WebGL Report is an open source project that checks whether or not a browser supports WebGL, and if so, reports details such as supported extensions and implementation specific capabilities.

Cycleblob is based on the lighcycles game from TRON. Cycleblob takes TRON to the next level and makes the grid a three-dimentional object, floating in space. Cycleblob is implemented using WebGL and HTML 5 canvas elements and is written completely in JavaScript. Cycleblob was created by Shy Shalom as a personal project for learning WebGL and game engine design. You will, of course, need a WebGL enabled browser to play.

The Khronos Group today released the final WebGL 1.0 specification to enable hardware-accelerated 3D graphics in HTML5 Web browsers without the need for plug-ins. WebGL defines a JavaScript binding to OpenGL ES 2.0 to allow rich 3D graphics within a browser on any platform supporting the industry-standard OpenGL or OpenGL ES graphics APIs. WebGL has the support of major silicon and browser vendors including Apple, Google, Mozilla and Opera with multiple browsers already shipping with WebGL implementations including the beta releases for Mozilla Firefox 4.0, all channels of Google Chrome 9.0, an Opera preview build, and Apple Mac OS Safari nightly builds.

• WebGL 1.0 Specification (Final)
• WebGL Quick Reference Card (PDF)
• WebGL Implementers

Opera just announced that its latest Opera 11 beta has WebGL support for Windows. Currently only Windows is support, but a promise of WebGL on Opera for other platforms has been made. As well, Opera claims they are working on WebGL for Windows using DirectX. This should be interesting, as WebGL is built on top of OpenGL. Opera 11 for Windows is available for download today.

Blender users rejoice. There is now an exporter for Blender so you can export your objects into WebGL javascript.

One of Mozilla’s Principal Engineers, Vladimir Vukicevic originally wrote the Canvas3D extension, which was a precursor to the WebGL work. Fairly wide support for the HTML5 Canvas element by modern browsers, along with increasing support for OpenGL ES by various hardware drivers, lead us to conclude that the time was right for a 3D drawing context within the HTML5 Canvas element.

The Khronos Group is preparing for the Game Developers Conference 2010. On the Official Khronos GDC Event page, a few of the sessions and speakers have been listed, as well as information regarding the Khronos Group’s booth. Session this year will cover OpenCL, OpenGL, OpenGL ES, WebGL and COLLADA. This year there will be two additional sessions, “The Best of Both Worlds: Using UIKit with OpenGL” by Noel Llopis from Snappy Touch, and “An Overview to Creating Games with Palm’s Plug-in Development Kit” by Jeff Bush, Director webOS, Graphics & Gaming at Palm.

C3DL website has an announcement stating they have released v2.0 of C3DL. The version 2.0 core has been updated to use WebGL. The demo’s, tutorials and documentation have been updated also. From the website, “The Canvas 3D JS Libary (C3DL) is a JavaScript library that will make it easier to write 3D applications using WebGL.” This version sees ports of all c3dl features including
COLLADA model loading, Picking, Lighting System, Camera system, Particle system and Effects System.

iChemLabs introduces a WebGL extension to their popular, open source, HTML5 chemistry library, ChemDoodle Web Components. Allowing for the complete rendering of molecules in 3D, the ChemDoodle Web Components allow scientists to provide interactive 3D graphics on their webpages. Companies and universities have become interested in WebGL, and iChemLabs believes the technology will revolutionize how the sciences are presented, such as how pharmaceutical companies interact with their customers, how professors teach students, and how synthetic chemists will communicate. The title links to a component allowing one to view structures from the PubChem database. For further information, view this article published on MacResearch.

The Khronos Group announced the unveiling of the WebGL Draft Specification. WebGL is a cross-platform, royalty-free web standard for a low-level 3D graphics API based on OpenGL ES 2.0, exposed through the HTML5 Canvas element as Document Object Model interfaces. Khronos has setup a wiki, forums and a public mailing list for greater community involvement.

Mark Steele is suggesting that Cube Defense game demo by Yohei Shimomae, is possibly the first fully playable WebGL game. Considering it is put together without documentation, Mark feels encouraged by what he sees. Take the game for a spin, and see for yourself. A WebGL enabled browser is required.

WebGL is now available in WebKit nightlies. If you run Leopard or Snow Leopard you can try it out WebGL yourself. WebGL runs in the HTML Canvas element, and works similarly to the 2D Canvas capability currently in WebKit. You can download the nightly build on the Webkit website.

WebGL is being built into Mozilla’s Firefox, Apple’s Safari and now Google’s Chrome browser. WebGL can be used in the latest Chrome developer preview version—but only if “—enable-webgl” and “—no-sandbox” command-line switches are added when Chrome launches. The latest versions are Chrome 4.0.221.6 for Windows and 4.0.221.8 for Mac OS X and Linux.

The Khronos Group, today announced more details on its new WebGL™ working group for enabling hardware-accelerated 3D graphics in Web pages without the need for browser plug-ins. The WebGL working group is defining a JavaScript binding to OpenGL® ES 2.0 to enable rich 3D graphics within a browser on any platform supporting the OpenGL or OpenGL ES graphics standards.