Why WebGL 'clear' draw to front buffer?

Question

Why no need for swap-buffers or glFinish?

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
    <head>
        <title>Game v.0.0</title>
        <script>
            var gl = null;
            function startGame()
            {   {   var canvas = document.getElementById('gameCanvas');
                    var glNames = ["webgl", "experimental-webgl", "webkit-3d", "moz-webgl"];
                    for (var glNameI = 0; glNameI < glNames.length; ++glNameI)
                        try
                        {   gl = canvas.getContext(glNames[glNameI]);
                            if (gl) break;
                        }
                        catch(e)
                        {}
                    if(!gl)
                    {   canvas.outerHTML = "<a>WebGL NOT SUPPORTED? :(</a>";
                        return;
                    }
                }

                window.onkeydown = function(ev)
                {   switch(ev.keyCode)
                    {
                    case 49:// 1 key
                        gl.clearColor(0.3,0.7,0.2,1.0);
                        gl.clear(gl.COLOR_BUFFER_BIT); 
                        break;
                    case 50:// 2 key
                        gl.clearColor(0.3,0.2,0.7,1.0);
                        gl.clear(gl.COLOR_BUFFER_BIT); 
                        break;
                    }
                };
            }
        </script>
        <style type="text/css">
            canvas {border: 2px dotted blue;}
        </style>
    </head>

    <body onload="startGame()">
        <div><canvas id="gameCanvas" width="640" height="480"></canvas></div>
    </body>

</html>

FYI `"webkit-3d"` and `"moz-webgl"` have not been relevant since WebGL shipped 4 years ago — gman, Oct 25 '15 at 15:45

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 25 '15 at 15:43

Because that's the way WebGL works.

WebGL swaps/copies automatically. Anytime you do anything that effects the WebGL drawingBuffer (think "backbuffer) it gets marked to swap/copy. The next time the browser composites the web page it will do either a swap or a copy. You can tell it to always copy. You can not tell it to always swap

Specifically, creating the WebGL context with {preserveDrawingBuffer: true} as in

gl = someCanvas.getContext("webgl", {preserveDrawingBuffer: true});

Tells WebGL you always want it to do a copy.

The default is WebGL chooses swap or copy depending on various factors. For example if anti-aliasing is on it's always effectively a copy (a resolve) where as if anti-aliasing is off it might be a swap. Also, in this default case, when preserveDrawingBuffer is false after it does a copy or swap it will clear the backbuffer. This is to try to make it appear consistent regardless of whether it chooses to copy or swap.

If preserveDrawingBuffer = true then it never clears the backbuffer.

If you want to do a bunch of work over multiple JavaScript events and not let the user see the results until all your work is done you'll need to render to a framebuffer with an attached texture or renderbuffer and then when all your work is done render than attachment to the canvas (the backbuffer).

as for gl.finish that's a no-op in WebGL. It has no point.

Why WebGL 'clear' draw to front buffer?

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