11 ms·
BMW i8 in WebGL
- dvh 11y agoWhen you enter and steer the driving wheel and then get out, the wheels are also turned :)
- benbou09 11y agoBut you can't honk :)
- Skunkleton 11y agoI think this might not be a real bmw...
- cbd1984 11y ago> I think this might not be a real bmw... Yeah. It's been a half-hour and it hasn't needed maintenance.
- ponyous 11y agoI love camera behaviour! Good job
- jamesfmilne 11y agoJust wanted to chime in and agree, the camera control is slick. So many 3D apps have atrocious camera controls.
- m52go 11y agoThis is stunning. Excellent work!
- mixedbit 11y agoBeautifully done. I particularly like the lights glow effect.
- iMark 11y agoI remember waiting 30 minutes for a crappy vrml model of the Enterprise to download over a 28k modem years ago. This is both impressive, and makes me feel very old.
- sakopov 11y agoExactly! Now this loads on my phone!
- fmueller 11y agoThat's because it's not a phone but a computer which can be used as a phone.
- Skunkleton 11y agoJust like the other other computers that I own that can be used as a toaster, and a fridge!
- irishcoffee 11y agoI recently applied for homeowners insurance, buying my first house, and one of the optional coverages was "computer insurance" for like 3 bucks a year or something silly. The first thing that crossed my mind was: "Well, does that cover the washer/dryer, microwave, dishwasher, oven, coffeepot" etc. I didn't ask, but the thought was amusing to me.
- otabdeveloper1 11y agoIt locks up my browser and takes 20 seconds to render one frame. (I guess that would be 0.05 FPS.) So: no, not really impressive. Feels like a regression, actually. (At least the mobile devices of 2015 managed to do 3D acceleration properly. Too bad that desktop never caught up and that the mobile landscape formed by accident due to commoditization, not due to an understanding of open standards.)
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- phoboslab 11y agoReally nice work. This doesn't seem to an official site of BMW, though!? Porsche[1] and Renault[2] did something similar lately. It's great to see WebGL used for this in production. Honestly, I'm surprised it took so long. Visualizing cars with WebGL seems like a no brainer, especially when most current websites load dozens of images for their "360° views". [1] http://www.porsche.com/microsite/911/germany.aspx#showroom/911-carrera-s/3/3/0/0/0 http://www.porsche.com/microsite/911/germany.aspx#showroom/9... [2] http://www.littleworkshop.fr/renaultespace/ http://www.littleworkshop.fr/renaultespace/
- mizzao 11y agoThis has to be lifted from some internal BMW models, though - or maybe the creator wants to get a job there?
- bd 11y agoPlenty of BMW i8 models out there: http://www.turbosquid.com/Search/Index.cfm?featureID=5360209c-aed8-4173-add6-4de214570042 http://www.turbosquid.com/Search/Index.cfm?featureID=5360209... This was done by PlayCanvas, so the goal is marketing of their platform / engine.
- TazeTSchnitzel 11y agoPlayCanvas also have a site that lets you view an iPhone in 360°, presumably for marketing that their engine can be used for product demos.
- jasonkester 11y agoTo whoever it was a few weeks back who said it looks like the i8 was "giving birth to a Porsche", you were right: Once you've seen it, you can't unsee it. As this visualization demonstrates in nice 3d form.
- arethuza 11y agoDon't know about that - I still think the i8 is one of the best looking cars I've seen. (And I've owned a high end BMW in the past that I wasn't hugely impressed with, so it's not like I'm biased in favour of BMW).
- stonewhite 11y agoThis took a short while to figure out, but it is so true. It can be best observed in white-blue color.
- Jack000 11y agoI think the design has a few too many un-necessary flourishes, and it probably won't age very well. It definitely grabs your attention, but in a few years when electric cars are less rare I bet it will look kind of gimmicky.
- galago 11y agoI assume that BMW knows what they're doing and this is a look that the target customer actually wants. Sometimes fashion is about getting noticed, and that can result in design elements that are either ugly or easily dated. It would be interesting to see a "Jony Ive" version with all of the horrible parts removed from the body.
- nocman 11y agoI don't know, I thought it looked pretty cool and I didn't even know it was an electric car.
- jonknee 11y agoIt should be in good company at least, I don't think any 1G electric cars will age well (it's hard finding old parts for cars these days, but I imagine finding old software will be quite tricky).
- middleman90 11y agoImpressive... Congratulations guys at PlayCanvas!
- samuell 11y agoFirst time in a long time that my laptop fan peaks a little :P
- fsloth 11y agoI am perplexed. Modern games are fantastically more visually appealing and contentwise impressive than this. Modern films utilize computer graphics that are far more impressive still. What is it about single model viewer that makes it headline material? It looks nice, though.
