Downloaded Minefield Version 3.7a4pre to play with WebGL today

Okay, after some false starts, googling around and some trouble finding WebGL in the about:config file on Minefield (I stupidly downloaded a too-old release!) I finally got  the Mozilla WebGL enabled browser to work nicely! So, if you are on a Mac, running Snow Leopard, go find version 3.7a4pre of Minefield (Mozilla’s experimental browser for future Firefox browsers) and after that’s installed, type about:config in the browser window directly, filter for the WebGL options and turn “webgl.enabled_for_all_sites;   true” on (from false – default) by double-clicking on it. Ignore the other settings; you certainly do not want software rendering turned on since WebGL is for exploiting hardware rendering (a la OpenGL | ES)!

Now here’s the fun part!  after you are “configured”, open a window and go to http://www.nihilogic.dk/labs/worlds_of_webgl/

It may take a few seconds, but the particle simulator effect showing off the words “WebGL” and “Khronos” in rotating 3D is so cool! My hat’s off to Jacob Seidelin, the developer, whose blog is here: http://blog.nihilogic.dk/

I look forward to checking out more Minefield experiments in WebGL, and I will be on the lookout for repurposed COLLADA content as well in these.

One nit: I hope the browser vendors involved in WebGL development will make it as “easy-as-pie” for us non programmers to get our 3D content served directly into our fav browsers as soon as possible. It’s no fun to be downloading nightly builds, various experiments (aka hacks), and tweaking parameters left and right, etc. etc. The sooner the new or updated browsers are streamlined for  the user, the better. That to me is about as nasty as downloading plug-ins, the one thing these guys hope to abolish forever. (Caveat to you WebGL developers: yes, I know I am impatient ;-).)