WebGL playground guide

Help

Short answers to what goes wrong most often.

The frame says the view needs WebGL

The scene is drawn by your GPU with WebGL, and this browser did not offer it. Update the browser, or turn on hardware acceleration in its settings, then reload.

A control does nothing

Geometry, Rotate, Float and Pulse move the main shape, which shows only in the Particles and Terrain scenes.

Metalness, Roughness and Environment need the Standard PBR shader. The lights do not reach Normal map, Matcap or the four hand-written shaders. Displacement under Affect needs Explode, Noise displace or Twist above 0.

The terrain takes Wireframe, and the fractal takes Shader, only when you press their scene; press it again after a change. The terrain and fluid follow Color at once.

A preset left something behind

It should not: each preset starts from the settings the page opens with, so Default after Neon storm has no scanlines. The scene, the camera distance and the Audio and Export choices are kept on purpose. Press Reset for a clean start of everything.

It is slow

Lower Count under Particles: every point is moved on each frame. Lower Detail, and set Explode, Noise displace and Twist to 0, which reshape the whole surface on each frame. The first line of the panel shows the frames per second.

Does it work on a phone or tablet?

Yes. Drag with one finger to turn the view; pinch or drag with two to zoom and move it. Phones and touch screens get a lighter scene: at most 15,000 particles, Detail up to 64, a coarser terrain, a smaller fractal, and fewer pixels. The choice is made when the page opens.

The microphone does not start, or stays on

The browser asks before any page can use the microphone. If the tool says The mic is not available, allow it for this site in the browser's site settings and press Use the mic again.

Stop audio turns the microphone off, and the browser stops showing it in use. The microphone is only listened to, never played through your speakers.

My music file will not play

Press Play after choosing it. The tool opens whatever audio your browser can play; MP3, WAV and M4A work in current browsers. The same file can be opened again after Stop audio.

The PNG is huge, or the page froze for a moment

The 4x Resolution draws the frame at four times its own pixels, and Save 4K PNG at 3840 pixels wide. Set Resolution to 1x or 2x and use Save PNG for smaller files.

Copy did nothing

Some browsers do not let a page put a picture on the clipboard, and the tool says Copy failed. Use Save PNG instead.

Is anything uploaded?

No. The scene, your music and the microphone stay on your device.

Are there keyboard shortcuts?

The tool has none of its own. Anywhere in the lab, Ctrl K, or Cmd K on a Mac, opens the list of all tools.