Rendering and visualization capabilities

This matrix groups luma.gl's portable rendering, scene, asset, effects, and simulation capabilities. Return to the capabilities overview for GPU data and compute features.

Portable GPU foundation and rendering

Devices, resources, and presentation

Feature	Status	Backend	Package	Details
Unified GPU device API	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/core	Access adapters, devices, resources, commands, features, and limits through one model.
Backend adapters	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/webgpu and @luma.gl/webgl	Select the native WebGPU adapter or the WebGL2 compatibility adapter.
Feature and limit discovery	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/core	Inspect device capabilities before enabling optional functionality.
GPU buffers	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/core	Create vertex, index, uniform, and compatible readback buffers.
GPU storage buffers	Available	WebGPU	@luma.gl/webgpu	Bind supported read-only or writable storage buffers to WebGPU shaders.
Typed texture resources	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/core	Allocate compatible 2D, array, cubemap, and three-dimensional texture resources.
Texture views and samplers	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/core	Describe texture views, filtering, wrapping, and supported anisotropic sampling.
Compressed textures	Evolving	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/core	Use BC, ETC2, or ASTC formats when supported by the selected device.
Native external textures	Available	WebGPU	@luma.gl/webgpu	Bind compatible browser-owned external image resources without a WebGL fallback.
Video texture uploads	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/engine	Update compatible GPU textures from supported browser video sources.
Framebuffers and attachments	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/core	Manage color, depth, stencil, and supported multiple-render-target attachments.
Render pipelines	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/core	Configure shader bindings, vertex layouts, depth, stencil, and blend state.
Compute shaders and passes	Available	WebGPU	@luma.gl/webgpu	Encode compute pipelines, dispatches, and WebGPU storage-resource workflows.
Indexed and indirect draws	Evolving	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/core	Indexed drawing is portable; GPU-generated indirect drawing requires WebGPU.
Render bundles	Evolving	WebGPU	@luma.gl/webgpu	Reuse compatible recorded render commands.
Transform feedback	Available	WebGL2	@luma.gl/webgl	Support established WebGL transform-feedback workflows.
Occlusion and timing queries	Evolving	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/core	Use supported query types only when the selected backend advertises them.
Multisample resolve	Available	WebGPU	@luma.gl/webgpu	Resolve supported multisampled render attachments.
Canvas sizing and pixel ratio	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/core	Manage browser canvas configuration, resize, and high-DPI presentation.
Extended color and HDR	Evolving	WebGPU	@luma.gl/webgpu	Present compatible floating-point or display-P3 output when browser and display support it.

Engine, geometry, and interaction

Feature	Status	Backend	Package	Details
Model and material lifecycle	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/engine	Compose shader inputs, geometry, materials, pipelines, and draw calls.
CPU and GPU geometry	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/engine	Connect source geometry to explicit GPU buffers and shader-facing layouts.
Built-in geometry primitives	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/engine	Generate supported cubes, planes, spheres, cylinders, cones, and related meshes.
Indexed and instanced rendering	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/engine	Reuse geometry across indexed meshes and compatible instance batches.
Scenegraph transforms	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/engine	Organize supported scene nodes, groups, transforms, and bounding information.
Dynamic buffers and textures	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/engine	Resize and update managed application resources as data changes.
Integer-index picking	Evolving	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/engine	Use exact integer picking when the selected backend supports integer render targets.
Color picking fallback	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/engine	Encode supported object and batch identifiers into compatible color targets.
Orbit camera controls	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/engine	Orbit, zoom, constrain, and automatically rotate an interactive scene camera.
Animation loop and timeline	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/engine	Coordinate rendering, frame state, keyframes, and application updates.
Animation interpolation	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/engine	Evaluate step, linear, cubic-spline, and supported quaternion interpolation.
Animation clip mixing	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/engine	Play, pause, scrub, loop, weight, and crossfade compatible animation actions.
Fullscreen drawing	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/engine	Build visualization overlays and fullscreen passes from reusable clip-space geometry.

