Google declared a move that could widen the attraction of a nascent 3D Web graphics technology called WebGL.

A year ago Mozilla and the Khronos Group announced WebGL, which allows Web programmers a way to use hardware-accelerated 3D graphics on their Web sites, and in December, the two issued a design WebGL standard. One hurdle, though, is that WebGL uses the Khronos Group’s OpenGL graphics interface standard, but not all VGA cards have OpenGL support.

Google expects to avoid this issue with a latest open-source projet that converts the OpenGL controls into the related dialect more ordinary on Windows computers, Microsoft’s Direct3D. The project is called ANGLE, short for Almost Native Graphics Layer Engine, Henry Bridge, a Google product manager, said in a blog post Thursday.

Using OpenGL “isn’t a trouble on computers running OS X or Linux, where OpenGL is the first 3D API <application programming interface> and consequently enjoys solid support. On Windows, however, most graphics-intensive applications use Microsoft Direct3D APIs instead of OpenGL, so OpenGL drivers are not always accessible. Unfortunately, this situation means that even if they have dynamic graphics hardware, numerous Windows engines can’t translate WebGL content because they don’t have the essential OpenGL drivers installed,” Bridge said. “ANGLE will allow Windows users to run WebGL content without having to find and install new drivers for their process.”

News of the project isn’t a complete surprise. Mozilla proxies affected in WebGL mentioned the Direct3D tie-up as one approximate to reaching the Windows world wiser.

The Google assistance is also attractive in light of the establishment’s higher-level 3D interface for Web graphics, a plug-in called O3D that’s also being built into Google Chrome. It’s posible that O3D could be implemented as a higher-level library design on WebGL, though, helping to marry the two.

Microsoft, still the leading browser maker with Internet Explorer, abides an unknown quantity here. Microsoft displayed technology in the impendingIE9 for accelerated 2D graphics this week, including latest support for the years-old Scalable Vector Graphics 1.1 standard. But IE General Manager Dean Hachamovitch didn’t express any specific ardour for WebGL, noting that it would be a new interface programmers had to learn.

ANGLE is released under the BSD open-source authorize, which permits the software to be incorporated into enthusiasm software. That could drop the obstacles to adoption at Microsoft, Opera, or others with ownership software.

WebGL uses a lighter-weight version called OpenGL ES that uses on less powerful computer processes, including Apple’s iPhone and newer Android phones. At the higher end, the Khronos Group introduced a new version of the full-fledged OpenGL it says matches The features of Microsoft’s DirectX, of which Direct3D is a component.