September 22, 2013

I have come to the conclusion that coding programs that cannot be run from a browser is counter productive. So I am now looking into the prospect of porting some of my C++ openGL graphics programs to javascript/webGL which can be used in newer browsers without the need for plug-ins. Chrome is especially suitable for webGL.

Three dimensional real-time graphics is very sophisticated at this point and much of its sophistication is due to the GPU (Graphics board) where all of the visual images are processed at enormous speeds. The trick is for webGL to take advantage of the Graphics Board's speed.

I am just beginning to experiment with some of the libraries based on webGL. If you are using Chrome or a webGL compatible (not IE) browser, you can see what I am doing right now (September 2013).

My first program using THREE.js: click here
A home video using THREE.js: click here
Experimenting with animation in THREE.js: click here

textured heads in THREE.js: click here

Try them out and you will see the potential for the browser to handle graphics. Although it is not yet fast enough to do very complex CG scenes, it is really far further along than I'd anticipated.