corsixTH-web

[osuritz]

Hi CorsixTH team

First off, thank you for the engine: it's been fun to work with!

Over the last few days I built a browser version of CorsixTH on top of @ololoken's #3093 branch and got it to a playable, deployed state:

• the engine boots
• plays the demo level
• saves persist across
• renders the original XMIDI music to audio entirely client-side.

Live demo: https://osuritz.github.io/corsixth-web/ (engine-only zero game assets hosted just like your version: users bring the free demo or their own copy).

Disclaimer: I used Fable to give this a shot. You may or may not care for this but just thought you might be interested based on some comments in that PR regarding stuck bootstrapping.

Getting there needed a few fixes on top of #3093's base, plus a separate web shell:

• Boot fixes: an EMSCRIPTEN case for the interpreter/data path; Lua 5.4 instead of the contrib.lua port (the engine's version guard rejects 5.5); and dropping -sEXPORT_ALL, which was silently breaking Asyncify's exports under -Os.
• Asset onboarding that requires the user to select/drop their own files (no hosted assets) — I saw @TheCycoONE raise the Ultima 4 takedown concern on [WIP] Adds browser platform #3093, so it was built to that bar from the start.
• Client-side XMI→OGG music (reusing the logic from your xmi2mid.cpp), IDBFS-backed saves, and a headless boot + E2E CI gate.

The engine-tree footprint is small (~130 lines, mostly EMSCRIPTEN-guarded/additive); the bulk is a separate web/ shell that talks to the engine only through the Module API.

I'd love to contribute the engine-side pieces back rather than sit on a fork. Before I open anything:

1. Is [WIP] Adds browser platform #3093 still the intended vehicle — PRs against it, or fresh against master?
2. @TheCycoONE mentioned waiting for/rebasing onto the SDL3 migration — should I target post-SDL3 to avoid churn?
3. Build conventions: I saw the notes to keep lpeg/lfs as FetchContent targets (CppTest pattern, in CorsixTH/) and minimize CMake changes via emcmake — happy to rework mine to match. Anything else you'd want a particular way?
4. Is the web shell / onboarding UI something you'd want in-tree at all, or should that stay out-of-tree with only the engine changes upstreamed?

Happy to share the branch, specific diffs, or whatever's easiest but if you're curious my fork is at https://github.com/osuritz/corsixth-web

Thanks again! 🏥

[lewri]

Hello! Seems to work well in general to me, the music loading caught me off guard though. Perhaps working with ololoken you can finish off what you'll need for compatibility our side. However, I would note in that PR the SDL3 port coming may require a number of revisions to the current implementation.

[ololoken]

cool, regarding sdl3 migration. I don't see issues here: sdl3 port is already available in emscripten and it works pretty well.

[tobylane]

After this is merged, what is the maintenance it'll need? Eg when we add a new setting to config.

After SDL3 is merged, bring in master. This includes support for Lua 5.5.

How viable would it be to have movies, and music without the reload?

Are the .superpowers and docs folder useful to us? The comments in CMakeLists.txt?

The build/ files can go in scripts (with a web prefix), can the python be its own file?

Use newlines in place of && in the workflows. Can the jobs be named more descriptively?

Thank you both very much. We don't know emscripten well enough to judge those parts. Ideally you two can judge each other's work without Claude, or we can look for a volunteer.