Maxthon says that the new rendering engine and other tweaks to the Maxthon browser make it 10% faster overall than Chrome 30, and has 40% faster start times than previous versions. The Maxthon browser includes broad and deep HTML5 suppor as well as support for WebGL & GPU acceleration allowing for improved graphics and image processing. As well, the browser allows multi-threaded downloads and a promise to use the smallest amount of RAM of any web browser.
This enables vastly improved performance as well as Construct 2’s awesome shader effects such as this ripple transition example. This alone can make for a much more mobile gaming experience in the browser. Firefox appears to support WebGL on all devices. However Chrome have taken a stricter approach, and only enable it on relatively new devices.
When you login to your PS4 you are running WebGL code. The PlayStation Store, the Music and Video Applications, as well as a good chunk of UX are all rendered within the browser. Don Olmstead spent a good amount of time tuning the WebGL rendering engine, and he will be speaking at +SFHTML5 about how to optimize WebGL usage within the context of his work. There will be plenty of great tips on how you can speed up your own WebGL applications so get your slot now. And for those of you can’t make it in person it will be live streamed on Google Developers Live.
Goo Technologies creates HTML 5 high-end graphics for games and interactive visualizations on the Web and is the company behind the Goo Engine. The findings of their 2013 State of Browser Gaming Index are out, and guess what, over half of americans play browser based games. This bodes well for WebGL. Goo Technologies is a web technology company whose aim is to make all digital experiences instantly available on all devices, everywhere using HTML5 and WebGL.
Artillery gaming company is made up of former Google and Facebook engineers and Sean “Day[9]” Plott—host of StarCraft strategy webshow The Day[9] Daily—as lead game designer, plans to use WebGL and HTML5 to create console-quality games for browsers. While little is known about the game, Artillery’s mission statement is “dragging core gaming kicking and screaming into the browser using the latest HTML5 and WebGL technology”.
Using WebGL, Pics.io is planning on launching a browser-based service to let people more easily tap into raw photography with their browsers. Pics.io startup founded by a Ukrainian trio thinks it’s time for the Web browser to take on a computing task that so far has resisted the shift toward cloud computing: raw photo editing.
Need we say more?
Rayscribe offers a unique end-to-end browser based solution to build and deploy HTML5/WebGL applications in the cloud. Using stories, layers and scripting, users can create a wide range of interactive applications. Highlights include: Fully browser based, no plugins, no downloads required; Project collaboration; Easy to use Scene and UI Composers; Resource editor for HTML templates/CSS/Javascript/Audio/Video/Shader; Model management and Preview and one click publish. We hope users will enjoy creating WebGL based applications using Rayscribe.
Mozilla is investing in Firefox OS which explains why the company has been working on WebGL, in order to bring 3D graphics to the browser, Emscripten, a tool for compiling C++ applications into JavaScript, and asm.js, a high performance subset of JavaScript. Mozilla also announced at GDC that it has been working with Epic Games to port the Unreal 3 engine to the Web.
Anthony Liot works for ACTISKU, creator of 3D real-time marketing solutions. He works with the 3D engine Unigine. Passionate in his search for a way to bring great 3D graphics with no plug-in to the Web, Anthony worked with Mozilla to make this happen.
Among graphics enthusiasts there is a certain amount of debate on what API/version of something to use with a bunch of hotly contested alternatives. Florian Boesch, self proclaimed tinkerer of 3d things has written a convincing article on why you should give WebGL a try.
Verold Studio is a web-based platform for collaborating on 3D assets. Verold Studio lets you import 3D models; collaboratively review models, scenes, and levels; then deliver them to Verold’s runtime or your own.
WebGL has been supported on the Android platform via a number of official and unofficial workarounds, which normally required the device owner to have root access. This beta release marks the first time Google is officially allowing users to enabled WebGL via a toggle inside the browser.
The Nokia WebCL prototype is now available for Firefox 18.