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IE11 To Support WebGL
mikejuk writes "The biggest problem with IE10 as far as modern web apps go is its lack of WebGL support. Now we have strong evidence that IE11 will support WebGL. A leaked build of Windows 'Blue,' aka Windows 8.1, also contained an early version of IE11. Web developer François Remy decided to see what it was hiding and found that there were WebGL APIs, but they were non-functional. Rafael Rivera, who writes the Within Windows blog, dug a little deeper and discovered the registry keys that have to be changed to enable WebGL support. Apparently the API works so well that you can take existing WebGL programs (with OpenGL shaders) and just run them. As the implementation also supports DirectX HLSL shaders, it seems reasonable to guess that the implementation maps OpenGL to DirectX, thus avoiding Microsoft having to endorse OpenGL use."
..was yesterday.
Just like Microsoft.. a day late and an API short. :P
-SS "Teach the ignorant, care for the dumb, and punish the stupid."
Will I have to upgrade to Windows Blue for this Internet Explorer 11, or will Windows 8 be enough? Somehow I suspect it won't be the latter.
IE11 is getting pretty awesome. I'm not a fan of WebGL but I do want my browser to support as many open standards as possible.
"it seems reasonable to guess that the implementation maps OpenGL to DirectX, thus avoiding Microsoft having to endorse OpenGL use."
No, more likely MS doesn't want to have to rely on vendors providing a working OpenGL driver, since that can be problematic (looking at you here ATi). If you have an accelerated Windows driver, a WDDM driver, it has DirectX support. That is how it works, just part of the spec. OpenGL, however, is an addon. Vendors can provide an OpenGL driver, or any other API they like, if they wish but it isn't an inherent part of the driver. They can choose not to provide them, or can provide broken ones.
So, would make sense for WebGl support to have something that does translation, so it works as long as you have a WDDM driver installed.
Yes, let's include another gaping security hole in Internet Explorer that allows direct access to a system's hardware from the browser!
Log on as a different user is broken which is a major pain.
May I assume that Windows 8.11 for Workgroups will be out soon?
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
IE's problem isn't particular support in one area or another, it's that they take years to release new versions, thereby falling behind other browsers. They are never that bad on release, but fall behind other browsers that strive to remain current. But IE8 still has ~10% marketshare, and that was released 4 years ago. IE6 finally became negligible 2 years ago, after 10 years.
But they're starting to get better, IE10 was the least bad version and it only took them ~17 months to release it after IE9.
A little nitpick mine is, why must the title bar of IE be empty, and thus that space goes completely to waste. At least put the tabs or address bar there.
So far, for every version of Windows since 2000, Microsoft has provided at least one major upgrade to Internet Explorer. Windows 2000 shipped with IE 5 and got 6, Windows XP shipped with 6 and got 8, Windows Vista shipped with 7 and got 9, and Windows 7 shipped with 8 and got 10. So I'd be inclined to assume that Windows 8, which shipped with IE 10, will get IE 11.
Does IE 10 support the WebM plug-in like IE 9 did, or is its element MP4-only? I haven't been able to find solid evidence either way, nor do I own a Windows 8 box on which to try it myself.
" LOOK how FAST ie10 is. You can play a GAME on it. TOUCHSCREENS!!!!. We are FINALLY SECURITY!"
Man all those ads were quite annoying, and rather false.
I'm sure both users of IE11 will be thrilled to hear it.
You don't want to rely on a host OpenGL driver since OpenGL isn't the native interface for Windows.
Heck translation might be good even on a GL system, since ES isn't directly compatible with normal OpenGL unless you have a 4.1 or better setup which requires a fairly new card (GeForce 400 or newer in nVidia's case). I don't know of any Intel GPUs that do GL 4.1 yet, even Ivy Bridge is still 3.1.
So regardless of platform, it could make a lot of sense to implement it as a translation system, and then just choose the target of translation based off of what it is running on.
Care to elaborate? I log on as field users to determine what is causing their issues with Dynamics CRM, an application I don't have the source to and which gives very cryptic error messages. If you have a better solution I'll be over the moon to use that instead.
A little nitpick mine is, why must the title bar of IE be empty, and thus that space goes completely to waste. At least put the tabs or address bar there.
Chrome is empty as well.
And firefox is empty except for the Orange firefox button.
Additionally IE by putting the address bar on the same line as the tabs actually uses the least amount of vertical space of the 3 with the window dressing, leaving the most space for the browser window.
I was actually surprised to discover this just now.
It would be nice if they fixed all the basic SVG functionality they completely broken in IE10. Perhaps once they can do vector graphics in 2D properly again, we'll let them add the third dimension. :-)
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
>And firefox is empty except for the Orange firefox button.
Go to options and make sure menu bar is turned off. Your tabs are beside the orange button. Firefox does a good job of optimizing vertical space in this case.
Believe it or not, this was my biggest gripe with IE9. In my opinion, it was more a downgrade or regression than anything else, and I can think of no reason for it to go through. I frequently have too many tabs open to read the titles there, so I use Ctrl+Tab to cycle through them quickly. On older browsers I could use the title bar to see the name of the tab I wanted very quickly. On modern browsers, including IE9 and 10, that doesn't work. Frustrating...
