pixijs-custom-rendering

Custom shaders bind GLSL and WGSL programs to scene objects via Shader.from({ gl, gpu, resources }). Uniforms live in typed UniformGroups, textures are passed as separate resources, and the same shader can target both WebGL and WebGPU.

Quick Start

const uniforms = new UniformGroup({
  uTime: { value: 0, type: "f32" },
});

const shader = Shader.from({
  gl: { vertex: vertexSrc, fragment: fragmentSrc },
  resources: { uniforms },
});

const geometry = new MeshGeometry({
  positions: new Float32Array([0, 0, 100, 0, 100, 100, 0, 100]),
  uvs: new Float32Array([0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1]),
  indices: new Uint32Array([0, 1, 2, 0, 2, 3]),
});

const mesh = new Mesh({ geometry, shader });
app.stage.addChild(mesh);

app.ticker.add(() => {
  shader.resources.uniforms.uniforms.uTime = performance.now() / 1000;
});

Related skills: pixijs-filters (built-in filters), pixijs-scene-mesh (custom geometry), pixijs-performance (batch optimization), pixijs-migration-v8 (shader API migration from v7).

Core Patterns

Dual-renderer shader (WebGL + WebGPU)

import { Shader, GlProgram, GpuProgram, UniformGroup } from "pixi.js";

const glVertex = `...`; // GLSL vertex (write `#version 300 es` yourself if you want WebGL2/GLSL ES 3.0)
const glFragment = `...`; // GLSL fragment
const wgslSource = `...`; // WGSL combined

const shader = Shader.from({
  gl: { vertex: glVertex, fragment: glFragment },
  gpu: {
    // entryPoint names are arbitrary; they must match the @vertex / @fragment
    // function names in your WGSL source. PixiJS ships examples using
    // 'mainVert' / 'mainFrag' but `main` is equally valid.
    vertex: { entryPoint: "mainVert", source: wgslSource },
    fragment: { entryPoint: "mainFrag", source: wgslSource },
  },
  resources: {
    myUniforms: new UniformGroup({
      uColor: { value: new Float32Array([1, 0, 0, 1]), type: "vec4<f32>" },
      uMatrix: { value: new Float32Array(16), type: "mat4x4<f32>" },
    }),
  },
});