piweb

Pi backend for web browsers.

A replacement for piebiten and Ebitengine.

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🎯 Project Goals

The aim of this project is to create a new backend for Pi games that runs efficiently in modern web browsers and offers significant improvements over the standard piebiten backend:

📦 Smaller Binary Size

• At least 2× smaller .wasm output

🔊 Better Audio

• Minimal latency — as low as 20 ms (compared to 60 ms in piebiten)
• Glitch-free playback — thanks to audio processing in a high-priority, separate audio thread

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🧪 How It Works

These improvements are possible thanks to:

• Audio Worklet API – the browser-native API for real-time, low-latency audio processing
• SharedArrayBuffer - a high-performance way to exchange data between the main thread and audio processor in the browser.
• Writing the code directly in JavaScript
• Reducing the number of dependencies

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🚧 Status

The project is ready to use. Most features are ready. Some platforms are not supported yet though:

• graphics rendering using Canvas2D
• keyboard support
• gamepad support
• mouse support
• debug mode support
• desktop web browsers - Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari etc.
• mobile web browsers - virtual keyboard and gamepad support
• audio support
• 3x smaller WASM binary - Snake game is 3 MB (0.9 MB after gzip) instead of 10 MB
• customizable template - developer can change all static files - HTML, CSS, JS etc.
• works on itch.io and newgrounds.com
• embedded HTTP server for rapid development
• ability to release ZIP file
  • with embedded HTTP server
  • with CLI
• documentation
• automated tests