WebGL Camp #3

Reflections: WebGL Camp #3 @Google Mountain View (June 10th 2011) R. Ates Gursimsek (Roskilde University) ates@ruc.dk http://worlds.ruc.dk - Human Engines: Rachid el Guerrah, the president of the company, made a videoconference presentation, in which he introduced their 3-year old startup.‟ Human Engines‟ aims to deliver 3d content with high performance, provide hardware-centric optimizations for using content in tablets and mobile devices, and solve many performance and optimization issues. They also collaborate with Google to develop optimized WebGL demonstrations.

- Tony Parisi is the co-inventor of VRML. His title was „A Brief History of 3D on the Web”, where he provided a “history lesson” which begins with the “Virtual Banana” he created with Mark Pesce in 1994. Chronologically, Parisi mentioned VRML and emergence of 3D models and hyperlinks in pages (1994); VRML97 and animation, scripting and interactivity in Netscape/IE browsers (1997); X3D, XML and skimming, programmable pipeline, multitexturing (2004), COLLADA as an exchange standard for 3D (2007); and finally, WebGL (2011). According to his “Parisiometer”, major potential threats to 3D on the Web are: immaturity & incompatibility & infighting & inaccessibility & ill timing.

- Tim Johansson presented the Opera browser from Norway. Opera was released on March 2011 and the platform supports 3d through OpenGL. Currently, Opera supports only Windows, but Direct3D and Linux/Mac support is on its way.

- Altered Qualia presented two inspirational projects: “three.js” and “RO.ME”. Three.js application creates procedural geometries (cube, plane etc) by using vertices (triangles and quads) and transform affordances. Lightweight 3D engine provides low quality but effective components that contain modeling, texturing, lighting/shader effects, etc. Most complex three.js project is RO.ME, which is an interactive movie built on user generated elements on social media. 3D and 2D animations & videos are used in the RO.ME project, and smaller videos with two optional resolutions and smaller refresh rates are afforded to overcome texture memory & bandwidth issues. Assets in RO.ME are mostly created by 3D Studio Maxand Maya, scene composition was made by Blender, and programming was mainly done by using Python.

- Remi Arnaud (Screampoint) on REST 3D API: The major aim of REST 3D is getting data from the server onto the browser. Representational State Transfer (REST) is a system architecture, not a file standard. Most web interfaces put humans in the loop (to organize and modify the archives) and a 3D software (or a viewer) for accessing the 3D assets (i.e. Turbosquid) . The REST 3D API proposes affordances for storing, collaborative browsing and viewing of models by providing a URL link to the scene. In other words; “it‟s a WIKI for 3D”!

- Vangelis Kokkevis presented the version of Google Body Browser and the funny “Google Cow” (made as an April‟s Fool trick) Kokkevis calls the body Browser as “Google Earth of human body”.

It is possible to zoom in & out with varying levels of detail inside the body, select particular organs

Reflections: WebGL Camp #3 @Google Mountain View (June 10th 2011) R. Ates Gursimsek (Roskilde University) ates@ruc.dk http://worlds.ruc.dk or systems, move around, etc.. The 2nd version offers some new functions, such as use of both female and male figures, posting links to Facebook, hiding unnecessary details etc. Google Body Browser uses pure HTML and Java script app for the UI, and it‟s working on WebGL for rendering.

Won Chun, who is also working on optimizing Google‟s Web search, sets the aims of challenges as providing simpler, faster and more compact meshes for WebGL - Henrik Bennetsen (Ourbricks): Katalabs is the developer of OurBricks, a new Web platform for storing, sharing and displaying 3D content using Collada as an exchangeable file format and WebGL for in-browser visualization. I have been following Bennetsen‟s works and his company Katalabs for a while now, as their MUVE KataSpace and OurBricks offer an innovative new way of co-creating content for Web3D. In his presentation Bennetsen referred to the idea of Remix Cultures and „standing on shoulders of giants‟ as a strategy to build a participatory 3D content platform. As for Bennetsen, 3D content is moving out of walled gardens to open Web, and we desperately need to define what new the “third place” in this new medium could be. As mentioned before, Ourbricks uses COLLADA to enable flow of content easily between modeling tools and media devices. Katalabs built a Blender plug- in for Ourbricks, in order to afford modeling in 3d authoring environment, and using the plug-in to place into OurBricks archive, or Kataspace‟s multiuser sandbox. Bennetsen also mentioned “Igad.nl”, a game-designers forum who is using OurBricks to showcase and share their creations. By gaining inspiration from the legendry LEGOs, Bennetsen draws a path to a “mainstream 3D”, that is “3D for the web”.

