Is the new HTML5 better than Flash?

[funnynik9500 1]

1.  

[AncientFire 1,894]

old one

[ThirdOnion 4,898]

There are a lot of things I like more about the Flash client than the HTML5 client. But I prefer to use HTML5 because it doesn't crash as often.

Edited July 21, 2020 by ThirdOnion

[Maf 32,300]

I've switched to the HTML5 client about 3 months ago, and it's definitely playable. I'll try to list the full pros and cons below, based on personal experience.

Pros:

• Interface looks cooler and less like an early 2000s game.
• Loading times are quite consistent. The game doesn't get stuck loading the garage for over a minute first time when you log in, like it does on Flash.
• No critical errors mid-game (though check cons below).
• The interface overall has more shortcuts. if you are a keyboard player, with a bit of practice you can learn to quickly change equipment without even touching your mouse, and you can do it faster than on Flash.
• Interface doesn't lock when you're queuing for a game. You can still check missions/garage/chat/whatever while you wait for MM to find a battle.
• There are useful indicators which Flash does not have. You can see when enemies have overdrive ready, you can see indicators for bonus damage, speed and armour (like booster, crisis and defender drone effects), you can see exactly when spawn protection ends for enemy tanks.
• Outlines for tanks — you see a red outline around the enemy tank when you're aiming at them. This helps with finding players hiding in bushes, or making some precision shots at enemies that have just a small part of their tank revealed.
• There's a radar. For a long time I ignored it, but within the last couple weeks I learned to use it effectively, so now it helps me quickly find enemies on maps with lots of cover and confined spaces, like Wolfenstein and Yorkshire. Also useful to see check for people sneaking up on you when you're scoping with Shaft.
• You can see all alterations and modules of enemy players just by pressing Tab. For players with diverse equipment this helps pick a turret from which enemies have fewest protections. I also use it to pick hull alterations, so if I see an EMP gauss I can equip a hull with stun immunity, and if I see shock freeze I can equip a hull with freeze immunity. It also helps that the Tab window doesn't move (unlike the R/V info box) and is easy to read.
• End battle screen shows more information.
• Access to Special missions.
• Container opening interface is nicer. If you open multiple containers, you see all the rewards listed on the screen for good looking screenshots.
• Paints are sorted into categories and you can "star" your favourite ones to have them listed in a separate category for convenient access.
• MU levels and progress is shown in the item list. You don't have to open the upgrades window on each item to check upgrade level and progress.
• Battle list has options for sorting by various parameters.
• Notifications are less intrusive. Unchecked friend requests are less annoying to see. 
• Fewer pop-ups upon logging in.
• PRO battles are free.

Cons:

• Longer loading times overall. If you're used to loading quickly into TJR battles and always being first to play as Juggernaut, this won't happen in HTML5.
• Game seems to require a more powerful PC to have the same performance, otherwise you'd have to lower your settings. For me personally it causes the GPU to heat up like crazy, which doesn't happen on Flash.
• Crashes do happen, although less often than on Flash (I think). The good thing though is that they always happen at the start of a battle or when you go into the lobby, but never in the middle of a game.
• No way to check missions mid-game.
• No way to accept friend requests mid-game.
• Gifts feature missing completely (though will likely be added later on).
• Battle chat only shows the latest 6 messages and there is no way to see older ones if you missed something.
• End battle screen covers the whole window and battle chat isn't available.
• Tab list takes up more space and is less transparent. May cause difficulties if you try to check it while on the move.
• Shaft scoping controls are messed up. Vertical aiming is extremely frustrating.
• PRO battles are inconvenient in a few ways. For example, you always get sent to the title screen when you leave a battle.
• Damage is sometimes counted incorrectly (though this might be on Flash too, not sure).
• Interface has a number of illogical design decisions which make it harder to get used to.
• Lobby interface seems to be less responsive and lags more than Flash.
• Battle interface is missing key features, such as always being able to see the status of flags (taken/dropped/on base).
• No ignore option for specific users.
• No full-screen shortcut.
• HTML5 may work worse than Flash if you have a bad internet connection. I was sitting far from the internet router yesterday and HTML5 allowed me to play 1 battle and then lagged out, but Flash worked better.

