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WebGL & HTML5 based on OpenGL ES 2.0 for the Web - Can it replace Flash?   WebGL & HTML5 based on OpenGL ES 2.0 for the Web - Can it replace Flash?
By Salar Golestanian @ 07 Apr 2011 :: Article Rating
 
Khronos Group is the Open Standards for Media Authoring and Acceleration which is a non-profit consortium of companies like Google, Apple, Intel, Mozilla and more dedicated to creating open standard APIs through which to display digital interactive media — across all platforms and devices. Has provided the graphics library that basically extends the functionality of JavaScript to allow it to create interactive 3D graphics within older browsers as a cross-platform API within the context of HTML5, it brings 3D graphics to the Web without using plug-ins.

Khronos has provided 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. Developers familiar with OpenGL ES 2.0 will recognize WebGL as a Shader-based API using GLSL, with constructs that are semantically similar to those of the underlying OpenGL ES 2.0 API. It stays very close to the OpenGL ES 2.0 specification, with some concessions made for what developers expect out of memory-managed languages such as JavaScript.

One example of this technology is done by Shy Shalom an Israely developer, as a personal project for learning WebGL and game engine design and implementation. The concept of cycleblob is based on the lighcycles game from the 1982 movie "TRON". In the original movie lightcycles played against each other on a flat grid and could only make 90 degree turns while on the grid. Cycleblob takes this idea to the next level and makes the grid a three-dimentional object, floating in space.



The big question is that can WebGL and HTML5 replace Flash? We need to explore some more, but most certainly, not all the functionalities of Flash. For 3D application development then the answer is probably yes. Here are some more examples shown and  narocad.blogspot.com has a good article on the subject 

WebGL is still at an early stage right now but it is seen by many to replace Adobe’s flash technology. A lot of major companies are currently supporting this new technology which should make it popular in no time at all. We do need a heavy weight like Adobe also to embrace it with tools to allow developers build without having to go too deep in the code. That is however unlikely as Adobe still relys on Flash for some of its revenue

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About Scifiwood News Reviews and Blogs
These are various short and long News Articles, Reviews and Blogs by Salar Golestanian and employees of SalarO.com as well as contributors of Scifiwood.com. The subject matter are mixed topics with Pure Science to Science Fiction as well as general topics on Web Trends, Technology, Software Engineering genre, or whatever subject that can affect the convergence of today's technology with Science Fiction in any shape or form.  These Blogs and Reviews don't have commercial or corporate aspiration, so they are indeed completely independent views. Some of these entries may be short and just link you to the actual news or site that can expand further on the subject of interest.  In Phase II we plan to incorporate some Social Networking applications within the portal.