XRWebGLBinding: getSubImage() method

Limited availability

This feature is not Baseline because it does not work in some of the most widely-used browsers.

See full compatibility

Experimental: This is an experimental technology
Check the Browser compatibility table carefully before using this in production.

The getSubImage() method of the XRWebGLBinding interface returns a XRWebGLSubImage object representing the WebGL texture to render.

Syntax

getSubImage(layer, frame)
getSubImage(layer, frame, eye)

Parameters

layer

The XRCompositionLayer to use for rendering (can be all types of XRCompositionLayer objects except XRProjectionLayer, see XRWebGLBinding.getViewSubImage() for rendering projection layers).

frame

The XRFrame frame to use for rendering.

eye Optional

An optional XRView.eye indicating which view's eye to use for rendering. Possible values:

left: The XRView represents the point-of-view of the viewer's left eye.
right: The view represents the viewer's right eye.
none: The view describes a monoscopic view, or the view otherwise doesn't represent a particular eye's point-of-view. Defaults to none.

Return value

A XRWebGLSubImage object.

Exceptions

A TypeError is thrown,

if layer is not in the session's layer array.
if layer is a XRProjectionLayer.
if the layer's layout property is default.
if the layer's layout property is stereo and eye is none.

Examples

Rendering an `XRQuadLayer`

The following example renders an XRQuadLayer.

const xrGlBinding = new XRWebGLBinding(xrSession, gl);
const quadLayer = xrGlBinding.createQuadLayer({
  space: xrReferenceSpace,
  viewPixelWidth: 512,
  viewPixelHeight: 512,
});

// Position 2 meters away from the origin with a width and height of 1.5 meters
quadLayer.transform = new XRRigidTransform({ z: -2 });
quadLayer.width = 1.5;
quadLayer.height = 1.5;

const framebuffer = gl.createFramebuffer();
xrSession.updateRenderState({ layers: [quadLayer] });
xrSession.requestAnimationFrame(onXRFrame);

function onXRFrame(time, xrFrame) {
  xrSession.requestAnimationFrame(onXRFrame);

  gl.bindFramebuffer(gl.FRAMEBUFFER, framebuffer);
  let subImage = xrGlBinding.getSubImage(quadLayer, xrFrame);
  gl.framebufferTexture2D(
    gl.FRAMEBUFFER,
    gl.COLOR_ATTACHMENT0,
    subImage.colorTexture,
    0,
  );
  let viewport = subImage.viewport;
  gl.viewport(viewport.x, viewport.y, viewport.width, viewport.height);

  // Render content for the quad layer
}

Specifications

Specification
WebXR Layers API Level 1 # dom-xrwebglbinding-getsubimage

Browser compatibility

	desktop					mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Opera	Safari	Chrome Android	Firefox for Android	Opera Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet	WebView Android	WebView on iOS
`getSubImage` Experimental	Chrome – Full support Chrome 147 (Release date: 2026-04-07) footnote Full support	Edge – Full support Edge 147 (Release date: 2026-04-10) footnote Full support	Firefox – No support Firefox footnote No support	Opera – Full support Opera 131 (Release date: 2026-04-29) footnote Full support	Safari – No support Safari footnote No support	Chrome Android – Full support Chrome Android 147 (Release date: 2026-04-07) footnote Full support	Firefox for Android – No support Firefox for Android footnote No support	Opera Android – No support Opera Android footnote No support	Safari on iOS – No support Safari on iOS footnote No support	Samsung Internet – No support Samsung Internet footnote No support	WebView Android – No support WebView Android footnote No support	WebView on iOS – No support WebView on iOS footnote No support

Tip: you can click/tap on a cell for more information.

Full support: Full support
No support: No support
: Experimental. Expect behavior to change in the future.

XRWebGLBinding: getSubImage() method

Legend