ReWeb3D: enabling desktop 3D applications to run in the web

Currently, 3D rendering is accessible within Web browsers through open standards such as WebGL, X3D, and X3DOM. At the same time, there is wealth of mature desktop software which comprises algorithms, data structures, user interfaces, databases, etc. It is a challenge to reuse such desktop software using the Web visualization resources. In response to this challenge, this article presents a novel framework, called ReWeb3D, which minimizes the redevelopment for migration of existing 3D applications to the Web. The redeployed application runs on a Web server. ReWeb3D captures low-level graphic calls including geometry, texture, and shader programs. The captured content is then served as a WebGL-enabled web page that conveys full interactivity to the client. By splitting the graphics pipeline between client and server, the workload can be balanced, and high-level implementation details and 3D content are hidden. The feasibility of ReWeb3D has been tested with applications which use OpenSceneGraph as rendering platform. The approach shows good results for applications with large data sets (e.g. geodata), but is less suited for applications intensive in animations (e.g. games).