Udo's Techblog

You should perhaps mention that the <canvas> tag is (or will be) part of HTML 5, and as such is going to allow a standardized way of handling graphic operations. Although <canvas> right now is purely 2D, it is going to be a 3D thingy pretty soon. (In fact, <canvas> is already part of Qt 4.5 and as such a part of Konqueror, Safari and other Webkit-based renderers)

The problem with Canvas3D is that it's yet another firefox extension. Won't run on IE, won't work with Safari or Konqueror. Don't get me wrong, I don't consider it worthless. I just doubt it will get the attention it deserves when it's only a part of Firefox. It just reminds me too much of XUL.

At this point, 3D isn't even remotely in the scope of the huge HTML 5 spec (parts of which have been excluded from the core recently by the way). That means there is no reason to hope 3D will be widely implemented anytime within the next 5 to 10 years as part of an official W3 spec. Microsoft, Adobe and possibly Sun will violently oppose anything that comes even close to the functionality of Canvas3D and they have a seat in all the important working groups. Those are the reasons there will be no 3D support besides the already-failed VRML and the destined-to-fail X3D.

Enter Canvas3D. It's nothing more than an OpenGL wrapper for JavaScript which makes it hugely practical without re-inventing the wheel. W3 working groups need to re-invent the wheel to justify their jobs, but sometimes a good solution manages to sneak by the big tools vendors presiding over the committees. And Canvas3D might just be able to do exactly that. It will be part of FF 3.5 trunk, that's for sure, so it's not going to stay "just another Firefox extension". Thereby, it'll singlehandedly introduce the technology to any Windows, OS X and Linux user who uses Firefox. Then, the only thing left to go after will be WebKit- excuse me: KHTML. And Safari will follow suit because it's a simple plugin to develop and because Apple is already heavily invested in OpenGL. IE is just going to die, it's getting uncooler by the minute and missing media capabilities like that is an excellent opportunity for the typical left-behind Windows user to notice that.

So, you're saying that Canvas3D has a chance to sneak quickly in the two major render engines (which are, obviously, Gecko and KHTML), because it simply is *not* yet another W3C standard? Seems worth to think about it. ;-) Know what? I'd love to have around for nifty graphics stuff, e. g. rotating images on a ... Mat. Guess my Mat software is either dead or in use by every geeky RPG player out there when is ready, which both doesn't breed any chances for HTML 5.

Heck, there are people still using IE? I didn't know that! Man, that's ridiculous. Who's caring about IE and it's DOM incomptabilities, anyways? You're kidding, are you? *scnr*

Exactly. I know it sounds perverse, but that's the exact same way the original <canvas> tag made it into the HTML 5 spec: it was implemented by WebKit first, then Firefox followed suit and now, after adoption, it's being made a standard.

Oh, and rotating images should have been part of the CSS spec, that's another thing Apple got right. But unless you want to make the Mat Safari-only, I'd suggest having a look at Canvas3D :-P

Yes, people still use IE. How many is difficult to tell globally, though:
1.28% of all Popsickles of Nerdia players use IE
31% of visitors to this blog use IE
77% of visitors to the company website I work for use IE

Go figure ;-)