Look at What WebGL Can Do on the Web Already! (Yes, Web Graphics Will Catch Up With Consoles by 2013)

Here's a most impressive new demo of 3D graphics in a web browser (Opera in this case) powered by WebGL. Behold:

Just unveiled at GDC by a development team at Opera, WebGL will also soon be standard in Firefox and Safari, and is already standard in Chrome. Now do you believe Cory Ondrejka's prediction that web-based game graphics will catch up with consoles by 2013 -- or that a 3D world as complex as Second Life could run on the web, if it was coded to run with WebGL?

Comments

[Ann Otoole InSL]

Fantastic! Love to see progress! I would love to see real high resolution 3D holographic displays before I pass on. Never stop the progress!

[Ezra]

Microsoft remains the lone hold out by not having WebGL support in IE9. I wonder how long they can remain that way though. The matter for them isn't as simple as Chrome and Firefox upping the amount of green checks on comparison charts, there's juggernauts like Facebook asking for WebGL content and companies like Zynga and Disney already openly investing millions in pursuit of delivering it.

Very exciting times.

[Adeon Writer]

This also demonstrates the importance of normal-mapping support in SL. The moment this little effect is supported in SL, you will see a HUGE jump in visual realism. It's downplayed all the time, but it's what makes very simple meshes appear to have very complex geometry, and is what is being used gratuitously in that video.

[Ignatius Onomatopoeia]

Wowza. And only a first step.

I believe Cory's prediction, and as evidence I'd point to what two defense-industry guys said to our edu group in SL, not so long ago.

They claim we are but a few years from a very rich and haptic 3D environment, using minimal body-gear, given what is being used for actual military training now.

Moore's Law will put it in our homes fast.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

I hope you're right and I'm wrong, I really do. The faster the better.

I remain skeptical of Cory's timeline. But time will tell.

[Rin Tae]

It looks nice. In a comment to a post not long ago, I wrote, that I do not beleive that this would become reality as soon as 2013. But I guess things are further ahead then I thought even when this small video does not show much yet.

I am still not completly sure if it will come that soon, but when there is enough pressure, then there for sure is a possibility.

[Adeon Writer]

Keep in mind the entire scene was devoted to one character. Minimal scene, no backdrop environment.

[Tateru Nino]

I'll wait until I can actually see that running live on my own hardware rather than a video of it on someone else's.

[Robustus Hax]

I don't know, maybe I am stuck in my ways, but even as good as that video looks, can gamers (the ones interested in graphics that good) really accept having them run in Chrome or Firefox? I'm just not 100% sure this is as inevitable as it is made out to be.

[Adeon Writer]

Well, fullscreen is full screen. They'll only care about framerate and ping.

[CronoCloud Creeggan]

I am NOT impressed, that's a single character test, no complex environment, no AI, no sounds, no actual "game". Just one space marine on a plain silver circle. That sort of thing is easy to do, just like in the old days when you had Amiga demos with bouncing spheres and whatnot.

[Ezra]

@Robustus

There's probably fewer debates on whether gaming's future is in the browser compared to how gaming will pan out in the browser.

I'm still not convinced Flash won't be that future, or Silverlight a worthy contender, or Unity reaching some Flash-esque marketshare number. Or maybe it'll be cloud-rendering based things like OnLive, or maybe it'll be WebGL afterall.

Who knows? Mobile and desktop, browser capabilities and plugin penetration have varying possibilities. Maybe the answer is that there'll be no 1 way to host games in the browser the same way there's no 1 way to host video in the browser. The more agreeable part of it all is that serious games in the browser is as certain as serious video in the browser.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

A modern MMO can take six hours or more to download on an average connection.

IF you can get comparable performance and quality in the browser, I don't think there's any question that this would be a huge shift in the market.

It also has implications for the viability of user-created content and mods for all sorts of games, if you've got smooth live streaming of content rather than storing the world on everybody's hard drive.

And it makes it easier to construct walkways and tunnels between the walled gardens.

Maybe that's why I'm skeptical. The potential is soooooo BIG, I don't dare hope it'll happen that fast.