Plug-in-less 3D Webv- GDC 2011
3rd March, 2011 – Game Developers Conference, San Francisco – The Khronos Group released the final WebGL 1.0 specification for hardware-accelerated 3D graphics in HTML5 Web browsers without the need for plug-ins. WebGL defines a JavaScript binding to OpenGL ES 2.0 to allow 3D graphics within a browser on any platform supporting the industry-standard OpenGL or OpenGL ES graphics APIs.
This royalty-free specification brings OpenGL ES 2.0 3D graphics functionality to HTML5. WebGL uses OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics on browser-capable desktop, mobile and embedded platforms. Now Web developers can access OpenGL-class graphics directly from JavaScript, and freely mix 3D with other HTML content.
In addition to the WebGL specification, Khronos has created a free, downloadable WebGL test suite. Browser makers can run the test suite and upload their passing test results to designate their implementations as conformant to the WebGL specification. WebGL conformance tests can be found at www.khronos.org/implementers/webgl/.
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. Any company interested to participate in the definition of WebCL is invited to send a request for more information to info@khronos.org
