14 DAY TRIAL // If you switched away from Firefox, you might want to give it another try because Mozilla has announced today a new version that implements support for the new WebGL 2 standard, which enables the next-gen of 3D graphics on the Web.
With advanced graphics rendering features like a new complex shading language, state-of-the-art texturing capabilities, and transform feedback, Firefox 51 is the first web browser in the world to support the new WebGL 2 technologies, allowing skilled web developers to make use of these powerful new 3D graphics for creating new content. Best of all, WebGL 2 works on Linux, macOS, and Windows platforms.
"Expanding on the solid foundation of WebGL 1, WebGL 2 allows content creators to leverage more modern accelerated rendering features, like transform feedback, expanded texturing functionality, and multisampled rendering support," explains Mozilla's Nick Nguyen. "This will make it possible for developers to create more sophisticated and engaging visual content on the web."
Mozilla invites web developers who are curious to test drive the new WebGL 2 capabilities of Firefox to download and upgrade to version 51.0, then access PlayCanvas' After the Flood WebGL 2 demo. A short introductory video is attached at the end of the article if you haven't managed to upgrade to Firefox 51 just yet, but you only want to see the new WebGL 2 technologies in action.
Mozilla's key priority is to keep users safe online
In the press announcement, Mozilla says that the company's key priority is to keep users safe online. As such, the new Firefox 51 update implements a new functionality that will warn users whenever they found themselves on a web page that wants to collect their passwords but doesn't offer them a secure connection, such as HTTPS. Check out the next image to see the new feature in action.
Mozilla's efforts to make Firefox faster and more responsive are continuing, and the version spreads the multi-process capabilities of the web browser to more than half of desktop users. Firefox 51 also improved video performance for those with old computers and without GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) acceleration, which means that your favorite web browser is using less CPU usage.
Better full-screen experience, a new zoom button in the URL bar that lets you view in real-time the zoom level of the current tab, the ability to view passwords before they are saved in the built-in password manager, support for FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) playback, improved reliability of browser data sync, and the implementation of the Skia 2D graphics library for content rendering on Linux are also included in Firefox 51.
Yesterday we informed our readers about the fact that they can download Firefox 51 ahead of Mozilla's official announcement, but now the web browser is officially launched and it's time to update your installations. Go ahead and grab the binary packages for 64-bit or 32-bit systems on GNU/Linux, macOS, and Microsoft Windows platforms right now from our website.
