WebGL aims at providing in-browser hardware-accelerated 3D without plug-ins

[SIGGRAPH 2009] The Khronos Group has just announced WebGL, an initiative that will bring GPU-accelerated 3D graphics into web browsers, without requiring a plug-in. Today, many developers opt for an ActiveX plug-in under Windows, or something equivalent on other platform. With WebGL, they will have a direct access to 3D accelerators from JavaScript. WebGL builds on the infrastructure laid out in HTML5, which some say could be a Flash Killer as well.

I wonder if developers will find JavaScript to be “too open” and might worry about the fact that their data and code might/could be seen by others (obfuscation should be possible?). It’s really fun to code 3D engines, but the thought of doing in JavaScript doesn’t really cheer me up. However, having the option of doing so is great, so let’s hope that this will get some traction. The big names are on board: Google, Mozilla, Opera (where’s Microsoft?). Khronos oversees the development of OpenGL and of others open technologies.