Remember the recent kerfuffle about Microsoft’s rejection of WebGL? One week later, developers have released IEWebGL: a WebGL plugin for Internet Explorer.

The home page for the plugin, http://iewebgl.com/, reads:

IEWebGL is a plugin for Microsoft Internet Explorer web browser, that adds support for WebGL – modern web 3D graphics standard. IEWebGL does not require administrative rights to install and works in IE8, IE9, IE10PP, Windows XP/Vista/7 32 and 64 bits.

The site also provides a bit of developer information such as code samples, WebGL resources, and a tutorial on using webglhelper.js to automatically detect if WebGL is present. The whole project looks quite promising.

Unfortunately, it’s not obvious who or what is behind IEWebGL, and a savvy Windows user might be worried about running random executables he or she finds on the Internet. The site is sparse in terms of community — there is no information about the team, no forum, no bug tracker, or even a mention of which version of the plugin you’re downloading. Luckily, one of the authors, Ivan Modenov, responding quickly to my request for more information, and it was reassuring to know that there was a person behind the web site.

Modenov, who appears to have been involved in OpenGL-related projects for years, wrote: “We also care about security, so the upcoming beta2 will fix recently found WebGL issues with cross-domain textures. As for performance – it is… [comparable] to other major WebGL implementations. In IE9 and later we use hardware accelerated browser infrastructure and IEWebGL can achieve up to 100 frames per second of pure frame output.”

The plugin will be free for users, but developers will have to pay to have an “Unregistered Version” banner removed when users visit their domain. Modenov added, ”We will license IEWebGL to use on per-domain basis. The final prices are not ready for today, but we think it should not cost more than good web site hosting.”

See: IEWebGL – WebGL for Internet Explorer