August 2012
Beginner
230 pages
6h 4m
English
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Chapter 6. Integrating 2D and 3D
No doubt by now you have gotten a sense of the vast set of capabilities that comprises WebGL: the raw rendering power, the ease of development with JavaScript, the open specification, and the ubiquitous platform that requires no download. This is already a boon for all kinds of application development, a massive new weapon in the web developer arsenal. But it doesn’t stop there.
Let’s take another look at the official Khronos definition of WebGL (the italics are mine):
WebGL is a royalty-free, cross-platform API that brings OpenGL ES 2.0 to the web as a 3D drawing context within HTML, exposed as low-level Document Object Model interfaces. It uses the OpenGL shading language, GLSL ES, and can be cleanly combined with other web content that is layered on top or underneath the 3D content. It is ideally suited for dynamic 3D web applications in the JavaScript programming language, and will be fully integrated in leading web browsers.
Obviously this is a mouthful, so we’ll have to forgive the writers for trying to fit it all into a paragraph. But it’s possible that the Khronos folks have—to borrow a term from journalism—buried the lead here. Look at the text in italics. In my opinion, the true breakthrough unleashed by WebGL—what really makes it different from any other technology that has come before—lies in its ability to be seamlessly integrated with all other content on the page.
3D graphics has been around for a long time. Even 3D graphics in a web browser ...
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O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.