The other day I started looking into WebGL. I’m not sure there are many good uses for 3D graphics inside a web browser, but it’s interesting to look into, and easier to share than regular OpenGL programs, so there’s some value to it, at least.
One idea I have is to tie it in with some stuff I’m doing at work to view tessellated CAD models in a web browser. There’s not a big audience for it, but it’d be neat for sites like GrabCAD and some of the 3D printing sites that are popping up lately.
Before jumping into large stuff like that, I’ve been looking at some smaller projects.
The first thing I created is a version of Conway’s Game of Life. It’s not very fancy, and it’s only 2D right now, but it was a good exercise in basic WebGL. At some point I may make a 3D version, though I’m not sure Javascript and WebGL will be fast enough to handle it.
All of the source code, along with some other random WebGL code, is available on GitHub.
WebGL isn’t supported very well yet, so this only works in Opera 12 alpha, newer versions of Chrome, and maybe some versions of Firefox. Here’s what it looks like: