Strap yourselves in, this one is a bit of a rant.

For the longest time I have been a Fitbit Versa fanboy. I bought the Versa 1 back in June 2018 and have replaced and upgraded ever since.

When my Versa 2 last stopped working a couple of months ago (due to water ingress), Fitbit once again offered to either replace my watch with a Versa 2 or get a shop voucher for the same amount. I this time decided I wanted to upgrade to the recently released Versa 4.

If you weren't aware Google purchased Fitbit back in Jan of 2021 and the Versa 4 is the first watch they released in the Versa line since that acquisition.

I thought that Google would improve the line and not instead kneecap it instead in favour their competing [Pixel Watch](https://store.google.com/au/product/google_pixel_watch) line...

Surely Google has purely [altruistic reasons](https://time.com/5717726/google-fitbit/) for purchasing Fitbit I thought..

Well I received my Versa 4 and quickly realized that past-Mike is a poor naive fool.

## No Custom Watchfaces or Apps

I have long enjoyed creating and running my own watchfaces on my Versa. I even wrote about how much I enjoyed the process [back in May 2021](https://mikecann.blog/posts/minimal-mike-a-fitbit-watchface).

Unfortunately however Fitbit / Google in their infinite wisdom have decided to [no longer allow this](https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Versa-4/Versa-4-can-t-install-any-apps/m-p/5293897/highlight/true#M2012).

By the way, this isnt mentioned anywhere. You have to go spelunking through their forums to find this out. Their official developer docs [are suspiciously quiet](https://dev.fitbit.com/getting-started/) on the topic only mentioning the Versa 3. There are [A LOT of annoyed people](https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Product-Feedback/3rd-Party-Apps-on-Sense-2-and-Versa-4/idi-p/5248677) if you go looking.

BTW this also applies to Apps. You can no longer create custom apps so[ I am not able to pair](https://docs.woosports.com/docs/supported-devices) my [Woo](https://woosports.com/) kitesurfing jump-tracker with my Versa 4 like you can on [Garmin devices](https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/53d9c500-614e-4e3a-88b6-9f65bc6a144a)..

![](./fore.jpg)

# Automatic Exercise Mode Is Terrible

In principle, having the watch automatically detect that im doing exercise and only then enable battery-hungry features such as GPS and blood-oxygen monitoring is a great idea.

The only problem is when it is implemented as it has been on the Versa 4 then its worse then useless, it is a massive problem for the device.

<iframe width="419" height="744" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/y_D1cA-IWw4" title="How Bad is the Versa 4?!?" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Imagine you start to do some exercise, go on a walk or play squash or anything. The watch detects that you are exercising, great! Now you also want to see what the time is.. uh oh..

That right, you can no longer use your watch to tell the time once it detects that you are exercising. The only way to return to "watch" to see the time is to exit the exercise mode and this then brings up the next major issue..

As you can see from my video above, the screen doesn't work if you fingers are even a little damp. What happens when you start to exercise? Thats right, you start to sweat, rendering the tiny touchscreen inoperable.

You eventually you manage to press the tiny "end exercise" button and continue on with your exercise. 5 minutes (or so) later the watch automatically detects exercise again ARRRGGGGHHH!

P.S. As far as I was able to ascertain there is no way to disable this "functionality".

## Always on Display is Pointless

One of the main reasons I have always had for purchasing a Versa over an Apple or Samsung watch is the multi-day battery life. I used to enjoy that back when I used to wear the [e-ink Pebble watches](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble_(watch)>) and didnt want to give it up.

One thing I did miss however was the always-on display.

Having to "flick" my wrist to see the time was an "okay" solution tho it didnt always work. It also used to activate randomly in bed which would cause much marital frustration as a bright light would shine in her face during the night.

So when I saw that the Versa 4 supported an "always on" display I was super excited as I felt that hopefully they had solved these issues.

Unfortunately however I quickly discovered that turning on this feature rapidly drained the battery so that the average charge time went from 5-7 days down to 1-2 days which made me question what is the point?

I know technologically it's possible as every Garmin watch has an always-on display and maintains weeks or months of battery life.

