WebGL1

WebGL1, short for Web Graphics Library 1.0, is a web standard that enables the rendering of interactive 2D and 3D graphics within web browsers without plugins. It exposes a low-level API that gives JavaScript programs access to the graphics processing unit (GPU).

WebGL 1.0 is based on OpenGL ES 2.0. It uses a programmable pipeline: developers write vertex and fragment shaders in GLSL ES 1.0, submit them to the GPU, and issue draw commands with buffers and textures. The core API provides shader programs, attributes and uniforms, buffers, textures, renderbuffers, framebuffers, and drawing commands such as drawArrays and drawElements. The fixed-function pipeline of earlier OpenGL versions is not available; functionality relies on user-defined shaders.

WebGL 1.0 is designed for broad compatibility across browsers and devices. It is accessed via the canvas element using a context named "webgl" (or "experimental-webgl" in older browsers). Support is extensive in modern desktop and mobile browsers, but some features require extensions (for example, floating-point textures or compressed textures).

Security and performance considerations include sandboxed execution, cross-origin image taint checks, and the possibility of context loss that requires reinitialization. Developers are advised to handle the contextlost event and to optimize resources to avoid excessive GPU usage.

WebGL 2.0, standardized later, builds on WebGL 1.0 by adding features from OpenGL ES 3.0 and newer shading capabilities; WebGL 1 remains widely used for legacy content and projects targeting broad compatibility.