After staring at this 3D cube and these triangles for a while I started wondering if there's any good reliable Javascript graphics library with basic 3D support.
Any suggestion?
After staring at this 3D cube and these triangles for a while I started wondering if there's any good reliable Javascript graphics library with basic 3D support.
Any suggestion?
John Resig's port of the Processing library to Javascript:
http://ejohn.org/blog/processingjs
I'm very psyched about Raphaël. I've used it in one project and it works like a charm.
Flot is a pure Javascript plotting library for jQuery.
Here are a few physics engines written in javascript that have some graphics capabilities.
http://blog.quantumstate.co.uk/javascript-physics-engine.html
http://box2d-js.sourceforge.net/
Take a look at dojox.gfx: docs, tests, demos (last two links to the nightly snapshot on the test server optimized for debugging, not for production).
It uses native graphics: SVG, VML, Silverlight or Canvas — whatever is available on the client covering all major browsers (IE, Firefox, Safari/Webkit, Opera).
While it is 2D, it can be used as a foundation for 3D stuff. In fact there is a library that takes advantage of it: dojox.gfx3d. Examples (can be found in tests):
And for truly adventurous types there is a library done for Dojo as part of Google Summer of Code 2008: True 3D. Obviously it is much faster than 2D/3D hybrid, and suitable for fluid animation. You can explore it on your own (the previous link is a publicly available Subversion repository), but be warned: it works only on Firefox and Opera with special 3D graphics add-ons from respective vendors. You'll find all gory details in the documentation.
Have fun!
The canvas html element may be the best backing and is used as such in many libraries (I know flot and processingjs mentionned by sibblings are using it)
canvas element is the lower API abstraction level you can get, which may be conceptually similar to Cairo or GDI
Check out Walter Zorn's library
www.walterzorn.de/en