# Annoying Notifications

![](./notifications.png)

I couldn't find any good footage of this issue and for some reason my Versa has decided to stop sending me notifications at all (again) so just take my word for it, getting notifications on this device are super annoying.

Im sure some designer at Fitbit thought it would be cute if they played an intro animation every time you get a notification before actually showing you the contents of that notification. The issue is this intro takes like 2 seconds.

This is annoying particularly when you want to quickly scan that text message while continuing what you are doing.

Like with most other things with this watch, this is not configurable without entirely disabling notifications.

# Update Resets Settings

This one isn't a Versa 4 specific issue and has always happened to me on Fitbit devices but I thought I would mention it while im on the rant-train.

As mentioned in my point above for some reason my watch has decided to stop sending me notifications. Why? Who knows. Perhaps it updated? That seems to always reset my "reminders to move" settings (super annoying btw). Probably the only way to remedy this is to unpair the watch and repair it.

If that doesnt work, factory-reset the watch and setup everything again (yes I did read that as an official way to fix it but cant find the link).

# Conclusion

So I could have titled this post "Dont Buy a Versa 4" but unfortunately I cant see this situation getting any better with future Fitbit products. Google is likely going to continue to favour its own brand of smartwatches over Fitbit. Having now acquired the competition it will strangle then eventually kill it.

So after all this I decided to change over to to Garmin smartwatches. If you have gotten this far too and are now scared off Fitbit devices I can definitely recommend Garmin. They have a massive range of options, all the apps, simple to use, custom watchfaces, physical buttons, no touchscreen, GPS, always on display week+ battery times, just about everything is better.

A few weeks ago I got a friendly reminder from Apple that my Developer license was about to expire. What I hadn't realized however was that should it expire my games would no longer be available to download on the store.

[![](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/chrome_2017-02-28_07-11-33-1024x451.png)](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/chrome_2017-02-28_07-11-33.png)

I can sort of understand this policy for paid apps, should you app earn anything, where does Apple send the money to? But for totally free apps such as [Mr Nibbles](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mr-nibbles/id552109003?mt=8) or [Ectoplasm](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ectoplasm/id619071417?mt=8) why do this? Its frustrating that I have to pay £80 per year just to keep my free games alive.

To add insult to injury, shortly after receiving the demand for cash from Apple I receive this lovely email:

[![](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/chrome_2017-02-15_07-56-10-1024x642.png)](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/chrome_2017-02-15_07-56-10.png)

So not only do I have to pay Apple for the privilege of keeping my free apps on their incredible store I also have to continually update them even tho there is nothing wrong with them. Sigh. I have no idea if I can sill even build my old games for iOS any more. Mr Nibbles was built using Haxe which has no doubt moved on significantly in the intervening years.

In other news I decided to release a new version of [Mr Nibbles Forever](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mr-nibbles-forever/id958818922?mt=8) this month too. I was kind of forced to do so as the highscores in the game relied upon [Parse.com](https://Parse.com) for its database and with that shutting down this month I thought that I would do an update to fix it.

While I was there I also decided to simplify things and bring them more inline with the PC version. With that in mind I ripped out all the IAPs and advertising and put a price of \$0.99 on it instead. To be honest its probably what I should have done for the start it would have saved me a bunch of time and headaches if I had done so.

Well thats is for now, not too much to report on. I have been busy [preparing for the next few months](https://www.mikecann.blog/travel/camping-australia-2017-the-plan/), researching, shopping and organizing. Hopefully ill have some exciting news to report on in that direction soon!

[![head](/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/head.png)](/posts/skype-im-is-a-bag-of-crap-rant/attachment/head-4/)

**NOTE: I have nothing against the video calling aspect of Skype, this is purely a rant at the IM aspect.**



For ages I have been using Digsby for my FBChat, GChat, MSN. Skype doesnt have an open IM protocol like the others so I was forced to run Skype at the same time as Digsby. I really like Digsby but it always grated me having both Digsby and Skype open and once, if only one of them could handle all my communications..

Hearing that [MSN is going to shutdown and merge with Skype on March 15th](https://www.winbeta.org/news/microsoft-confirms-windows-live-messenger-service-retirement-march-15th) and that Skype now has Facebook integration I thought it may be about time to try a switch over to using just Skype. Big mistake.

