In-game Browser and Support Tools in 5.3
Blizzard has announced that they are adding a feature-limited web browser to World of Warcraft that will replace the in-game support system with a direct portal to the Battle.net Support site. Their aim is to give players in-game easy access to the site’s robust knowledge base and support contact system.
Source and full details (No, this one isn't an April Fools joke.) |
About time, the old system had xml to bridge the site and game, but now you can actually manage tickets, restoration, e.g. in-game. :)
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A great idea, but also means more system resources being used for a limited web browser being coded into WoW. Eh, I guess we'll see how it works out. :/
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It's so ugly. :(
Really, though, it seems like it would just be better all around to make the button launch the user's real browser. These limited embedded browsers always suck, have terrible usability, no accessibility support whatsoever, etc. If I can't enlarge the font, it's not usable, period. |
Really looks very out of place for me, the battle.net interface clashes massively with the default UI. Seems a bit overkill just for support, too. I'm with Phanx on this one.
I'm wondering to which extent addons will have access to this (I'm assuming anything but the frame's content itself). I hope it doesn't turn out sluggish like Steam's built in browser but I fear it will be. I wonder what it's based on... maybe it just uses IE/Safari? |
I could swear they already had this sort of thing in there. I remember someone abusing it in the past to allow you to browse other information like wowhead inside the game. Maybe they're making it more capable now but I don't think this is an entirely new idea.
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Interesting... Needs a lot of testing too it seems :p I managed to break it after a couple of clicks, this window popped up in the background: I wonder how this will develop! |
Will we be able to taint the internet now?
Can't wait for the "Internet action failed because of an AddOn" messages ;) |
I hope they put everything (like dns server) into their client. Cant imagine how many malware-coders will jump in circles to be first to break the chain between game and webserver.
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Many people, like me, play WoW fullscreen and don't have access to a browser while playing. If they were gonna do something like that they would be better off keeping the current ticket system I believe. In all truthfulness I have no issues with the current support system and think it's fine just as it is. Obviously some must disagree though. |
They just remade the support window so recently... oh man, what an overkill.
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Having a 3D program render in native fullscreen (not windowed+noborder) usually improves performance for said program. However, switching tasks from a program in native fullscreen sometimes has unwanted side effects.
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But, I did run WoW in fullscreen mode for several years before I set up dual monitors, and never had any issue alt-tabbing in and out of it. I've only ever had issues with alt-tabbing when the fullscreen program is running at a different resolution or color depth than the desktop, but I'm not really sure why you'd run anything at any resolution other than your monitor's native resolution -- unless you're using an ancient CRT monitor for some reason -- and I don't think I've had any program run in less than 32-bit color since the '90s. |
The only real appeal to using native fullscreen and to a further extent, downscaling the resolution, is so a severely outdated video card isn't stressed as much to render the same frames. If you have a video card that's more than capable of running in windowed mode at a decent FPS rate, then you shouldn't be running native fullscreen. If you still want the illusion of a fullscreen game, many games have an option to run in a Borderless Window.
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iMac 21.5" mid 2010 Intel Core i3 3.06Ghz 4GB DDR3 RAM ATI Radeon HD 4670 256 MB It's certainly no slouch, but it's not exactly built for top-end gaming. Still, I may try out Windowed mode just to see exactly how much performance is impacted. Quote:
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I was editing my previous post last night to put this explanation in when the WoWI database went down because of too many persistent connections.
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I've been through 2 or 3 video cards, so that's a little newer. AMD Athlon 64 3000+ (2GHz Single core) 2GB 400MHz DDR2 System RAM AGP nVidia GeForce 7300 GT w/ 512MB Video RAM I run windowed mode all the time since I'm running dual monitors. Native fullscreen doesn't play well with multiple monitors. I did build a system to replace it a few years ago, but I ended up selling it to a friend since his system went down. It's really long overdue for me to build another one, but I'm on a really tight budget at the moment. |
On my Windows PC now I use windowed fullscreen because there's an issue with AMD's drivers that causes microstuttering in WoW on native fullscreen. It's also a lot faster for alt-tabbing. Performance loss is minimal.
I agree they should redirect to the user's default browser rather than adding this in my opinion unneeded feature and creating potential for more issues. Quote:
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