Chrome Becomes A Better 3D Gaming Platform, Now Supports Pointer Lock

Google just launched a new stable version of Chrome today that adds supports for the Pointer Lock JavaScript API. The purpose of this API is pretty simple: in 3D games on the browser, for example, the mouse often moves outside of the window, which effectively makes playing the game impossible. With the Pointer Lock API, which is currently working its way through the standardization process, developers can restrict mouse movements to the inside of the window. This, says Google, allows users “to control their perspective naturally with the mouse, without moving outside the window or bumping into the edge of their screen.”

Google stresses that it’s not just games that profit from this API, though. “Medical and scientific visualization, training, simulation, modeling, authoring packages” and similar highly graphical web apps will also be able to make good use of this feature.

mozilla bananabread demoYou can give Pointer Lock on Chrome a try using Mozilla’s BananaBread 3D shooter demo. Mozilla, by the way, started supporting Pointer Lock with Firefox 14.

Also New In Chrome Stable: Better Support For Retina Screens And Windows 8

In addition, says Google, the latest version of Chrome now features a number of enhancement for Windows 8 users. The team also notes that it continues to add polish for users with Retina screens. Sadly, though, Google didn’t provide any details about the actual changes it made.

Google also awarded numerous awards to hackers who found security issues in Chrome. Besides the usual awards, which range from $500 to $2000, Google’s team issued two $5,000 awards and one $10,000 award for three bugs that were especially severe. As Google noted in August, when it announced some of these higher-level awards, the company has now paid over $1 million to developers who found vulnerabilities in Chrome.