utilize a highly efficient simulation engine that can handle whatever NPC load you want to throw at it (within reason).
INBrowser is the first module we're offering, and came about due to recent needs. A simple to use browser interface is lacking currently within Unity. We weren't after a full fledged browser, nor a full UI system. All we needed was a simple drag and drop interface with Canvas to output an interactive web page to the screen. With our main menu, we are currently showing the latest news, a link to our Wiki page, and a connected Twitch page whenever we stream. We wanted these to be easily accessible for anyone playing our game rather than needing to access them externally.
What is INBrowser?
INBrowser is a no frills web view. Its not meant to offer full browser functional, or be used for a UI system. Right now, it does exactly what we need within Imagine Nations. It allows you to setup a Canvas UI, drop in the INBrowser script, connect a RawImage to the INBrowser, and set a URL to view. Its that simple. Rather than stopping at a static image, however, we wanted a better experience for our community and provided the full Chromium backend (we are built off of ChromiumFX at https://bitbucket.org/chromiumfx/chromiumfx/overview) so you get a fully interactive experience. Videos, browser games, and whatever else you want to show on the defined URL just work.
Everything is automated. You don't have to do anything else with INBrowser in your game or application. Update the URL in INBrowser, and it will update. Change the size of the RawImage connected to INBrowser, and it will resize appropriately. We want this to be accessible to everyone with or without coding experience.
Usage (in Unity):
- Create a new GameObject somewhere in your hierarchy
- Add the INBrowser component to the new GameObject
- Setup your Canvas UI as you see fit (note as of this first build, the RawImage you use must have a pivot of 0,0 to work properly.)
- Drag the RawImage designated for the web view into the BrowserImage slot on the INBrowser component
- Type in the initial url you want to load
Usage (runtime):
- Any changes to the BrowserImage are automatically passed to INBrowser.
- Any changes to the URL are automatically passed to INBrowser.
- Custom HTML can be passed to the OnLoadHTML(string) call which can be used to show something like an RSS feed.
Support:
- Our recommended mode of support is through our Slack channel. Please send us an email through our contact page (http://www.imaginenationsgame.com/contact/) to get invited into it.
- Our secondary mode of support is through our forums (http://www.imaginenationsgame.com/forums/forum/in-browser/) in case we are not available on Slack.
- When all else fails, feel free to use the contact page above for support if you're unable to join our Slack channel or the forums and we'll get back to you asap.