Shader assembly and numerical precision

Feature	Status	Backend	Package	Details
WGSL shader assembly	Available	WebGPU	@luma.gl/shadertools	Compose supported WebGPU shader source and typed application bindings.
GLSL shader assembly	Available	WebGL2	@luma.gl/shadertools	Compose supported WebGL vertex and fragment shaders.
Typed shader modules	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/shadertools	Reuse shader modules with explicit source, dependencies, and uniform types.
Shader hooks and injections	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/shadertools	Extend supported applications through composable shader hooks and source injections.
Shader plugins	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/shadertools	Order reusable shader plugins and validate supported varying relationships.
Uniform and binding reflection	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/shadertools	Coordinate application uniforms, supported bindings, and shader layouts.
Color and picking modules	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/shadertools	Reuse compatible color transforms, clipping, filtering, and picking logic.
Lighting and PBR shaders	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/shadertools	Compose supported Lambert, Phong, physically based shading, and image-based lighting.
Joint-driven skinning	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/shadertools	Skin compatible glTF and retained-scene geometry using shared WGSL and GLSL joint-palette modules.
Geometric specular antialiasing	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/shadertools	Stabilize supported base and clearcoat highlights through derivative-based geometric filtering.
Split-float high precision	Evolving	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/shadertools	Emulate selected higher-precision arithmetic without claiming native WGSL 64-bit floats.
GLSL fp64 transcendentals	Available	WebGL2	@luma.gl/shadertools	Use the supported GLSL high-precision transcendental library.
64-bit cell identifiers	Evolving	WebGPU	@luma.gl/shadertools	Represent supported geospatial cell identifiers as paired unsigned words.

Lighting, visual effects, and transparency

Feature	Status	Backend	Package	Details
Ordered image-effect pipelines	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/effects	Chain compatible shader passes and explicitly named intermediate targets.
HDR bloom	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/effects	Apply supported floating-point highlight extraction and multiresolution blur.
Photographic lens effects	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/effects	Add optional chromatic ghosts, radial halos, aperture starbursts, and compatible lens-dirt masks.
Fused WebGPU bloom	Available	WebGPU	@luma.gl/effects	Fuse compatible bloom downsampling and filtering work while retaining a portable render-pass fallback.
Fourier aperture convolution	Experimental	WebGPU	@luma.gl/experimental	Convolve compatible highlight fields against a supplied aperture through independent RGB GPU Fourier transforms.
Color and image filters	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/effects	Adjust brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, noise, sepia, and vignette.
Depth-of-field passes	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/effects	Apply supported depth-aware focus and image-space blur.
Temporal antialiasing	Available	WebGPU	@luma.gl/effects	Reproject compatible camera, color, and depth history with jitter and neighborhood-clamped accumulation.
Motion blur	Available	WebGPU	@luma.gl/effects	Use compatible velocity and frame data for image-space motion blur.
Screen-space ambient occlusion	Available	WebGPU	@luma.gl/effects	Compute supported SSAO and GTAO visibility from scene attachments.
Screen-space reflections	Available	WebGPU	@luma.gl/effects	Trace and stabilize supported SSR reflections using depth and frame history.
Screen-space indirect lighting	Available	WebGPU	@luma.gl/effects	Approximate supported diffuse bounce lighting with temporally filtered SSGI.
Adaptive exposure	Available	WebGPU	@luma.gl/effects	Reduce scene luminance on the GPU and update compatible HDR exposure.
Volumetric lighting and fog	Available	WebGPU	@luma.gl/effects	Render supported fog, participating media, and clustered light scattering.
Depth-aware outlines	Available	WebGPU	@luma.gl/effects	Highlight compatible object boundaries using auxiliary scene attachments.
Deferred G-buffer rendering	Experimental	WebGPU	@luma.gl/experimental	Compose supported surface attachments and deferred lighting passes.
Compute-clustered lights	Experimental	WebGPU	@luma.gl/experimental	Partition dense point-light workloads into compatible screen-space clusters.
Cascaded directional shadows	Experimental	WebGPU	@luma.gl/experimental	Render supported cascaded shadow maps for directional lights.
Spot and point shadows	Experimental	WebGPU	@luma.gl/experimental	Render supported spot shadows and six-face omnidirectional point shadows.
Soft and contact shadows	Experimental	WebGPU	@luma.gl/experimental	Apply supported blocker search, filtering, and screen-space contact shadows.
Exact order-independent transparency	Experimental	WebGPU	@luma.gl/experimental	Use a bounded A-buffer on devices with sufficient fragment storage resources.
Weighted-blended transparency	Experimental	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/experimental	Approximate order-independent transparency when required float attachments are blendable.
Spectral optical caustics	Experimental	WebGPU	@luma.gl/experimental	Compute supported wavelength-separated lighting through a bounded refractor.

