Tech companies are getting together to crate an open, royalty-free standard for presenting accelerated 3-D graphics online. Included in the consortium are Google, Adobe, Intel, Apple, and others.
Thomas Claburn of InfromationWeek calls this “one of the last major deficiencies of the web browser as a platform for application delivery.” In fact it is Mozilla, creators of the Firefox browser who contacted the Khonos Group to get the wheels in motion.
In response, Khronos has created “Accelerated 3D on the web,” a working group that is chaired by Mozilla itself. A public release is targeted for within the next year.
“With more and more content moving to the web and JavaScript getting faster every day, the time is right to create an open, general purpose API for accelerated 3D graphics on the web. Google looks forward to offering its expertise in graphics and web development to this discussion,” said Matt Papakipos, engineering director at Google Inc.
You don’t have to be a Google or an Apple to get involved though. Any interested company is welcome to join Khronos to make contributions, stand for chair, influence the direction of the specification and gain early access to draft specs before any public release.
“The industry has been searching for a way to bring dynamic 3D content to everyone’s web browser for many years,” says President of the Khronos Group, Neil Trevett. It will be interesting to see where this goes. More info here.
