Web3D News Story #5

Brower-based 3D Game Engine Created Using Only HTML and JavaScript

Newer web browsers such as Safari, Firefox and Opera have added support for the new canvas html tag. The tag is a push from smaller developers to encourage the inclusion of non-W3C standard functionality in web browsers to create more dynamic web applications. It is gaining popularity, despite a lack of support from Microsoft. Internet Explorer (IE), currently the most popular web browser avaible, doesn't support the tag. It will be difficult to gain significant popularity without IE support. The tag allows a bitmap image to be drawn onscreen. It is an easy to integrate feature which was before only possible by implementing complicated languages such as Flash and Java. Benjamin Joffe has used the tag, combined with JavaScript, to create a simple 3D FPS engine known as Canvascape - 3D Walker. It's nothing more than a proof of concept right now, but it shows the possibilities of the tag. Similar 3D Java/Shockwave/Flash applications are slower and oftentimes less stable, because there is no native support built into the browser. The canvas tag of course is not as complex as these languages, but there are great possibilities for its use. To see the game, go to http://www.abrahamjoffe.com.au/ben/canvascape/