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Google map was the one of the first web applications that revolutionized the web with Ajax. This new Google map could be another one that revolutionize the indu
by kailuowang 13y ago
Google map was the one of the first web applications that revolutionized the web with Ajax. This new Google map could be another one that revolutionize the industry again with WebGL.
- eridius 13y agoIt's too bad WebGL isn't usable yet. It's still disabled by default in multiple popular browsers, and in the browsers that have it enabled, it's a security risk (which is precisely the reason why some browsers, such as Safari, don't enable it).
- cscheid 13y agoWhich security risks are you talking about? In the spec or in the implementations? Currently, the biggest security risk in WebGL is, indirectly, your graphics driver. As an example, the latest security problem with WebGL was in OS X and had to to with exposing uninitialized memory contents. Of course, it is true that graphics driver writers are only now warming up to the fact that a webpage shouldn't cause a kernel panic and that it shouldn't leak uninitialized memory. Still, the WebGL spec itself has fixed all of the early problems it had. Sorry if you were aware of this distinction! I hear many people talking about WebGL security issues as they existed in the draft, and I think some clarification of the public opinion is in order.
- eridius 13y agoI'm talking about the OpenGL drivers. They were never intended to be exposed to untrusted code running on web pages, so they haven't really been hardened appropriately.
- cscheid 13y agoHave you given it a shot recently? I work with WebGL on a daily basis, and they are incomparably better now than they were not even 2 years ago. (And, to be perfectly nitpicky, in Windows you'd be blaming Direct3D drivers ;) ANGLE compiles WebGL to Direct3D.)
- snotrockets 13y agoOnly to untrusted binaries on your machine. Not caring about attacks from the local user is what got Microsoft tons of (justified) bad PR not ten years ago.
- eridius 13y agoOnce you're running an untrusted binary on your machine, the game's already over.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- duaneb 13y agoWell, it's apps like these that pressure browser vendors (and the OS vendors who have existing vulnerabilities) to push for the feature.
- spyder 13y agoTwo years ago they had an experimental version of Maps that used WebGL and was much smoother than the current one, but they removed it for some reason: https://support.google.com/maps/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1630790 https://support.google.com/maps/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answ...
- kawsper 13y agoI think it was because of the maturity of WebGL in browsers 2 years back.
- scribu 13y agoI don't know about you, but I always had the "Want to try MapsGL?" link down in the left sidebar. Now, since I did have MapsGL enabled, it says it's been integrated into the new Google Maps that's being previewed here.
- jonemo 13y agoCan't try the current one ("request an invite") but I used the experimental version you mention and it always had a pretty poor performance for me, even on brand new hardware which handles other webGL demos and my own webGL projects pretty well. So I guess what this shows is that webGL is still pretty hardware and implementation dependent.
- threeseed 13y agoCalm down with the hyperbole. I mean have you EVER tried WebGL ? It is not ready for prime time and I shudder to think what people on older machines or laptops are going to experience.
- manicbovine 13y ago... or just a standard business class laptop without a semi-powerful GPU.
- ninkendo 13y agoI think the same mentality was probably held about AJAX before google maps was out.