Watch Mozilla preview WebGL 2, the first major update to plugin-free 3D graphics in the browser

There were a lot of announcements at Game Developer Conference in San Francisco today, but one flew under the radar: a preview of WebGL 2. Mozilla gave us a sneak peek of what will one day power games and other intensive applications in the browser.

WebGL, which stands for Web Graphics Library, is a JavaScript API for rendering interactive 3D computer graphics and 2D graphics in compatible browsers without needing plugins. It allows GPU-accelerated usage of physics, image processing, and effects as part of the web page canvas, and WebGL elements can be mixed with other HTML elements on the page.