Wednesday, January 27, 2010
WebGL: 3D animation JavaScript graphics library for web browsers
A new 3D graphics library for World Wide Web browser programmers is emerging: WebGL.
WebGL is an open, industry-wide JavaScript API that looks like it will be appearing in the major web browsers soon. Perhaps as early as this year. So far, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome have all endorsed it and already have it in their nightly builds.
Based on that, I think it would be very surprising if you did not see WebGL rolled out by all three leaders before the end of this year.
Internet Explorer, hardly a leader when it comes to web standards, still has not implemented the 2D graphics web standard approved back in the 1990's. However, nobody looks to Microsoft when they want open, interoperable standards.
Sure, in areas like SQL where everything is fragmented, basic standards are difficult because the standard seems to embrace incompatible dialects. Some say Microsoft had a hand in this a decade and a half ago. Could be.
Nowadays, the leading web browser makers are working together in two ways: defining open/interoperable standards and making products that follow those standards. That is the reason the web has been advancing so quickly lately.
The idea of cloud based computing depends on having very advanced, standards-based, web browsers that do not get hacked a lot. Since business, government sites, political, and scientific web sites are going to have a lot of statistics on them visualization is going to be a key ingredient for them to be effective at getting their message across. That is where WebGL will really let those sites shine.
If you are interested in doing fast 3D graphics on the web, take a look at the WebGL Tutorial.
WebGL is an open, industry-wide JavaScript API that looks like it will be appearing in the major web browsers soon. Perhaps as early as this year. So far, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome have all endorsed it and already have it in their nightly builds.
Based on that, I think it would be very surprising if you did not see WebGL rolled out by all three leaders before the end of this year.
Internet Explorer, hardly a leader when it comes to web standards, still has not implemented the 2D graphics web standard approved back in the 1990's. However, nobody looks to Microsoft when they want open, interoperable standards.
Sure, in areas like SQL where everything is fragmented, basic standards are difficult because the standard seems to embrace incompatible dialects. Some say Microsoft had a hand in this a decade and a half ago. Could be.
Nowadays, the leading web browser makers are working together in two ways: defining open/interoperable standards and making products that follow those standards. That is the reason the web has been advancing so quickly lately.
The idea of cloud based computing depends on having very advanced, standards-based, web browsers that do not get hacked a lot. Since business, government sites, political, and scientific web sites are going to have a lot of statistics on them visualization is going to be a key ingredient for them to be effective at getting their message across. That is where WebGL will really let those sites shine.
If you are interested in doing fast 3D graphics on the web, take a look at the WebGL Tutorial.
Labels: 3d, firefox, graphics, safari
Hopefully, someday I will get this page to validate!
