

Mozilla, Google, and Opera announce support for built-in 3D graphics - marcusbooster
http://venturebeat.com/2009/08/04/browser-makers-announce-support-for-built-in-3d-graphics/

======
modeless
Something that might not be obvious is that, since shaders will be supported,
this will also enable GPGPU from Javascript. If JIT-compiled Javascript is
still too slow for you, you'll now have the option of running your code on the
massively parallel vector co-processor that's in nearly every modern PC. The
obvious next step in this direction is OpenCL.

WebKit has been implementing a different approach, doing 3D effects via CSS. I
think both approaches to 3D are useful in different contexts and they should
both be implemented.

<http://webkit.org/blog/386/3d-transforms/>

------
olefoo
I think that the omission of Microsoft is rather deliberate; this is the next
phase of the browser wars. Hopefully there's enough of an installed base of
sites that work with WebGL that when Microsoft launches it's catchup version
it's as much of an epic flop as WindowsME.

Or Microsoft could get on board and not attempt to piss in the pool yet again;
stranger things have happened.

~~~
tybris
Actually, I don't think Microsoft cares that much about their browser. It's
not like it makes them any money. It was a selling point for their OS. Now
there are plenty of alternative selling points.

~~~
GrandMasterBirt
IE Absolutely makes billions for microsoft....

What does IE mean?

1) Your clients need windows to run it.

2) Your developers need windows to test it.

3) They can plug in some of their technologies like .Net which runs on windows
servers.

4) Clients that are used to IE (dumb users) will use it at home too because
its "their browser".

5) Windows also means MS Office usually (though a separate issue).

So yea how is that not their core business model?

------
omouse
I don't see why having 3d stuff in a browser as a plug-in is a problem. It
wasn't a problem for Java Applets (Java is installed on almost every computer
I've ever run across), same deal for Flash.

~~~
tybris
Probably to gain that 10 seconds worth of load-time, which is enough time for
people to close your site many, many times.

It's a tragedy really. I _stopped_ using Cybertown over 10 years ago. A 3D
virtual community accessed in your browser using a VRML plug-in. Today we
apparently get excited if our browsers display floating circles.

~~~
omouse
We're turning retarded obviously. As we age on the Internet, our brains turn
to mush because of all the lolcats and other stuff that creeps out of 4chan
and into our eyes. Thus we are more accepting of browser "improvements" when
even an Amiga can do better!

------
calcnerd256
Maybe people will stop using gaming as an excuse to run Windows. Yeah, I know,
they won't, but still, one can dream.

------
tvon
If Google is adding it to Chrome, I would expect it to end up in Webkit before
long.

------
leej
i dont get this 3d in browser thing. apart from games what is the killer
application? putting every possible tech into browser is just plain BS.

they make browser heavy and heavy in each major release thats why I returned
to FF3 and i am not alone.

p.s: in future we would have browser containing drivers and bios. the ultimate
BrowSer.

~~~
Xixi
Putting every single thing in the browser is exactly what Google wants to do
with its future (if ever released) Google Chrome OS.

From a business point of view, this way of doing things is probably seen as a
good way to prevent software piracy: keep lots of things on the server side...

~~~
omouse
It's a good way to prevent you from using the _personal_ computer to its
fullest potential.

------
nazgulnarsil
venturebeat takes forever to load, I wonder how long 3d pages will take to
load...

~~~
omouse
For-fucking-ever, and I just can't wait till marketing people force ugly 3d
advertisements on us...

