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WebGL. I spent ~10 years doing Flash / ActionScript and when Jobs nixed the mobile Flash plugin, I figured everything would shift to HTML5 / WebGL. Nope. The er

by shove 9y ago

WebGL. I spent ~10 years doing Flash / ActionScript and when Jobs nixed the mobile Flash plugin, I figured everything would shift to HTML5 / WebGL. Nope. The era of fancy, interactive websites faded into the rearview mirror. I'm sure most of you don't miss it, but there was so much amazing work. Rather than the budgets shifting to Three.js etc, it went to apps or dried up completely.

disease 9y ago
There is still demand for interactive, animated and "flashy" websites in the educational sector.
- shove 9y ago
  Any way you slice it, demand is probably less than a tenth what it once was.
gilbetron 9y ago
WebGL is fantastic, but writing compelling software with it is significantly more difficult than just using "normal" web libraries because you have to be able to think in rendering terms, use linear algebra (a bit), etc. And the thing is, it turns out it is really difficult to find something to do using WebGL that isn't easier to understand in a normal 2D visualization. I think there is great stuff to be done (and is done) with WebGL, but most of it is in the background and subtle. "Walking through a data world" is just a dumb idea, for lots of reasons. But using WebGL to speed up 2D visualizations works great, as is using it to make more interesting 2D visualizations. However, that is a subtle art.
hutzlibu 9y ago
Since in my experience WebGL is still not really stable on many devices (especially mobile), I think its time, combined with wasm, is about to come ...
culot 9y ago
Back in like 1994 I was certain that RoboBoard BBS software was the future of the online world. But no.
- shove 9y ago
  That’s a pretty deep troll
billconan 9y ago
I thought about the this. The reason that 3D web hasn't been big is because, the most effective way of making and consuming content is via natural language, or text. text, by its nature, is 2D. 3D won't be mainstream, because it's too demanding to make.
- billconan 9y ago
  unless, people invent some device like camera, which simplifies 3d content capturing, making it as easy as taking pictures and video.
kyle-rb 9y ago
WebGL is really cool, but in my personal experience, pretty hard to pick up, at least with no prior experience in graphics rendering type stuff. There's a lot of overhead to do relatively simple stuff. (In 3D anyway.) In retrospect I maybe should have just started with ThreeJS or another higher level abstraction.

by shove 9y ago

disease 9y ago

There is still demand for interactive, animated and "flashy" websites in the educational sector.

shove 9y ago
Any way you slice it, demand is probably less than a tenth what it once was.

gilbetron 9y ago

WebGL is fantastic, but writing compelling software with it is significantly more difficult than just using "normal" web libraries because you have to be able to think in rendering terms, use linear algebra (a bit), etc. And the thing is, it turns out it is really difficult to find something to do using WebGL that isn't easier to understand in a normal 2D visualization. I think there is great stuff to be done (and is done) with WebGL, but most of it is in the background and subtle. "Walking through a data world" is just a dumb idea, for lots of reasons. But using WebGL to speed up 2D visualizations works great, as is using it to make more interesting 2D visualizations. However, that is a subtle art.

hutzlibu 9y ago

Since in my experience WebGL is still not really stable on many devices (especially mobile), I think its time, combined with wasm, is about to come ...

culot 9y ago

Back in like 1994 I was certain that RoboBoard BBS software was the future of the online world. But no.

shove 9y ago
That’s a pretty deep troll

billconan 9y ago

I thought about the this. The reason that 3D web hasn't been big is because, the most effective way of making and consuming content is via natural language, or text. text, by its nature, is 2D. 3D won't be mainstream, because it's too demanding to make.

billconan 9y ago
unless, people invent some device like camera, which simplifies 3d content capturing, making it as easy as taking pictures and video.

kyle-rb 9y ago

WebGL is really cool, but in my personal experience, pretty hard to pick up, at least with no prior experience in graphics rendering type stuff. There's a lot of overhead to do relatively simple stuff. (In 3D anyway.) In retrospect I maybe should have just started with ThreeJS or another higher level abstraction.