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Remarkable water simulation demonstrates the power of WebGL

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We here at 9to5Google are no strangers to Chrome Experiments, sweet little snippets of code that highlight the many advances Google’s been adding to its browser. Take, for example, a tech demo where you write your message and have the band in a music video dance it out. Today, Conceivably Tech points us to another interesting showcase that highlights the efficiency of Google’s WebGL support in Chrome.

WebGL is for the web what OpenGL stands for on your desktop, a standardized way for web developers to tap the power of your graphics card directly, by embedding an OpenGL code right inside web pages. The WebGL Water demo runs smoothly full screen on my 1.6GHz Core i5 MacBook Air and the water ripple effect, particles and lighting effects have to be experienced first hand in order to be fully appreciated.

The code runs best in Chrome due to the use of the OES-texture-float extension, which is currently only available for Chrome. If this is a sign of things to come, soon we will be able to run complex visualizations and shiny 3D games right inside our browser.


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New Chrome experiment: Embed your message in a music video and have the band dance it out

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We here at 9to5Google love Chrome Experiments, nifty little web apps that showcase what can be achieved with HTML5 and the Chrome browser. Be it a simple project like the Google I/O countdown timer or mind-boggling stuff such as this interactive music video, Google Experiments is a go-to place for a glimpse of where web technologies are headed. All Is Not Lost, the latest Chrome experiment and an HTML5 music collaboration between the band OK Go, the dance troupe and choreographers Pilobolus and Google, is one such example.

It lets you embed your message in a music video and have the band dance it out, Keiko Hirayama, senior marketing manager with the Google Tokyo team explains in a post over at the Chrome blog. Upon visiting the experiment’s landing page, you’re only required to type in your message. The web app will then load the video and make the band dance it out with a little bit of HTML5’s canvas magic…


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Interactive music video shows off amazing power of HTML5 and WebGL

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[youtube=http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReH7zzj5GPc&w=670&h=411]

Google has been at the forefront of the HTML5 revolution which has been unfolding on the web. Look no further than the Chrome Experiments page which contains dozens of advanced HTML5 examples that will give you a pause. I blogged about some of the must-see examples which knocked my socks off. Nothing could prepare me for the latest demo. This stuff has just considerably raised the bar of what’s possible on the web.

The combination of HTML5/WebGL code and a GPU-enhanced browser with hardware-accelerated graphics like Google Chrome is what makes possible “Rome: 3 Dreams of Black”, a collaborative music video from Jack White, Norah Jones, Daniele Luppi and Danger Mouse. It’s the best WebGL showcase I’ve seen so far. Check it out in its entirety below the fold.


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Rewatch the countdown to Google I/O 2011

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Google this morning kickstarted its annual I/O developer conference with a keynote full of surprises. Prior to that 9am presentation, however, the company was running a nice teaser over at the official Google I/O page. Thanks to some HTML5 magic, visitors could marvel at a dot-matrix display counting down the remaining hours, minutes and seconds. With each passing second the numbers would fall apart into dozes of dots bouncing off the screen edges. Missed that finale? No problem, Google has you covered with a Chrome Experiment that allows you to rewatch the last twenty seconds of the countdown.


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