Try Lightstorm Megacity, Illumination Lab, Prism Cathedral, and Effects: Image Processing.

glTF, PBR, and standards-driven animation

Feature	Status	Backend	Package	Details
glTF and GLB scene loading	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@loaders.gl/gltf + @luma.gl/gltf	Load and postprocess source assets with GLTFLoader; instantiate scene hierarchies, meshes, cameras, materials, and animation in luma.gl.
Draco mesh compression	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@loaders.gl/gltf	Decode supported KHR_draco_mesh_compression primitives before luma.gl creates GPU geometry.
Meshopt compression	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@loaders.gl/gltf	Decode supported EXT_meshopt_compression buffer views; the newer KHR_meshopt_compression release candidate is not implemented.
Quantized geometry	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@loaders.gl/gltf + @luma.gl/gltf	Preserve loader-materialized quantized accessor values, authored normalization, and compatible GPU attribute formats.
Basis Universal and KTX2	Evolving	WebGPU + WebGL2	@loaders.gl/gltf + @luma.gl/gltf	Select and decode supported compressed textures when browser, transcoder, and GPU format support permit it.
Loader-decoded feature identifiers and metadata	Evolving	WebGPU + WebGL2	@loaders.gl/gltf	Decode supported EXT_mesh_features and EXT_structural_metadata; application visualization and queries are not automatic.
Metallic-roughness materials	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/gltf	Apply supported PBR textures, material factors, normals, and emissive surfaces.
Authored PBR texture slots	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/gltf	Preserve 21 supported material texture slots, their color spaces, sampler semantics, and authored transforms.
Specular and index of refraction	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/gltf	Apply authored glTF specular factors, specular textures, and physical index-of-refraction parameters.
Clearcoat and sheen	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/gltf	Render authored secondary clearcoat and cloth-like sheen material lobes through shared PBR shaders.
Iridescence and anisotropy	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/gltf	Render thin-film interference and directional anisotropic highlights through the shared PBR shader.
Transmission and volume	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/gltf	Shared scene renderers refract captured scene color; the standalone glTF rendering fallback remains approximate.
Chromatic dispersion	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/gltf	Separate visible wavelengths when physical transmission uses authored KHR_materials_dispersion.
Authored bump maps	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/gltf	Apply supported EXT_materials_bump height textures through the canonical physically based shader.
Diffuse transmission	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/gltf	Evaluate supported KHR_materials_diffuse_transmission factors and independently authored color textures.
Approximate volume scattering	Evolving	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/gltf	Approximate the unratified KHR_materials_volume_scatter draft per surface without claiming random-walk transport.
Authored UV transforms	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/gltf	Preserve supported texture offset, rotation, and scale semantics.
Authored normals and tangents	Evolving	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/gltf	Preserve supported vertex attributes; complete renderer-to-renderer fidelity varies.
Punctual-light parsing	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/gltf	Parse supported authored directional, point, and spot light definitions.
Generated image-based lighting	Experimental	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/experimental	Generate compatible GGX-prefiltered specular maps, diffuse irradiance, and a split-sum BRDF lookup texture.
Shared animation clips	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/engine	Play, blend, crossfade, loop, and interpolate compatible imported tracks.
Typed animation pointers	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/gltf	Animate supported KHR_animation_pointer transforms, morph weights, visibility, materials, UVs, cameras, and lights.
Existing joint-driven skinning	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/shadertools	Reuse established skin shaders and automatically bind mesh-local glTF joint palettes.
Morph-target animation	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/gltf	Animate POSITION, NORMAL, and TANGENT morph targets through shared glTF, engine, and retained-scene paths.
Independently animated GPU crowds	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/gltf	createGLTFAnimatedCrowd() batches independently animated actors into one instanced draw per compatible source primitive.
Actor-specific crowd playback	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/gltf	Give each actor an independent clip, phase, speed, crossfade, and root transform while reusing shared source geometry.
