The Mozilla Foundation

Direct 3D DLL

The Microsoft D3DCompiler DLL is an example of an application of the binary components policy. To provide a good WebGL experience to Windows users with Intel graphics cards we planned on shipping ANGLE, an open source library, which translates WebGL/OpenGL to Direct3D. However, one of the pieces that ANGLE depends on is the D3DCompiler library provided by Microsoft. This library is not available in default Windows installs before Windows 8.1. Microsoft permits either the creation of a separate installer that all Windows users would need to execute when installing Firefox (which would increase download time and complexity and be a poor user experience), or bundling the required DLL with the product (as we have chosen to do). The Intel graphics cards are estimated to represent 50% of the graphic cards market; thus it’s a relevant portion of users. In addition, the D3DCompiler library also supports the long term adoption of WebGL as an open standard for 3D rendering on the web.