Firstly, its confusing as hell trying to work out how to integrate your Facebook or your MSN contacts into Skype. There is no unified "connected accounts" panel in the options, you must go through a series of menus then click on a tiny cog to attach your account, how the hell you are meant to do that without a Google search I have no idea:

[![screenshot_01](/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/screenshot_01.png)](/posts/skype-im-is-a-bag-of-crap-rant/attachment/screenshot_01-8/)

Adding an MSN account is even more confusing as there is no way to do it while the program is running, you must first return to the login screen! Again, how you are meant to know this without a Google search I will never know..

[![screenshot_03](/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/screenshot_03.png)](/posts/skype-im-is-a-bag-of-crap-rant/attachment/screenshot_03-8/)

Okay so once you have finally signed in with your Microsoft account you would have thought it would remember you, so next time you click to sign in with the Microsoft account it wont ask for your details again.. Right? Wrong. You must continually re-enter it.

[![screenshot_04](/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/screenshot_04.png)](/posts/skype-im-is-a-bag-of-crap-rant/attachment/screenshot_04-6/)

There is no spell checking in Skype, okay perhaps if you are a spelling champ this is no problem, but if you are like me and spell like a dyslexic toddler then this is a big problem.

[![screenshot_05](/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/screenshot_05.png)](/posts/skype-im-is-a-bag-of-crap-rant/attachment/screenshot_05-6/)

If your Facebook mates are offline there is no way to send them a message through Skype. On Digsby it would send the message which would then get picked up when they are next online. So now if want to send them a message you must open chrome and then go to Facebook wait for it to load then send a message through there ARGG!!

[![screenshot_06](/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/screenshot_06.png)](/posts/skype-im-is-a-bag-of-crap-rant/attachment/screenshot_06-5/)

Sharing files over anything but Skype contacts? No chance.

[![screenshot.5](/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/screenshot.5.png)](/posts/skype-im-is-a-bag-of-crap-rant/attachment/screenshot-5/)

Annoying messages and adverts are REALLY annoying.

[![screenshot_08](/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/screenshot_08.png)](/posts/skype-im-is-a-bag-of-crap-rant/attachment/screenshot_08/)

[![screenshot_09](/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/screenshot_09.png)](/posts/skype-im-is-a-bag-of-crap-rant/attachment/screenshot_09/)

[![screenshot_10](/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/screenshot_10.png)](/posts/skype-im-is-a-bag-of-crap-rant/attachment/screenshot_10-3/)

Want to delete a conversation, sure that's easy just..

[![screenshot_11](/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/screenshot_11.png)](/posts/skype-im-is-a-bag-of-crap-rant/attachment/screenshot_11-3/)

Tabs are soooo not cool any more, lets make a new window for each conversation!

[![screenshot_12](/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/screenshot_12.png)](/posts/skype-im-is-a-bag-of-crap-rant/attachment/screenshot_12/)

"Go back to Digsby if you hate it so much" I hear you cry. Well.. This is where the fun really starts because it appears that now I have linked MSN with my Skype account there is no way to unlink it! Because MSN is a single-sign-on-only service if I open Digsby then it kicks me out of Skype.

[![screenshot_14](/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/screenshot_14.png)](/posts/skype-im-is-a-bag-of-crap-rant/attachment/screenshot_14/)

If I log into Skype, then Disgby doesnt sign out, but I cant use it to talk to my MSN friends:

[![screenshot_15](/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/screenshot_15.png)](/posts/skype-im-is-a-bag-of-crap-rant/attachment/screenshot_15/)

Which basically means I cant use Digsby for MSN and have Skype open at the same time. Joy.

[/rant]

[/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/screenshot_021.png](/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/screenshot_021.png)

Why is it so hard to find a good web hosting company?



About [one year ago I announced](/posts/new-blog-host-face-lift/) that I moved hosting from WebFusion over to STRATO in the hopes for higher reliability. This was indeed the case for almost a year. I had no problems, until...

