WebGL

[Baker]

WebGL is kinda interesting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebGL

http://playwebgl.com/

Requires FireFox or Google Chrome (IE requires plug-in, Safari has WebGL disabled by default). Will not work on Intel cards.

To make this more "Quake" relevant, you can apparently play Quake II online here in your web browser:

http://playwebgl.com/games/quake-2-webgl/

Seems to take a long time to load various stuff, though. But the following examples are more interesting:

http://oos.moxiecode.com/js_webgl/xwing/index.html

http://azathioprine.digisnap.bplaced.net/index.html

Kinda of has all the same weaknesses of, say, Flash based games in the sense that it cannot "capture" the mouse. I've heard talk of WebGL for a while, but didn't know anyone did anything halfway interesting with it. Although I'd put emphasis on the "halfway" part of "halfway interesting".

[qbism]

Alcatraz plays smooth, high fps, but Q2 webgl is very slow. I wonder if all the gamecode running as javascript is the bottleneck? Q2 webgl is converted from Q2 java (Jake2) which plays 100+ fps on my comp. Maybe webgl is for lightweight stuff, otherwise Unity, Flash3D, or Java.

[Baker]

I imagine part of the slowness might be that it has to download all the media (kinda of Flash Quake, for instance).

I'm sure Javascript could be partially to blame too. Maybe it is my lack of imagination, but I kinda of have a hard time imagining WebGL being a good vehicle for a game but it might come in very handy for demonstration purposes.

Someone might be able to make a web page that allows you to tweak and experiment with OpenGL on the fly or other such things by have a text field or a form. And the ability to at least be able to demonstrate some OpenGL techniques without having to download a binary or a project file. So I do think someday WebGL might have some very nice practical uses.

[mankrip]

It could be useful for making collaborative map/model editors using cloud storage. Something like Google Docs for mapping and modeling.