a three-dimensional platform
Firefox now includes, on all desktop platforms, support for a technology known as WebGL. WebGL allows web developers to use accelerated 3D graphics, including textures and shaders; it exposes the same capabilities used by games like Doom 3 and (optionally) …
Context & Ripple Effects
WebGL has moved from experiment to shipping feature in two years: Vladimir Vukicević put it in Firefox nightly builds back in September 2009, when the alternative was Google's plugin approach from its O3D API effort. Google then retired the plugin path, folding O3D's ambitions into the browser itself (the future of O3D, May 2010) before Chrome began touting 3D apps directly in its February 2011 speed-and-apps push.
With this release Firefox makes accelerated 3D — textures, shaders, Doom 3-class capabilities — available on every desktop platform without a plugin, and the story travelled fast: CNET's syndicated pickup the same day reported Apple signing up for WebGL in iAds, meaning the standard now has a major advertising use case attached to it, not just a gaming one.
First-order effects
- Web developers can target accelerated 3D graphics across desktop browsers that ship WebGL, ending dependence on per-platform plugins for shader- and texture-based content.
- Apple's adoption of WebGL in iAds gives advertisers an immediate production use case, widening demand beyond game demos.
Second-order effects
- Google's shift from the standalone O3D plugin to native browser support is validated — and other plugin-based 3D approaches lose their reason to exist as both major engines converge on the standard.
- Graphics capability joins JavaScript speed as a visible battleground between Firefox and Chrome, forcing each release cycle to benchmark 3D performance.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the browser absorbs another layer of native-application capability through open standards rather than plugins, moving game engines and rich app frameworks toward web delivery.
- A vendor-neutral 3D standard backed by Mozilla, Google, and Apple shifts leverage toward standards bodies and away from any single company's proprietary runtime.
The trend: Browsers are absorbing native-grade 3D graphics through open standards like WebGL, displacing plugin-based runtimes and pulling game and advertising workloads onto the web platform.