Progressive streaming of compressed 3D graphics in a web browser

Abstract

The introduction of the WebGL API for rendering 3D graphics within the browser has boosted the development of 3D Web applications. However, delivering 3D Web content without latency remains a challenging issue, not yet solved. In this context, we introduce a solution for fast progressive streaming and visualization of compressed 3D graphics on the Web. Our approach is based on two main features: (1) a dedicated progressive compression algorithm especially suited to Web-based environments. It produces a compact binary compressed format which allows very fast transmission as well as progressive decoding with levels of details. (2) a plugin-free solution for streaming, decoding and visualization by the Web browser, which relies on an optimized parallel JavaScript/WebGL implementation. Our system allows instantaneous interactive visualization by providing a good approximation of the 3D models in a few milliseconds even for huge data and low-bandwidth channels. Experiments and comparison with concurrent solutions for 3D web content delivery demonstrate its excellent results in terms of latency, adaptability and quality of user experience.