- MayorOfMonkeys 11y agoHave you tried it on your mobile? The fact you can experience this kind of content in the mobile browser and even mobile Facebook and Twitter clients without having to visit an app store is new and IMHO, very exciting.
- rimantas 11y agoI think it was Cooper who compared this kind of achievements to dancing bear. Yes, the fact that bear is dancing is amusing, but in no way that negates the fact that that's still very lame dance.
- samsungguy 11y agoI have, and it's painfully slow, even on my Galaxy S6. A single model at 10fps is mot impressive in the least to me.
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- psiops 11y agoVery cool. The look of the turning steering wheel seemed a little off to me though. As if it's slightly off-center.
- lectrick 11y agoAh, the car that fakes internal combustion engine noise when it's running on electric... No thanks. Nice demo though!
- awqrre 11y agoI hope that they only add this fake noise when no radio is playing or that it can easily be disabled.
- greglindahl 11y agoCars with internal fake noise generally have an option to disable it. There are plenty of gas cars with small, turbo engines that have this noise, it's not particular to cars that are part or all electric.
- TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago> Ah, the car that fakes internal combustion engine noise when it's running on electric Cars are legally required to do so, aren't they? Otherwise, electric vehicles would be quiet enough to kill people.
- 15155 11y agoI'm not aware of any statute, it felt very self-regulatory to me.
- lectrick 11y ago> Cars are legally required to do so, aren't they? As an owner of a Tesla, no, there is no such thing (at least in the US), and please stop spreading misinformation (if you are talking about the US). And the car is not COMPLETELY silent... the wheels make noise on the road. I've driven a completely electric car for at least a year, never got even closely into a pedestrian "situation", and I live in a highly populated area (NYC and its suburbs).
- dragonwriter 11y ago> Cars are legally required to do so, aren't they? Not yet in the US, though there are active proposals to change that. > Otherwise, electric vehicles would be quiet enough to kill people. A completely silent car, driven properly, wouldn't kill anyone.
- robodale 11y agoLoading...
- forgotmypassw 11y agoThe scene looks very nice albeit I'm not sure what's so spectacular about displaying a single model? I've noticed someone saying in the thread that it's impressive because you can view it on mobile, but why wouldn't you? Modern phones are equipped with hardware better than the one we had over a decade ago, and we had 3D games back then, so displaying a single higher poly model on way better hardware doesn't really amuse me. Besides, I don't really dig the whole idea of WebGL, but the damage's done already.
- sirival 11y agoWell it's not so much about displaying a single model, but demonstrating the power of physically based rendering using WebGL and the wide range of devices that can be used to view this beautiful content. Current interactive car demos found in official car web sites are much lower quality than this.
- hoorayimhelping 11y ago"So what?" Classic HN. Why does something have to be revolutionary to enjoy it? Why can't you just enjoy it because it's enjoyable? Also, there's a huge difference between "it should be this way" and "it is this way." The fact that the person who made this made it the way it should be is impressive, when so few people seem capable of that.
- ksk 11y ago>Why does something have to be revolutionary to enjoy it? Why can't you just enjoy it because it's enjoyable? If I were to mind read I would say the general objection is usually the over abundance of praise for projects that do not "deserve" it. I can't say that I'm not sympathetic to such viewpoints. For e.g. "You're great at math" can mean anything from you can do long division in your head to you passed college to you won the fields medal. Raising the floor of appreciation reduces the number of bits at the top end to accurately communicate the emotional importance of things. Its a fair criticism in general. The other end of the argument is that encouragement motivates people to greater things, and that certainly is also valid.
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- dahart 11y agoOn an iPad, I can only see the top left quarter of the view.
- apocalyptic0n3 11y agoIn case anyone is having similar issues, this loaded a LOT better in Firefox than Chrome
- Elizer0x0309 11y agoWhy I love graphics programming! Math & Art come together into a holistic whole! Great work!
- stefap2 11y agoIn Firefox I get "Loading...". In IE it shows only a blurry picture of what appears to be the front lights?
- JanSolo 11y agoI LOVED the Orangey-Brown colour scheme so much that I went straight to the BMW website to see if it was really an option that you can buy. Sadly, it's not. /sadface
- Cshelton 11y agoBMW Individual. For a good amount of money, any color scheme, exterior, interior, leather stitching, etc. can be yours. They can do a lot as their "custom" shop is kinda separate. You're almost getting a "hand-built" car. On their website they list a few common Individual options, but if you actually work with a rep, they can do whatever you want.
- mfringel 11y agoI think I flew the orangey-brown one in EVE Online a while ago. Got podded in nullsec. Shame about that.
- jaegerpicker 11y agoIt's a cool demo but I wish it wouldn't autorotate. Makes clicking the door interaction point much more difficult than it should be. A pretty picture over usability decision.