Three weeks ago my blog started to suffer problems, as is clear from my analytics data on one of the domains:

[/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/screenshot_05.png](/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/screenshot_05.png)

The traffic drops off from normal levels down to nothing in the space of about a week. I was away the start of the month (more on this in a later blog post) and thus wasn't checking the domain. Its only when I received an email from someone informing me about the fact my blog was down that I sat up and took notice.

I immediately tried to access the domains in Chrome but I got timeout for each one. I then tried to remote into my VM. Timeout there too. I then tried hard-resetting the machine from the Strato console, no luck there.

With no other options I decided to call my hosting provider STRATO. It turns out however that their call centres aren't open at the weekend _sigh_ so I sent them a mail:

> Hi
>
> A visitor reported that my site was down: [https://www.mikecann.blog/](https://www.mikecann.blog/). I cant access it either. I have tried to remote into my VM but it wont connect. I have logged into the Strato backend and tried to reboot my machine. It says it has rebooted, but I still cant login or access my site.
>
> Can you help please.
>
> Mike
> Two days later I get the following reply:
> Dear Mr. Cann,
>
> Thank you very much for your enquiry to which I am glad to respond.
>
> I can see that the server is up and running , If you are using Plesk please check the domain setting in plesk. If you cannot reach plesk please  work through the following FAQ Article ID: 1360.
>
> Your opinion about our Customer Service is very important to us! Please take some time for our questionnaire - so we can respond even better to your needs in the future. The completion of the form takes only about 3 minutes.
>
> Link to the rating system: [https://www.strato-mailcenter.com/quality?ident=bd391e7c-3c076f-13f18d-47938a-aaafba](https://www.strato-mailcenter.com/quality?ident=bd391e7c-3c076f-13f18d-47938a-aaafba)
>
> With kind regards from Berlin,
>
> xxx xxx
>
> STRATO Customer Care
> Well clearly they hadn't actually read my mail and checked that the domain isn't up (this is the main domain associated with my account) they also haven't tried to login to the box else they would have encountered the same issue.

So after some email jousting back and forth and some experimentation with STRATO's non-functioning recovery console I get the following reply:

> Dear Mr. Cann,
>
> Thank you very much for your enquiry to which I am glad to respond.
>
> I have taken your server out of the recovery mode for you .**You server could also be slow as it is affected my some major maintenance**
>
> **that is also going on at the moment on our windows servers, which could be causing your server to run slow at the moment  , I cannot give you a time frame when this will be completed as i do not have one myself.**
>
> Your opinion about our Customer Service is very important to us! Please take some time for our questionnaire - so we can respond even better to your needs in the future. The completion of the form takes only about 3 minutes.
>
> Link to the rating system: [https://www.strato-mailcenter.com/quality?ident=bd391e7c-39a316-13f846-44189a-8050db](https://www.strato-mailcenter.com/quality?ident=bd391e7c-39a316-13f846-44189a-8050db)
>
> With kind regards from xxxx xxxx
>
> STRATO Customer Care
> (Bold added by me)

Okay... I thought to myself... I have just been led round the houses for two days emailing back and forth when only just now they tell me they are having some major maintenance issues, why not tell me that from the start? In fact, more to the point,  why are you performing maintenance, without telling me, that has taken my box down for a week?

I decide at this point, its a good idea to give them a call and find out what is going on. Eventually I get put through to X. X at first tells me that he cannot give me the reason for the maintenance nor how long it will last. I get pretty insistent at this point that I should be told why the service that im paying for is not working. Eventually he relents and tells me it is to do with their licensing for windows.

X explains to me that when Microsoft license the Windows OS to hosting companies they create a child license from their master license. Strato as one of these hosting companies then creates further child licenses for its customers. Apparently something has gone wrong with the master license at Microsoft which has caused every single other license that has been created from it to become invalid.

X explained to me that every single Windows VM that STRATO hosts is down. Not only that, every single Windows VM in the world is down because of this master license issue. I was understandably dubious at this as I would have heard something in the tech-news or blogosphere. I decided however to give him the benefit of the doubt as he sounded honest and it took some persuading to get this information out of him that it must be true.

