5 ms·

Has anyone ever got Blender to run in WebGL using emscripten? That seems like it would be pretty awesome.

greggman 8y ago
there's Clara.io yea I know not the same as blender in emscripten but the same as in a pro modeling package in the browser I think the biggest hurdle tho is data. 3d editors generally need access to 100s of megs of data so you'll likely hit a wall pretty quick past a certain size. no idea how clara.io handles that
- bayesian_horse 8y ago
  You can get around that by having much of it in the cloud or avoiding things like huge textures and the likes. Then again, browser processes with hundreds of megs of RAM aren't exactly unknown. Blender can actually be quite efficient in terms of memory. I have been using it as a command line application at times, because it starts up really fast.
bayesian_horse 8y ago
I would consider that a very hard and pointless port. Blender is extremely complex and has a ton of dependencies.
- ddtaylor 8y ago
  Do you think users want to download and execute binaries versus using web apps?
  - bildung 8y ago
    Just as an anecdote: If the problem is anything non-trivial or anything with graphics, a web app would be a clear pass for me.
    - solarkraft 8y ago
      Gravit designer (designer.io) is a graphics app (photo, illustration, vector stuff) running performantly in The browser. It's a great example of how good a web app can be. Many web apps I find terrible and I'm sure it uses a bunch more resources than it would need to, but it runs on my FOSS operating system of choice and really works quite well.
  - bayesian_horse 8y ago
    I'd prefer to download a 100+Mb binary once versus downloading the 100+Mb web app a couple of times. Blender is one of those applications which is meant for people spending countless hours in it. Installation convenience just doesn't count.
    - ddtaylor 8y ago
      Do you think it's possible for a web app to utilize caching? We may be in a position right now where WebGL is new-ish but this is changing and 5-10 years from now the difference between a native and webapp likely won't be much. It seems silly to argue that users should go through an extra step / give large amounts of trust to an application if they don't need to.
      - wtetzner 8y ago
        > users should go through an extra step / give large amounts of trust If it's a webapp, then you have to trust that the application won't disappear overnight, or be changed it ways you don't like. If you have downloaded the software, you can continue to use it. There are trade-offs in both directions.
        ddtaylor 8y ago
        Good point.
      - bayesian_horse 8y ago
        Caching is imperfect, and software does change from time to time. WebGL is great, and can be used to great effect. Blender, at least since 2.8, is definitely exceeding whatever WebGL could provide.
  - rootlocus 8y ago
    What a useless question. Just in the segment of 3D art you have: 3DS Max, Maya, MODO, ZBrush, 3D Coat, Houdini and many many others, some of which are gigabyte large and nobody ever thought they should be served as web apps. People still use offline software without problems. Even developers use large IDEs or even code editors offline. It's not like you have to download it every time you use it. Loading and linking binaries is also orders of magnitude faster than fetching resources over HTTP and executing JS in the browser.
  - rebuilder 8y ago
    Yes a thousand times. I use Blender in a professional setting, and the way it works is you set your software up and you do not touch it in the middle of a production if you can help it at all. No upgrades to newer versions, and certainly you don't use webapps. The risk of something breaking to new bugs, backward incompatiblity or hosting unavailability is unacceptable.
  - solarkraft 8y ago
    Do you think I want to download and execute binaries every time I start the program?

there's Clara.io yea I know not the same as blender in emscripten but the same as in a pro modeling package in the browser I think the biggest hurdle tho is data. 3d editors generally need access to 100s of megs of data so you'll likely hit a wall pretty quick past a certain size. no idea how clara.io handles that

bayesian_horse 8y ago
You can get around that by having much of it in the cloud or avoiding things like huge textures and the likes. Then again, browser processes with hundreds of megs of RAM aren't exactly unknown. Blender can actually be quite efficient in terms of memory. I have been using it as a command line application at times, because it starts up really fast.

bayesian_horse 8y ago

I would consider that a very hard and pointless port. Blender is extremely complex and has a ton of dependencies.

ddtaylor 8y ago
Do you think users want to download and execute binaries versus using web apps?
- bildung 8y ago
  Just as an anecdote: If the problem is anything non-trivial or anything with graphics, a web app would be a clear pass for me.
  - solarkraft 8y ago
    Gravit designer (designer.io) is a graphics app (photo, illustration, vector stuff) running performantly in The browser. It's a great example of how good a web app can be. Many web apps I find terrible and I'm sure it uses a bunch more resources than it would need to, but it runs on my FOSS operating system of choice and really works quite well.
- bayesian_horse 8y ago
  I'd prefer to download a 100+Mb binary once versus downloading the 100+Mb web app a couple of times. Blender is one of those applications which is meant for people spending countless hours in it. Installation convenience just doesn't count.
  - ddtaylor 8y ago
    Do you think it's possible for a web app to utilize caching? We may be in a position right now where WebGL is new-ish but this is changing and 5-10 years from now the difference between a native and webapp likely won't be much. It seems silly to argue that users should go through an extra step / give large amounts of trust to an application if they don't need to.
    - wtetzner 8y ago
      > users should go through an extra step / give large amounts of trust If it's a webapp, then you have to trust that the application won't disappear overnight, or be changed it ways you don't like. If you have downloaded the software, you can continue to use it. There are trade-offs in both directions.
      - ddtaylor 8y ago
        Good point.
    - bayesian_horse 8y ago
      Caching is imperfect, and software does change from time to time. WebGL is great, and can be used to great effect. Blender, at least since 2.8, is definitely exceeding whatever WebGL could provide.
- rootlocus 8y ago
  What a useless question. Just in the segment of 3D art you have: 3DS Max, Maya, MODO, ZBrush, 3D Coat, Houdini and many many others, some of which are gigabyte large and nobody ever thought they should be served as web apps. People still use offline software without problems. Even developers use large IDEs or even code editors offline. It's not like you have to download it every time you use it. Loading and linking binaries is also orders of magnitude faster than fetching resources over HTTP and executing JS in the browser.
- rebuilder 8y ago
  Yes a thousand times. I use Blender in a professional setting, and the way it works is you set your software up and you do not touch it in the middle of a production if you can help it at all. No upgrades to newer versions, and certainly you don't use webapps. The risk of something breaking to new bugs, backward incompatiblity or hosting unavailability is unacceptable.
- solarkraft 8y ago
  Do you think I want to download and execute binaries every time I start the program?