To me personally the pros outweigh the cons, which is why I permanently switched to HTML5. Your preferences may be different, so try it out for yourself. Make sure to play HTML5 for at least a little while before jumping to conclusions. The new interface WILL be difficult to get used to at first (like it was for me), but you might end up liking it once you become familiar.

[Mend 35]

20 minutes ago, Maf said:

I've switched to the HTML5 client about 3 months ago, and it's definitely playable. I'll try to list the full pros and cons below, based on personal experience.

Pros:

• Interface looks cooler and less like an early 2000s game.
• Loading times are quite consistent. The game doesn't get stuck loading the garage for over a minute first time when you log in, like it does on Flash.
• No critical errors mid-game (though check cons below).
• The interface overall has more shortcuts. if you are a keyboard player, with a bit of practice you can learn to quickly change equipment without even touching your mouse, and you can do it faster than on Flash.
• Interface doesn't lock when you're queuing for a game. You can still check missions/garage/chat/whatever while you wait for MM to find a battle.
• There are useful indicators which Flash does not have. You can see when enemies have overdrive ready, you can see indicators for bonus damage, speed and armour (like booster, crisis and defender drone effects), you can see exactly when spawn protection ends for enemy tanks.
• Outlines for tanks — you see a red outline around the enemy tank when you're aiming at them. This helps with finding players hiding in bushes, or making some precision shots at enemies that have just a small part of their tank revealed.
• There's a radar. For a long time I ignored it, but within the last couple weeks I learned to use it effectively, so now it helps me quickly find enemies on maps with lots of cover and confined spaces, like Wolfenstein and Yorkshire. Also useful to see check for people sneaking up on you when you're scoping with Shaft.
• You can see all alterations and modules of enemy players just by pressing Tab. For players with diverse equipment this helps pick a turret from which enemies have fewest protections. I also use it to pick hull alterations, so if I see an EMP gauss I can equip a hull with stun immunity, and if I see shock freeze I can equip a hull with freeze immunity. It also helps that the Tab window doesn't move (unlike the R/V info box) and is easy to read.
• End battle screen shows more information.
• Access to Special missions.
• Container opening interface is nicer. If you open multiple containers, you see all the rewards listed on the screen for good looking screenshots.
• Paints are sorted into categories and you can "star" your favourite ones to have them listed in a separate category for convenient access.
• MU levels and progress is shown in the item list. You don't have to open the upgrades window on each item to check upgrade level and progress.
• Battle list has options for sorting by various parameters.
• Notifications are less intrusive. Unchecked friend requests are less annoying to see. 
• Fewer pop-ups upon logging in.
• PRO battles are free.

Cons:

• Longer loading times overall. If you're used to loading quickly into TJR battles and always being first to play as Juggernaut, this won't happen in HTML5.
• Game seems to require a more powerful PC to have the same performance, otherwise you'd have to lower your settings. For me personally it causes the GPU to heat up like crazy, which doesn't happen on Flash.
• Crashes do happen, although less often than on Flash (I think). The good thing though is that they always happen at the start of a battle or when you go into the lobby, but never in the middle of a game.
• No way to check missions mid-game.
• No way to accept friend requests mid-game.
• Gifts feature missing completely (though will likely be added later on).
• Battle chat only shows the latest 6 messages and there is no way to see older ones if you missed something.
• End battle screen covers the whole window and battle chat isn't available.
• Tab list takes up more space and is less transparent. May cause difficulties if you try to check it while on the move.
• Shaft scoping controls are messed up. Vertical aiming is extremely frustrating.
• PRO battles are inconvenient in a few ways. For example, you always get sent to the title screen when you leave a battle.
• Damage is sometimes counted incorrectly (though this might be on Flash too, not sure).
• Interface has a number of illogical design decisions which make it harder to get used to.
• Lobby interface seems to be less responsive and lags more than Flash.
• Battle interface is missing key features, such as always being able to see the status of flags (taken/dropped/on base).
• No ignore option for specific users.
• No full-screen shortcut.
• HTML5 may work worse than Flash if you have a bad internet connection. I was sitting far from the internet router yesterday and HTML5 allowed me to play 1 battle and then lagged out, but Flash worked better.