Before hanging up I pointed out to X that STRATO should have sent an email to its customers to inform them of the problem. At the very least there should have been a press release or something on their homepage to inform people of the outage. X agreed whole heartedly with this and suggested that I send in a complaint detailing all of what had happened thus far, so I do just that.

I get the following reply a day later:

> Dear Mr. Cann,
>
> Thank you very much for your enquiry to which I am glad to respond.
>
> We're aware of the issue where users are unable to connect to their STRATO Windows Servers. Our technical teams has been notified and we expect this resolved by the end of the week. We have raise a credit amount of £10, and it will be paid to your credit card in the next few days.
>
> I will contact you around noon to answer any questions you may have regarding this issue
>
> We appreciate your patience, and apologize for the inconvenience caused.
>
> Your opinion about our Customer Service is very important to us! Please take some time for our questionnaire - so we can respond even better to your needs in the future. The completion of the form takes only about 3 minutes.
>
> Link to the rating system: [https://www.strato-mailcenter.com/quality?ident=bd391e7c-a2fc8d-13fff2-44cee9-a53fb3](https://www.strato-mailcenter.com/quality?ident=bd391e7c-a2fc8d-13fff2-44cee9-a53fb3)
>
> With kind regards from Berlin,
>
> xxxx xxxx
>
> STRATO Customer Care
> Okay so it will be ready by the end of the week. I decided to hang on and see what happened.

What happened? Exactly nothing, I was obviously a little angry at this point:

> Hello,
>
> So as its now the end of the week. You promised that my VM will be back up again but low and behold its still not up! Also have you decided not to reply to me any more?
>
> I need a snapshot of my data so I can move my hosting from strato. I also would like the email address of your supervisor so I can speak to them about this.
>
> Mike
> Two days later I get the following:
> Good Morning Mr. Cann,
>
> Thank you very much for your enquiry to which I am glad to respond.
>
> After looking at your contract, I have seen that your sever has been up and running since Saturday [13.10.2012](tel:13.10.2012).
>
> If you would still like me to cancel the Server, this is not a problem. I would therefore need to you to confirm this for me in a reply to this e-mail.
>
> If you do wish to keep your server, you will be able to start ordering your domains within the customer service area.
>
> Once again, I would like to apologise in the setup delay that you experienced.
>
> If there is anything else that I can do for you Mr Cann, please feel free to let me know!
>
> I would therefore like to take this opportunity to wish you a pleasant and successful working day!
>
> Your opinion about our Customer Service is very important to us! Please take some time for our questionnaire - so we can respond even better to your needs in the future. The completion of the form takes only about 3 minutes.
>
> Link to the rating system: [https://www.strato-mailcenter.com/quality?ident=bd391e7c-c8411a-140d93-40f3ee-9f18a5](https://www.strato-mailcenter.com/quality?ident=bd391e7c-c8411a-140d93-40f3ee-9f18a5)
>
> With kind regards from Berlin,
>
> xxxx xxxx
> WHAT?!??! Setup delay? Im not setting anything up! I have been with STRATO over a year! Its been up since Saturday, no it bloody hasnt! Its clearly not up now! WTF?

I realised that I was trapped in a customer-support-circle-of-doom.

Well that's about the point I decided this company really doesn't care about its customers so im going to move to another hosting provider.

So short of the long, my sites are now being hosted on 1 & 1 and everything seems to be fine and dandy. Sure it costs twice as much but hopefully that money will ensure a better level of service.

Oh one more thing, apparently STRATO have won awards for their customer service:

[/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/screenshot_06.png](/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/screenshot_06.png)

_sigh_

/rant

[![](/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/head02.png "head02")](/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/head02.png)

For some time now I have been working with WebGL and have developed a sort of love/hate relationship with it. I love the ability to instantly target millions of people with GPU accelerated code without any plugins or barriers (excluding the targets that dont support it). However as a developer, writing code that takes advantage of WebGL kinda sucks.



