Ask HN: Is webgl a good idea that will never quite make it?

2 points·forgotAgain··4 comments

For a while it seemed that all webgl needed for widespread acceptance was mobile Safari support. That hasn't happened. I'd like to take advantage of the capabilities it offers but the risk of losing any investment made in the technology seems very high at this point.

Is webgl a good idea that will never quite make it?

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I kind of like where webgl is right now. I wouldn't say it didn't make it. Every time I see a website using webgl these days it makes sense, but I rarely if ever think - "this could use some webgl".

So it really depends on what you mean by "will never quite make it". What exactly did you expect to happen after Safari? I'm quite happy webgl isn't everywhere like flash was ("I need a menu with mouseover effect - I know, flash!")

"will never quite make it" expresses my concerns that native apps have made high performance graphics in web apps a secondary concern. Basically if you want high performance graphics then you should develop a native app.

WebGL is being utilized in Google Maps which has massive adoption. There are even whole browser based game engines like PlayCanvas - see https://playcanvas.com - that rely on WebGL. You have to remember, WebGL only gained full cross-device support a year ago. You're only going to see more and more uses of the API in the coming months and years.

It made it--just a lot of sites don't use it ( http://caniuse.com/#search=webgl ).

It's not a good idea (for certain reasons isomorphic to what makes OpenGL not a good idea), but it works just fine.

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