Part 1 — Process
Part 2 — Exploration
Part 3 — Team
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We gathered some of the team members involved in this project and asked them about their thoughts and reflections about WebGL among other things.
— KLAS KROON, DEVELOPER
Can you shortly say something about your background?
Have been doing flash-development for over 10 years, working for NK since 2004. Started playing with js/canvas/WebGL just a few months before this project started. I enjoy coding visual, arty things. Have a long experience working with interactivity.
Can you describe your role in this project?
I was responsible for the “soup” or the interactive 3d parts. Like how you “paint” the animals, the grass, etc. How you move through the environments. Worked closely with Chris to try and make it as close to his vision as we could. Did a lot of mockups/sketchcoding early on to try out different directions.
Klas and director Chris Milk working on the soup.
I also did some research about the 2d parts early on for a few different approaches. For example to triangulate the animations and render them with WebGL.
What do you think was the biggest challenge?
For me personally it was being a bit new to javascript, don´t have that extensive experience working with 3d either. That was definitely a threshold. The other big challenge was to try and make Chris, the director, happy and get close to his vision. That was a constant tweaking, testing, changing and revising all the way until the day before launch.
Another challenge was that the engine was and is constantly being developed while you try and produce something that should just work.
What is the most impressive thing you experienced in the process?
The most impressive thing to me, is the fact of how far the modern browsers have come in the last few years when it comes to javascript performance. And then WebGL takes it even further. Having been a bit inside the flash-bubble for many years that was kind of an eye-opener. It´s also very fun, easy and accessible to play with.
Klas and Branislav Ulicny optimizing the experience.
What do you think the future of WebGL will be?
It may very well become the “standard” for 3d on the web, it´s still way to early to say though. I guess it will be decided partly by were the most active community is and where it becomes most easily accessible for the “average” developer. And partly by which direction the big players(like gamedev companies) move, they tend to move quite slowly though.
But I can imagine that there will be a co-existence between WebGL and molehill (flash 3d), where one uses the other as a fallback. We are already seeing companies like Mandreel (http://www.mandreel.com/) who´s setting up pipelines that output equal results in both WebGL and molehill, some examples: http://www.mandreel.com/?page_id=850
There is no question that realtime 3d will be the “next big thing” when it comes to the web, though.
Any other reflections or insights you want to share?
I really like that companies like Google invest and dares to try things like this.
Klas on Twitter: @oosmoxiecode
— BRANISLAV ULICNY, DEVELOPER
What is your background?
I come from academia, computer science and have a PhD (EPFL).
Can you describe your role in this project?
I focused on the three.js engine, tools/asset pipeline, code and asset integration. I was “the gatekeeper” and final outpost before anything got deployed.
Chris and Branislav reviewing.
What do you think was the biggest challenge?
Sheer complexity of the thing: there are about 41 thousand lines of JavaScript code, hundreds of megabytes of source assets, thousands of files.
What is the most impressing and cool thing you experienced in the process?
Playing with 3d worlds in the browser: interactive tweaking of the look, flying around. And monster cows.
What do you think the future of WebGL will be?
WebGL is very powerful; we are just starting to explore what’s possible. While still being a very young technology with some growing pains, it’s already “good enough” for many use cases that before could have been done only as desktop applications.
Branislav working with Chris and Double C.
Any other reflections or insights you want to share?
Progress in browsers is astonishing, just one year ago ro.me wouldn’t be possible. If you want to see the future, don’t look at the current state, look at the rate of change.
See more of Branislavs work here.
Twitter: @alteredq
— BARTEK DROZDZ, DEVELOPER
Can you shortly say something about your background?
I used to be a Flash Developer for more than 10 years. Always interested in 3d graphics, about 2 years ago I started to look around at other technologies that offered better performance when it comes to realtime rendering. First I moved on to Unity3d and, beginning this year, I started my adventure with WebGL. Next stop? Who knows, maybe some 3d on mobile devices…
Can you describe your role in this project?
