Book Image

Real-Time 3D Graphics with WebGL 2 - Second Edition

By : Farhad Ghayour, Diego Cantor
5 (1)
Book Image

Real-Time 3D Graphics with WebGL 2 - Second Edition

5 (1)
By: Farhad Ghayour, Diego Cantor

Overview of this book

As highly interactive applications have become an increasingly important part of the user experience, WebGL is a unique and cutting-edge technology that brings hardware-accelerated 3D graphics to the web. Packed with 80+ examples, this book guides readers through the landscape of real-time computer graphics using WebGL 2. Each chapter covers foundational concepts in 3D graphics programming with various implementations. Topics are always associated with exercises for a hands-on approach to learning. This book presents a clear roadmap to learning real-time 3D computer graphics with WebGL 2. 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 3D computer graphics topics, including rendering, colors, textures, transformations, framebuffers, lights, surfaces, blending, geometry construction, advanced techniques, and more. With each chapter, you will "level up" your 3D graphics programming skills. This book will become your trustworthy companion in developing highly interactive 3D web applications with WebGL and JavaScript.
Table of Contents (14 chapters)

OpenGL ES Shading Language (ESSL)

The OpenGL ES Shading Language (ESSL) is the language we'll use to write our shaders. Its syntax and semantics are very similar to C/C++. However, it has types and built-in functions that make it easier to manipulate vectors and matrices. In this section, we will cover the basics of ESSL so that we can start using it right away.

GLSL and ESSL

It’s quite common for developers to refer to the shading language used in WebGL as GLSL. However, it is technically ESSL. WebGl2 is built on the OpenGL ES 3.0 spec and therefore uses ESSL, which is a subset of GLSL (the shading language for OpenGL).

This section summarizes the official GLSL ES specifications. You can find the complete reference at https://www.khronos.org/registry/OpenGL/specs/es/3.0/GLSL_ES_Specification_3.00.pdf.
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