WEBGL

WebGL is a 3D context for canvas. Unlike other web technologies, WebGL is not specified by the W3C. Instead, the Khronos Group is developing the specification. According to its website, “The Khronos Group is a not for profit, member-funded consortium focused on the creation of royalty-free open standards for parallel computing, graphics, and dynamic media on a wide variety of platforms and devices.” The Khronos Group has also worked on other graphics APIs, such as OpenGL ES 2.0, which is the basis for WebGL in the browser.

3D graphics languages such as OpenGL are complex topics, and it is beyond the scope of this book to cover all concepts. Familiarity with OpenGL ES 2.0 is recommended for using WebGL as many concepts map directly.

This section assumes a working knowledge of OpenGL ES 2.0 concepts and simply attempts to describe how certain parts of OpenGL ES 2.0 have been implemented in WebGL. For more information on OpenGL, please visit www.opengl.org, and for an...