Introduction to WebGL

Learn the fundamentals of WebGL and create your first interactive 3D graphics.

🚀 Interactive Demo

What is WebGL?

WebGL (Web Graphics Library) is a JavaScript API for rendering 2D and 3D graphics within any compatible web browser without the need for plugins. It leverages the GPU for hardware-accelerated rendering.

Key Concepts

Canvas Element

  • • The HTML5 <canvas> element
  • • WebGL context initialization
  • • Rendering surface for WebGL

Shader Programs

  • • Vertex and fragment shaders in GLSL
  • • Shader compilation and linking
  • • GPU-based graphical effects

First WebGL Demo

Getting Started

Setting Up WebGL

// Get a WebGL context
const canvas = document.getElementById('intro-canvas');
const gl = canvas.getContext('webgl2');

if (!gl) {
    alert("WebGL not supported!");
}

Basic Shader

// Vertex shader source
const vsSource = `
    attribute vec4 aVertexPosition;
    void main() {
        gl_Position = aVertexPosition;
    }
`;

How WebGL Works

Rendering Pipeline

  1. 1. Create and compile shaders
  2. 2. Create a shader program
  3. 3. Set up vertex buffers
  4. 4. Call drawing commands
  5. 5. Swap render buffers

Next Steps

Shaders

Master GLSL and build custom graphics effects.

Learn More →

Transforms

Learn 3D transformations and coordinate systems.

Learn More →

3D Models

Load and render 3D models with glTF format.

Learn More →