Google unleashes 3D web

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 22 Apr 2009 at 08:42

Google has released its first attempt at bringing 3D graphics to the browser.

Google announced last month that it was working with Mozilla and 3D specialists the Khronos Group to kick-start development of browser-based 3D web graphics.

As the first stage of this development the company has released an experimental browser plug-in called O3D. This open-source JavaScript API allows browsers to render complicated geometry and tap into the OpenGL graphics interface to enable fancy shader effects.

Despite working with Mozilla, Google's O3D API is currently incompatible with Mozilla's similar C3DL. It seems the two companies will strive forward independently, at least initially, and look for common ground once the projects have matured.

The idea of a 3D web has fallen in and out of fashion over the years, but both Google and Mozilla have argued that the technology, and the speed of modern web connections, means the time is right to push forward with research.

It is thought that these projects could pave the way for 3D chatrooms and virtual worlds that don't require massive downloads first.

"Most content on the web today is in 2D, but a lot of information is more fun and useful in 3D," says the O3D team on the newly created blog.

"We're making our first contribution to this effort by sharing the plug-in implementation of O3D: a new, shader-based, low-level graphics API for creating interactive 3D applications in a web browser.

"When we started working on O3D, we focused on creating a modern 3D API that's optimised for the web. We wanted to build an API that runs on multiple operating systems and browsers, performs well in JavaScript, and offers the capabilities developers need to create a diverse set of rich applications. O3D is still in an early stage, but we're making it available now to help inform the public discussion about 3D graphics in the browser."

Visit the O3D site to try out the plug-in for yourself, and to watch a video of the 3D web in action.