Question

I need some little 3D rendering in my browser application. Unfortunatly the Internet Explorer 8 is not going to support WebGL, Canvas 2D or SVG. And the Windows XP users can’t install the IE9 (which supports at least Canvas 2D).

What do you think about Plugin-based alternatives?

• I mean Silverlight with XNA 3D seems not to be supported any longer.
• Flash has a bad reputation if I ask Apple.
• What do you think about Unity3D?
• Are there others?

I need some Arguments.

Answer 1

This seems to be not a right question to ask here but anyway here are my 2 cents:

1. Silverlight seems dead. I haven’t seen any site using it for a long time. I doubt a big percent of general users have the plugin installed.
2. Flash completely dominates desktops but is not supported on mobiles (if you haven’t heard Adobe discontinued mobile flash player development even for Android devices).
3. Unity3d has really cool IDE. You can create your little 3D scenes in just hours. But plugin support is not good and it doesn’t work on mobile devices. What’s cool is Flash export in Unity3d 3.5 wich allows you to publish your little 3D content as SWF.
4. WebGL is a good solution too but as you said it’s not supported everywhere. But iOS devices will be able to show your content.
5. Java applets are dead too. Nobody likes them and non-developers sometimes don’t even have plugin installed.

I’d go for Flash and Stage3d. There are decent 3d libraries like Alternativa3D and Away3D. Or you could use Unity3D and flash export. This solution will work for common people. Of course visitors with iPad will not see your 3D stuff.

You could think of using Flash for desktops and WebGL for mobile devices. Depends on how complex your little 3D elements are.