WebGL HOTSHOT

Introduction to 3D fundamentals

A picture is worth a thousand words, and this is, after all, a book on 3D graphics. So, let's get started with the fun stuff! Two technologies will be demonstrated: WebGL and X3D. WebGL is related to X3D, but X3D is better to demonstrate simple objects. Since we will be building the Solar System, X3D is better in order to show the three rotations of the Earth—the 24-hour day rotation, the seasonal tilts, and the 365.25 annual rotation around the Sun. The Moon is a child of the Earth. Wherever the Earth goes, the Moon follows with its own independent rotation around the Earth. To assist the parsing of these X3D files, we shall use X3DOM (X3D with the Document Object Model (DOM))—a publicly available program. WebGL, ...