Mozilla has joined forces with Khronos to create what could be a new standard for the World Wide Web: 3D browser graphics.
The creator of Firefox has joined graphics consortium Khronos to bring a public 3D browser-based environment within a year.
Mozilla’s standard will allow Javascript (the basis of many web applications) to tap directly into OpenGL (the basis of many 3D Graphical User Interfaces (GUI)). With Quake Live being released last month, many developers are looking towards pushing other games to be browser based, including MMO’s.
“One of the things which puts people off virtual worlds(MMOs) is that it requires users to make very big downloads to install the games,” said Paul Jackson, an analyst with research firm Forrester, “Having them available directly from a web browser would eliminate this and have much wider implications for non-gamers.”
In other words, you could be playing World of Warcraft at work without needing to have the full background engine, as the full graphical engine would be hidden within the browser.
He continued: “If you think about the traditional browsing experience of flat pages and links this is not a natural way to interact. People are much more used to walking around and picking things up so a 3D browser could lead eventually to a more naturalistic way of interaction.”
In addition to it’s gaming applications, any 3D modelling system, such as medical, transport or Googlemaps could now be run directly from the browser.
While this is an interesting idea in theory, it does sort of lead you to the image of searching through Wikipedia as being like trying to find the Lost Ark of the Covenant.
Source: BBC
Published: Mar 27, 2009 06:00 pm