Canvas 3d JS Library

One feature which has been missing from the library is text support.  Andrew is working on the creating the interface for users to create text and I have played around with the shaders to get text to appear without a background.  The text is created by drawing to a regular canvas, then creating a texture from the contents of that canvas. That texture is then applied to Model, in this case a flat white-background plane, but it can just as easily be applied to a car, torus, etc. So, in our case, what results is a flat white plane with red text. In most cases, users will probably want the text without the white background, so if the text is to be displayed without occluding other objects, its background must not be drawn.  When the fragments are drawn, they are only placed in the color buffer if they pass certain tests, such as having having some element of red and not being white. That way, the white background fragments are discarded.  I was surprised to see that the white fragments didn’t go into the depth buffer, saving me from having to explicitly code that. Most of our code is either hardcoded or not yet polished, but is on its way.  Text on the canvas is definitely something to look forward to, especially how Chris will be using it in his 3D Google Map demo.