Backend-specific crowd joint palettes	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/gltf	Access actor-specific skin palettes through WebGPU storage buffers or WebGL2 floating-point palette textures.
Native material variants	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/gltf	Select compatible authored KHR_materials_variants without replacing retained scene nodes.
Imported GPU instancing	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/gltf	Render authored EXT_mesh_gpu_instancing transforms through one real instanced draw per source primitive.
Imported node visibility	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/gltf	Apply authored KHR_node_visibility recursively to compatible descendants and punctual lights.
Source-faithful glTF and GLB export	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/gltf + @loaders.gl/gltf	Map supported scene data into glTF descriptors, then delegate binary GLB container encoding to the shared GLBWriter.
Screen-space crowd level of detail	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/gltf	Classify independently animated actors into authored or automatically decimated mesh-detail buckets, cull offscreen/tiny actors, and submit one instanced draw per occupied source-primitive/detail group. GPU-driven indirect selection remains future work.
Global animated-crowd vertex budgets	Available	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/gltf	Limit submitted index references across all visible actor primitives, deterministically demote farther characters first, and report unsatisfied limits without hiding actors.
Khronos Meshopt compression	Opportunity	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/gltf	Add real KHR_meshopt_compression release-candidate decoding; existing support covers the separate ratified EXT_meshopt_compression extension.
Portable compressed-texture negotiation	Opportunity	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/gltf	Negotiate actual Basis/KTX2, AVIF, and WebP decoder and device capabilities without claiming unavailable fallback formats.
Legacy specular-glossiness conversion	Opportunity	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/gltf	Convert authored KHR_materials_pbrSpecularGlossiness materials into a supported physically based rendering path.
Reference-grade material conformance	Opportunity	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/gltf and @luma.gl/shadertools	Compare authored material combinations, furnace behavior, environment filtering, and color management against reproducible reference images.
Standalone physical transmission	Opportunity	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/gltf and @luma.gl/engine	Extend compatible standalone glTF rendering with scene-color capture, roughness-aware refraction, and documented floating-point fallbacks.
Authored image-based and photometric lights	Opportunity	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/gltf	Reuse existing environment and lighting resources for compatible authored EXT_lights_image_based and EXT_lights_ies assets.
High-capacity skeletal palettes	Opportunity	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/shadertools and @luma.gl/engine	Extend ordinary mesh skinning beyond the current 64-joint uniform palette with explicit storage-buffer and texture fallbacks.
GPU-resident morph-target deformation	Opportunity	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/engine and @luma.gl/shadertools	Keep authored morph bases, deltas, and actor-specific weights on the GPU instead of rewriting shared vertex data on the CPU.
Layered and additive animation	Opportunity	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/engine	Extend the existing shared animation mixer with additive blending, target masks, events, retargeting, and optional reusable state graphs.
GPU-sampled crowd clips	Opportunity	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/gltf and @luma.gl/shadertools	Sample compatible per-actor clip, phase, blend, and joint data through GPU buffers or floating-point animation textures.
Per-instance morph and material state	Opportunity	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/gltf	Preserve independent actor morph weights and compatible material parameters while retaining shared instanced source geometry.
Screen-prioritized crowd LOD	Opportunity	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/gltf and @luma.gl/engine	Integrate authored vendor LOD, generated mesh simplification, screen coverage, hysteresis, and explicit global submitted-index budgets.
Progressive node and material LOD	Opportunity	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/gltf	Stream compatible authored node and material levels with explicit cancellation, lazy GPU allocation, and bounded residency.
glTF-routed Gaussian splats	Opportunity	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/gltf and @luma.gl/splats	Delegate authored KHR_gaussian_splatting scene primitives to the existing optional splat adapter without introducing a second renderer.
Compressed glTF asset authoring	Opportunity	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/gltf	Add opt-in Draco, Meshopt, and Basis/KTX2 encoding only when real external encoder implementations are available.

