WebGPU

caution

WebGPU support in deck.gl v9 is still a work in progress and is not production ready.

deck.gl is gradually adding support for running on WebGPU. Support is landing layer by layer and feature by feature.

This page is conservative and source-based:

• ✅ means the current tree contains an explicit WebGPU/WGSL implementation, or the API is a thin wrapper over one.
• 🚧 means some code paths work, but the full API surface is not yet ported.
• ❌ means there is no in-tree WebGPU implementation yet.

For composite and wrapper layers, statuses are based on their default or general rendering path, not on every possible custom sublayer configuration.

Enabling WebGPU

deck.gl needs to be set up to use a luma.gl device that uses the luma.gl webgpuAdapter.

import {webgpuAdapter} from '@luma.gl/webgpu';

new Deck({
  deviceProps: {
    type: 'webgpu',
    adapters: [webgpuAdapter]
  }
});

Layers

The table below covers the public layer exports from the layer packages. It is derived from the current source tree rather than the website badges, which may lag behind in-tree ports.

Module	Layer	WebGL	WebGPU
@deck.gl/layers	ArcLayer	✅	❌
@deck.gl/layers	BitmapLayer	✅	❌
@deck.gl/layers	IconLayer	✅	✅
@deck.gl/layers	LineLayer	✅	✅
@deck.gl/layers	PointCloudLayer	✅	✅
@deck.gl/layers	ScatterplotLayer	✅	✅
@deck.gl/layers	ColumnLayer	✅	❌
@deck.gl/layers	GridCellLayer	✅	❌
@deck.gl/layers	PathLayer	✅	✅
@deck.gl/layers	PolygonLayer	✅	❌
@deck.gl/layers	GeoJsonLayer	✅	❌
@deck.gl/layers	TextLayer	✅	❌
@deck.gl/layers	SolidPolygonLayer	✅	❌
@deck.gl/aggregation-layers	ScreenGridLayer	✅	❌
@deck.gl/aggregation-layers	HexagonLayer	✅	❌
@deck.gl/aggregation-layers	ContourLayer	✅	❌
@deck.gl/aggregation-layers	GridLayer	✅	❌
@deck.gl/aggregation-layers	HeatmapLayer	✅	❌
@deck.gl/mesh-layers	SimpleMeshLayer	✅	❌
@deck.gl/mesh-layers	ScenegraphLayer	✅	❌
@deck.gl/geo-layers	A5Layer	✅	❌
@deck.gl/geo-layers	GreatCircleLayer	✅	❌
@deck.gl/geo-layers	S2Layer	✅	❌
@deck.gl/geo-layers	QuadkeyLayer	✅	❌
@deck.gl/geo-layers	TileLayer	✅	❌
@deck.gl/geo-layers	TripsLayer	✅	❌
@deck.gl/geo-layers	H3ClusterLayer	✅	❌
@deck.gl/geo-layers	H3HexagonLayer	✅	❌
@deck.gl/geo-layers	Tile3DLayer	✅	❌
@deck.gl/geo-layers	TerrainLayer	✅	❌
@deck.gl/geo-layers	MVTLayer	✅	❌
@deck.gl/geo-layers	GeohashLayer	✅	❌
@deck.gl/carto	ClusterTileLayer	✅	❌
@deck.gl/carto	H3TileLayer	✅	❌
@deck.gl/carto	HeatmapTileLayer	✅	❌
@deck.gl/carto	PointLabelLayer	✅	❌
@deck.gl/carto	QuadbinTileLayer	✅	❌
@deck.gl/carto	RasterTileLayer	✅	❌
@deck.gl/carto	VectorTileLayer	✅	❌

Extensions

The table below covers the public extensions in @deck.gl/extensions. They all remain WebGL-only today because they rely on GLSL shader injections, GLSL-only shader modules, or extra render/picking passes that have not been ported to WebGPU.

Module	Extension	WebGL	WebGPU
@deck.gl/extensions	BrushingExtension	✅	❌
@deck.gl/extensions	DataFilterExtension	✅	❌
@deck.gl/extensions	Fp64Extension	✅	❌
@deck.gl/extensions	PathStyleExtension	✅	❌
@deck.gl/extensions	FillStyleExtension	✅	❌
@deck.gl/extensions	ClipExtension	✅	❌
@deck.gl/extensions	CollisionFilterExtension	✅	❌
@deck.gl/extensions	MaskExtension	✅	❌

Effects

The table below covers the public effect classes exported by @deck.gl/core.

Module	Effect	WebGL	WebGPU	Notes
@deck.gl/core	LightingEffect	✅	🚧	Material lighting modules have WGSL support, but the shadow path still depends on the GLSL-only shadow shader module.
@deck.gl/core	PostProcessEffect	✅	❌	The current screen-pass chain is still generated from GLSL fragment shader templates and is not WebGPU-ready as a supported deck.gl feature.

Features

Feature	Status	Comment
Views	🚧	The core project and project32 shader modules have WGSL ports, so standard view/projection paths should work.
Picking	❌	Deck currently skips picking on WebGPU, including hover and click picking paths.
Shader hooks / layer extensions	❌	deck.gl's WGSL shader hook list is currently empty, so injection-based extensions are not yet portable.
GPU transforms	🚧	Underlying GPU transform APIs are evolving, but deck.gl still has transform-gated tests and no documented WebGPU support for transform-based workflows.
Constant attributes	🚧	AttributeManager now materializes constant attributes into full buffers on WebGPU as a compatibility path for layers that rely on constant accessors.
Attribute transitions	🚧	Some layers disable transitions on WebGPU, and transition utilities still contain WebGL-specific buffer read paths.
Base map overlays	❌	Transparent overlay integration still requires premultiplied-alpha work across deck and the base map stack.
Base map interleaving	❌	No current base map integration path supports WebGPU interleaving.

Background

While the visible WebGPU surface is still limited, much of the groundwork has already happened in luma.gl, the GPU framework powering deck.gl. deck.gl is following that work by porting its shader modules, layers, and render features incrementally.

Participating

If you want to contribute to deck.gl WebGPU development, or just follow along, we have a dedicated channel in the OpenJS / Open Visualization slack community.

You can also check release tracker tasks and ongoing implementation work on GitHub.