So let me get this straight, not only does it not explain what it is, it's a bit of a puzzle to even get to the download links, and then it straight up downloads an .exe which you expect me to run on my computer?
Give me more info without me having to pry it out of you through finding your github which honestly isn't much more descriptive.
I like the website. The little puzzle holds my attention for enough seconds to make me curious. The issue is just the lack of information after you figure it out. I still can't tell what this software is. It "plays games"? Is it supposed to be a game-playing AI? Is it a game console? A fantasy console? A game engine?
I wish web designers would understand they do not have unilateral, unchecked power to make my browser do what they want - if they want that power they're going to have to ship a PDF or a program.
The accessibility for this site additionally looks like it's a goddamn nightmare.
> I wish web designers would understand they do not have unilateral, unchecked power to make my browser do what they want
They don't have that power, which is why they cannot do that. What they can do though, is use the provided checked powers (HTML, CSS and JS APIs) to deliver whatever damn experience they want. And if you don't like it, you can close the page.
> if they want that power they're going to have to ship a PDF or a program.
The comment you're replying to, seems to say the website is literally doing that.
There is some more information on their GitHub page [1].
"Automat's objective is to be able to semi-autonomously play a variety of games. It's the first step towards a more general environment for interacting with computers."
If you click on the moleskine notebook, you can read seven pages of "handwritten" notes, though they are full of analogies and exhortations that still don't actually explain what it is.
It was easy to make them team projects, they asked us to split between programmer and designer.
The designer had to create the assets.
We had a photo lab and the designer was sent into town to take photos.
We weren't allowed to use stock images, which would have speeded up the process.
However, it was still relatively simple for young adults to create the elements.
AI is cool, and yes, it will make everything faster.
But I don't think the wall here was feasibility, it's more that the skeuomorphism trends ended and the market was saturated with highly dynamic interactive websites thanks to Flash making them easy to manage.
So the trends stopped.
It's nice to see it coming back, it was a lot of fun creating them.
A lot of people’s personal sites are still like this. The trend never really bucked for that.
Although it’s more the websites for designers and artists rather than developers.
There are also websites that showcase these types of websites, although I don’t know any anymore.
I have to say, building these kind of websites is more fun now in HTML than Flash because you aren’t constrained to a fixed viewport. And HTML has surpassed in Flash in features and you have WebGL and WebAssembly and other fun things… well, except a nice IDE with a timeline.
It's really not that hard to do. The big trade off here would be SEO and performance. So although they are good art projects or infographic type sites it's fairly useless for other things.
Ok so hard is a subjective quantifier. I should have said time consuming. Look at the link I shared. With Gen AI the amount of time involved would be a fraction compared to doing it without. I’d bet 1% when including things like concept development and look development.
I can’t imagine the way you build this website is the same way you build your static sites or a landing page. Is it WebGL? Looks extremely complex to be honest.
Author here :) There is no trick here actually. It's just HTML / JS / CSS. Browsers are pretty good at compositing CSS transforms - and know how to handle DOM updates coming from event handlers & requestAnimationFrame. There is one CSS hint that speeds it up a little "will-change: transform". Another important ingredient is to update the object position in the (pointermove) event handler - so that the responsiveness is low - physics engines also could do this, but it's usually an overkill.
You can take a look at the script in the website's sources - it's inline.
The trick is to use a game engine or something similar (not vanilla CSS/HTML). Flutter web would work well here, once Safari's WebAssembly GC support gets merged, you will have a lot of options.
An interesting experiment, very reminiscent of the early 90s' Magic Cap, Microsoft Bob, et al. But objects in physical
space afford a discoverability that can't be replicated here, and the metaphor thus quickly and inevitably becomes a burden.
Automat's objective is to be able to semi-autonomously play a variety of games. It's the first step towards a more general environment for interacting with computers.
Currently Automat's functionality is limited to keyboard macro recording & playback. It's fairly unstable but if you're lucky and it runs on your machine, it can be useful for automating some basic actions.
That's not really helpful. It's software that plays games on its own? But also it's some sort of new GUI environment? But also, all it can do is record and playback keyboard macros? What actually _is_ it?
edit: I haven't downloaded it because I don't have access to a Windows PC. But I guess, based on that description, it's basically AutoHotkey with a snazzy UI?
Yeah I had no clue what this site was until reading the comments. I saw you could move things on the page around, then gave up because I had no idea what the point was. I didn't even find the github link until I saw your comment and decided to play around more.
"in the beginning there was the "MACHINE"
the survival and the organization of the
planet depended upon the "MACHINE"
the future an the past depend upon
the "MACHINE"... the past?
but who wanted the "MACHINE"... ?"
IF Discogs is accurate (often is but does have some errors) THEN it's Italian artists, Italian management releasing via a Brazilian record subsidiary (a number of UK groups, for example, recorded and pressed in the Carribean)
Automat Italian one-album duo with veteran songwriters - producers from the progressive rock era. Their album is an electronic disco-tinged suite with an alien - futuristic concept.
