WebGL Overview - The Khronos Group Inc

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LOW-LEVEL 3D GRAPHICS API BASED ON OPENGL ES

WebGL™ is a cross-platform, royalty-free open web standard for a low-level 3D graphics API based on OpenGL ES, exposed to ECMAScript via the HTML5 Canvas element. Developers familiar with OpenGL ES 2.0 will recognize WebGL as a Shader-based API using GLSL, with constructs that are semantically similar to those of the underlying OpenGL ES API. It stays very close to the OpenGL ES specification, with some concessions made for what developers expect out of memory-managed languages such as JavaScript. WebGL 1.0 exposes the OpenGL ES 2.0 feature set; WebGL 2.0 exposes the OpenGL ES 3.0 API.

WebGL brings plugin-free 3D to the web, implemented right into the browser. Major browser vendors Apple (Safari), Google (Chrome), Microsoft (Edge), and Mozilla (Firefox) are members of the WebGL Working Group.

Essential Resources for WebGL Development

There is a full set of well-supported developer information and educational resources to help quickly get you up and running with your WebGL application development.

The Standard


Presentations

Get the latest news from WebGL and hear experts share their thoughts.



Cool Stuff

Links gathered by members of the WebGL Working Group showing how WebGL has been implemented.

More Cool Stuff ...


Join Our Community

There are several ways to follow the latest developments, get questions answered and make suggestions for improvement. You'll find OpenGL community discussions on several forums and social media platforms below. It's a great way to get involved!

Slack - KhronosDevs | Google Groups | Stack Overflow | Newsletter



Get Involved!

Help shape WebGL to simplify the development of visualization applications!

Any company is welcome to join the Khronos Group and participate under its proven multi-company governance processes and IP Framework. If an organization is interested in becoming a Khronos member or has additional questions, please visit our Member page or contact us at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

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Khronos® and Vulkan® are registered trademarks, and ANARI™, WebGL™, glTF™, KTX™, NNEF™, OpenVX™, SPIR™, SPIR-V™, SYCL™, OpenVG™, Karamos™ and 3D Commerce™ are trademarks of The Khronos Group Inc. OpenXR™ is a trademark owned by The Khronos Group Inc. and is registered as a trademark in China, the European Union, Japan and the United Kingdom. OpenCL™ is a trademark of Apple Inc. and OpenGL® is a registered trademark and the OpenGL ES™ and OpenGL SC™ logos are trademarks of Hewlett Packard Enterprise used under license by Khronos. All other product names, trademarks, and/or company names are used solely for identification and belong to their respective owners.