- mynameisvlad 11y agoAutorotation turned off for me once I dragged the first time.
- killer4u77 11y agoThat looks really cool
- atrust 11y agoWell done. This one reminds me http://helloracer.com/webgl/ http://helloracer.com/webgl/.
- elcct 11y agoYou wouldn't download a car?
- randyrand 11y agoIm just curious, do people know that the original is actually "You wouldn't steal a car?" I only every see it as 'download' in comments.
- hyperpallium 11y agoRuns about .1 - .2 fps on my iPhone 4s equivalent potato. They've certainly lost MY expensive-new-car business!
- MayorOfMonkeys 11y agoI'm not sure what's up with your iPhone 4S (although you do say 'equivalent') but on my 4S, I get around 10FPS. Not fast, but usable.
- hyperpallium 11y agoInteresting. It's an android, and the cpu/gpu specs seem close to the 4s, with most 3D openGL apps being fast and smooth. I wonder why you're getting 100x better performance? Could be JS performance, but I'm using the latest FF, which is usually good.
- Mikeb85 11y agoVery nice. Runs full speed (60 fps or so as best as I can tell) on Chrome/Galaxy Note 3.
- pearjuice 11y agoI am a little bit disappointed that it has automatic transmission. But this is probably catered to an American audience, of which the common denominator doesn't even know that manual cars exist. Other than that, really impressive. This only needs some controls and motion, and then you have basic gameplay!
- _jack_ 11y agoand?
- kagia 11y agoIf the author is around, How long did this take? It's slick, but what impresses me most is when I customize the interior from the inside view. Well done!
- h1443091 11y agoReally? IMO the interior looks absolutely dreadful. The knobs aren't even round!
- Shivetya 11y agoVery nice render there. That is one of the few cars which I have to say looks so much better up close than in pictures.
- baldajan 11y agoMIND BLOWN - this is using WebGL? Unbelievable! The only thing I wish it had was more interactions, but as is it demonstrates that WebGL is not just a toy, but something to be taken more seriously in the GL community.
- __jack__ 11y ago"..,but something to be taken more seriously" outside "the GL community"
- TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago> this is using WebGL? Unbelievable! What, have you never seen a WebGL demo before? > it demonstrates that WebGL is not just a toy, but something to be taken more seriously in the GL community. It already is taken seriously. WebGL is merely a variant of OpenGL ES for JavaScript. Heck, the whole of Unity and the Unreal Engine can run on it.
- MayorOfMonkeys 11y agoUnity and Unreal Engine don't support the mobile browser.
- TazeTSchnitzel 11y agoInteresting. That's presumably just due to performance issues, there shouldn't be a technical reason.
- MayorOfMonkeys 11y agoIt's because Unity and Epic cross-compile large codebases to many MBs of JavaScript. This simply overwhelms the JavaScript engines on mobile. The PlayCanvas engine on the other hand is hand-written and is 125KB of JavaScript.
- Cakez0r 11y agoOne of my friends noticed you can see the city skyline cubemap they used, but haven't used as the actual sky in the demo: http://i.imgur.com/NbREnqS.png http://i.imgur.com/NbREnqS.png
- sirival 11y agoThe sky used in the demo is actually the same as the reflection just a very blurred version of it :)
- santaclaus 11y agoSuper cool! Do the camera controls 'invert' when you hop into the car, however? When outside the car, grab a point on the car and drag, and that point roughly tracks where you drag your mouse pointer to. Inside the car, the opposite happens. Grab a point, drag the mouse, and the point moves away from the cursor.
- phusion 11y agoJust sat at loading screen in Chrome Win 7 x64.
- rcurry 11y agoThat is just gorgeous - nice work!
- vegabook 11y agoAwesome, especially in black I think. But WebGL still has an aliasing problem, made worse when we introduce movement. It was the same in the watch movement sim on HN a few days ago. Not to take away from the amazing work of the authors, but are there higher quality anti-aliasing options which won't cause my eye to distract to the high-velocity pixel movements on the car's shutlines as it moves along? (Full HD machine - dunno if this issue disappears at HiDPI). Oh and another thing. PlayCanvas looks great but also looks properly expensive. I'm having to cough some pretty serious dough as a single experimental developer, without even getting above bronze support. Not hugely garage-outfit friendly though I will say it looks very professional.
- MayorOfMonkeys 11y agoThe engine itself is open source (MIT license): https://github.com/playcanvas/engine https://github.com/playcanvas/engine If you want a fancy editor to build more quickly, it's free to work in public. And for 'garage-outfits' that want to work in private, it's $15/month. I wouldn't call that serious dough. My gym membership is $70/month!
- voltagex_ 11y agoSemi-related, are there any "accurate" WebGL models of a working V6/V8 engine?