Programming 3D Applications with HTML5 and WebGL

Chapter 12. Developing Mobile 3D Applications

As HTML5 evolved over the past decade, an even more revolutionary set of developments was taking place in mobile phones and tablets. The designs first popularized by Apple’s iPhone and iPad have blurred the lines between mobile devices and traditional computers. Mobile devices now outpace traditional computers in terms of units shipped annually, as consumers look to simpler, smaller, and more portable devices for playing games, watching videos, listening to music, emailing, surfing the Internet, and, yes, even making phone calls. These new handheld computers have also unleashed an explosion of features, including location-based services, touchscreen interfaces, and device orientation input.

To access the new capabilities of smartphones and tablets, developers have typically had to learn new programming languages and operating systems. For example, building applications for Apple’s devices requires using the APIs of the iOS operating system and programming in the Objective-C language (or bridging to it from other native languages such as C++); programming for the Android operating system requires learning a different set of APIs and building applications in Java; and so on. For some time now, mobile platforms have provided a limited ability to develop with HTML5, via use of WebKit-based controls that can be included in an application. This allowed programmers to develop the presentation and some application logic using markup, CSS, and ...