<div dir="ltr">Dear all,<div><br></div><div>I am interested in developing a Web-based 3D viewer for medical imaging, with the support of MIP volume rendering.</div><div><br></div><div>I have considered to use WebGL to this end. Unfortunately, the current version WebGL does not features the native support of MIP rendering [1]. My request to introduce an extension to support MIP in WebGL is now about 1 year old, and has not been taken into consideration by the Khronos group yet (even though MIP is supported by OpenGL ES) [2].</div>
<div><br></div><div>I have therefore tried to do MIP rendering through some native API for Web browsers, using VTK. To the best of my knowledge, it is unfortunately impossible to access the 3D context of the window of the browser using NPAPI [3]. This prevents the use of VTK inside Web browsers.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Recently however, Google has introduced its "Native Client API" nicknamed PNaCl (Pepper + Native Client) into Chrome [4]. According to Google's description, PNaCl allows the development of a C++ plugin that can access the 3D context of the Chrome window [5]. This looks like a very promising approach for scientific, cross-platform visualization in the cloud. Even if IE and Firefox do not currently implement PNaCl, cross-browser support can be envisioned thanks to the fact that PNaCl is open-sourced under a BSD license.</div>
<div><br></div><div>My question is the following: Is it possible to create a native plugin for Google Chrome (with PNaCl) that renders 3D scenes through VTK? This looks like a great opportunity for the spreading of VTK.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Regards,</div><div>Sébastien-</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>[1] <a href="https://www.khronos.org/webgl/public-mailing-list/archives/1212/msg00066.html">https://www.khronos.org/webgl/public-mailing-list/archives/1212/msg00066.html</a></div>
<div>[2] <a href="http://www.khronos.org/registry/webgl/extensions/proposals/EXT_blend_minmax/">http://www.khronos.org/registry/webgl/extensions/proposals/EXT_blend_minmax/</a></div><div>[3] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NPAPI">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NPAPI</a></div>
<div>[4] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Native_Client">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Native_Client</a></div><div>[5] <a href="https://developers.google.com/native-client/devguide/coding/3D-graphics">https://developers.google.com/native-client/devguide/coding/3D-graphics</a></div>
<div><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr">Sébastien Jodogne<br><a href="mailto:s.jodogne@gmail.com" target="_blank">s.jodogne@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://www.sjodogne.be/" target="_blank">http://www.sjodogne.be/</a><div>
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