I was part of the team of developers responsible for the core experience of 2d and 3d animations. The project was pretty long – almost 5 months, so my role changed a few times. I started by doing many prototypes to capture the vision of our director, then worked on the pipeline to get models from 3d editors into WebGL, then moved over to code some parts of the underlying engine. Towards the end I focused on how to render the 2d animations.
Bartek, next to Chris, walking through 2D.
What do you think was the biggest challenge?
Everything :) From the first day to the last, most of what I was doing was a challenge. I did program with Javascript before but never on such scale, and WebGL is a much lower level API than Papervision or Unity3d which I was used to. Because of that I had so catch up on some serious math. At some point I even took a few days to write my own 3d engine, just to learn and understand the technology. Last but not least, it was my first project where we used Git to manage the source code.
What is the most interesting thing you experienced in the process?
The most fascinating thing was WebGL itself. By offering low level access to the GPU, it gives the developers more power and flexibility to do creative coding. Once you are past the first, a bit intimidating, phase of getting to know the API you immediately feel a great creative energy. Even though the project is now over, I do new WebGL experiments everyday, just because it’s so fun!
What do you think the future of WebGL will be?
It has a great future, and more companies should now decide to create experiences similar to RO.ME. I hope that soon realtime 3d will no longer be associated only with games, but will start being applied for many other domains of interactive storytelling.
See more of Barteks work here
Twitter: @bartekd
— MIKAEL EMTINGER, TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
Can you shortly say something about your background?
I worked 13 years in the computer games industry before switching to the web four years ago.
Can you describe your role in this project?
I was the technical director (for North Kingdom) focusing on framework development and pipeline challenges. For example, we added new functionality to Three.js – shadows, object hierarchies, skinning, sound, level of detail, morphing and a lot more. Not all of this was used in the final experience, but will hopefully help others in future projects.
Mikael and producer Marcus Ivarsson in LA discussing the overall experience.
What do you think was the biggest challenge?
To get all different parts – video, animation, 3d-worlds and interactivity, to works smoothly together technically and as a consistent narrative.
What is the most impressing thing you experienced in the process?
The power of WebGL and shaders, at such an early stage – it’s only been around officially for about three months.
What do you think the future of WebGL will be?
I really hope Microsoft either quits doing browsers or joins the bandwagon. WebGL has the potential to fundamentally change the way we think about the web, but all players have to get behind it to make it fly.
Twitter: @mikaelemtinger
— KLAUS LYNGELED, 3D ARTIST
Can you shortly say something about your background?
I come from a game background, but have also worked on animated commercials, short movies and music videos. Previous game projects, Enter The Matrix, Sacrifice, Ignition, Wild9 and lately Weewaa. Today I run small creative game/animation studio called Zoink Games. We do anything, as long as it’s fun and creative :)
Can you describe your role in this project?
My main role was to help out setting a style that was actually possible to make in WebGl. Once the style was designed on “paper” my job was to build the worlds with Martin and Jonas. Having worked with all sorts of 3D engines from the game space, we have learned a few tricks that was applicable to WebGl.
What do you think was the biggest challenge?
Trying create a unique style that did NOT feel like a video game. As soon as something is build in 3D and has that kind-of poly textured look it tends to look like video game. Trying to come up with a totally new look from scratch and still make it run real-time was a real challenge. Working with a totally new 3D engine was also quite hard, as the tool chains are not developed.
What is the most impressing/cool/interesting/fun thing you experienced in the process?
Having a team compiled from so many different parts of the world is really interesting. Working with a guy from Slovenia in more than 3 months and finally get to meet him face to face was really fun :)
I also thought it was really impressive how much candy there was at the North Kingdom office! Insane amounts.
What do you think the future of WebGL will be?
It will be glorious and very shiny!
More from Klaus www.zoinkgames.com
