For those unfamiliar, WebGL is a cross-platform and royalty free web standard for a low-level  3D graphics API based on OpenGL ES 2.0 that offers a way to render 3D graphics in the browser without requiring plugins such as Adobe's Flash (which is coming to webOS next year) and Microsoft's Silverlight.  Since webOS is based largely on web technologies, and applications are essentially web apps, this bodes well for Palm's platform.

We've seen some amazing things done with the technology prior to the draft specification being released. We have a couple of demos (in Flash, not webGL :| ) after the break!

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There's more video being officially released by Sprint of it's 2009 Open Developers Conference.  We've already seen a video of Rick Boatright from the webOS Internals group presenting on the second day of the event, and now the entirety of Palm's presentation on the first day is available online.  A word of caution: the following is likely to put some to sleep, but I don't think that I'm alone in thinking that it's pretty damn cool to see some of the core people from Palm its webOS development team really drill down into what makes their product tick.

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The video above comes to us courtesy of Vlad, and essentially demonstrates WebGL on the Nokia N900. Vlad's blog post says the video was done at ARM techcon3, which would have been back at the end of October. Reportedly, there has been no special optimization for the N900 and even still the results are quite impressive.

Why does this matter to us and why is Nokia on PreCentral? Well, the N900 is frequently compared to the Pre, and rightfully so.  Both are based on Linux and both use the same OMAP3 3430 processor.  This shows the same kind of quality and 3D WebGL capabilities we could expect, were it to come to the Pre.

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Less than a week ago we discussed how perfect WebGL would be for the WebOS.  Aside from the similar names they're both built around web standards.  Well the stars must be aligning, because WebGL is back in the news, with a common connection to the WebOS: the WebKit core.

For those unfamiliar, WebKit is the opensource engine that renders all the WebOS apps and is what makes the website formatting on the Pre look so good. And while WebKit also powers many of the major web browsers out there (include the Android and iPhone browsers), the WebOS is virtually centered around it, so when news like this surfaces, we should pay some attention.

It appears Wolfire's blog has discovered traces of the WebGL in the WebKit, in the form of a 3D canvas element.  The results of initial layout tests can be shown in the above video, and is pretty impressive, all things considered.

The more I think about it, the more I believe Palm would be fools to not integrate WebGL into the WebOS.  It's such a perfect combo and it seems the WebGL component could be delivered to Palm via future WebKit builds anyway.  It's not unreasonable to believe Palm could adapt OpenGL for the WebOS Linux core, and leave the WebGL as frontend for developers.  That fits Palm's WebOS persona of hiding the Linux core and leaving the open web standards for developers.

WebGL isn't even in the in nightly builds yet, so if you want to try it out, you'll need to compile it freshly from the source.  It'll certainly be a while yet before it gets integrated in any browsers for the public, but once its out there, it would be incredible:

In the same way Gmail is killing desktop mail applications, full-fledged 3d video games could start migrating to the web.

Or in our case, possibly migrating to the WebOS.  I sincerely hope Palm integrates WebGL.  This new web standard is progressing fast, as if they don't act, you just know others will. Plus I'd really love to see the kind of OS-wide effects such advancements could have with added 3D functionality.

Gaming has always been a sensitive topic with the WebOS.  HTML/CSS/Javascript leads to quick app development, but unfortunately limits game development.  Palm has attempted to help, giving a Mojo animator to help with 2D animation in javascript, and setting up a game development forum section. But let's be honest, fast-paced 3D games with the current WebOS is likely to be a non-starter.

Previously we discussed Flash as possibly being solution.  However, to many, Flash just isn't good enough and people kept crying out "We want OpenGL". Since Palm seems set on sticking it with html/css/js applications, that could be difficult.  Or maybe not.  Early last August, Khronos Group, the guys behind OpenGL, made the big announcement that they were now working on WebGL, which will bring OpenGL to the browser via javascript binds, with support from Google, Mozilla, and Opera:

First announced at the Game Developers Conference in March of 2009, the WebGL working group includes many industry leaders such as AMD, Ericsson, Google, Mozilla, NVIDIA and Opera.  The WebGL working group is defining a JavaScript binding to OpenGL® ES 2.0 to enable rich 3D graphics within a browser on any platform supporting the OpenGL or OpenGL ES graphics standards.

The working group is developing the specification to provide content portability across diverse browsers and platforms, including the capability of portable, secure shader programs.  WebGL will be a royalty-free standard developed under the proven Khronos development process, with the target of a first public release in first half of 2010.

Considering the WebOS is based off Linux, it certainly seems like OpenGL wouldn't be especially difficult to port to it.  Then developers could use WebGL to integrate 3D graphics into their WebOS application. A surprisingly elegant solution, albeit something we'll have to wait until 2010 for.

Not too long ago we saw a Palm job posting for a Game Frameworks Engineer. We can only hope the people who work on the Mojo gaming framework plan on implementing WebGL as it becomes available.  Not only would it save development time from making their own 3D graphics API, but it looks as though WebGL has the potential to be an industry standard. The WebOS has shown Palm is on the cutting edge of web-based technology, here's hoping they continue that by adopting WebGL wholeheartedly.