PNG as fast transmission format for 3D computer graphics in the Web Daniel Dworak ( ) 1 and Maria Pietruszka 2 1 Institute of Information Technology, Lodz University of Technology, Poland Center for Media and Interactivity, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany 150859@edu.p.lodz.pl 2 Institute of Information Technology, Lodz University of Technology, Poland maria.pietruszka@p.lodz.pl http://www.p.lodz.pl Abstract. This paper focuses on manners of filling the gaps in existing standards that are used in tridimensional Web technologies. We proposed the way of encod- ing huge 3D data sets in lossless PNG format and use of programmable rendering pipeline to decoding PNG file. It allows to reduce significantly the file with 3D data, time of transmission via Web and time needed to decode the file. Keywords: 3D geometry in the Web, 3D data transmission format, WebGL ren- dering pipeline, GPGPU. 1 Introduction Nowadays, every personal computer, notebook or even mobile device has its own graph- ics processing unit (GPU) and installed newest Web browser, which has an access to GPU via shaders language. It allows to perform complex calculations using GPU to render tridimensional graphics data in real time. GPU shaders can be also used for non- graphics data-parallel computing, for example image, audio and video processing [3], which is called GPGPU - General-Purpose Computing on Graphics Processing Units. The main problem for 3D graphics in the Web are huge 3D data sets, which contain many models of buildings, trees, etc. Transmission of such data via network requires wideband Internet connection and transsmision formats. There are transmission formats for Audio (MP3), Video (H.264), and images (JPEG, PNG) but no transmission format exists for 3D computer graphics yet. Declarative-3D formats, such as X3D and Collada, specify 3D scene data in a well-structured, human-readeable format. However, a text- based meshs data description gives huge files, even for small models that consists of a few thousand polygons. WRL was declarative-3D format of VRML (Virtual Reality Markup Language), first 3D graphics technology for the Web. The X3D technology, as a successor to VRML, accepts description of 3D scene in old WRL format and in new XML format, but in both cases, the additional plug-ins are necessary. Collada is also declarative-3D asset interchange format (DAE), created by the Khronos Group. Currently, there are several solutions to convert those formats to modern Web stan- dards without plug-ins. X3DOM is an open-source and runtime framework for 3D graphics for the Web, which allows to include X3D elements as a part of any HTML5