UPDATE: Due to retractions it cannot be entirely confirmed that IE9 will support <canvas> of html5 spec.  They are the last browser and they must support it for it to be a real, valid solution for 2d animation.  GPU supported <canvas> would be a huge innovation but would also most likely kill Silverlight for animation, unless they integrate <canvas>.  Standards are such a tough bet, ask Adobe with the ES4 bet.  Since standards are so tough to get through and are design by committee many times, plugins still have a huge advantage of changing easily. We’ll keep an eye on IE9 to see if the <canvas> revolution will happen soon or if it will be years off.  It will most likely be years off for mainstream at any rate.

Could it be that Microsoft is innovating again?  IE9 will supposedly be largely hardware accelerated for all graphical elements and possibly <canvas> and <video> html5 tags? IE9 test drive preview available here.

It appears Microsoft has been enjoying the Apple, Adobe, Google smackdowns on each other, got lost in the dust kicked up and just done what many developers want: hardware acceleration. Firefox 3.7 also has hardware acceleration coming down the pike.

Specifically, IE9 will take advantage of the underlying hardware in different ways, both from a visual perspective as well as code execution perspective:

• The MSHTML rendering layer has been enhanced to use Direct2D and DirectWrite instead of GDI.  Direct2D enables GPU accelerated 2D graphics and text, and allows sub-pixel positioning.  In addition, the GPU is used for scaling (bitmaps are mapped to textures), which is ideal for zooming and moving images around the screen.  This GPU support translates directly into improved readability of pages, more precise placement of text and images, and smooth scrolling and zooming.
• JavaScript performance is greatly improved from older versions of Internet Explorer, and should be competitive if not better than competing browsers.  In the past, JavaScript in IE was interpreted and not compiled into native processor instructions.  The JavaScript engine now includes a JIT compiler which emits x86 instructions and compiles the code before it runs, resulting in a dramatic performance uplift.  Instruction generation can also be tailored to the underlying processor to take full advantage of the underlying platform.
• IE9 is more standards compliant than previous versions, with new support for HTML5 elements such as <video>, CSS3 support, and SVG support.  All graphic elements will be accelerated on the GPU and will enable hardware accelerated rendering contexts for application development, improving visual display, reducing CPU usage, and improving power usage.

There is no excuse in this age where most people have at least a 32MB cards even on the lowly intel OEM cards to not take some advantage of hardware rendering/acceleration for aspects of web content including video, 2d, games and even 3d.

There are lots of other areas of browsers and tech that is hardware accelerated such as plugins like Unity (and Director waaay before that), video, and new tools like WebGL/O3D. Firefox 3.7 is also aiming for hardware acceleration.  This idea of browser graphical elements not just in a plugin or video player being hardware accelerated is something that might spark some very interesting and innovative experiences.

I applaud this effort and hope there is truth in it beyond just a preview that has features cut.  I also hope more browsers and plugins start doing the same besides just IE9 and Firefox. This entire blog has pretty much had an underlying hardware rendering/acceleration slant.  I have been pushing this for sometime and I believe the time is coming soon that web developers will be equipped with the power that native and game developers have for graphics soon, mainly for applications, games and experiences.

The best news is that IE9 will support html5 and <canvas>, <video> tags and ensures the new functionality that web developers will be able to use.  We’ll all have to wait for 2-3 years probably before it is something that is 90% saturated and usable in the mainstream market but it is good to know great times lie ahead.

I can’t believe I just wrote about IE possibly innovating ahead of others.

Google has a few things going for 3d in the browser, not just 3d but hardware rendering in the browser.  They previously had native client which allows you to run code via a plugin proxy with a sample running Quake.  They also had Lively which was a virtual world plugin that was shut down a few month after it started.

Now they are also making and releasing an O3D plugin that looks to be another way to do web 3d scenes and games although it is a very early stage. They appear to want to have an open discussion about how best to add hardware rendering to the web.  Their approach uses a javascript api to control the browser plugin and the O3D control is essentially just a renderer.

This won’t change anything now as Unity3D, Flash 3D pseudo engines, even Director 3D still are the top choices for games, apps, and interactives that need effects and possibly hardware rendering. But it is interesting that Google is essentially re-entering this debate after ditching on Lively and they must see some benefit to having a discussion about 3d on the web and 3d standards in general.  I know they have lots of models and tools with SketchUp and Google 3D warehouse so who knows maybe they will take it over by being standards, open and information based.

What is O3D?

O3D is an open-source web API for creating rich, interactive 3D applications in the browser. This API is shared at an early stage as part of a conversation with the broader developer community about establishing an open web standard for 3D graphics.

Get involved

• Download the plug-in (Windows and Mac) and explore the samples to see O3D’s capabilities. Linux users, see these instructions.
• Read the Technical Overview and Developer’s Guide to learn how to get started.
• Join the O3D developer groups to provide feedback.

