JOGL Applets versus WebGL

Question

Are there any significant technical differences between using JOGL in applets versus WebGL? I'd like to focus on two things in particular:

• Performance: Is there significantly more overhead in rendering 3D using WebGL?
• Functionality: How well do the two support the OpenGL standard?

I'm developing a 3D web application and I'd like to know more about the technical capabilities of the two.

Answer 1

I think the pure GL rendering speed will be similar, in particular if you do a lot of work in a small amount of calls. For other code, Java tends to be roughly 5-10x faster than Javascript: http://blog.j15r.com/2011/12/for-those-unfamiliar-with-it-box2d-is.html

There are other differences:

• JOGL requires that you can run applets / signed webstart (I am not sure whether this is still enabled by default on most browsers)
• WebGL requires a WebGL enabled browser (modern Chrome, Safari or Firefox, does not work on IE)....
• WebGL is based on GL ES 2.0, i.e. there is no support for the GL fixed function pipeline. This means you'll need to implement your own shaders or use a library such as three.js