To me personally the pros outweigh the cons, which is why I permanently switched to HTML5. Your preferences may be different, so try it out for yourself. Make sure to play HTML5 for at least a little while before jumping to conclusions. The new interface WILL be difficult to get used to at first (like it was for me), but you might end up liking it once you become familiar.

Ig most cons will be covered up later like gifts, friends, etc...Its just that HTML is a bit new and more resource intensive other than that its fine imo

[Sabrytoun_Superman 677]

What i can add, is that graphics looks still a bit articifial but i did some tests and i have precisions...In fact graphics in HTML for me are like flash graphics but without mip mapping

[kaisdf 3,320]

Pros:

• HTML auto-reloads if you crash or if there's an error, unlike Flash which you need to close and reopen.
• Keybinds in garage make life significantly easier (i.e. Z to go back, Q and E to swap between turrets, hulls, etc.
• Shop showcase - kits for crystals, special deals, 100 free crystals
• Post-game xp breakdown which is interesting
• Spectator mode has far more depth and is much more customisable in HTML
• Personally, I found I had far fewer crashes than on Flash, fully mined parkour maps were less laggy, I got far fewer critical errors

 

Cons:

• Can't go fullscreen in battle
• Chat isn't displayed on screen by default
• In game chat only shows the last like 5 messages

[Mirza7 235]

22 minutes ago, kaisdf said:

HTML auto-reloads if you crash or if there's an error, unlike Flash which you need to close and reopen.

 But it crashes after few battles every time I have to manually close and open it, no auto reload...

This is not happening to me only other players are also complaining about this

[Maf 32,300]

57 minutes ago, Mirza7 said:

 But it crashes after few battles every time I have to manually close and open it, no auto reload...

This is not happening to me only other players are also complaining about this

Same. Very rarely I get an actual error screen with a button I can click to reload the client. The vast majority of crashes are just "grey screen of death", where nothing is responding and you have to close the game and reopen it to fix.

[Maf 32,300]

47 minutes ago, At_Shin said:

It is quite simply the best rendition of Tanki till date

Interesting. To me the TO mobile version is basically unplayable. Just goes to show that everyone has very different tastes.

[Tidebreaker 1,669]

I guess I'll just commit severe copyright infringement off of @Maf for this one.

Pros:

• The sheer amount of info that the HTML version has allows you to make quick and good decisions based on the loadouts of enemies, especially when it comes to hull alterations and protection modules.
• Indicators are amazing - especially the drone, OD and spawn prot ones.
• The interface looks pretty neat.
• The client optimization has improved significantly over the last couple of months, allowing me to have a consistent 60 FPS throughout even if my computer is ancient.
• PRO battles being free is quite nice.
• The amount of shortcuts is huge.
• The interface not locking when you're waiting for a match is quite huge and honestly underrated.
• The end battle screen reminds me of the TX one, in a sense...which is a great thing.
• Special missions are a great addition, especially for Premium users.
• The container interface is lovely, although the colors could use just a bit of work.
• Being able to select your favorite paints is very nice.
• The upgrade levels as well as the remaining time for the upgrade is quite a nice addition.
• Being able to dismiss group requests with Y or N is very useful.
• The Vulcan firing sound is significantly more pleasant to hear on the HTML version than the Flash ones, and the projectiles for it look beautiful as well.
• Having different lock-on HUDs for Striker, Gauss, and Juggernaut is a nice detail.
• Being able to spam microupgrades unlike in Flash is a welcome change.
• Being able to see all the possible container rewards is also a cool change.
• I like the little Garage "wheel" that shows you how the turret excels, whether it be in damage, damage over time, range, accuracy, fire rate, and skillcap required to use it. The same goes for hulls. It would definitely be nice to have something like that for Drones and Protection modules.
• Being able to buy the country paints and hull augments is major.
• Being able to drive your tank in that garage is a cool thing and allows for some nice fake spec screenshot opportunities.
• An in-game browser that doesn't trigger your internet browser opening is quite nice, especially for Newspaper articles.

