
SceneJS: A WebGL-Based Scene
Graph Engine
Lindsay Kay
40.1 Introduction
The WebGL graphics API specification extends the capabilities of the JavaScript lan-
guage to enable compatible browsers to generate 3D graphics on the GPU with-
out the need for plugins. With JavaScript execution speed a potential bottleneck,
high-performance WebGL applications rely on executing minimal JavaScript while
offloading as much work as possible to the GPU in the form of shader programs
writteninGLSL.
This chapter describes key concepts of SceneJS, an opensource 3D engine for
JavaScript that applies some simple scene-graph concepts such as state inheritance
on top of WebGL ...