How to Render WebGL Sites

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WebGL is a powerful tool for creating interactive 3D graphics within web browsers, but converting these dynamic, highly interactive experiences into a static PDF format can be challenging. Rendering a WebGL website to PDF involves capturing the visual content generated by the WebGL context and converting it into a format suitable for a PDF document.

IronPDF provides the tools needed to capture and render websites with WebGL such as Mapbox and the WebGL Samples collection.

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Render WebGL Websites

To enable WebGL rendering, there are a few IronPDF settings you need to configure:

  • SingleProcess = true. This forces Chrome to perform everything in the current process rather than using subprocesses.
  • ChromeGpuMode = Hardware mode.

Additionally, if the website requires some delay before rendering to display properly, you may use the WaitFor.RenderDelay method. Let's render a sample from Mapbox's GeoJSON Layer for our example.

:path=/static-assets/pdf/content-code-examples/how-to/render-webgl-render-webgl.cs
using IronPdf;

// Configure IronPdf settings
IronPdf.Installation.SingleProcess = true;
IronPdf.Installation.ChromeGpuMode = IronPdf.Engines.Chrome.ChromeGpuModes.Hardware;

ChromePdfRenderer renderer = new ChromePdfRenderer();

// Set delay before rendering
renderer.RenderingOptions.WaitFor.RenderDelay(5000);

// Render from URL
PdfDocument pdf = renderer.RenderUrlAsPdf("https://docs.mapbox.com/mapbox-gl-js/example/geojson-layer-in-slot/");

pdf.SaveAs("webGL.pdf");
Imports IronPdf

' Configure IronPdf settings
IronPdf.Installation.SingleProcess = True
IronPdf.Installation.ChromeGpuMode = IronPdf.Engines.Chrome.ChromeGpuModes.Hardware

Dim renderer As New ChromePdfRenderer()

' Set delay before rendering
renderer.RenderingOptions.WaitFor.RenderDelay(5000)

' Render from URL
Dim pdf As PdfDocument = renderer.RenderUrlAsPdf("https://docs.mapbox.com/mapbox-gl-js/example/geojson-layer-in-slot/")

pdf.SaveAs("webGL.pdf")
$vbLabelText   $csharpLabel

Output PDF

It is currently not possible to render WebGL in a Docker setup. Rendering WebGL on Docker can be challenging because Docker containers are typically headless environments, meaning they do not have a graphical user interface (GUI). WebGL relies on access to the GPU to render graphics, and in a headless environment, access to the GPU is limited or nonexistent. Our developers are still investigating this possibility. If you want to be notified once a conclusion has been reached, please contact support@ironsoftware.com.

Ready to see what else you can do? Check out our tutorial page here: Addtional Features

Frequently Asked Questions

What is WebGL?

WebGL is a powerful tool for creating interactive 3D graphics within web browsers. It allows developers to render graphics directly within the browser without the need for plugins.

Why is rendering dynamic web content to PDF challenging?

Rendering dynamic web content to PDF is challenging because it involves capturing the dynamic and interactive visual content generated by various web technologies and converting it into a static format suitable for a PDF document.

How can specific tools help in rendering WebGL sites?

IronPDF provides the tools needed to capture and render websites with WebGL by configuring specific settings that enable WebGL content to be captured and converted into PDF format.

What settings should be configured for effective rendering?

To enable WebGL rendering, set the SingleProcess property to true and the ChromeGpuMode property to Hardware in IronPDF. Additionally, apply a delay using the RenderDelay method to ensure proper rendering.

Can WebGL be rendered in a Docker setup?

No, it is currently not possible to render WebGL in a Docker setup using IronPDF. This is because Docker containers are typically headless environments with limited GPU access, which is necessary for WebGL rendering.

What is the purpose of applying a delay before rendering?

The RenderDelay setting in IronPDF is used to apply a delay before rendering a webpage to a PDF. This ensures that all elements are fully loaded and properly displayed before the capture is made.

Where can I download a C# library for PDF rendering?

You can download the IronPDF C# library from NuGet at https://www.nuget.org/packages/IronPdf/.

What is the role of a GPU mode setting in rendering?

The ChromeGpuMode property in IronPDF is set to Hardware to allow WebGL to utilize hardware GPU rendering, enabling effective capture and rendering of 3D graphics.

How can I be notified about updates on web rendering in Docker?

To be notified about updates regarding the possibility of rendering WebGL in Docker, you can contact support at support@ironsoftware.com.

Chaknith related to Output PDF
Software Engineer
Chaknith is the Sherlock Holmes of developers. It first occurred to him he might have a future in software engineering, when he was doing code challenges for fun. His focus is on IronXL and IronBarcode, but he takes pride in helping customers with every product. Chaknith leverages his knowledge from talking directly with customers, to help further improve the products themselves. His anecdotal feedback goes beyond Jira tickets and supports product development, documentation and marketing, to improve customer’s overall experience.When he isn’t in the office, he can be found learning about machine learning, coding and hiking.