Proper way to detect WebGL support?

Question

I am attempting to detect WebGL support across multiple browsers and I've encountered the following scenario. The current version of Firefox appears to report positive support using the following check, even when the visitor's video card is black-listed and/or WebGL is disabled:

if (window.WebGLRenderingContext) {
    // This is true in Firefox under certain circumstances,
    // even when WebGL is disabled...
}

I've tried instructing my users to enable WebGL using the following steps. This has worked in some cases, but not always. Obviously, this is not something I can request of the general public:

Type about:config in Firefox’s address bar
To enable WebGL, set webgl.force-enabled to true

This has led me to create my own method for detecting support, which uses jQuery to inject a canvas element to detect support. This pulls on a number of techniques I found in various WebGL libraries and plugins. The trouble is, it is extremely difficult to test (any comments on whether the link below works for you are much appreciated!). To make this an objective question, I would like to know if there's a universally accepted way to detect WebGL support across all browsers.

TEST URL:

http://jsfiddle.net/Jn49q/5/

user_571230 · Answer

In addition to @Andrew answer, there is also experimental mode which can be supported. I have written following snippet of code:

var canvasID = 'webgl',
    canvas = document.getElementById(canvasID),
    gl,
    glExperimental = false;

function hasWebGL() {

    try { gl = canvas.getContext("webgl"); }
    catch (x) { gl = null; }

    if (gl === null) {
        try { gl = canvas.getContext("experimental-webgl"); glExperimental = true; }
        catch (x) { gl = null; }
    }

    if(gl) { return true; }
    else if ("WebGLRenderingContext" in window) { return true; } // not a best way, as you're not 100% sure, so you can change it to false
    else { return false; }
}

Change canvasID variable according to your ID.

Tested on Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera and IEs (8 to 10). In case of Safari remember that it's available, but you need to enable WebGL explicitly (enable the developer menu and enable Web GL option after).

user_4443323 · Answer

From MDN:

// Run everything inside window load event handler, to make sure
// DOM is fully loaded and styled before trying to manipulate it.
window.addEventListener("load", function() {
  var paragraph = document.querySelector("p"),
    button = document.querySelector("button");
  // Adding click event handler to button.
  button.addEventListener("click", detectWebGLContext, false);
  function detectWebGLContext () {
    // Create canvas element. The canvas is not added to the
    // document itself, so it is never displayed in the
    // browser window.
    var canvas = document.createElement("canvas");
    // Get WebGLRenderingContext from canvas element.
    var gl = canvas.getContext("webgl")
      || canvas.getContext("experimental-webgl");
    // Report the result.
    if (gl && gl instanceof WebGLRenderingContext) {
      paragraph.innerHTML =
        "Congratulations! Your browser supports WebGL.";
    } else {
      paragraph.innerHTML = "Failed to get WebGL context. "
        + "Your browser or device may not support WebGL.";
    }
  }
}, false);

body {
  text-align : center;
}
button {
  display : block;
  font-size : inherit;
  margin : auto;
  padding : 0.6em;
}

[ Here would go the result of WebGL feature detection ]

Proper way to detect WebGL support?

7 Answers