Cons:

• Not only does it require a more powerful setup in order to work seamlessly, but it also seems to consume more data compared to Flash as well. If you're someone like me who sometimes has to use their personal hotspot, your data usage increase will be quite noticeable.
• GPU heating up is an obvious issue - even though it was way way worse upon initial release, it's still somewhat of a problem.
• Crashes for me happen more on HTML than on Flash, and that's from someone who's had years of Flash experience with no crashes and critical errors whatsoever. This happens most when I'm trying to get into battle.
• Upon clicking on the "Battle Modes" button, my FPS drops significantly. Also, I feel that the images/mode buttons are too big and force you to scroll for a long time before you can click on, say, Assault.
• Mission progress cannot be tracked during battle.
• Friend requests cannot be accepted during battle.
• No full screen button in battle.
• Damage numbers disappear way too quickly.
• The waiting time indicator while loading into a battle will first disappear for a bit and then come back saying 00 sec. While that is a good indicator that says that you successfully loaded into battle, it seems more so like a glitch instead of an in-game feature.
• I don't want to lose my blue spheres sent to me by the ever-loving @kaisdf.
• The chat disappears very quickly, especially if multiple people type at once.
• The Back/Z button seems to glitch out from time to time, forcing me to use the Home button instead and then going into Garage all over again, which is quite frustrating.
• Not being able to see how long an upgrade will take you upon its purchase is a detriment.
• Some Garage stats such as the "weapon radius" for Vulcan make no sense.
• The quick stat display for armor, speed, etc are somewhat dull without the old symbol corresponding to it, like in Flash.
• The tab list with all the necessary info not only covers up a significant portion of the screen but also causes quite an FPS spike as well.
• Oh boy, Shaft. With someone who's had 600+ hours with Shaft on Flash over the last year or so, the downgrade is horrendous. Not only does it feel absolutely terrible when zooming in, but the crosshairs are also quite the downgrade from Flash Shaft. Horizontal tracking seems much slower than on Flash, and vertical tracking is way too sensitive. Tap once and it'll overshoot constantly. This needs to be fixed ASAP, or it could mean the death of non-RFM Shaft. Until this is fixed, I refuse to play with Shaft on the HTML version - you could pay me and I would still decline your offer.
• When microupgrading multiple items in one sitting, you have to open up each piece of equipment's individual page, which makes it much longer and tedious when compared to Flash microupgrading (excluding the spam ability, of course).
• The minimap was a great idea but was implemented rather poorly. Even though I am a Call of Duty player that always uses that minimap, I never ever even look at it in Tanki. I'd say it should be removed, as seeing everyone in your immediate surroundings is not only reminiscent of a Hornet's OD but also a permanent UAV. Also, I can never understand the indicator where it says that someone is either above or below you - I just can't tell the difference. Finally, the fact that you have to squint at it and hence stop looking in front of you is a huge detriment for me. Maybe that balances it out - I'm not sure.
• The red outline around tanks makes it much too easy for people to see you at range, especially when you're trying to camoflauge yourself. The only thing that should be able to look through bushes is Shaft's scope mode or Striker's laser pointer - the others should not have this ability.
• I'd much rather have the Flash layout for skins, shot effects, and alterations, where they are right next to each other - I'm not really comfortable with the two being far apart from each other.
• Finally, and I think this is the most major one of all - the camera. Compared to the Flash camera, I feel it's a downgrade for my performance (maybe not for others, however). I'd like there to be some sort of camera sensitivity setting, or even just sensitivity settings in general that let you control how the camera moves so that it's as much to your liking as possible. I do not want to be seasick while I'm merely turning my turret around.

So, I guess that's it. I hope most of these are relatable, and that something will be done about the cons I mentioned. 

[cosmic666 1,055]

I wonder if pro battles will still be FREE when you have no choice but to play HTML5.

[mjmj5558 2,346]

2 hours ago, At_Shin said:

Both clients give me a headache! In my experience both are very trashy and pale in comparison to the Tanki mobile app.

It is quite simply the best rendition of Tanki till date. It has negligible cons (once when you're used to the mobile controls).

It's positive attributes outclass all other trashy PC versions. It's the only reason I still play Tanki. ( The PC versions were affecting my health because of their long loading times, uninitiated self-destructions and No-Destroy-Turrets).

The mobile version is smooth and has significantly lower loading times. Instead of being frustrated by most of the battles, I actually enjoy playing, even if my team is loosing. 

