Beyond the buzzword "HTML5," a whole bundle of new technologies has found entry into browsers on desktop and mobile devices [1]. Among them is one that opens the door to the 3D world: WebGL. The Web Graphics Library [2] is a JavaScript interface for the OpenGL 3D library. With it, normal HTML pages can include three-dimensional content that runs on the graphics card with hardware acceleration.

WebGL has been implemented in Mozilla Firefox (from version 4), Opera (from version 12), and Google Chrome (from version 9) desktop browsers. Because the Khronos Group used OpenGL for Embedded Systems (OpenGL ES) as the foundation, it also can be used under Android with Firefox for mobile devices and Opera Mobile.

Although the idea to bring 3D applications to the web is not new, all previous attempts like VRML, Java applets with Java-3D/JOGL, and 3D Flash have reached only a limited audience because of low performance or the need to install special viewers and Java libraries. Thanks to the broad support WebGL enjoys in browsers, for the first time, developers can now expect a larger user group.

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