## Procedural Based

First off is the way you have to structure your GL calls. For example take a look at the following generic bit of webGL harvested from the net:

```js
texture = gl.createTexture();
gl.activeTexture(gl.TEXTURE0);
gl.bindTexture(gl.TEXTURE_2D, texture);
gl.pixelStorei(gl.UNPACK_ALIGNMENT, 1);
gl.texImage2D(gl.TEXTURE_2D, 0, gl.RGB, 64, 64, 0, gl.RGB, gl.FLOAT, new Float32Array(pix));
gl.texParameteri(gl.TEXTURE_2D, gl.TEXTURE_MIN_FILTER, gl.NEAREST);
gl.texParameteri(gl.TEXTURE_2D, gl.TEXTURE_MAG_FILTER, gl.NEAREST);

texture1 = gl.createTexture();
gl.activeTexture(gl.TEXTURE1);
gl.bindTexture(gl.TEXTURE_2D, texture1);
gl.pixelStorei(gl.UNPACK_ALIGNMENT, 1);
gl.texImage2D(gl.TEXTURE_2D, 0, gl.RGB, 64, 64, 0, gl.RGB, gl.FLOAT, new Float32Array(pix1));
gl.texParameteri(gl.TEXTURE_2D, gl.TEXTURE_MIN_FILTER, gl.NEAREST);
gl.texParameteri(gl.TEXTURE_2D, gl.TEXTURE_MAG_FILTER, gl.NEAREST);

FBO = gl.createFramebuffer();
gl.bindFramebuffer(gl.FRAMEBUFFER, FBO);
gl.framebufferTexture2D(gl.FRAMEBUFFER, gl.COLOR_ATTACHMENT0, gl.TEXTURE_2D, texture, 0);
FBO1 = gl.createFramebuffer();
gl.bindFramebuffer(gl.FRAMEBUFFER, FBO1);
gl.framebufferTexture2D(gl.FRAMEBUFFER, gl.COLOR_ATTACHMENT0, gl.TEXTURE_2D, texture1, 0);
if (gl.checkFramebufferStatus(gl.FRAMEBUFFER) != gl.FRAMEBUFFER_COMPLETE)
 alert(err + "FLOAT as the color attachment to an FBO");
```

All it does is create a couple of textures, setting their starting values and creates two frame buffers for rendering to. Its just it looks complicated and difficult to understand.

GL works on a procedural basis, so you tell GL that you are about to work on something by calling a function like "bindTexture()" then on the next line you perform an operation on it such as "pixelStorei()". Now this may have made perfect sense back when we were writing everything in C which is procedural anyway however this is Javascript (or haXe in my case) which is an Object based language, code like this is difficult to understand and follow.

The procedural nature of WebGL means you have to be much more careful about unsetting things you have previously set. For example if you bind a texture to perform some operation, you must then remember to unbind it else you could inadvertently cause operations to be applied to it on subsequent calls elsewhere in your codebase. It this 'hidden state' that has caused me alot of headaches when developing my samples.

The principal behind WebGL was to provide a very low-level library which other developers can build upon to build more complex and abstracted libraries. And there are numerous libraries out there. I personally have tried several of them including the very popular [three.js](https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js/). Three.js is great for doing common things like loading models and putting quads on the screen. I however encountered a problem with render targets which I struggled with for days before I discovered that you had to set "needsUpdate" to true on your texture before using it. In the end I decided to drop three.js beacuse of another issue I encountered and instead attempt to reduce my complications by working with webGL directly.

Flash11's Stage3D has the same philosophy as webGL, to provide a low level API for other developers to build libraries upon. The thing is Flash11's low-level API makes more sense and is more readable. For example the following to me is much more readable than its webGL equivalent:

```js
texture = c.createTexture(logo.width, logo.height, Context3DTextureFormat.BGRA, false);
texture.uploadFromBitmapData(logo);
```

The Stage3D API also uses language like "upload" to let you know when you are transferring data to the GPU, for a new comer to GL you have no clue when things are going to the GPU. Its small things like this that reduce the "WTF?" factor when tackling the tricky world of hardware-accelerated 3D programming.