There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
I haven't encountered SVG issues in IE10, can you explain more about what was broken?
Chrome doesn't even show it, what do you mean it's "empty also"?
I mean there is empty space - when I open chrome it looks pretty much like this:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a6/Une_fen%C3%AAtre_de_Google_Chrome_9.0.597.94_sous_Windows_7.jpg/800px-Une_fen%C3%AAtre_de_Google_Chrome_9.0.597.94_sous_Windows_7.jpg
With empty space in the title bar, all along the top, up to the standard icons on the far right to minimize, restore, and close the window.
My firefox looks pretty much like this:
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5176/5500087378_793df8b18b_o.png
Please note that I'm not complaining about it, it was just an observation I made. I don't need it "fixed". When I was looking for that screenshot to post, I did see examples of the arrangement you are referring to.
I didn't think it looked better, but it's probably a good idea on small screens.
The biggest problem with IE10 as far as modern web apps go is its lack of WebGL support
wrong. the biggest problem with ie10 is ie10.
what's the meme for crap like this, "first sentence made no sense whatsoever;dr"?
They (Chrome and Firefox) take that space only when maximized. Since both do the same, I assume there's a reason for that. I didn't know anyone used a web browser without it being maximized, though. I personally never cared much about "maximizing screen space". I prefer to keep menubar and bookmarks in the first bar, followed by navigation, followed by the tabs. I have a strong dislike for tabs-on-top layout, which is one of the main reasons I don't like Chrome (right after its complete lack of UI customizing, beyond simple skinning).
If being discredited was a reason for anyone to stop trying, then no one would come out of their tiny holes. Fall, learn from your mistake, stand up, and try again.
Although I do hope that IE11 gets released to Windows 7.
Here is my thinking - I love WebGL, but I don't see it really taking off unless IE supports it (granted, IE is loosing market share, but that's another topic). However, Windows 8 seems to be a bigger bust for Microsoft than Vista and ME was. So, if IE11 is exclusive to Windows 8, that still means that the default webbrowser used by a good portion of the web users won't support it.
Probably why many webpages still look like they did 10 years ago, websites are writing to the lowest common denominator - ie IE (no pun intended) 6 and 7.
.. which means that as usual IE will be holding back web development for another 5 years. I am being serious. This is an ongoing problem for anyone who developers client-facing sites especially when long-term support is part of the requirement. Most companies simply can't justify having one group of engineers working on WebGL and then another group working on some other IE-only implementation... they do not have resources like this. You have limited resources and need to choose one solution that works across as many users as possible. And as much as the /. crowd hates to admit it, IE still comprises a good 40% of the browser share so something that excludes those people is not an option. Which means WebGL will not be a mainstream option for more years to come because a) IE drug their feet in adoption, and b) they won't move to a rapid release cycle.
Well there's your problem; your trying to run a Microsoft web application in a Microsoft browser on a Microsoft OS.
(Changing any one of these will likely fix about 33% of your problems).
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Yeah. I switch between Firefox & Chrome, do a fair amount of browsing and gaming, and I don't think I've ever ran anything that used WebGL. Has it just not hit yet, or is it like VML, and will never be commonly used?
Additionally IE by putting the address bar on the same line as the tabs actually uses the least amount of vertical space of the 3 with the window dressing, leaving the most space for the browser window.
I was actually surprised to discover this just now.
Wow, it actually does take up exactly 1 pixel less vertical space than Chrome of fullscreen (which is how I always use my browser)
It does this by trading off with less horizontal space for both the address bar and the tabs though; don't know if it's worth it.
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Right now, it doesn't draw markers properly on paths for one thing. You just get a big block instead of, say, the arrowhead you expected. Copy and paste the marker example right out of the W3C SVG spec for an example.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
Personally I would like to use WebGL in projects at work (mostly internal web applications visualizing datasets) but I can't until IE supports it since a large portion of my user base only runs IE.
But until I'm head of IT and can get approval to completely rewrite one of our core systems at great expense for very little business benefit it would be useful to hear what the alternative to doing what I do is.
It looks OK, yes. I did a bit of Googling about this recently, and quite a few people seemed to be reporting silly regressions in SVG from IE9 to IE10.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
They (Chrome and Firefox) take that space only when maximized. Since both do the same, I assume there's a reason for that.
Internet explorer does too when it is maximized. So again, IE is no different than the major alternatives here.
I didn't know anyone used a web browser without it being maximized, though.
Are you on the design team for Windows 8 "new ui" ?
Seriously, WTF, the only thing I maximize ever, are games (vast majority of the time), video playback (and only if I'm watching a movie or something, rarely for clips, youtube, etc), and I'll sometimes have Visual Studio maxed on one monitor when I'm programming.
But maximizing a browser window? I almost never do that. The only time I can think of is when running netflix through the brower, but that falls under video playback not web browsing.
Even on my 13" laptop I rarely maximize things. It makes switching windows and looking at two things at once more of a pain.
I use apps maximized, BUT I like to have the taskbar and titlebar and menubar/ribbon/whatever visible also all the time. Maximized, but not isolated.
IE has a public bug tracker these days - using it is likely to give fastest response times and fixes. It looks like there is already a bunch of SVG-related bugs; if one of those is what you see then vote for it.