So uh, not to cause a fuss but why was the title edited? I can understand removing the word "impressive" as that is an opinion, but removing the explanation (interactive html5 / webgl presentation built with threejs) seems silly? How are users who casually browse news.yc supposed to look at this and have any clue what they're clicking? Titles that are descriptive should be more important than... well I can't think why it was changed to just "lights"? Surely the title containing some sort of description about the content is a courtesy that users would appreciate.
(For reference the original title was "Lights -- impressive html5 / webgl presentation built with threejs" and is now "Lights")
How are users who casually browse news.yc supposed to look at this and have any clue what they're clicking?
Since there's no way to hide these links with uninformative titles, the no-addon solution is to get them to display as "visited". So I click them and then immediately close the tab.
Website owners: Sorry for throwing off your stats.
I'd say the technology is the least impressive part of it.
It feels like 303/acme from 1996. Only on gigahertz machinery instead of a 486. and using hardware acceleration for very basic 3d effects, rather than software generated texture/env mapping.
For those on Mac OS X 10.7 with Safari and who are seeing a message saying that your browser doesn't support WebGL, that's only because WebGL isn't enabled by default. You can turn it on by first going to Safari Preferences > Advanced and then checking the box labeled "Show Develop menu in menu bar". Close preferences, and then under the "Develop" menu, choose "Enable WebGL". If you go back to the "Lights" page now, you should be now be able to check it out!
I suppose for the same reason that movies and television shows have to license the soundtracks they use in their works of art. I guess it's not transformative enough? Not sure what the legal definition of a derivative work is, but I guess it doesn't include a simple pairing up of different mediums.
"Click to interact with the environment, keep the button pressed to fly faster."
Try clicking at different speeds and on different elements and you'll see the interactivity (works better with an external mouse). Contrast it to sitting back and watching it go.
Developers that are fluent with the technology are going to be in high demand once more people know what you can do & stuff like this is what everyone wants.
Mobile devices don't yet support WebGL either. If you want to do 3D on mobile you have to use CSS 3D Transforms (not supported on some platforms) or Canvas Context2D with a "software" renderer (slow).
They will soon enough. If you start any substantial project now, by the time you finish WebGL will be available on most high-end phones, at least on Android.
Btw. the Nokia N900 has had WebGL support for a year or so. Too bad it's not a very popular model.
I didn't get a lot of debug data (only Camera position written to console) but I did get a `Uncaught TypeError: Cannot call method 'update' of undefined` every frame. Can I ask what I was meant to see?
There were also concerns about running arbitrary shader code on the GPU, which has DMA access (Yes, Direct Memory Access access is a bit redundant...) to system memory, as well as the framebuffer which is in GPU memory.
The issue is that if there does happen to be some type of bug which allows an exploit, simply pointing your webgl-enabled web browser at some page would let an attacker compromise your system. This wasn't really a problem before webgl, since to get 3d graphics running at all, an attacker would have had to have code execution privileges on a victim's computer (by which time it's already too late).
Unfortunately, this video is not available in Germany because it may contain music for which GEMA has not granted the respective music rights.
Sorry about that.
I think I miss the point. Do I control anything happening with the music or in the scene? This link reminds me of a Winamp visualization from 10 years ago, but now I can fly through it, in a web browser.
Again, I think I must be missing something. If you hit Play and don't touch the mouse you see the same exact animations as if you flew in a big arc at full speed.
You control nothing more than a camera angle with a glowing avatar.
It's always interesting to me what makes it up and what never catches on. Apparently more HN people are intrigued by the mere title "lights" than a title with more explanation.
The web is a new medium, and browsers can be more expressive then pretty viz. Push the boundaries with this stuff don't just do your radio show on camera.
Really cool. I get that the Twitter usernames come in with the lyric "they're calling me" but it might be more sticky if the usernames show up sooner. Not sure everyone would want to keep flying around for so long.
In case anyone is wondering: In Internet Explorer (IE9 is the only desktop browser to not support WebGL, or will be once Opera 12 ships [1]), you get an error message that WebGL was not detected [2].
I am currently working on a project that indexes beats and sounds to a .json object tied with a JS library that dispatches events based on the timing of a media file associated.
Eventually, it would be nice to have all forms of equipment taking queues from the events dispatched. ie, stage equipment, lights, etc.
This example serves to show that these types of applications are coming soon.
If you're interested in learning WebGL, a fantastic resource is http://learningwebgl.com/ — especially the weekly summary of "WebGL Around the Web." (I have no affiliation — I just found it useful.)
Wow, it works for me with FF 7.0.1 and nouveau on Linux. A little laggy when I go fullscreen, sure but the last time I tried viewing WebGL FF told me that my 3D setup wasn't supported.
Anyhow, cool presentation. It's impressive to see how WebGL is progressing.
Chrome 16.0.904.0 dev is what I'm running on my MacBook, and it works fine there. It wasn't working for me with Safari either until I saw the tip in SnowLprd's comment about enabling WebGL.
(For reference the original title was "Lights -- impressive html5 / webgl presentation built with threejs" and is now "Lights")