BMW i8 in WebGL

[phoboslab]

Really nice work. This doesn't seem to an official site of BMW, though!?

Porsche[1] and Renault[2] did something similar lately. It's great to see WebGL used for this in production. Honestly, I'm surprised it took so long. Visualizing cars with WebGL seems like a no brainer, especially when most current websites load dozens of images for their "360° views".

[1] http://www.porsche.com/microsite/911/germany.aspx#showroom/9...

[2] http://www.littleworkshop.fr/renaultespace/

[mizzao]

This has to be lifted from some internal BMW models, though - or maybe the creator wants to get a job there?

[iMark]

I remember waiting 30 minutes for a crappy vrml model of the Enterprise to download over a 28k modem years ago.

This is both impressive, and makes me feel very old.

[sakopov]

Exactly! Now this loads on my phone!

[otabdeveloper1]

It locks up my browser and takes 20 seconds to render one frame. (I guess that would be 0.05 FPS.)

So: no, not really impressive. Feels like a regression, actually.

(At least the mobile devices of 2015 managed to do 3D acceleration properly. Too bad that desktop never caught up and that the mobile landscape formed by accident due to commoditization, not due to an understanding of open standards.)

[jasonkester]

To whoever it was a few weeks back who said it looks like the i8 was "giving birth to a Porsche", you were right: Once you've seen it, you can't unsee it.

As this visualization demonstrates in nice 3d form.

[uniclaude]

To anyone looking why: http://img-9gag-fun.9cache.com/photo/aBKqR1D_700b.jpg

[Jack000]

I think the design has a few too many un-necessary flourishes, and it probably won't age very well.

It definitely grabs your attention, but in a few years when electric cars are less rare I bet it will look kind of gimmicky.

[arethuza]

Don't know about that - I still think the i8 is one of the best looking cars I've seen. (And I've owned a high end BMW in the past that I wasn't hugely impressed with, so it's not like I'm biased in favour of BMW).

[stonewhite]

This took a short while to figure out, but it is so true.

It can be best observed in white-blue color.

[MattBearman]

Damn it! I can totally see it! I used to think this car was pretty awesome looking, now I'm just gonna see Porsche-birth :\

[robin_reala]

Sorry! The i8 is still a good looking car anyway.

[mentos]

Reminds me more of the Audi R8?

[fsloth]

I am perplexed. Modern games are fantastically more visually appealing and contentwise impressive than this. Modern films utilize computer graphics that are far more impressive still. What is it about single model viewer that makes it headline material? It looks nice, though.

[nicklaf]

WebGL is like the dancing bear; even if it doesn't dance very well, there is nevertheless endless fascination when it dances at all.

[MayorOfMonkeys]

Have you tried it on your mobile? The fact you can experience this kind of content in the mobile browser and even mobile Facebook and Twitter clients without having to visit an app store is new and IMHO, very exciting.

[oblio]

Think 3D content with minimal deployment issues* across a huge variety of devices, and suddenly it becomes a bit clearer.

The trick with the web is not the actual tech inside, as much as the instant delivery capability across a huge variety of devices which support the tech.

* Yes, yes, I know that there are tons of compatibility issues, but native support across the same range of devices is 10x harder. If not 100x or 1000x.

[mixedbit]

The purpose of this visualization is to present a car, which requires a good single model viewer. If this was a link to a more visually appealing .exe game, many of us wouldn't be able to run it, because it would require a specific platform, many would be afraid to run it, and many wouldn't bother to download and install executable just to see a car.

[guscost]

One difference: I was casually browsing web pages on my phone, saw the link, and was able to try out the demo after 15 seconds of loading. Then when I was done I closed the tab and that's the end of it. Nothing to install or uninstall, near-instant casual 3D interactivity (at least on a modern cell phone). I'd say that part is pretty cool.

[onion2k]

This is one of the most impressive bits of WebGL work I've seen recently - https://ga.me/games/polycraft - a full, playable, and actually very fun cel-shaded game that shows off what WebGL is capable of very nicely.

[drzaiusapelord]

Its neat because its a desirable car I guess and because its WebGL, but right now you can download Unity3D, build whatever, and push it out into WebGL trivially. This seems a year too late to be impressive. I think a lot of the people impressed by this haven't been keeping up with WebGL. If you want your mind blown you should see this game that runs in WebGL:

https://ga.me/games/polycraft

[arethuza]

I gave it a quick check and it works on multiple desktop browsers and on my iPhone - that's pretty impressive.

[elcct]

You wouldn't download a car?

[dvh]

When you enter and steer the driving wheel and then get out, the wheels are also turned :)

[benbou09]

But you can't honk :)

[atrust]

Well done. This one reminds me http://helloracer.com/webgl/.

