What browser graphics API should I learn?

Question

Which 3D browser API should I learn? I heard that WebGL is for Firefox 4, O3D for Chrome, and Shockwave has been around for ten years for all browsers. There may be others, but I'm not sure. It seems that every modern browser needs its own multimedia implementation - different codecs for HTML5 video, different syntax for CSS3, etc. This is very confusing and very similar to Internet Explorer to diverge like this. I would like to at least wrap my head around 3D graphics. Ideally, the API that I choose does not require a plug-in, uses hardware acceleration and will be supported by as many future browsers as possible.

Answer 1

I would also go with WebGL, because it's the standard from the Khronos group since February. Firefox got it for almost one year (but still in version 4 beta / rc). Google Chrome got it in the current version. Opera just implemented it (I think not quite yet) http://my.opera.com/core/blog/2011/02/28/webgl-and-hardware-acceleration-2

As yojimbo87 will tell you that Microsoft is not a member of the Khronos group because it supports Microsoft DirectX, which is in concurrency with OpenGL.

Regarding O3D, Google used it as an API plugin, but on the main web page you can see that it is now deprecated. http://code.google.com/intl/fr/apis/o3d/

For another way to do 3D on the Internet, you can use something like VRML / X3D, flash got something serious, but here is a good thing that happens with WebGL: You have WebGL implemented in firefox for a mobile phone (which will be available soon) ) I think it won’t take long until Chrome and Safari do the same.

If you are not convinced yet, WebGL is hardware accelerated, you can use the shader inside. Many APIs / tools appear. A great website to find out and get some news about WebGL: http://learningwebgl.com/blog/

Good luck with it.

Answer 2

Personally, I would go with WebGL - this is one that is based on the HTML5 2D <canvas> , and O3D is actually built on top of WebGL.

It is already built in Chrome 9+ and will be in Firefox 4 (it is already in beta versions).

Answer 3

I would go with WebGL. It may not be the main one (for "hardcore" browsers based on 3D materials), but it is supported by major players (such as Apple, Google, Mozilla and Opera), and it looks very promising. WebGL is already in stable version 1.0.