WebGL in Internet Explorer 11

randomfool · on March 31, 2013

Would they support the same WebGL JS API? If so, then what is the point of using HLSL rather than GLSL?

Hopefully they just happen to have HLSL support now because it was easy and are still working on GLSL. Otherwise it's not WebGL.

artificialidiot · on March 31, 2013

If history is any indication, it won't be WebGL but WebDX and we'll at least write both glsl and hlsl if not directx adapted to javascript outright.

They can alternatively just require at least opengl es 2.0 support installed through gfx driver, thus only working on desktop machines. Not that it will make their plans of phone+tablet+desktop unification easier but, hey, it might shut up whining hipster developers for at least a few years until the realization that MS intentionally underdelivers dawns on them.

surrealize · on March 31, 2013

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\FEATURE_WEBGL_HLSL_SHADERS] "iexplore.exe"=dword:00000001

Ack, I hope GLSL shaders are well supported. It would be terrible to have to write a whole second set of shaders in HLSL for IE.

typpo · on March 31, 2013

I agree that GLSL shader support would be awesome, but if IE didn't support GLSL we wouldn't have to hand-write our HLSL. Chrome and Firefox for Windows already use ANGLE, which translates GLSL shaders to HLSL [1].

Unfortunately, complex renderings can produce some tough-to-debug problems when things get lost in translation. The good news is that ANGLE is still quite good, actively improving, and it allows automatic translation of GLSL to HLSL.

[1] https://code.google.com/p/angleproject/