This is pretty much exactly the kind of problem that one might expect with WebGL. Since driver writers traditionally didn't think much about security implications, this may be a simple case of somebody "forgetting" (possibly motivated by performance considerations) to zero out texture contents. The people responsible for that code should fix it and then we can all move on.
That bug is not uncommon on OS X, it happens with a few of the drivers. (mostly seen on the nVidia 8xxx and 9xxx series?) And it is not that they are not cleared, it more often than not is things that should actually be in memory
But for some unknown reason, the driver maps memory the wrong way and poof you get the wrong texture, sometimes they are garbled sometimes not and sometimes hilarious results (was referred to as the 'Avril Lavigne issue' in the EVE community for a while.)
I would say it is an issue, but it is not a very serious one by current WebGL standards, there is not any controlled way of getting random textures of your bank account etc, there are probably worse issues with 3D graphics drivers than this.
I have been a 3D developer for business applications for over 5 years on various platforms and this problem crops up often. Most often it is the developer's fault so in this case the WebGL implementations. But surprisingly often it is a library or driver implementation issue that you need to work around.
I am glad I am not responsible for the implementations, working with all the vendors must be a mammoth and frustrating task.
I have seen this happening a lot with Chrome, Windows XP and latest Nvidia drivers. And not only with WebGL, but with every kind of GPU-accelerated web content.
5 comments
[ 4.3 ms ] story [ 19.8 ms ] threadBut for some unknown reason, the driver maps memory the wrong way and poof you get the wrong texture, sometimes they are garbled sometimes not and sometimes hilarious results (was referred to as the 'Avril Lavigne issue' in the EVE community for a while.)
I would say it is an issue, but it is not a very serious one by current WebGL standards, there is not any controlled way of getting random textures of your bank account etc, there are probably worse issues with 3D graphics drivers than this.
I am glad I am not responsible for the implementations, working with all the vendors must be a mammoth and frustrating task.