Sites: italianprog.com
Members: Claudio Gizzi, Romano Musumarra
EMI-Odeon Fonográfica, Industrial e Eletrônica S.A.
Brazilian record company and wholly owned subsidiary of EMI Ltd. operating from 1974, successor of Indústrias Elétricas E Musicais Fábrica Odeon S.A..
I first tried to shake the coffee to see if I could make a mess, didn't work. When the mug is empty, the github logo becomes visible and you can click through to the github repo.
That's an illustration of the difficulties. I got the disk, video dvd and even drank the coffee but I initially thought the notebook was some sort of box for the video so didn't realise you could open it to read!
I can drag it around, no problem. The cursor also changes to a pointy hand when over notebook's right side, but clicking doesn't do anything. Nor does click-and-hold-then-dragging.
That was very touchy for me; it took 4 or 5 goes to get the floppy in, at least.
The tape worked easily.
(I didn't see the floppy or notebook being able to do anything)
"Automat's objective is to be able to semi-autonomously play a variety of games. It's the first step towards a more general environment for interacting with computers."
The old skeuomorphism used analog analogies. I like that this demo uses older computing technology.
Generally I think the time is right for a reversion to richer textured interfaces. GUIs are pretty pointless for 90% of the desktop software I use, but if you’re not going to do the decent thing and give me a good textual interface, at least give me some eye candy instead of these stale, dreary flat interfaces.
Readit News
Give me more info without me having to pry it out of you through finding your github which honestly isn't much more descriptive.
It is great to see projects like this, clearly a labour of love rather than beaten out of someone for some faceless corporate website.
It is always the experiments like this that you remember. 99% of the web is a forgettable experience.
Props to the creator for sharing this with us.
The accessibility for this site additionally looks like it's a goddamn nightmare.
They don't have that power, which is why they cannot do that. What they can do though, is use the provided checked powers (HTML, CSS and JS APIs) to deliver whatever damn experience they want. And if you don't like it, you can close the page.
> if they want that power they're going to have to ship a PDF or a program.
The comment you're replying to, seems to say the website is literally doing that.
"Automat's objective is to be able to semi-autonomously play a variety of games. It's the first step towards a more general environment for interacting with computers."
[1] https://github.com/mafik/automat
https://github.com/mafik/automat
I thought Automat was the framework for displaying the website, but I guess it isn't.
These websites would have been super hard to resource the assets, but now with Gen AI it’s simple.
Websites like this were our main projects.
It was easy to make them team projects, they asked us to split between programmer and designer.
The designer had to create the assets.
We had a photo lab and the designer was sent into town to take photos.
We weren't allowed to use stock images, which would have speeded up the process.
However, it was still relatively simple for young adults to create the elements.
AI is cool, and yes, it will make everything faster.
But I don't think the wall here was feasibility, it's more that the skeuomorphism trends ended and the market was saturated with highly dynamic interactive websites thanks to Flash making them easy to manage.
So the trends stopped.
It's nice to see it coming back, it was a lot of fun creating them.
Although it’s more the websites for designers and artists rather than developers.
There are also websites that showcase these types of websites, although I don’t know any anymore.
I have to say, building these kind of websites is more fun now in HTML than Flash because you aren’t constrained to a fixed viewport. And HTML has surpassed in Flash in features and you have WebGL and WebAssembly and other fun things… well, except a nice IDE with a timeline.
Deleted Comment
You can take a look at the script in the website's sources - it's inline.
Automat's objective is to be able to semi-autonomously play a variety of games. It's the first step towards a more general environment for interacting with computers.
Currently Automat's functionality is limited to keyboard macro recording & playback. It's fairly unstable but if you're lucky and it runs on your machine, it can be useful for automating some basic actions.
[1] https://github.com/mafik/automat
edit: I haven't downloaded it because I don't have access to a Windows PC. But I guess, based on that description, it's basically AutoHotkey with a snazzy UI?
[0] https://mrogalski.eu
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7z77QGARLE
[2] https://futureofcoding.org
https://www.discogs.com/release/443321-Automat-Automat
Automat Italian one-album duo with veteran songwriters - producers from the progressive rock era. Their album is an electronic disco-tinged suite with an alien - futuristic concept.
EMI-Odeon Fonográfica, Industrial e Eletrônica S.A.Also, if you put the cup on the tape and try to move the tape, the cup removes itself.
I can drag it around, no problem. The cursor also changes to a pointy hand when over notebook's right side, but clicking doesn't do anything. Nor does click-and-hold-then-dragging.
Generally I think the time is right for a reversion to richer textured interfaces. GUIs are pretty pointless for 90% of the desktop software I use, but if you’re not going to do the decent thing and give me a good textual interface, at least give me some eye candy instead of these stale, dreary flat interfaces.