3D Shaders

WebGL is a binding for OpenGL ES 2 in JavaScript, so it uses the programmable graphics pipeline that is standardized in OpenGL, including shaders. Shaders allow highly flexible rendering effects to be applied to a 3D scene, increasing the realism of the display. WebGL shaders are written in GL Shading Language (GLSL). This adds yet another single-purpose language to the web stack. An HTML 5 application with WebGL consists of HTML for structure, CSS for style, JavaScript for logic, and GLSL for shaders. Developers can transfer their knowledge of OpenGL shaders to a similar API in a web environment.

WebGL is likely to be a foundational layer for 3D graphics on the Web. Just as JavaScript libraries have abstracted over DOM and provided powerful high-level constructs, there are libraries providing additional functionality on top of WebGL. Libraries are currently under development for scene graphs, 3D file formats such as COLLADA, and complete engines for game development.