3D on the Web: Look Ma, no plugins!

I have been interested (obsessed, actually) with the idea of navigating and interacting with 3D worlds on the Web since the early days of VRML. Navigating and interacting with 3D on the internet has a long, torturous history. The solutions have fallen basically into two camps, both with their strong points and downsides. First, desktop gaming (such as Half Life, World of Warcraft, etc.) and virtual worlds (such as Secondlife) have been hugely successful at connecting users into a massive consensual hallucination. The downside of course, is that the entry points are still closed systems such as Windows, Mac and/or game consoles. The second, and less successful camp, is browser-based 3D. Almost as soon as the Web came into being, 3D was touted as the "next big thing." VRML, Java, and eventually Flash have all been used in a multitude of combinations to deliver interactive 3D to users on the web. Although these worlds were in-browser, they were (for the most part) solitary experiences and also required an additional plug-in.

I am happy to say that with the launch of Firefox 4 last month all of that is posed to change. Firefox 4, as well as the betas of Chromium and Webkit (Safari) based browsers now support WebGL. WebGL is an extension of the HTML5 Canvas object that uses the JavaScript programming language to display interactive 3D graphics within any compatible web browser - without the need for plugins. This means an explosion of hardware-accelerated 3D all over the web. What does this mean for BIM? Imagine being able to view, annotate, and edit your BIM from any device using the same browser-based user interface. There have been some demos that show WebGL running on Android devices and It is expected that the next generation of Safari on the iPad will support WebGL as well. This will give users a predictable, consistent and accessible interface for 3D tools on any device from PCs to tablets to phones and beyond. This will also allow software vendors to create true web-based 3D applications that are by their nature cross-platform (without having to re-write code.) I know it has been said before, but I predict that this is a tipping point in the history of 3D on the web.

If you are running one of the newer browsers, check out some of these sample works particularly relevant to BIM. Note: You will need to enable WebGL in your browser.

 

Fractal Lab, C'mon, its fractals that you can explore in 3D. Pretty damn cool.

PhiloGL allows you to explore parametric geometry equations.

Tessellations!  Exporting to an OBJ file is a nice touch.

Thingiverse.com is an online community where makers share their 3D creations. Any entry that has an STL file will have a little gray cube icon. Click and you get a 3D preview - with no plugins!

 

3DTin is a Lego style modeler. You build 3D models by placing colored blocks. It is quite primitive (literally), but demonstrates a good start towards interactive 3D modeling on the web.

 

_tom

 

Comments

[Antonio Licon]

Great post! I've made a pretty extensive list of the WebGL Engines available, for anyone interested: http://ffwd.typepad.com/blog/2011/04/webgl-what-flavor-is-your-engine.html

Also found this awesome 3D Tron like game:
http://cycleblob.com/

WebGL rocks!

[Kai Backman]

If you are interested in benchmarks for WebGL based CAD you might be interested in the project we have been working on lately: tinkercad.com

We just opened for public beta this week.

[Tom Vollaro]

@Kai, Beautiful! Opened up right in FF4 and I was modeling right away. Love it!

[minisite design]

Interesting post! I really like it because today you won't problem anynmore about plug-in for 3D as it is now introuced plug-in fre. You can now start learning and navigatin this art technology! :)