## Cross-domain textures

This one cropped up around July time this year and took me ages to work out what was going on. For some inexplicable reason (or so it seemed) my code one day stopped working. When I looked for demo code online it all worked fine, however when I downloaded it and run it locally it also didnt work. I was getting errors like the following:

Uncaught Error: SECURITY_ERR: DOM Exception 18
Uncaught Error: SECURITY_ERR: DOM Exception 18
Uncaught Error: SECURITY_ERR: DOM Exception 18
Uncaught Error: SECURITY_ERR: DOM Exception 18
Uncaught Error: SECURITY_ERR: DOM Exception 18 

I was so baffled that [I posted about it](https://haxe.1354130.n2.nabble.com/WebGL-amp-Textures-td6638378.html) on the HaXe mailing list asking for help, thinking it was something I was doing wrong with HaXe. It turns out (after much wall-head-butting) this was a change that they brought into Chrome 13 and Firefox 5 to combat a security problem when using shaders that use textures from a different domain to the one running the code:

[https://blog.chromium.org/2011/07/using-cross-domain-images-in-webgl-and.html](https://blog.chromium.org/2011/07/using-cross-domain-images-in-webgl-and.html)

Now I have no problem with cross-domain issues, im used to this from Flash where we have the same sort of setPixel() restrictions on cross-domain BitmapData's. The thing is, it appears that this restriction applies when running code locally too. So If you are developing something on your local machine and trying to access a texture from disk it throws the same security errors because the browser thinks you are reaching across domains to access the image.

At the time the only way to get around this was to create your own webserver that you run on localhost to server up the files. So to do that I had to download python so I could run a simple localhost commandline webserver from my bin directory. What an effort! There may be easier ways these days to solve it but at the time it really frustrated me and formed yet another barrier to developing webGL.

## No Error Messages

This is by far the most annoying thing about developing for WebGL. So many times I have been trying to write something that I know SHOULD work but for some reason it doesn't. I dont get any error messages, nothing. It makes writing something from scratch neigh on impossible.

In my last post "[GPU State Preserving Particle Systems with WebGL &amp; HaXe](/posts/gpu-state-preserving-particle-systems-with-webgl-haxe/)" I started with an idea. I attempted to code it 'bottom-up'. That is start with nothing and then add more code until I reached what I wanted. Unfortunately having no error messages in WebGL makes this very difficult indeed. I would spend some time writing something really simple, like trying to get a textured quad to render on the screen only to find I get nothing. I double check my camera matrices my vertex and texture buffers, my shader and still nothing. Eventually I found that I hadn't bound something first before trying to operate on it _sigh_

In the end I found the best way to get anywhere is to go from the other direction, a 'top-down' method. Start with something kind of simmilar to what you want then cut bits out one line at a time until you get what you want. Its extremely time consuming and frustrating, but its less frustrating than going from the other way.

[![](/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/1-Trace.gif "1-Trace")](/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/1-Trace.gif)

There are tools out there that help with debugging what is going wrong. Namely the [WebGL Inspector](https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=webgl%20inspector&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBwQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbenvanik.github.com%2FWebGL-Inspector%2F&ei=9EWhTsHdAtSJhQe7hv3jBA&usg=AFQjCNElgWdAeKcNOnrDFrSnr6rbCLUcWg) (see above) is intended to provide gDEBugger / PIX like debugging information about what is going on inside webGL. Its a clever bit of tech, it lets you inspect buffers and traces each gl call, however it suffers from the same underlying problem of having no errors. You setup a buffer incorrectly and what you get is "INVALID_VALUE". No indication as to which of the values is invalid or what part of the call you messed up on :(

## Googling Doesn't Help

If you do happen to get an error message (unlikely) or you word your problem in a sufficiently succinct and googaleble way you will then run into the next big problem with WebGL; theres very few people using it. Now I know I am likely to be flamed for that comment, but it just seems that way to me. Whenever I tried to google my problem, or google for what I was trying to achieve (because working bottom-up doesnt work) there would be a very sparse smattering of relevant posts. Usually the results are forum posts and are OpenGL not WebGL related and are from 5-10 years ago.

## But..

Now having just ranted on for several hundred words about why it sucks im going to finish it off by saying that im going to continue to develop for WebGL using haXe regardless. Why? Well I just like making pretty things that run fast and GPGPU programming appeals to me for some unknown (likely sadistic) reason.