It also gives the following reward benefits-

Free daily mission changes ( watch ads)

Bonus crystal after every battle (bonus reward depends on your rank)

(watch ads)

Supply box.

 

1 hour ago, Maf said:

Interesting. To me the TO mobile version is basically unplayable. Just goes to show that everyone has very different tastes.

Well, i only use the mobile version for playing the game, and it's great, but it need some improvements. I hope maf will send theese for developers, since it looks like they completely forgot to improve the app.

- communication: i can't communicate with other players and this is terrible: i canvt help them, talk with my friends, or just talk about the battle. Battle chat need to be added ASAP.

-PRO battles: i don't want to make a spolier of my idea i will suggest soon, but i cann say it would be great if developers add them

-some user-friendly feautures: there are great feautes in the HTML version of the game, such like marking your favourite paint, etc. Why don't developers migrate theese to the mobile version?

-Settings: sadly, really small amount of settings are aviable on mobile. All of the general settings should be added, and a costumsizable hud is much needed.

It would be also good if i can acess my settings in a battle, so i can edit them easily, to make them the best for me.

And finally, my favourite turret shaft. Over or undershooting is so easy, so there should be some new shaft mechanism on mobile (i suggested one some weeks ago), and LC turning speed feels so slow, so that should be fixed.

Edited July 22, 2020 by mjmj5558
Added some more ideas

[Blutaar 1,904]

1 hour ago, cosmic666 said:

I wonder if pro battles will still be FREE when you have no choice but to play HTML5.

I guess so. Battlefunds were removed and playing in PRO-battles isn't as efficient anymore as it used to be

[mjmj5558 2,346]

6 minutes ago, At_Shin said:

But how will you chat in a 7 minute battle on a small screen of a smartphone? I think it would hinder my gameplay if new messages keep popping up on my screen. What if I accidentally clicked on the chat when I was trying to control my tank? It would disable my controls to allow me to chat. That would be very bad.

Don't forget you can still diaable chat. Once, i've made an imagine, how would chat look on the mobile version. I will search for it, and send it here.

8 minutes ago, At_Shin said:

Personally, I am fine with the current nsettings as they are.

I mean, basic settings like show who dropped the gold etc. are missing. Also, i want to disable supplies wheel becaise i don't use it, just irritatings when i accidentally activate a supply.

19 minutes ago, At_Shin said:

Here's a tip for shaft- check the wiki for your shaft's turret turning speed and acceleration and try to put the same camera settings in mobile. I have not tried it out yet but will tell you as soon as I do. Remember to take into account the effects of augments on your turret's speeds.

Yeah, i am speking of this. Light capacitators should double shaft turning speed, but tp do a 180° turn, you have to wait ages on mobile, while it's really fast on PC.

[mjmj5558 2,346]

3 minutes ago, At_Shin said:

I am fine if the chat won't hinder gameplay in MM.

You don't like supplies wheel? Wow, it find a handy feature to which the active my supply and put another one in auto-activate mode. It helps out when I am under enemy fire and need to return fire without any interruptions. I leave the hull control stick and quickly use the supplies wheel and then maneuver my hull once again.

I think if you put the settings right it should work...lemme try it out...

Hmm, i will make a video for it with timer, but i need someone to record shaft LC turning in HTML5.. Anyways, herr is my idea about chat: (there is a thing called quick messages on the picture, that's not important now) http://imgur.com/a/EXeS8F1

[mjmj5558 2,346]

1 minute ago, At_Shin said:

Looks good. You should make a topic in the ideas section to give your idea some public attention.

Anyways, we went a bit off-topic, so i created a mobile version discussion in game discussion, where we cam discuss anything about it - without looking moderators angry face   

[BigCar 54]

I like the new one a lot more but they need to fix the menus.

[JESUSaves2 98]

I've run comparisons between Flash and HTML5 on my desktop

My desktop : i5-10400 (watercooled), GTX 1660 Super (overclocked), 16 GB DDR4 3000 mhz RAM (overclocked), and a 256 GB M.2 SSD.

