Sign In Start Free Trial
Account

Add to playlist

Create a Playlist

Modal Close icon
You need to login to use this feature.
  • Book Overview & Buying WebGL Beginner's Guide
  • Table Of Contents Toc
WebGL Beginner's Guide

WebGL Beginner's Guide

4.2 (9)
close
close
WebGL Beginner's Guide

WebGL Beginner's Guide

4.2 (9)

Overview of this book

WebGL is a new web technology that brings hardware-accelerated 3D graphics to the browser without installing additional software. As WebGL is based on OpenGL and brings in a new concept of 3D graphics programming to web development, it may seem unfamiliar to even experienced Web developers.Packed with many examples, this book shows how WebGL can be easy to learn despite its unfriendly appearance. Each chapter addresses one of the important aspects of 3D graphics programming and presents different alternatives for its implementation. The topics are always associated with exercises that will allow the reader to put the concepts to the test in an immediate manner.WebGL Beginner's Guide presents a clear road map to learning WebGL. Each chapter starts with a summary of the learning goals for the chapter, followed by a detailed description of each topic. The book offers example-rich, up-to-date introductions to a wide range of essential WebGL topics, including drawing, color, texture, transformations, framebuffers, light, surfaces, geometry, and more. With each chapter, you will "level up"ù your 3D graphics programming skills. This book will become your trustworthy companion filled with the information required to develop cool-looking 3D web applications with WebGL and JavaScript.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
close
close
WebGL Beginner's Guide
Credits
About the Authors
Acknowledgement
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
1
Index

Structure of a WebGL application


As in any 3D graphics library, in WebGL, you need certain components to be present to create a 3D scene. These fundamental elements will be covered in the first four chapters of the book. Starting from Chapter 5, Action, we will cover elements that are not required to have a working 3D scene such as colors and textures and then later on we will move to more advanced topics.

The components we are referring to are as follows:

  • Canvas: It is the placeholder where the scene will be rendered. It is a standard HTML5 element and as such, it can be accessed using the Document Object Model (DOM) through JavaScript.

  • Objects: These are the 3D entities that make up part of the scene. These entities are composed of triangles. In Chapter 2, Rendering Geometry, we will see how WebGL handles geometry. We will use WebGL buffers to store polygonal data and we will see how WebGL uses these buffers to render the objects in the scene.

  • Lights: Nothing in a 3D world can be seen if there are no lights. This element of any WebGL application will be explored in Chapter 3, Lights!. We will learn that WebGL uses shaders to model lights in the scene. We will see how 3D objects reflect or absorb light according to the laws of physics and we will also discuss different light models that we can create in WebGL to visualize our objects.

  • Camera: The canvas acts as the viewport to the 3D world. We see and explore a 3D scene through it. In Chapter 4, Camera, we will understand the different matrix operations that are required to produce a view perspective. We will also understand how these operations can be modeled as a camera.

This chapter will cover the first element of our list—the canvas. We will see in the coming sections how to create a canvas and how to set up a WebGL context.

CONTINUE READING
83
Tech Concepts
36
Programming languages
73
Tech Tools
Icon Unlimited access to the largest independent learning library in tech of over 8,000 expert-authored tech books and videos.
Icon Innovative learning tools, including AI book assistants, code context explainers, and text-to-speech.
Icon 50+ new titles added per month and exclusive early access to books as they are being written.
WebGL Beginner's Guide
notes
bookmark Notes and Bookmarks search Search in title playlist Add to playlist font-size Font size

Change the font size

margin-width Margin width

Change margin width

day-mode Day/Sepia/Night Modes

Change background colour

Close icon Search
Country selected

Close icon Your notes and bookmarks

Confirmation

Modal Close icon
claim successful

Buy this book with your credits?

Modal Close icon
Are you sure you want to buy this book with one of your credits?
Close
YES, BUY

Submit Your Feedback

Modal Close icon
Modal Close icon
Modal Close icon