Web/API/WebGLShader

The WebGLShader is part of the WebGL API and can either be a vertex or a fragment shader. A WebGLProgram requires both types of shaders.

Description

To create a WebGLShader use WebGLRenderingContext.createShader, then hook up the GLSL source code using WebGLRenderingContext.shaderSource(), and finally invoke WebGLRenderingContext.compileShader() to finish and compile the shader. At this point the WebGLShader is still not in a usable form and must still be attached to a WebGLProgram.

function createShader (gl, sourceCode, type) {
  // Compiles either a shader of type gl.VERTEX_SHADER or gl.FRAGMENT_SHADER
  var shader = gl.createShader( type );
  gl.shaderSource( shader, sourceCode );
  gl.compileShader( shader );

  if ( !gl.getShaderParameter(shader, gl.COMPILE_STATUS) ) {
    var info = gl.getShaderInfoLog( shader );
    throw 'Could not compile WebGL program. \n\n' + info;
  }
  return shader;
}

See WebGLProgram for information on attaching the shaders.

Examples

Creating a vertex shader

Note that there are many other strategies for writing and accessing shader source code strings. These example are for illustration purposes only.

var vertexShaderSource =
  'attribute vec4 position;\n' +
  'void main() {\n' +
  '  gl_Position = position;\n' +
  '}\n';

//Use the createShader function from the example above
var vertexShader = createShader(gl, vertexShaderSource, gl.VERTEX_SHADER)

Creating a fragment shader

var fragmentShaderSource =
  'void main() {\n' +
  '  gl_FragColor = vec4(1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0);\n' +
  '}\n';

//Use the createShader function from the example above
var fragmentShader = createShader(gl, fragmentShaderSource, gl.FRAGMENT_SHADER)

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
WebGL 1.0The definition of 'WebGLShader' 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
`WebGLShader`	Chrome Full support 9	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 4	IE Full support 11	Opera Full support 12	Safari Full support 5.1	WebView Android Full support Yes	Chrome Android Full support 25	Firefox Android Full support Yes	Opera Android Full support 12	Safari iOS Full support 8	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.5
Available in workers Experimental'	Chrome No support No	Edge No support No	Firefox Full support 44 Disabled' Full support 44 Disabled' Disabled' From version 44: this feature is behind the `gfx.offscreencanvas.enabled` preference (needs to be set to `true`). To change preferences in Firefox, visit about:config.	IE No support No	Opera No support No	Safari No support No	WebView Android No support No	Chrome Android No support No	Firefox Android No support No	Opera Android No support No	Safari iOS No support No	Samsung Internet Android No support No

Legend

Full support: Full support
No support: No support
Experimental. Expect behavior to change in the future.': Experimental. Expect behavior to change in the future.
User must explicitly enable this feature.': User must explicitly enable this feature.