What's New

This page contains news for recent luma.gl releases. For older releases (through v8.5) refer to the Legacy What's New page.

Version 9.1 (In Development)

Target Date: Q2 2024

• Production quality (non-experimental) WebGPU backend.

Version 9.0

Target Date: Feb 2024

caution

luma.gl v9 contains significant API changes and requires existing luma.gl v8 applications to be upgraded.

luma.gl v9 is a major release that adds experimental WebGPU support to the luma.gl API.

WebGPU Support

The biggest change is that the core API is now portable (no longer WebGL-specific), and plug-in backends are provided for WebGL 2 and WebGPU:

• Portable GPU API: @luma.gl/core now provides a portable GPU resource management API.
• WebGL bindings: @luma.gl/webgl now provides a WebGL backend for the core API.
• WebGPU bindings: @luma.gl/webgpu provides a new experimental WebGPU backend for the core API.

To accelerate WebGPU development, luma.gl v9 drops support for legacy functionality:

• WebGL1 WebGL 1 support is dropped.
• GLSL 1.00 is no longer supported. GLSL shaders need to be ported to GLSL 3.00.
• headless-gl The Node.js WebGL 1 integration is no longer supported

New module structure

Module	Impact	Description
@luma.gl/core	New API	The new portable luma.gl GPU API. Applications can run on both WebGPU and WebGL2 devices.
@luma.gl/engine	Light API updates	Classic luma.gl engine classes ()Model, AnimationLoop etc), which work portably on both WebGPU and WebGL 2.
@luma.gl/gltf	Renamed module	New module that exports the glTF classes (moved from @luma.gl/experimental).
@luma.gl/shadertools	Light API updates	The shader assembler API and the shader module library.
@luma.gl/webgl	WebGL backend	Optional "GPU backend module". Importing this module enables the application to create WebGL 2 Devices.
@luma.gl/webgpu	WebGPU backend	Experimental "GPU backend module". Importing this module enables the application to create WebGPU Devices.

General improvements

• TypeScript: All APIs now rigorously typed.
• ES modules - Modern ES module and CommonJS entry points for maximum interoperability.
• Website - New Docusaurus website with more embedded live examples and improved documentation.
• Debugging - SpectorJS integration. Shader debugger UI.

New features

@luma.gl/core

• Exports the new Device class is the entry point to the luma.gl API, used to create other GPU resources.

@luma.gl/engine

• NEW: Scenegraph classes: ModelNode, GroupNode, ScenegraphNode. (Moved from @luma.gl/experimental).
• NEW: ShaderInputs - Class that manages uniform buffers for a Model
• NEW: ShaderFactory - Creates and caches reusable Shader resources
• NEW: AnimationLoopTemplate - Small helper class that can help write cleaner demos and applications in TypeScript.

@luma.gl/gltf

• New module that exports the glTF classes (moved from @luma.gl/experimental).

@luma.gl/shadertools

• All shader modules now use uniform buffers.
• NEW: ShaderAssembler class that provides a clean entry point to the shader module system.
• New CompilerMessage type and formatCompilerLog function for portable shader log handling.

@luma.gl/webgl

WebGL is not dead yet! Browsers (Chrome in particular) are still adding extensions to WebGL 2, and luma.gl is adding support for many of the new features through the DeviceFeatures API.

New Device.features that improve WebGL application performance:

• compilation-status-async-webgl: Asynchronous shader compilation and linking is used automatically when available and speeds up applications that create many RenderPipelines.

New Device.features that expose new WebGL GPU parameters:

• depth-clip-control: parameters.unclippedDepth - depth clipping can now be disabled if the feature is available.
• provoking-vertex-webgl: parameters.provokingVertex - controls which primitive vertex is used for flat shading.
• polygon-mode-webgl: parameters.polygonMode - enables wire frame rendering of polygons. Check the feature.
• polygon-mode-webgl: parameters.polygonOffsetLine - enables depth bias (polygon offset) for lines.
• shader-clip-cull-distance-webgl: parameters.clipCullDistance0-7 - enables gl_ClipDistance[] / gl_CullDistance[].

New Device.features that enable new GLSL syntax

• shader-noperspective-interpolation-webgl: GLSL vertex outputs and fragment inputs may be declared with a noperspective interpolation qualifier.
• shader-conservative-depth-webgl: GLSL gl_FragDepth qualifiers depth_any depth_greater depth_less depth_unchanged can enable early depth test optimizations.

New Device.features that enable additional WebGL color format support:

• rgb9e5ufloat-renderable-webgl: rgb9e5ufloat are renderable.
• snorm8-renderable-webgl: r,rg,rgba8snorm are renderable.
• norm16-renderable-webgl: r,rg,rgba16norm are renderable.
• snorm16-renderable-webgl: r,rg,rgba16snorm are renderable.