High-performance Toolkit for WebGL-based Data Visualization
Date: May 24, 2018
The new experimental Transform class provides an easy-to-use interface to perform Transform Feedback operations.
Pixel Readback to GPU Buffers (WebGL2) - A new method Framebuffer.readPixelsToBuffer is added to asynchronously read pixel data into a Buffer object. This allows applications to reduce the CPU-GPU sync time by postponing transfer of data or to completely avoid GPU-CPU sync by using the pixel data in the GPU Buffer object directly as data source for another GPU draw or transform feedback operation.
The impact of importing luma.gl on production application bundle sizes has been reduced, in particular when using webpack 4 with appropriate configuration. A new article about bundling and tree shaking has been added to the Developer Guide, providing in-depth information and guidance on what numbers to expect.
Running of luma.gl under Node.js is now easier than ever. luma.gl v5.2 automatically loads headless-gl if installed on the system, avoiding the need for the app to import special files or add other conditional logic. See Using with Node and the Upgrade Guide.
To further reduce production application bundle sizes, luma.gl no longer support WebGL debug contexts by default, as this requires including the Khronos WebGLDeveloperTools into the bundle. WebGL debug contexts are still available, but needs to be explicitly enabled. To understand how to use WebGL debug contexts in v5.2, please refer to the article on Debugging and the Upgrade Guide.
All examples have been updated to use webpack 4