Emerging Tech: WebGL and you
When Google announced in July that they were creating an operating system (Chrome OS) that was essentially a browser, I’ll admit I was pretty skeptical. Then I started to think about what we nerds use our computers for and wondered, does this move by Google actually make sense?
First, we like to browse the web, something we typically do with a browser. We like being social with instant messaging… and Google has GTalk in the browser – you can also chat on Facebook in the browser, and you can connect to AIM or Yahoo with services like Meebo.com. Occasionally, we nerds use Microsoft Office-like programs to get work done. Google has Google Docs that does all that in the browser, too. The solution then dawned on me. We also like to play 3D games like Crysis or Batman: Arkham Asylum, Half-Life 2, etc. Flash can’t pump the polygons to make these quality games and there really isn’t anything else out there that can. The browser can’t do 3D gaming!
“Clearly”, I thought, “Google is making a mistake with this Chrome OS business because they can’t satisfy the 3D gaming market. Chrome OS won’t go anywhere.” I then smugly went about my business knowing that I had out-thought Google and my skepticism was well met. Google 0, Rex 1.
Much to my dismay, I saw this YouTube video showing of a technology called WebGL.
3D graphics…in a web browser?
I decided to look further into this technology and see how it worked. WebGL is a JavaScript binding to OpenGL ES 2.0. This allows for hardware-accelerated 3D graphics in the browser without any additional plug-ins. This means that future games may not be shipped on a CD or be installed at all, just point your browser to a website and enjoy. Game releases could be essentially the same thing as a website launch. This kind of technology could go beyond games. What if your kids could open a webpage and see a rich 3D version of SpongeBob Squarepants’s world? Could you take a car for a test drive in the browser with 3D graphics and real physics data similar to the racing games of today? How about viewing consumer products in 3D before you buy? The possibilities seem endless.
When will this be available? It’s tough to say a hard release date, but this is already showing up in the nightly builds of Webkit (the technology that drives Chrome, Safari, and Palm Pre browsers, among others) and Firefox. I’d speculate advanced browsers will incorporate WebGL technology in 2010.
And as to the viability of Google’s Chrome OS… Well played, Google. Well played.
2 Responses to “Emerging Tech: WebGL and you”
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John Shimek on October 21st, 2009
WebGL looks good and it would fit great with the idea of a Web OS like Chrome OS, but will it replace true 3D gaming? Will it be able to stand up to the raw power that bleeding edge 3D games require?
On top of that, there are lots of markets where Chrome OS won’t work. Engineers, artists and designers, sound engineers, and others that I can’t think of won’t be able to use Chrome OS because the want or need like CAD tools, Photoshop/Illustrator/InDesign/etc, real time audio, and other odd things that don’t work in a web environment.
But for every person that can’t use a web based OS like Chrome OS, how many can? Many. Chrome OS (or other web based OS) could have a place, but not all of it.
blago on October 24th, 2009
There seems to be confusion about the meaning of the terms Chrome OS, Browser OS, Web OS… call it whatever you want.
These *** doesn’t mean that Google will create an OS that boots into a plain-old browser with a little more than a “window” object. Javascript is a language and the set of available features is determined by the host environment. You can “enhance” any open source browser with JS bindings to an arbitrary C, C++, or Java library.
What Google is about to deliver is an OS that uses HTML to render UI windows on the screen and a LOT of JS bindings to popular C/C++ libraries. Using these, developers will be able to open sockets, communicate with databases, manipulate graphics, etc. Of course the exact set of features is something that will be determined by Google engineers and their marketing department.
Regarding applications, if Google provides a way to install additional JS bindings to native object code, there are very few applications that cannot be implemented in a browser. Photoshop is certainly
not one of them. Of course it all depends on what incentives will software vendors have to port.
So make no mistake, you will be able to do a lot more in ChromeOS the you can today in a vanilla browser but you will also have to learn some new APIs