[Cakez0r]

One of my friends noticed you can see the city skyline cubemap they used, but haven't used as the actual sky in the demo: http://i.imgur.com/NbREnqS.png

[Shivetya]

Very nice render there. That is one of the few cars which I have to say looks so much better up close than in pictures.

[baldajan]

MIND BLOWN - this is using WebGL? Unbelievable!

The only thing I wish it had was more interactions, but as is it demonstrates that WebGL is not just a toy, but something to be taken more seriously in the GL community.

[TazeTSchnitzel]

> this is using WebGL? Unbelievable!

What, have you never seen a WebGL demo before?

> it demonstrates that WebGL is not just a toy, but something to be taken more seriously in the GL community.

It already is taken seriously. WebGL is merely a variant of OpenGL ES for JavaScript. Heck, the whole of Unity and the Unreal Engine can run on it.

[__jack__]

"..,but something to be taken more seriously" outside "the GL community"

[vegabook]

Awesome, especially in black I think. But WebGL still has an aliasing problem, made worse when we introduce movement. It was the same in the watch movement sim on HN a few days ago. Not to take away from the amazing work of the authors, but are there higher quality anti-aliasing options which won't cause my eye to distract to the high-velocity pixel movements on the car's shutlines as it moves along? (Full HD machine - dunno if this issue disappears at HiDPI).

Oh and another thing. PlayCanvas looks great but also looks properly expensive. I'm having to cough some pretty serious dough as a single experimental developer, without even getting above bronze support. Not hugely garage-outfit friendly though I will say it looks very professional.

[forgotmypassw]

The scene looks very nice albeit I'm not sure what's so spectacular about displaying a single model? I've noticed someone saying in the thread that it's impressive because you can view it on mobile, but why wouldn't you? Modern phones are equipped with hardware better than the one we had over a decade ago, and we had 3D games back then, so displaying a single higher poly model on way better hardware doesn't really amuse me. Besides, I don't really dig the whole idea of WebGL, but the damage's done already.

[hoorayimhelping]

"So what?" Classic HN.

Why does something have to be revolutionary to enjoy it? Why can't you just enjoy it because it's enjoyable?

Also, there's a huge difference between "it should be this way" and "it is this way." The fact that the person who made this made it the way it should be is impressive, when so few people seem capable of that.

[sirival]

Well it's not so much about displaying a single model, but demonstrating the power of physically based rendering using WebGL and the wide range of devices that can be used to view this beautiful content. Current interactive car demos found in official car web sites are much lower quality than this.

[moron4hire]

I'm sorry I'm not keen on making games for only one platform at a time.

[JanSolo]

I LOVED the Orangey-Brown colour scheme so much that I went straight to the BMW website to see if it was really an option that you can buy. Sadly, it's not. /sadface

[Cshelton]

BMW Individual. For a good amount of money, any color scheme, exterior, interior, leather stitching, etc. can be yours. They can do a lot as their "custom" shop is kinda separate. You're almost getting a "hand-built" car. On their website they list a few common Individual options, but if you actually work with a rep, they can do whatever you want.

[mfringel]

I think I flew the orangey-brown one in EVE Online a while ago. Got podded in nullsec. Shame about that.

[lectrick]

Ah, the car that fakes internal combustion engine noise when it's running on electric... No thanks. Nice demo though!

[TazeTSchnitzel]

> Ah, the car that fakes internal combustion engine noise when it's running on electric

Cars are legally required to do so, aren't they? Otherwise, electric vehicles would be quiet enough to kill people.

[awqrre]

I hope that they only add this fake noise when no radio is playing or that it can easily be disabled.

[santaclaus]

Super cool! Do the camera controls 'invert' when you hop into the car, however? When outside the car, grab a point on the car and drag, and that point roughly tracks where you drag your mouse pointer to. Inside the car, the opposite happens. Grab a point, drag the mouse, and the point moves away from the cursor.

[stefap2]

In Firefox I get "Loading...". In IE it shows only a blurry picture of what appears to be the front lights?

[pearjuice]

I am a little bit disappointed that it has automatic transmission. But this is probably catered to an American audience, of which the common denominator doesn't even know that manual cars exist. Other than that, really impressive. This only needs some controls and motion, and then you have basic gameplay!

[Mikeb85]

Very nice. Runs full speed (60 fps or so as best as I can tell) on Chrome/Galaxy Note 3.

[voltagex_]

Semi-related, are there any "accurate" WebGL models of a working V6/V8 engine?

[ponyous]

I love camera behaviour! Good job

[jamesfmilne]

Just wanted to chime in and agree, the camera control is slick. So many 3D apps have atrocious camera controls.