OpenGL Insights

WebGL Models: End-to-End

Won Chun

30.1 Introduction

When we were making Google Body in 2010 (see Figure 30.1), WebGL was new

technology. It wasn’t entirely clear what we’d be able to accomplish; indeed, the

Figure 30.1. Google Body, a 3D anatomy browser for

the web.

uncertainty was one of the

reasons for building it in the

first place. Adopting a new

technology like WebGL was

aleapoffaith. Evenifthe

idea made perfect sense to

us, so many things outside

of our control needed to go

right. We eventually open

sourced Google Body,

1

and

unequivocally demonstrated

that it is possible to build

a rich, 3D application using

WebGL. Google Body made

the use of WebGL less an