remotion-dev/remotion · error · Error

Failed to create WebGL buffer

Error message

Failed to create WebGL buffer

What it means

Thrown by setupChromaticAberration when gl.createBuffer() returns null after a WebGL2 context was already acquired. A null buffer means the GL implementation could not allocate another buffer object, which happens under GPU memory/object pressure or after the context is lost. The chromatic aberration effect cannot build its fullscreen-quad vertex buffer without it, so effect setup aborts.

Source

Thrown at packages/effects/src/chromatic-aberration/chromatic-aberration-runtime.ts:125

		gl,
		CHROMATIC_ABERRATION_VS,
		CHROMATIC_ABERRATION_FS,
	);

	const vao = gl.createVertexArray();
	if (!vao) {
		throw new Error('Failed to create WebGL vertex array');
	}

	gl.bindVertexArray(vao);

	const data = new Float32Array([
		-1, -1, 0, 0, 1, -1, 1, 0, -1, 1, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,
	]);

	const vbo = gl.createBuffer();
	if (!vbo) {
		throw new Error('Failed to create WebGL buffer');
	}

	gl.bindBuffer(gl.ARRAY_BUFFER, vbo);
	gl.bufferData(gl.ARRAY_BUFFER, data, gl.STATIC_DRAW);

	gl.enableVertexAttribArray(0);
	gl.vertexAttribPointer(0, 2, gl.FLOAT, false, 16, 0);
	gl.enableVertexAttribArray(1);
	gl.vertexAttribPointer(1, 2, gl.FLOAT, false, 16, 8);

	gl.bindVertexArray(null);

	const textureSource = createRgbaTexture(gl);

	return {
		gl,
		program,
		vao,

View on GitHub (pinned to 78fe4bb3fd)

Solutions

1. Lower render concurrency so fewer WebGL contexts/buffers are alive at once (e.g. --concurrency=1 or lower in the render CLI / Lambda config).
2. Run headless Chrome with GPU enabled (--enable-gpu / use a GPU-equipped Lambda layer or machine) instead of pure software rendering.
3. Check for WebGL context loss: in your render environment, ensure drivers and the Chrome build are current; restart the render if it was a transient loss.
4. Reduce the number of distinct WebGL-backed effects stacked on the same frame, or split the render across more frames with fewer concurrent contexts.
5. If reproducing locally, open chrome://gpu and confirm WebGL2 is hardware-accelerated, not software-only.

Example fix

// before: many parallel renders exhaust GL buffer objects
remotion render main --concurrency=8

// after: one GL context at a time avoids buffer allocation failure
remotion render main --concurrency=1

// Feature-detect WebGL2 buffer allocation capacity in the render environment
// (run once, not per frame) before relying on WebGL effects.
function webgl2BufferAvailable(): boolean {
  try {
    const c = document.createElement('canvas');
    const gl = c.getContext('webgl2');
    if (!gl) return false;
    const buf = gl.createBuffer();
    const ok = buf !== null;
    if (buf) gl.deleteBuffer(buf);
    const lose = gl.getExtension('WEBGL_lose_context');
    lose?.loseContext();
    return ok;
  } catch {
    return false;
  }
}

// Wrap the render call; on a GL resource error, retry once at lower concurrency
// or fall back to a composition without the WebGL effect.
try {
  await renderMedia({...});
} catch (err) {
  if (/Failed to create WebGL buffer/i.test(String(err))) {
    await renderMedia({...opts, concurrency: 1}); // retry single-threaded
  } else {
    throw err;
  }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Render of a composition using chromaticAberration() on a machine/driver where the WebGL2 context exists but gl.createBuffer() yields null. Reached inside setupChromaticAberration at chromatic-aberration-runtime.ts:124, after the program, VAO, and vertex data are already prepared. Occurs when too many GL buffer objects are live, GPU memory is exhausted, or gl.isContextLost() flipped true mid-setup.

Common situations: High-concurrency headless Chrome renders (many parallel browser contexts each allocating GL objects), CI without GPU acceleration (SwiftShader software GL with tight object limits), a long render that hits a context-loss event, or running in a constrained VM/container. Not caused by chromaticAberration() parameters.

Related errors

• Failed to create color correction shader
• Failed to create color correction shader program
• Failed to create color correction texture
• Failed to create color correction vertex array
• Failed to create color correction vertex buffer

AI-assisted analysis of remotion-dev/remotion@78fe4bb3fd (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b56e483ffd9797ba. Report an issue: GitHub.