Google bolsters 3D API for browser

Google this week began offering a "substantial" update to its O3D API for building rich, interactive 3D applications in a browser, tuning it for different types of hardware.

Highlighted at the Google I/O conference in May and shown running in a Google Chrome browser at that time, O3D enables 3D graphics and features a JavaScript API. IT began as an effort to establish an open Web standard for 3D graphics. An update was released Monday.

[ Google is also seeking a faster Web. ]

"With today's release, we focused on addressing a theme we heard in the requests and feedback from the community: That O3D should run as well as possible on many different types of hardware," said Google Product Manager Henry Bridge in a blog post. "Toward that end, we're releasing two new additions: Software rendering and feature requirements. If you've already installed the O3D plugin, you should receive these additions automatically."

Software rendering lets O3D use the main processor to render 3D images if the machine running the application does not have supported graphics hardware. The concept of feature requirements, meanwhile, will help minimize how often O3D has to fall back to software rendering.

"Feature requirements allow developers to state upfront that their app will require certain hardware capabilities to render properly. If the machine running the app supports those features, O3D will run it fully hardware accelerated; if however, it is lacking any of the required capabilities, O3D will drop into a software rendered mode," Bridge said.

Other features include a full-screen mode to make O3D applications more absorbing and a community gallery featuring demonstrations that use O3D. Developers can submit applications for inclusion in the gallery.

O3D is intended to use hardware acceleration on a variety of GPU chipsets to provide high-end real-time 3D graphics on most systems.

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