Flash - 14% CPU - 25% RAM - 17% GPU core - 18% VRAM. 60+ FPS@1080p

HTML5 - 40% CPU - 27% RAM - 15% GPU core - 30% VRAM. 60+ FPS@1080p

Basically the cpu gets a 3x increase of usage, the system RAM remains the same, the GPU core remains the same and our VRAM almost doubles. The most alarming thing to me is the VRAM usage. My other desktop has a 2GB Video Card. Granted its not powerful but it could push Flash TO at 60 FPS. However performance with HTML5 is between 40 and 60 FPS due to the cards limited VRAM. Yea the TO devs might have made a cooler looking TO but @1080p 60 FPS gaming pretty much went out the door for anyone running a basic laptop that has only has Intel's UHD graphics, some Vega APUS or even a basic card like the rx 550 or gt 1030. Imo TO is the type of game that should be playable on a basic laptop and Flash was, but now that HTML5 is our only choice you need to either have a 4 GB VRAM GPU like the rx 560 or GTX 1650 in order to get smooth 60 FPS@1080p performance in Tanki Online, or drop settings which defeats the purpose of improved TO graphics. Pls leave thoughts below cause id liek to help some of my clan mates who have basic laptops but would like to play TO. Also is their a official recommended system requirements page for TO?

Edited August 14, 2020 by JESUSaves2

[Spy 14,687]

14 minutes ago, JESUSaves2 said:

 

Topic merged.

[Snafu 139]

And what about PAUSE nonsense in HTML5? Few strange things here:

• if you try to exist the pause mode with less than say 10 sec remaining you get kicked (aghhh!), no such issue in Flash
• when you get killed during pause your tank doesn't re-spawn automatically upon exit. you have to click Esc and then exit battle menu, then you re-spawn

Devs keep yapping how cool HTML5 is. And I don't get it why is it so hard to fix all these minor but super annoying bugs that totally destroy customer's experience.  

[siloviki 4]

Absolutely hate it.

Cartoonish, and control feel is way different, overshoots, interface, not even close., slow load, and i've crashed twice in 10 minutes, went on autopause with no input from comp, where is battle list? found it......

 

Have scored ZERO damage in 3 battles, go to original client all seamless. Drive around to get killed?

 

Now back on autopause as soon as i start......

Start one more, no damage.......

 

7 battles 2 go on autopause, 4 no damage, way cool thanks for the html tanki...this is like Runescape, when they screwed up that game .

 

Make that 5 no damage.......

 

Tried again today, same result. No damage, controls are wonked, sit and get killed at least 2 times before tank moves, then scores zero damage. Went back to Flash, works just fine, so it's not my comp or internet . 3 G Ram, 3.3 Ghz processor. 

 

I'll go play on the freeway thanks.

Tanks for the memories.

 

 

Edited August 16, 2020 by siloviki

[cosmic666 1,055]

Well if i have worked this out right , of the 22 players who have voted less than 17% prefer the new version.

[Joeguy 941]

HTML is up to maybe 70% of what Flash is.  HTML is playable but not nearly as pleasant an experience as Flash. 

HTML has many less features that Flash and only one or two features that Flash doesn't have...and those couple of extra features are just about worthless or an actual detriment to HTML (radar, tank outlines).

HTML takes much longer to navigate to anything due to poor page layout and lack of links.  There are also much longer loading times between all the extra clicks making HTML tedious to play on.

HTML is harder to see almost everything with the washed out color scheme, the lack of contrast, and the tiny size of the fonts and icons.  Score markers also suffer from this.  The graphics overall are fuzzy with poor definition or clear defined edges...this is very apparent when comparing fonts between HTML and Flash.

HTML camera still is off and causes an unpleasant motion sickness like problem mostly due to the fixed horizon created by the purely cosmetic OD indicator and the needless radar....these should be made an off/on choice in options.

Overall, HTML has a kiddie game feel to it that is hard to pinpoint as to why, while Flash has a heavier, more realistic feel to driving your tank and using the turret....I coincide that this might just be my bias, but I loved how Tanki felt when I first started playing it and HTML engenders absolutely none of that feeling.

 

....Oh, and get rid of the hassle pop-up for HTML that has recently started fouling up the last couple of months of Flash...really a cheap and sleazy shot devs.

 

Edited August 17, 2020 by Joeguy

[alix.dx.dx 4]

Hope old version will bring flash back in game as well as game download page