The ownership boundaries are intentional: @loaders.gl/gltf owns containers, asset decoding, accessor postprocessing, and GLB encoding; @luma.gl/gltf interprets the resulting assets, @luma.gl/shadertools owns shared shading, @luma.gl/engine owns generic animation, @luma.gl/experimental explores higher-level rendering, and @luma.gl/scene orchestrates retained scene objects. Reuse each capability at its existing layer rather than creating parallel implementations.

See the glTF extension support matrix, native glTF runtime behavior, materials and texture slots, and source-faithful asset interchange, or explore independently animated glTF crowds.

Declarative scenes and asset integration

Feature	Status	Backend	Package	Details
ANARI-inspired retained objects	Experimental	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/scene	Manage retained cameras, geometry, materials, lights, surfaces, instances, and worlds.
Perspective and orthographic cameras	Experimental	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/scene	Configure supported camera models through the retained scene API.
Shared geometry instances	Experimental	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/scene	Reuse compatible surfaces, groups, and geometry across retained instances.
Physically based scene materials	Experimental	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/scene	Describe supported matte and physically based material parameters.
Scene light types	Experimental	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/scene	Configure supported ambient, directional, point, and spot lights.
Switchable scene renderers	Experimental	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/scene	Select supported forward or debug views; deferred and ray-tracing renderers require WebGPU.
Retained animation playback	Experimental	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/scene	Play supported transform, material, texture-coordinate, skeletal, and morph-target animations.
Editable JSON scenes	Experimental	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/scene	Inspect and edit supported retained scene descriptions interactively.
Experimental OpenUSD import	Experimental	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/scene	Scene Playground imports supported ASCII USD and ASCII-root USDZ examples through its ANARI-inspired scene adapter.
Scene-level skeletal animation	Experimental	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/scene	Automatically evaluate imported skeletal clips and bind independent mesh-local joint palettes.
Retained morph-target animation	Experimental	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/scene	Update supported POSITION, NORMAL, and TANGENT morph targets through retained scene playback.
Camera-reprojected scene antialiasing	Experimental	WebGPU	@luma.gl/scene	Stabilize compatible forward and deferred raster views with persistent camera-reprojected history.

This is an ANARI-inspired proof of concept, not a claim of complete standards conformance. Explore the Scene Playground, or read about retained animation and switchable scene renderers.

