WebGL

WebGL (Web Graphics Library) is a JavaScript API for rendering interactive 2D and 3D graphics within any compatible web browser without the use of plug-ins - wikipedia

YOUTUBE PLAYLIST PLMinhigDWz6emRKVkVIEAaePW7vtIkaIF Introduction to the series where we will learn webgl 2.0 by developing a simple framework and putting together our first milestone, a 3D modal viewer that we can rotate around - sketchpunklabs.tumblr.com

WebGL is integrated completely into all the web standards of the browser allowing GPU accelerated usage of physics and image processing and effects as part of the web page canvas.

WebGL Overview - The Khronos Group Inc

High performance graphics with WebGL

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WebGL elements can be mixed with other HTML elements and composited with other parts of the page or page background.

WebGL programs consist of control code written in JavaScript and shader code that is written in OpenGL Shading Language (GLSL), a language similar to C or C++, and is executed on a computer's GPU.

# Content creation and ecosystem

The WebGL API may be too tedious to use directly without some utility libraries, which for example set up typical view transformation shaders. Loading scene graphs and 3D objects in the popular industry formats is also not directly provided for. JavaScript libraries have been built (or sometimes ported (Porting) to WebGL) to provide the additional functionality.

A non-exhaustive list of libraries that provide many high-level features includes A-Frame (VR), BabylonJS , PlayCanvas, three.js, OSG.JS and CopperLicht. There also has been a rapid emergence of game engines for WebGL, including Unreal Engine 4 and Unity 3D.

There are also some 2D libraries built on top of WebGL like Cocos2d-x or Pixi.js, which were implemented this way for performance reasons. The WebGL-based 2D libraries fall back to HTML5 canvas when WebGL is not available - typedarray.org

Creating content for WebGL scenes often means using a regular 3D content creation tool (3D computer graphics software) and exporting the scene to a format that is readable by the viewer or helper library. Desktop 3D authoring software such as Blender (Blender (software)), Autodesk Maya or SimLab Composer can be used for this purpose. Particularly, Blend4Web allows a WebGL scene to be authored entirely in Blender and exported to a browser with a single click, even as a standalone web page. There are also some WebGL-specific software such as CopperCube and the online WebGL-based editor Clara.io. Online platforms such as Sketchfab and Clara.io allow users to directly upload their 3D models and display them using a hosted WebGL viewer.