What causes "Multiview is not supported" in BabylonJS/Babylon.js?

Do not create multiview render targets in headless/NullEngine scenarios; use a plain render target texture.

Multiview is not supported

Error message

Multiview is not supported

What it means

NullEngine is a headless, non-rendering engine whose capability list does not include multiview (WebVR/XR stereo rendering) unless explicitly enabled. createMultiviewRenderTargetTexture() checks getCaps().multiview and throws when the capability is absent.

Source

Thrown at packages/dev/core/src/Engines/nullEngine.pure.ts:899

        texture.samples = 1;
        texture.generateMipMaps = fullOptions.generateMipMaps ? true : false;
        texture.samplingMode = fullOptions.samplingMode;
        texture.type = fullOptions.type;

        this._internalTexturesCache.push(texture);

        return rtWrapper;
    }

    /**
     * Creates a new multiview render target wrapper for headless render-state tests.
     * @param width defines the width of the texture
     * @param height defines the height of the texture
     * @returns a new multiview render target wrapper
     */
    public override createMultiviewRenderTargetTexture(width: number, height: number): RenderTargetWrapper {
        if (!this.getCaps().multiview) {
            throw new Error("Multiview is not supported");
        }

        const rtWrapper = this._createHardwareRenderTargetWrapper(false, false, { width, height });
        const texture = new InternalTexture(this, InternalTextureSource.RenderTarget, true);

        texture.baseWidth = width;
        texture.baseHeight = height;
        texture.width = width;
        texture.height = height;
        texture.isMultiview = true;
        texture.isReady = true;
        texture.format = Constants.TEXTUREFORMAT_RGBA;
        texture.samples = 1;

        rtWrapper.setTextures(texture);

        return rtWrapper;
    }

View on GitHub (pinned to 0592b347b8)

Solutions

Do not create multiview render targets in headless/NullEngine scenarios; use a plain render target texture.
Check engine.getCaps().multiview before calling and branch to a normal render target.
If multiview is truly required, use a real WebXR-capable engine instead of NullEngine.

Example fix

// before
const rt = engine.createMultiviewRenderTargetTexture(512, 512);
// after
if (engine.getCaps().multiview) {
  rt = engine.createMultiviewRenderTargetTexture(512, 512);
} else {
  rt = engine.createRenderTargetTexture(512, 512, false);
}

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if (!engine.getCaps().multiview) {
  // fall back to createRenderTargetTexture
}

Type guard

function supportsMultiview(e) {
  return !!e.getCaps().multiview;
}

Try / catch

try {
  rt = engine.createMultiviewRenderTargetTexture(w, h);
} catch (e) {
  if (/Multiview is not supported/.test(e.message)) {
    rt = engine.createRenderTargetTexture(w, h, false);
  }
}

Prevention

Always consult getCaps().multiview before XR/multiview setup.
Keep headless test scenes free of WebXR-specific targets.
Centralize render-target creation in a capability-aware factory.

When it happens

Trigger: Calling nullEngine.createMultiviewRenderTargetTexture(w, h) on a default NullEngine instance (multiview cap is false).

Common situations: Unit tests or server-side rendering using NullEngine that exercise multiview/XR render-target code paths; copy-pasted WebXR scene setup running headless.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of BabylonJS/Babylon.js@0592b347b8 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e5078fb3603fdb58. Report an issue: GitHub.