WebGL on iOS

Yes, I've been meaning to write one of these kind of articles. Oh well, let me tell you what will happen between WebGL and iOS.

As a HTML 5 game developer, I am working on better ways to deploy my project. Using DIVs so far to represent the whole game worked out just fine, but when I try to make more graphic intensive stuff, well, you need hardware acceleration. Specially on mobile devices which are naturally weaker than desktop computers.

Long story short, I settled for Canvas, using WebGL, present on the engine I care, WebKit, but also on others such as Mozilla's Gecko. But if the price of using WebGL meant giving up iOS support... well, like Sheldon said if all USB ports in the world were destroyed "Then there is no point in living. Is there?".

WebGL is on iOS, but not really

Apple, with the latest iOS upgrade, version 5, does now support WebGL on the iPhone, iPod and iPad, but only for iAd, a mobile advertising system from the creators of iStuff. The support is not enabled for widespread use, that means, in Mobile Safari, Web Apps or even wrapped Web Apps, in stuff like PhoneGap.

But why, why would Apple do this? Some say it's because they do not want Web Apps to be as powerful as native ones, which do sell at the App Store and make Apple win millions. While that is a completely valid idea, it's just stupid.

WebGL has security issues

Ha! That's true. Microsoft stated that "WebGL [is] considered harmful", due to these security issues, they are working on a DirectX approach to web hardware acceleration instead of going for WebGL. That is just a lame excuse to insist with DirectX. "DirectX is the way to go! Woo!... hello? anyone?". Yes, Microsoft, everyone else is at WebGL's party, you can't really make your own standards anymore. Remember silver... flashlight? What was it?

Apple, apparently, thinks the same yet acted differently. Desktop Safari does support WebGL, and it is also enabled on iOS only to a restricted amount of developers: those in the iAd program.

So will iOS support WebGL eventually?

I'm most certainly that yes, it will. Apple is known for providing secure systems and platforms. While no system is virtually perfect, they are very serious regarding all this. My belief is that they are now testing WebGL on iOS devices with a selected number of developers. But once it's stable, secure and ready for any end-user, it is my belief they will enable it for the rest of us. Don't forget that, anyway, WebGL is still in early stages of development. It is just a matter of time.

That said, we are going to use WebGL on our game. I'm technically gambling, but hopefully iOS 6 will be WebGL-ready. Yes, folks, I'm talking about a year ahead, don't expect updates any time soon.