Web Goes 3D with the Release of WebGL 1.0

The Khronos Group ushered in the era of the 3D Web on Thursday with the release of the WebGL 1.0 specification, which will allow hardware-accelerated 3D graphics within HTML 5 browsers.

The standard is already supported via Google, Mozilla and Opera with multiple browsers already shipping with WebGL implementations including the beta releases for Mozilla Firefox 4.0, all channels of Google Chrome 9.0, an Opera preview build, and Apple Mac OS Safari nightly builds. Microsoft, however, has yet to support it.

3D graphics has been tried within the Web before, most notably with the release of the Virtual Reality Markup Language (VRML) in 1994, which brought unaccelerated vector graphics to the Web. But the technology never took off, partially because of the performance of 1990s PCs, the lack of development support, and skepticism that vector graphics was a necessary component for Web sites.

VRML also required a plug-in; WebGL does not.

"WebGL enables an entire new class of applications on the web, said Vlad Vukićević of Mozilla and chair of the WebGL Working Group, in a statement. "Being able to take advantage of first-class 3D hardware acceleration in a browser on both desktop and mobile allows web developers to create compelling and immersive experiences for their users."

WebGL has already been to run on Android phones via Firefox, and Sony Ericsson also published a project where it enabled WebGL support in the Android browser.

"This in combination with the fact that the future graphical stacks for smartphones will be hardware accelerated, which will enable the creation of compelling 3D user experiences," Anders Isberg, a researcher with Sony Ericsson, wrote. "This could be, for example, 3D games, medical visualization, 3D content creation or 3D virtual environments using web technologies."

With WebGL, the standard can call OpenGL or OpenGL ES graphics, and mix them with other HTML functions. Tools to exploit these may be found at the Khronos Web site and include C3DL, CopperLicht, EnergizeGL, GammaJS, GLGE, GTW, O3D, OSG.JS, SceneJS, SpiderGL, TDL, Three.js and X3DOM.

"WebGL will finally free web developers from the confines of 2D without the need for a plug-in," said Tim Johansson, lead graphics developer, Opera Software, in a statement. "Once WebGL becomes pervasive, we can look forward to a new era in creativity on the Web. Opera is excited to be part of the WebGL initiative. We intend to support WebGL in our browsers, whether on computers, mobile phones or TVs."

Khronos also announced the formation of the WebCL working group to explore defining a JavaScript binding to the Khronos OpenCL standard for heterogeneous parallel computing. WebCL creates the potential to harness GPU and multi-core CPU parallel processing from a Web browser, enabling significant acceleration of applications such as image and video processing and advanced physics for WebGL games, Khronos said.