- Alexandar Rodić : Rodić presented two of his projects, Chrysaora and his works on RO.ME. It was really nice to see him again after the previous WebGL Developers Meetup in San Francisco, where he was among the audience while Ken Russell (Google) was presenting his works as succesfull WebGL use-cases. Now that he was a presenter at the WebGL Camp, we had the chance to learn more about his innovative and shockingly beautiful works on WebGL. - Neil Trevett (VP of NVIDIA, president of Khronos Group): I‟ve also had a chance to listen to Trevett at last month‟s WebGL Dev Meetup, and as always, he‟s been defining the current status of technology and pushing the limits of imagination from the developers‟ side. For Trevett, “WebGL = 3D on Web – No plug-ins”. Khronos Group is a consortium of various IT companies to develop open standards to 3D content on the Web, including WebGL and OpenGL that works for both desktops and mobile devices. Increasing devices and capabilities of content production/visualization and market growth driven by rich user experiences are some of the present reasons why consortiums and communities such as Khronos are based more on collaboration and knowledge sharing, instead of individual work and innovation approaches.

Trevett explained the reason why Khronos Group exists: to provide a safe place for industry cooperation, which is open to any company who wants to join, and protect members by safeguarding the use of IPs of developers on collaborative grounds. COLLADA is a vital element of

Reflections: WebGL Camp #3 @Google Mountain View (June 10th 2011) R. Ates Gursimsek (Roskilde University) ates@ruc.dk http://worlds.ruc.dk the large 3D world, as it provides transfer of 3D assets from one platform to another. Being royaltyfree is also important for market collaboration. Since WebGL initiative brings parallel computing to browsers, and places 3D with image and video editing in modern browsers, security is also top priority. Khronos welcomes companies to join : info@khronosgroup.org - Nicolas Garcia Belmonte Sencha (PhiloGL): PhiloGL is a platform for 3D visualization of dynamic data and real-time color 3D histogram analysis. PhiloGL works on Java Script for lightweight 3D data visualization, and the developers state that they‟re focusing mostly on performance.

- John Pywtorak (SRI International): SRI has been developing KUDA: World Editor , which affords authoring 3D content in web browser, and add interactive behavior into 3D assets. SRI believes that while an API makes sense to programmers, GUIs make sense to nonprogrammers without much scripting to do particle effects by interface tools. KUDA: World Editor is not intuitive enough though, since it is still in development. But at least, users have a GUI to try and learn easily how to create objects, trigger actions in the browser tool, put camera on a curve and animate a scene, and directly publish project on web through HTML. It‟s also possible to create parametric animations via the GUI, which sounds very promising for designers and web artists who have no time or interest in learning complicated programming languages.

- Monte Watson & Desmond Eduwa (JHT Inc): JHT Inc. has been using KUDA for training government workers in a live production environment for US Department of Energy, building installation and inspection simulations. JHT focuses on creating activity storyboards by utilizing artist and programmer collaboration, modeling at 3D Max, exporting assets in COLLADA and Google‟s Json file converter, verifing in Kuda Editor, appling programming templates and reviewing the experience in VE. Watson also mentioned how they are portraying/animating workers‟ avatars in 3D for actions, which they define as „3D activity in course-ware‟. JHT‟s interactive simulations for Department of Energy include modeling the place and situation (gas leaks, fire etc) and practicing in interactive environment. After submitting the activity, GUI evaluates performance in relation to the purpose.

- Ken Russell (Chair of WebGL Working Group, Google): The final presentation of the day was about Google‟s vision on WebGL and creation of 3D virtual assets online. Russel also mentioned the new security advisory, which includes denial of service in cases of cross-domain image theft and abuse of the content. Chris Rogers followed Russel and introducedWeb Audio API for game engines that use java script but also web-based music applications, such as Dinah Moe‟s very exciting music-making tool „ToneCraft‟.