Badass JavaScript

jsPerf: The Github of JavaScript Performance Testing

jsPerf is a new project by Mathias Bynens that makes creating and sharing JavaScript performance test cases easy.  Besides being able to simply create your own test cases, you can browse through tests created by other people and even create your own fork of any given test by simply appending /edit to the url.  Want to find out what the fastest way to round a number down in JavaScript is?  No, it isn’t Math.floor.  jsPerf will tell you.  It seems like the double bitwise not (~~n) is the fastest in this case.  Do you have a faster method?  Just add /edit to the url, add your test case, and share.  

jsPerf is like Github for JavaScript performance testing!  Nice work, Mathias.  You can create a test case by visiting http://jsperf.com/, and browse through some already written tests here.  Before you create a test, be sure to check if there is already a test created for it, and fork it instead.  Happy testing!

The Aves Engine: High Performance Games in JavaScript

Created by Dextrose, the Aves Engine is a game engine written for the web.  It is entirely written in JavaScript, so it will run on any platform with a web browser, including mobile devices such as the iPhone, iPad, or Android devices.  It supports full screen viewing, rather than the small viewports that other web based game engines give you, and becuase it is on the web, it can integrate with web services like Flickr, YouTube, Twitter and Google Maps.

Speed is an important factor for the Aves engine since it needs to run on devices from the largest mac mini to the smallest iPhone.  In this respect, it is amazing, with the ability to render hundreds of players in real time in a single viewport.  Also, as I mentioned before, the engine can scale viewports to any size without any performance impact.

Another awesome feature of the Aves Engine is the app for game designers.  There is a drag and drop game editor that lets designers build games without writing a single line of code.  Of course, developers can create their own objects as well, so you are not limited to the objects provided by Dextrose.

Because it is written using web standards, and not with Flash, the Aves Engine works on the iPhone and iPad where Flash is not supported.  These mobile devices have significantly slower processors than your typical laptop or desktop computer, so getting good JavaScript performance on these devices is pretty difficult.  It seems that the awesome developers at Dextrose have a few tricks up their sleeves, because the performance on mobile platforms is pretty fantastic!

Check out the demo video (above), and if you are an interested game developer, they will be licensing the engine to people just like you.  Check it out!