Web/API/WEBGL lose context

The WEBGL_lose_context extension is part of the WebGL API and exposes functions to simulate losing and restoring a WebGLRenderingContext.

WebGL extensions are available using the WebGLRenderingContext.getExtension() method. For more information, see also Using Extensions in the WebGL tutorial.

Availability: This extension is available to both, WebGL1 and WebGL2 contexts.

Methods

WEBGL_lose_context.loseContext(): Simulates losing the context.
WEBGL_lose_context.restoreContext(): Simulates restoring the context.

Examples

With this extension, you can simulate the webglcontextlost and webglcontextrestored events:

const canvas = document.getElementById('canvas');
const gl = canvas.getContext('webgl');

canvas.addEventListener('webglcontextlost', (event) => {
  console.log(event); 
});

gl.getExtension('WEBGL_lose_context').loseContext();

// WebGLContextEvent event with type "webglcontextlost" is logged.

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
WEBGL_lose_contextThe definition of 'WEBGL_lose_context' in that specification.	Recommendation	Initial definition.

Browser compatibility

The compatibility table in this page is generated from structured data. If you'd like to contribute to the data, please check out https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data and send us a pull request.

Update compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet
`loseContext`	Chrome Full support Yes	Edge Full support 17	Firefox Full support 22 Full support 22 No support 19 — 58 Prefixed' Prefixed' Implemented with the vendor prefix: MOZ_	IE ?	Opera Full support Yes	Safari ?	WebView Android Full support Yes	Chrome Android Full support Yes	Firefox Android ?	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS ?	Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes

Legend

Full support: Full support
Compatibility unknown: Compatibility unknown
Requires a vendor prefix or different name for use.': Requires a vendor prefix or different name for use.