WebGL 2 and WebGL Extensions Roadmap

Extensions in Canary

• WEBGL_debug_shaders and WEBGL_debug_renderer_info - no longer require privileged access.
• OES_element_index_uint - already used by createVertexArrayFromGeometry, but could also be used by billboards and polylines that use vertex buffer directly.
• OES_texture_half_float
• OES_texture_float_linear and OES_texture_half_float_linear for completeness.
• WEBGL_compressed_texture_s3tc - for glTF.
• EXT_frag_depth (still draft) - opaque ray-traced geometry, e.g., ellipsoids, sensors, etc.

Draft WebGL Extensions

• WEBGL_color_buffer_float and EXT_color_buffer_half_float for HDR (I think).
• WEBGL_compressed_texture_atc and WEBGL_compressed_texture_pvrtc - for glTF
• WEBGL_draw_buffers - first for combing color and pick passes in a single pass. Later, with the post-processing framework, we can combine other passes like glow and velocity. Shadow and reflection passes will still be separate since they are rendered with different view parameters.
• WEBGL_shared_resources - for multiple canvases, but not web workers?

Proposed WebGL Extensions

• ANGLE_timer_query, for profiling tools.
• WEBGL_compressed_texture_etc1 - for glTF.
• WEBGL_dynamic_texture - for video textures.

OpenGL ES 3.0 Features

• Multisampled Renderbuffers - AA without using FXAA.
• Half-float vertex attributes, i.e., GL_OES_vertex_half_float.
• Uniform buffer objects - for backing uniforms with buffers based on update frequency. Also see #649.
• Sampler objects - the Cesium abstractions already look like this to some extent.
• Immutable textures - reduce driver validation (EXT_texture_storage).
• Instancing, i.e., ANGLE_instanced_arrays, for batching geometry and models.
• Primitive restart - batch render line strips instead of individual lines.
• Transform feedback - perhaps for particle systems.
• [ ] Program binaries - to reduce shader compile times. (Not in WebGL 2.0)

More on ES 3.0

• OpenGL ES 3.0 at SIGGRAPH 2012
• OpenGL ES 3.0 – Halti has arrived

More on WebGL 2.0

• What’s coming in WebGL 2.0
• WebGL 2 Specification
• Mozilla Platform/GFX/WebGL2

WebGL 2 Demos

• http://toji.github.io/webgl2-particles/

Done

• OES_vertex_array_object - #766.

[pjcozzi]

• A minimal, WebGL 2-only rendering library https://tsherif.github.io/picogl.js/

[lilleyse]

• modernizeShader is too slow. This is something we should address before defaulting to WebGL 2.
  • This may mean upgrading all shaders to GLSL ES 3.0 with some DSL (aka @pjcozzi’s comment https://github.com/CesiumGS/cesium/issues/797#issuecomment-316990165)
  • Or see https://github.com/CesiumGS/cesium/issues/9201 for a workaround