WebGL (Web Graphics Library) is a JavaScript API for rendering interactive 3D and 2D graphics within any compatible web browser without the use of plug-ins. WebGL does so by introducing an API that closely conforms to OpenGL ES 2.0 that can be used in HTML5 <canvas>
elements.
Support for WebGL is present in Firefox 4+, Google Chrome 9+, Opera 12+, Safari 5.1+ and Internet Explorer 11+; however, the user's device must also have hardware that supports these features.
The <canvas>
element is also used by Canvas 2D to do 2D graphics on web pages.
ANGLE_instanced_arrays
EXT_blend_minmax
EXT_color_buffer_float
EXT_color_buffer_half_float
EXT_disjoint_timer_query
EXT_frag_depth
EXT_sRGB
EXT_shader_texture_lod
EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic
OES_element_index_uint
OES_standard_derivatives
OES_texture_float
OES_texture_float_linear
OES_texture_half_float
OES_texture_half_float_linear
OES_vertex_array_object
WEBGL_color_buffer_float
WEBGL_compressed_texture_atc
WEBGL_compressed_texture_etc
WEBGL_compressed_texture_etc1
WEBGL_compressed_texture_pvrtc
WEBGL_compressed_texture_s3tc
WEBGL_debug_renderer_info
WEBGL_debug_shaders
WEBGL_depth_texture
WEBGL_draw_buffers
WEBGL_lose_context
WebGL 2 is a major update to WebGL which is provided through the WebGL2RenderingContext
interface. It is based on OpenGL ES 3.0 and new features include:
See also the blog post "WebGL 2 lands in Firefox" and webglsamples.org/WebGL2Samples for a few demos.
Specification | Status | Comment |
---|---|---|
WebGL 1.0 | Recommendation | Initial definition. Based on OpenGL ES 2.0 |
WebGL 2.0 | Editor's Draft | Builds on top of WebGL 1. Based on OpenGL ES 3.0. |
OpenGL ES 2.0 | Standard | |
OpenGL ES 3.0 | Standard |
Feature | Chrome | Edge | Firefox (Gecko) | Internet Explorer | Opera | Safari |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Basic support | 9 | (Yes) | 4.0 (2.0) | 11 | 12 | 5.1 |
WebGL 2 | 56 | No support | 51 (51) | No support | 43 | No support |
Feature | Chrome for Android | Edge | Firefox Mobile (Gecko) | IE Mobile | Opera Mobile | Safari Mobile |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Basic support | 25 | (Yes) | 4 | No support | 12 | 8.1 |
WebGL 2 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
In addition to the browser, the GPU itself also needs to support the feature. So, for example, S3 Texture Compression (S3TC) is only available on Tegra-based tablets. Most browsers make the WebGL context available through the webgl
context name, but older ones need experimental-webgl
as well. In addition, the upcoming WebGL 2 is fully backwards-compatible and will have the context name webgl2
.
Starting with Gecko 10.0 (Firefox 10.0 / Thunderbird 10.0 / SeaMonkey 2.7), there are two preferences available which let you control the capabilities of WebGL for testing purposes:
webgl.min_capability_mode
true
, enables a minimum capability mode. When in this mode, WebGL is configured to only support the bare minimum feature set and capabilities required by the WebGL specification. This lets you ensure that your WebGL code will work on any device or browser, regardless of their capabilities. This is false
by default.webgl.disable_extensions
true
, disables all WebGL extensions. This is false
by default.
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Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v2.5 or later.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/WebGL_API