One thing is for sure, 3d development is still old school proprietary lock in in most cases.  Working with 3d and tools like Maya, 3dsmax and others they have always been very non standard.  From file formats to interfaces to even basic movements, all different.  The general maths of 3d are the same and so should 3d pipelines.  Formats like COLLADA are nice because they are starting to open up 3d pipelines and content creation but COLLADA still has many porting issues.  FBX file format is another that is really useful and common making pipelines in Unity 3D, for instance, very nice. But it is owned and run by Autodesk who owns all the 3d apps (Maya, 3dsmax, SGI) and I am a bit leary of that method.  But in the end 3d pipelines and rendering will be somewhat standardized and maybe the web will be hardware rendered one day.  In most cases it is not needed, but for gaming, immersion, demos and other entertainment it could benefit heavily from a more standardized 3d pipeline and methods.

A few weeks ago the makers of Unity3d released some really valuable information about casual gaming and general hardware of users that play online games.  It was an interesting report and very beneficial to developers on the Unity platform and others.  We wish other plugin makers would do the same in such a thorough method.

Unity 3d creators listened to the market and have now posted updated numbers and information as well as a page that quarterly stats will be updated. Check the new, quarterly, hardware of the casual gamer stats.

I would have seen this earlier but I have been deep in a Unity 3d project myself .  I am a big fan of all web based gaming platforms and Unity is almost a dream come true for 3d web gaming.  For the company to be this open that is a very good sign.

What can you do with Unity3D?  Here is a list of games made with Unity3D on the web.  The one great thing about this platform is that is was made for gaming specifically from the start.  Simulations and game development with Unity3D is very fun and productive. I still love Flash, Director etc but Unity3D development is now very much in my rotation.

Games made with Unity3D:

Hancock Movie Games

• http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/hancock/site/games/gameshell.html

Tennis Stars Cup

• http://www.shockwave.com/gamelanding/tennisstarscup.jsp

Duckateers

• http://www.shockwave.com/gamelanding/dukateers.jsp

Temploe (ninjas attack you)

• http://www.conspiracaopequim.com.br/game/

RC Laser Warrior

• http://www.shockwave.com/gamelanding/rclaserwarrior.jsp

Urban Race Star

• http://web.mac.com/digitaldouble/digital_double/URS_Preview.html

FlashBang studios

• http://raptorsafari.com/
  http://splume.flashbangstudios.com/
  http://jetpackbrontosaurus.com/

TraceON

• http://www.ramtiga.com/TRaceONVersions/TRaceON_Current/tabid/122/language/en-US/Default.aspx

EPIC Tower Defense

• http://www.shockwave.com/gamelanding/epictowerdefense.jsp

InvinciCar

• http://www.protonfoundry.com/InvinciCar/

Besmashed (multi)

• http://besmashed.gamepulp.com/demo/index.htm

Global Conflicts

• http://www.globalconflicts.eu/

Phoenix Final

• http://www.nether.org.uk/bad_mac_code.html#phoenix_final

Doom Siege

• http://runevision.com/blog/2008/07/3-demos-and-new-blending-feature.html

Mario Galaxy like run (third one down)

• http://runevision.com/blog/2008/07/3-demos-and-new-blending-feature.html

Zombie Drive

• http://crank-dev.fuelindustries.com/zombies/TestDrive.html

Pocket Piglets

• http://www.pocketpiglets.com/private/scene.html

ChickenDemo

• http://web.mac.com/galentucker/Site/ChickenDemo.html

Castle Conquest

• http://home.in.tum.de/~wuehrer/

I was able to download the demo and it is in the store and on Adobe’s site. The new AGEIA™ PhysX™  physics engine and some sort of updated 3D with hardware rendering is nice.

But, Director is like the Rodney Dangerfield of products at Adobe.  Everywhere you have to dig for it, it doesn’t even have updated marketing in most places, the shockwave player link is still from 2002 etc.  I wish that Adobe would support it more, open it up, allow better IDEs, integrate ES4 based Actionscript 3 or 4 into it and keep the 3d market that shockwave supports moving along.

Maybe they will give Director more love but if they don’t allow for some community input and work on the platform like Flex and Flash have thrived on, well they might just lose that piece of the market (3d gaming, hardware).

First impression is the fonts do look much better.  Unicode support is so far so good and I haven’t had a chance to dig into the AEGIS PhysX engine yet but that looks very very fun.

For instance here is a Physics Engine call that creates a rigid body terrain

 
//JavaScript Syntax
var objTerrain= member("PhysicsWorld").createTerrain("myterrain",terrainDesc,position,orientation,1,1,1);

Or some raycasting:

 
//JavaScript Syntax
var lstraycast = member("PhysicsWorld").rayCastAll (vector(10,0,0),vector(0,0,1));
for(i = 1; i < = lstraycast.count ; i++)
{
    raycstEntry = lstraycast[i];
    put("Name:" + raycstEntry[1].name);
    put"Contact Point:" & raycstEntry[2]);
    put("Contact Normal:" & raycstEntry[3]);
    put("Distance:" & raycstEntry[4]);
}

I use the Javascript source simply because it is much more usable to me. Unfortunately the docs are only partially converted to Javascript.  Lingo is pretty close to it though but it scares people off.

What Adobe needs to do is port into Flash the ability to use Shockwave3D (hardware rendering for 3d), AEGIS PhysX, would that not blow up big time or what?