Program

A Program contains a matched pair of vertex and fragment shaders that can be exectued on the GPU by calling Program.draw(). Programs handle compilation and linking of shaders, and store uniform values. They provide draw call which allows the application to run the shaders on specified input data.

Usage

Creating a program

const program = new Program(gl, {
  id: 'my-program',
  vs: vertexShaderSourceString,
  fs: fragmentShaderSourceString
});

Set or update uniforms, in this case world and projection matrices

program.setUniforms({
  uMVMatrix: view,
  uPMatrix: projection
});

Create a VertexArray to store buffer values for the vertices of a triangle and drawing

const program = new Program(gl, {vs, fs});

const vertexArray = new VertexArray(gl, {program});

vertexArray.setAttributes({
  aVertexPosition: new Buffer(gl, {data: new Float32Array([0, 1, 0, -1, -1, 0, 1, -1, 0])})
});

program.draw({vertexArray, ...});

Creating a program for transform feedback, specifying which varyings to use

const program = new Program(gl, {vs, fs, varyings: ['gl_Position']});

Members

• gl : WebGLRenderingContext
• handle : WebGLProgram - The WebGL WebGLProgram instance.
• id : String - id string for debugging.

Constructor

Program(gl : WebGLRenderingContext, props : Object)

Creates a new program using the supplied vertex and fragment shaders. The shaders are compiled into WebGLShaders and is created and the shaders are linked.

const program = new Program(gl, {
  id: 'my-identifier',
  vs: vertexShaderSource,
  fs: fragmentShaderSource,
  varyings: ['gl_Position', 'vColor']
});

• id (string, optional) - string id (to help indentify the program during debugging).
• vs (VertexShader|String) - A vertex shader object, or source as a string.
• fs (FragmentShader|String) - A fragment shader object, or source as a string.
• varyings WebGL 2 (String[]) - a list of names of varyings.
• bufferMode=GL.SEPARATE_ATTRIBS WebGL 2 (GLenum) - Optional, specifies how transform feedback should store the varyings.

WebGL References WebGLProgram, gl.createProgram

delete() : Program

Deletes resources held by program. Note: Does not currently delete shaders (to enable shader caching).

Methods

initialize(props : Object) : Program

Relinks a program. Takes the same options as the constructor

setUniforms(uniforms : Object) : Program

Sets named uniforms from a map, ignoring names

• key (String) - The name of the uniform to be set. The name of the uniform will be matched with the name of the uniform declared in the shader. You can set more uniforms on the Program than its shaders use, the extra uniforms will simply be ignored.
• value (mixed) - The value to be set. Can be a float, an array of floats, a typed array, a boolean, Texture etc. The values must match the declarations in the shader.

gl.useProgram

draw(opts) : Program

Program.draw is the entry point for running shaders, rendering and (optionally calculating data using transform feedback techniques).

  Program.draw({
    vertexArray,

    uniforms = {},
    transformFeedback = null,
    samplers = {},
    parameters = {},

    drawMode = GL.TRIANGLES,
    vertexCount,
    offset = 0,
    isIndexed = false,
    indexType = GL.UNSIGNED_SHORT,
    isInstanced = false,
    instanceCount = 0,

    start = 0,
    end=
  })

Main parameters

• vertexArray - a VertexArray object that will be bound and unbound before and after the draw call.
• uniforms={} - a map of uniforms that will be set just before the draw call (and remain set after the call).
• samplers={} - a map of texture Samplers that will be bound before the draw call.
• parameters - temporary gl settings to be applied to this draw call.
• transformFeedback=null - optional TransformFeedback object containing buffers that will receive the output of the transform feedback operation.

Potentially autodeduced parameters

• drawMode=GL.TRIANGLES - geometry primitive format of vertex data
• vertexCount - number of vertices to draw
• offset=0 - first vertex to draw
• isIndexed=false - use indices in the "elements" buffer
• indexType=GL.UNSIGNED_SHORT - must match the type of the "elements" buffer
• isInstanced=false - Set to enable instanced rendering.
• instanceCount=0 - Number of instances

Parameters for drawing a limited range (WebGL 2 only)

• start - hint to GPU, activates gl.drawElementsRange (WebGL 2)
• end - hint to GPU, activates gl.drawElementsRange (WebGL 2)

Returns: true if successful, false if draw call is blocked due to missing resources.

Notes:

• Runs the shaders in the program, on the attributes and uniforms.
• Indexed rendering uses the element buffer (GL.ELEMENT_ARRAY_BUFFER), make sure your attributes or VertexArray contains one.
• If a TransformFeedback object is supplied, transformFeedback.begin() and transformFeedback.end() will be called before and after the draw call.
• A Sampler will only be bound if there is a matching Texture with the same key in the supplied uniforms object.
• Once a uniform is set, it's size should not be changed. This is only a concern for array uniforms.

The following WebGL APIs are called in this function:

gl.useProgram, gl.drawElements, gl.drawRangeElements (WebGL 2), gl.drawArrays, gl.drawElementsInstanced (WebGL 2), gl.drawArraysInstanced (WebGL 2), gl.getExtension, ANGLE_instanced_arrays, gl.drawElementsInstancedANGLE, gl.drawArraysInstancedANGLE

Constants

Limits

Parameters

Use with Program.getParameter(parameter)