Euh... Yeah? Shoehorning SVG into 3D models ought to be slow. Manipulating DOM nodes for animation has it's limits. If you want 3D perf in the browser, use WebGL.
The canvas can be quite fast if used right, but again, it's not the right tool for every job.
> WebGL doesn't have very good support, especially on mobile. That's why one would choose to use SVG.
This statement isn't even vaguely true. SVG support is quite incomplete and inconsistent across all browsers (both desktop and mobile), while Webgl has been comparatively well supported on mobile for many years (Android 4.4 lacked support; Android 9 is now out).
The only issues you might have with most common webgl applications on mobile is performance & battery drain but that's equally true of SVG.
You've repeatedly violated the site guidelines in this thread. That will get you banned on HN—especially the way you've been abusing others. Could you please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and follow the rules from now on? The idea here is: if you have a substantive point to make, make it thoughtfully; if you don't, please don't comment until you do.
You obviously have experience in this area that is great to share in a way people can learn from. But first it's necessary to be civil, as all users need to be here.
This applies to a few of your comments, but: you're not telling us anything interesting, you're just antagonistic. GP's experience is not really relevant here. If you think you have more experience, tell us about your opinions and how your justify them. Knee-jerk disagreeing and suspecting everyone to have less experience than you will just get you downvoted everywhere.
First of all, that's a pretty condescending thing to say and you're obviously not speaking for everyone. I wouldn't mention that if you weren't tone-policing me.
I'm telling you that if you make technical decisions based on "feature support" charts, you're going to fall flat on your face with WebGL. That's pretty useful information unless you never have to do any actual work with that technology, but then your opinion is also irrelevant.
> Knee-jerk disagreeing and suspecting everyone to have less experience than you will just get you downvoted everywhere.
Nobody who has experience with WebGL and SVG will say WebGL is better supported across the board. You'll have to take that at face value, there's no scientific study for it and I'm not going to just give out more information than I'm comfortable with.
I'm getting downvoted across the board here, presumably for using "bad" words like "terrible" to describe everyone's favorite Web technology they never really used. Or if they have used it, they don't know how poorly it compares to something "evil" like Flash. People want "the good guys" to win, which means "free and open source" and "standard". It makes them upset when somebody criticizes that harshly, but it's the reality.
I got some upvotes initially, by the way. Not that I care either way, I'm not paid in upvotes.
The fact that a browser supports WebGL tells you nothing about which devices support it.
It all depends on the GPU and its drivers, browsers have blacklists of GPUs, but even if your device is not blacklisted, it may simply screw up, especially on mobile.
If you rely on WebGL on mobile then I would feel insecure too, but progressive enhancement is a thing.
I got recently asked to do a project in WegGL and the target audience has the latest gadgets so it will fly on mobile as well. A transaction will cost around $50k so it's a safe assumption, but I'll do more research.
The canvas can be quite fast if used right, but again, it's not the right tool for every job.