Some old-timers may instinctively scoff at the notion of creating a 3D environment in a web browser, using only JavaScript (and maybe some GL shader language). Is it really supported by all modern browsers? Is it accelerated? Does it perform well on mobile devices? Does it have the same capabilities found in a native graphics library that I'd want?
Well, more or less yes. There may be some skeptics out there, especially those who remember the first real attempt at 3D graphics on the web long ago, using virtual reality markup language (VRML). That was an attempt to implement 3D animations with standardized markup rendered via browser plugins, and, quite honestly it was not all that awesome, and we should probably forget it ever existed. Those days are long behind us now, fortunately.
Let's talk about WebGL. It's a well-defined API standard maintained by the Khronos non-profit group, along with other OpenGL-related standards. It is supported by nearly all major browsers, with the usual...