GPU ray tracing and progressive rendering

Feature	Status	Backend	Package	Details
WebGPU software ray tracing	Experimental	WebGPU	@luma.gl/experimental	Trace supported retained scene geometry through caller-owned GPU work without hardware ray-tracing extensions.
Retained ANARI ray tracing	Experimental	WebGPU	@luma.gl/scene	Select the raytrace renderer for compatible retained cameras, analytic spheres, meshes, and direct lights.
Morton-sorted scene acceleration	Experimental	WebGPU	@luma.gl/experimental	Build GPU Morton-sorted top-level acceleration structures (TLAS) with bounding-volume hierarchies (BVH) over compatible objects and instances.
Transform-aware acceleration refits	Experimental	WebGPU	@luma.gl/experimental	Reuse retained leaf permutations and refit compatible scene hierarchies when only instance transforms change.
Triangle-level mesh acceleration	Experimental	WebGPU	@luma.gl/experimental	Build and reuse GPU Morton-sorted bottom-level acceleration structures (BLAS) over supported mesh triangles.
Nearest-hit and shadow traversal	Experimental	WebGPU	@luma.gl/experimental	Traverse the scene hierarchy for primary intersections and bounded early-exit direct-light shadow rays.
Progressive ray accumulation	Experimental	WebGPU	@luma.gl/scene	Accumulate compatible direct-light samples across unchanged frames; this does not imply multi-bounce transport.
Adaptive ray-tracing resolution	Experimental	WebGPU	@luma.gl/scene	Adjust internal resolution, sampled-pixel phases, and rotating shadow work toward an explicit frame budget.
Ray-traced temporal reprojection	Experimental	WebGPU	@luma.gl/scene	Reuse compatible retained history and reject invalid camera, depth, normal, or scene changes.
HDR ray-tracing presentation	Experimental	WebGPU	@luma.gl/scene	Resolve and upsample supported floating-point ray-traced output to compatible presentation targets.
Advanced acceleration topology	Opportunity	WebGPU	@luma.gl/experimental	Extend existing Morton-sorted TLAS/BLAS hierarchies with SAH/Karras topology and richer traversal diagnostics.
Multi-bounce path tracing	Opportunity	WebGPU	@luma.gl/experimental	Extend existing direct-light ray tracing with indirect transport, physically based bounces, and denoising.
Ray-traced animated materials	Opportunity	WebGPU	@luma.gl/scene	Extend supported ray tracing toward textured PBR, transmission, skeletal deformation, and animated morph targets.

Read the ANARI ray-tracing renderer and the retained rendering architecture.

Gaussian splats and captured-scene rendering

Feature	Status	Backend	Package	Details
Typed Gaussian splat columns	Experimental	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/splats	Represent position, scale, orientation, opacity, supported colors, and row identity.
Anisotropic covariance	Experimental	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/splats	Project compatible anisotropic splats rather than reducing them to fixed point sprites.
Portable splat rendering	Experimental	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/splats	Select WebGPU storage or globally ordered WebGL2 attribute-backed rendering without mutating caller-owned source data.
Globally sorted WebGL splat runs	Experimental	WebGL2	@luma.gl/splats	Composite every visible row exactly once across interleaved source batches using independently owned reordered attributes.
Progressive batch streaming	Experimental	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/splats	Preserve independently owned streamed source batches.
GPU projection and culling	Experimental	WebGPU	@luma.gl/splats	Project visible splats and apply supported frustum, opacity, and size thresholds.
GPU depth sorting	Experimental	WebGPU	@luma.gl/splats	Execute supported command-graph-native global depth ordering.
Indirect splat drawing	Experimental	WebGPU	@luma.gl/splats	Generate one bounded indirect draw from the visible GPU-resident set.
Segmented paged splat rendering	Experimental	WebGPU	@luma.gl/splats	Project sparse original source rows into bounded GPU segments and draw them in one globally sorted cross-page depth order.
Spark-calibrated RAD reconstruction	Experimental	WebGPU	@luma.gl/splats	Project analytic Gaussian covariance with area-preserving antialiasing and authored nonlinear coarse-level opacity.
HDR spherical-harmonic DC	Experimental	WebGPU	@luma.gl/splats	Preserve supported floating-point source radiance on compatible presentation targets.
Standard-dynamic-range fallback	Experimental	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/splats	Apply supported display mapping when extended HDR output is unavailable.
View-dependent harmonics	Experimental	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/splats	Evaluate degree-one through degree-three spherical harmonics in reusable WebGPU execution and unclamped Float32 WebGL2 attributes.
Unclamped WebGL harmonic radiance	Experimental	WebGL2	@luma.gl/splats	Preserve directional highlights and negative radiance from byte-backed source colors in stable Float32 vertex attributes.
Dedicated splat picking	Experimental	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/splats	Resolve stable batch, row, and semantic identities through graph-native integer picking or portable GPU passes.
Semantic splat filtering	Experimental	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/splats	Apply GPU-native graph class selection or portable class/predicate filtering without repacking batches.
Dynamic splat updates	Experimental	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/splats	Update prepared source rows in place while preserving GPU buffers and reusable execution plans.
Mixed mesh and splat rendering	Experimental	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/splats	Composite depth-tested Gaussian splats between caller-owned opaque and transparent meshes.
Bounded splat residency	Experimental	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/splats	Reserve upload capacity and evict prioritized, unpinned source tiles within byte, row, and chunk budgets.
Hierarchical splat refinement	Experimental	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/splats	Select frustum-culled, foveated source-page frontiers with parent fallback and bounded asynchronous loading.
Row-accurate RAD hierarchy	Experimental	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/splats	Prioritize authored child rows with best-first angular refinement, coarse-node coverage, parent fallback, and sparse source-row identity.
Khronos glTF splat attributes	Experimental	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/splats	Render decoded KHR_gaussian_splatting attributes, feature IDs, and externally decoded SPZ v2 content.
Camera-driven RAD page sources	Experimental	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/splats	Demand, prioritize, cancel, and evict independently range-fetched source pages while preserving authored global row identities.
Background RAD page decoding	Experimental	WebGPU	Gaussian Splat Viewer	Decode transferable RAD ranges in bounded module workers; preserve source ownership and automatically fall back when worker startup, CSP, or dynamic imports fail.

