Ask HN: Creating full websites using WebGL?

Posted by lungful on Tuesday July 22, 2014 @02:29PM
from the ask-hn dept.

I was amazed by many webGL online examples and demos and it made me wonder why webGL isn't being used everywhere to create complete websites already.

Am I missing something here? Is webGL too hard to use (even with libraries like three.js), or is it browser compatibility issues? Why is it that I'm not seeing webGL implemented everywhere online already? Isn't it better in most aspects visually speaking?

( 6 comments | 5 points | on HN )

Re:Ask HN: Creating full websites using WebGL? by _random_ on Tuesday July 22, 2014 @02:33PM (#8070759)

This would be ideal, we just need some brave people. Then add XAML support, and we can finally have <grid> instead of a <table-bootstrap-crap class="are-you-serious">.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Creating full websites using WebGL? by flohofwoe on Tuesday July 22, 2014 @03:37PM (#8071137)

For websites that don't need text or layout WebGL might actually be a good option. If you need text or layout, then you would need to write a text- and layout engine in JS+WebGL and duplicate what the browser already does anyway, so the web site would have to be quite heavy. Both can wonderfully work hand-in-hand however, as demonstrated here: http://acko.net/

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Creating full websites using WebGL? by muyyatin on Tuesday July 22, 2014 @03:01PM (#8070932)

It's somewhat similar to a Flash-only website, since it has less support and most notably lacks many of the features HTML makes easy (search engine indexing, browser search-and-find, ease of development, layout, and separation of content from style).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Creating full websites using WebGL? by theandrewbailey on Tuesday July 22, 2014 @02:59PM (#8070911)

I think it's because the web is a document based system, and very few collections of documents are worth viewing in a 3D environment, especially without looking cheezy, fake, or being distracting. It's much the same reason that 3D Word docs and PDFs aren't popular.

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Re:Ask HN: Creating full websites using WebGL? by schmidtc on Tuesday July 22, 2014 @02:32PM (#8070745)

Support isn't great...

http://caniuse.com/webgl

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Re:Ask HN: Creating full websites using WebGL? by jev on Tuesday July 22, 2014 @04:43PM (#8071455)

Text is hard, and HTML/CSS has a monopoly on it in the browser.

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