WebView and WebGL

[Michael Hoffer]

Hi Jonathan, hi all,

I would like to bring up the "WritableImage backed by DirectBuffer"
discussion again:

I did my own experiments with WebGL and native rendering. I posted them a
while ago here on the mailing list (https://github.com/miho/VFXWebKit &
https://youtu.be/FlIrY1SlNM4). I came to the conclusion that the most
generic and most important feature that we need for JavaFX is efficient
native buffer support (basically WritableImage backed by DirectBuffer).
This allows for plugging in almost any external rendering technology and
does not involve large API redesigns. Adding OpenGL and/or WebGL could be
done as community projects.

I find it particularly elegant to spawn separate render processes for doing
OpenGL/WebGL. This is basically what modern browsers do. WebKit is a very
complex piece of software that isn't easy to handle. In the past I had too
many bad experiences with WebKit and JavaFX. WebKit could easily tear down
the whole JVM. None of the safety-belts usually provided by Java will help
in such a case.

I would like to suggest that we do a JavaFX meeting at JavaOne for
discussing this topic. Anyone interested?

Regards,
Michael


--
Dr. rer. nat. Michael Hoffer

Twitter: @mihosoft
Webpage: www.mihosoft.eu

Oracle Developer Champion

Goethe-Zentrum für Wissenschaftliches Rechnen (G-CSC)
Goethe-Universität
Kettenhofweg 139
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phone: +49 69 798 25254
info at michaelhoffer.de

2017-08-25 21:06 GMT+02:00 Jonathan Giles <jonathan.giles at oracle.com>:

> All,
>
> WebGL is something that is currently in the planning pipeline with a
> relatively high priority. This means it is not under active development
> yet, but we already have engineers working on the research towards this
> feature. Once this is concluded and the scope of the work better
> understood, a JEP will be filed to engage the community on this project,
> and notification will be sent to the openjfx-dev mailing list.
>
> In reference to the question on whether WebView uses WebKit rendering or
> JavaFX rendering, I believe the answer is the latter.
>
> -- Jonathan
>
>
>
> On 25/08/17 12:12 PM, John-Val Rose wrote:
>
>> I have a couple of questions about the implementation of WebView within
>> JavaFX.
>>
>> I understand that, at present, it is based on WebKit but does not support
>> WebGL.  For our requirements, WebGL support is essential and I expect that
>> other developers would appreciate support of this kind as well.
>>
>> It appears that WebGL support will not be implemented until Java 10 at the
>> earliest, or, perhaps even later.  As we know, this could be several years
>> away so I would like to offer my time to work on implementing WebGL
>> support
>> ASAP so that it can be released to the community as part of an incremental
>> Java 9 release.
>>
>> How do you feel about this suggestion?
>>
>> Also, could you please let me know that if the current WebView is just a
>> wrapper around WebKit and uses native WebKit rendering, or is it actually
>> using the JavaFX API itself to do the rendering within the JavaFX
>> rendering
>> pipeline?
>>
>> *Graciously,*
>>
>> *John-Val Rose*
>> *Chief Scientist/Architect*
>> *Rosethorn Technology*
>> *Australia*
>>
>
>