Webstarting: the statistics

Networking & Multiplayer
#1

Now I’ve been collecting logs from Alien Flux for a couple of months it’s time to share with you a few stats. The good bit about these stats is that they’re quite impartial and the downloads have come from all over the place - a very random and large sample of a very vaguely targeted audience.

First up, here’s the number of Win32 exe install downloads versus Webstarted installations that worked:

Win32: 1701
Webstarted: 237
Ratio: 88% Win32, 12% Webstarted

Secondly, here’s the same numbers but for installations that failed to run:

Win32: 1289
Webstarted: 139
Ratio: 90% Win32, 10% Webstarted

So it would seem that Java users’ driver updating habits are more or less the same as the rest of the great unwashed. (The overall failure rate is 31% of installations fail to run - 99% of these were due to missing or broken OpenGL drivers).

Now also for your delectable perusal, some video card stats (top 7 vendors only):

[tr][td]Vendor[/td][td]%[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Nvidia[/td][td]40[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Intel[/td][td]11[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]ATI[/td][td]9[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]SiS[/td][td]4[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]S3[/td][td]4[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Trident[/td][td]1[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Matrox[/td][td]1[/td][/tr]

Notez bien the total domination of NVidia in the stats. And now finally an operating system breakdown. This is primarily only of interest to get the relative numbers of Linux users to Windows users…

[tr][td]OS[/td][td]%[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Windows XP[/td][td]54[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Windows 98[/td][td]17[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Windows 2000[/td][td]14[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Windows ME[/td][td]6[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Linux[/td][td]2[/td][/tr]

I notice there’s a single Windows 2003 log :wink:

Sales are still shite, and I’m working on fixing that right now, by building in an instant-buy credit card purchase wizard inside the game, and removing the playable demo. The fun bit is I’m writing AI algorithms to play the game sensibly on its own. Much more interesting than figuring out how to record a demo!

Cas :slight_smile:

#2

Hey what about the time I fired it up on OS X :slight_smile: when the LWJGL port was being tested?
I’m a bit surprised that the linux stats where that low… I now I ran it via web start always, and from Linux a couple times. I can’t believe I’m (at least) half of the Linux users… I thought from these forums alone there would be more than 3.

Have you advertised specifically on Linux oriented sites? There isn’t that great of a selection for Linux… I would figure you would get some takers.

#3

You got graphics drivers, os, any more?, is alien flux spyware ?
:stuck_out_tongue:

Endolf

#4

Intel second in the graphics card rankings? With their crappy chipsets? That really stinks. If only there was a way to educate people that just because a computer from a high street shop claims to have a 3d accelerator doesn’t mean its actually any good. >:(

#5

The later Intel chipsets aren’t really that bad and their drivers are quite good. A bargain really seeing as they only cost about $5.

endolf - AF, when first run, tells you that it sends graphics card logs to our server and if you want to disable this feature you need to prevent it from doing so with your firewall or disconnect from the internet.

sw - the Linux sites have given AF quite a bit of coverage and we get a lot of visits and downloads from Linuxers. It only serves to underline the sheer size of the Windows market relative to everything else. (The OSX stats are <0.1% but that’s to be expected as only a few brave souls have yet tried it on the Mac!)

Cas :slight_smile:

#6

Another confounding factor to consider is that your Win download is an exe. A whole lot of ignorant people out there still assume that this will be “faster” or “better.”

FInally, you mentioned in another thread that you affiliates are linking directly to your Win32 download. The entire difference could be explained simply by one of your affiliates having a lot more traffic then you do.

Collecting statistics is easy. Interpreting them is hard and prone to error. There is a world of difference between a correlation and a causality.

#7

As mentioned in the other thread, when you remove the affiliates from the stats you get 28% Webstarted, 72% Exe’d. I think I might try an experiment after all: I will remove the Win32 exe download from our site for a month and see how many downloads I get.

Actually there is an issue with Webstart which I am currently confounded by - I am unable to pass GC tuning parameters to the game and as a result it uses more memory than it should and has GC pauses. This tends to make the exe version a slightly better overall experience.

Cas :slight_smile:

#8

This is an existing RFE for Web Start… currently you are limited to being able to specify heap size parameters, but you can’t specify other VM arguments, like which collector to use. There was probably some concern over allowing ANY VM options to be accessible because of security implications. Anyway if you search on bug parade I’m sure you can find the RFE. It would be nice to see this in 1.5

#9

To threadjack my own thread, but this is another fairly clear example of why it’s so damned hard to convert professional outfits to adopt Java. When you’re coding in C you do what has to be done to make it work exactly like it should - and nothing can stop you. To have to wait for some 3rd party to fix it is most irritating.

Cas :slight_smile:

#10

Naa. Running into a bug in WebStart is more like having a problem with InstallAnywhere. It’s a non-core deployment mechanism that has a problem, not the language itself.

#11

First, thanks for posting the interesting statistics; they certainly highlight the need for some OpenGL driver autodetection+patching tools, especially for the legions of technologically uninclined Windowsers.

A while back you said you were planning to write and release a little DLL to sort out automatic driver detection and patching… any news on that? Even an unfinished-code dump could be pretty useful at this point.

Thanks for what’s here, and in advance for anything you can add,
lamster

#12

Thank you for the usefull stats.
I haven’t played AF on my new desktop yet (ATI)

Also, I hope sales pick up in the near future for you

#13

Its also quite illegal in the states unless you do it with the users prior consent.

#14

[quote]Its also quite illegal in the states unless you do it with the users prior consent.
[/quote]
I believe it’s in the readme. Or the installer. Or on startup. Or somewhere.

Anyway, I definitely noticed it when I last installed and ran AF, and it’s one hell of a lot more explicit than what people like the Gator Corporation get away with. shrug

#15

Yeah, there’s a big ol’ dialog pops up on Windows. Unfortunately, it, er, doesn’t work on MacOS or Linux yet :-[

Even so it’s not actually illegal for AF to send information to Puppygames - it’s illegal to send personal information, ISTR, which it doesn’t collect. Otherwise, as any fule kno, Micro$oft would soon be in the dock for the vast amount of information buried in every single IE HTTP header without the users’ knowledge.

Cas :slight_smile: