WEBGL_lose_context extension

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.

The WEBGL_lose_context extension is part of the WebGL API and exposes functions to simulate losing and restoring a WebGLRenderingContext.

WebGL extensions are available using the WebGLRenderingContext.getExtension() method. For more information, see also Using Extensions in the WebGL tutorial.

Note: This extension is available to both, WebGL1 and WebGL2 contexts.

Instance methods

WEBGL_lose_context.loseContext(): Simulates losing the context.
WEBGL_lose_context.restoreContext(): Simulates restoring the context.

Examples

With this extension, you can simulate the webglcontextlost and webglcontextrestored events:

js

const canvas = document.getElementById("canvas");
const gl = canvas.getContext("webgl");

canvas.addEventListener("webglcontextlost", (event) => {
  console.log(event);
});

gl.getExtension("WEBGL_lose_context").loseContext();

// WebGLContextEvent event with type "webglcontextlost" is logged.

Specifications

Specification
WebGL WEBGL_lose_context Khronos Ratified Extension Specification

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also