Higher-order harmonics, semantic filtering, dedicated picking, and mixed-scene composition are available through the portable SplatRenderer and the WebGPU-only GPUSplatGraphRenderer. The graph renderer preserves its high-throughput GPU depth sorting and indirect-drawing path.

View captured scenes in the Gaussian Splat Viewer and review the supported contracts in the @luma.gl/splats reference.

Simulation and immersive presentation

Feature	Status	Backend	Package	Details
Three-dimensional fire and smoke	Experimental	WebGPU	@luma.gl/experimental	Evolve three-dimensional fire velocity, pressure, fuel, heat, smoke, and solid obstacles.
Spectral ocean simulation	Experimental	WebGPU	@luma.gl/experimental	Generate GPU Fourier-displaced waves, normals, and compression-derived whitecaps.
Two-dimensional MLS-MPM liquids	Experimental	WebGPU	@luma.gl/experimental	Simulate supported two-dimensional MLS-MPM particle and grid transfers.
Full three-dimensional particle liquids	Opportunity	WebGPU	@luma.gl/experimental	The existing liquid solver is two-dimensional rather than a general three-dimensional fluid system.
Cloth and soft-body simulation	Opportunity	WebGPU	@luma.gl/experimental	Deformable-body simulation is not part of the current framework.
WebXR frame integration	Experimental	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/experimental	Drive compatible immersive frames from WebXR session scheduling.
Immersive AR and VR	Experimental	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/experimental	Render supported per-eye immersive AR and VR views with explicit viewports.
Native WebGPU XR layers	Experimental	WebGPU	@luma.gl/experimental	Use projection layers only when the browser, XR session, and adapter support them.
Raw AR camera textures	Experimental	WebGL2	@luma.gl/experimental	Bind compatible raw-camera access through the WebGL immersive path.
Advanced XR spatial features	Opportunity	WebGPU + WebGL2	@luma.gl/experimental	Hit testing, anchors, hand tracking, depth sensing, and WebGPU camera textures remain absent.

Try Volumetric Fire Forge, Tempest Ocean, and Fluid Foundry.

Related pages

• Fundamentals
• Choosing a luma.gl API layer
• Examples