3D Graphics Technologies for Web Applications : An Evaluation from the Perspective of a Real World Application

Abstract: Web applications are becoming increasingly sophisticated and functionality that was once exclusive to regular desktop applications can now be found in web applications as well. One of the more recent advances in this field is the ability for web applications to render 3D graphics. Coupled with the growing number of devices with graphics processors and the ability of web applications to run on many different platforms using a single code base, this represents an exciting new possibility for developers of 3D graphics applications. This thesis aims to explore and evaluate the technologies for 3D graphics that can be used in web applications, with the final goal of using one of them in a prototype application. This prototype will serve as a foundation for an application to be included in a commercial product. The evaluation is performed using general criteria so as to be useful for other applications as well, with one part presenting the available technologies and another part evaluating the three most promising technologies more in-depth using test programs. The results show that, although some technologies are not production-ready, there are a few which can be used in commercial software, including the three chosen for further evaluation; WebGL, the Java library JOGL and Stage 3D for Flash. Among these, there is no clear winner and it is up to the application requirements to decide which to use. The thesis demonstrates an application built with WebGL and shows that fairly demanding 3D graphics web applications can be built. Also included are the lessons learned during the development and thoughts on the future of 3D graphics in web applications.