remotion-dev/remotion · error · Error

Failed to create WebGL shader

Error message

Failed to create WebGL shader

What it means

The speckle() effect's compileShader() in packages/effects/src/speckle.ts calls gl.createShader(), which returned null. Identical root cause to the skew case: the WebGL2 context is lost, resource-exhausted, or non-conformant, so speckle cannot build the SPECKLE_VS/SPECKLE_FS shaders it needs. The context was acquired (createWebGL2ContextError did not fire), so this is an allocation failure during setup.

Source

Thrown at packages/effects/src/speckle.ts:166

	program: WebGLProgram;
	vao: WebGLVertexArrayObject;
	vbo: WebGLBuffer;
	texture: WebGLTexture;
	uSource: WebGLUniformLocation | null;
	uResolution: WebGLUniformLocation | null;
	uDensity: WebGLUniformLocation | null;
	uSize: WebGLUniformLocation | null;
	uRandomness: WebGLUniformLocation | null;
};

const compileShader = (
	gl: WebGL2RenderingContext,
	type: number,
	source: string,
): WebGLShader => {
	const shader = gl.createShader(type);
	if (!shader) {
		throw new Error('Failed to create WebGL shader');
	}

	gl.shaderSource(shader, source);
	gl.compileShader(shader);
	if (!gl.getShaderParameter(shader, gl.COMPILE_STATUS)) {
		const log = gl.getShaderInfoLog(shader);
		gl.deleteShader(shader);
		throw new Error(`Speckle shader compile failed: ${log ?? '(no log)'}`);
	}

	return shader;
};

const linkProgram = (
	gl: WebGL2RenderingContext,
	vs: WebGLShader,
	fs: WebGLShader,
): WebGLProgram => {

View on GitHub (pinned to 78fe4bb3fd)

Solutions

1. Render with ANGLE (--gl=angle / chromiumOptions.gl='angle' / Studio OpenGL=angle).
2. Reduce concurrency and the number of WebGL2 effects stacked per frame to stay under the active-context cap.
3. Make sure each effect's cleanup runs so contexts/shaders are released before new effects initialize.
4. Verify the target environment has working WebGL2 (supported GPU and current drivers).

Example fix

// before
npx remotion render main MyComp out.mp4
// after
npx remotion render main MyComp out.mp4 --gl=angle

function supportsWebGL2Effect(): boolean {
  try {
    return !!document.createElement('canvas').getContext('webgl2');
  } catch {
    return false;
  }
}
if (!supportsWebGL2Effect()) {
  throw new Error('speckle() requires WebGL2, which is unavailable in this environment');
}

try {
  await renderMedia({ composition, codec: 'h264', chromiumOptions: { gl: 'angle' } });
} catch (err) {
  if (err instanceof Error && /Failed to create WebGL shader/.test(err.message)) {
    console.error('WebGL2 shader allocation failed for speckle(). Use --gl=angle and/or lower concurrency.', err);
    throw err;
  }
  throw err;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Applying speckle() while the WebGL2 context is in a lost state, or once the process has exceeded the browser's live WebGL-context limit so new contexts are immediately unusable; also possible under GPU memory pressure or a driver reset between getContext() and createShader().

Common situations: Headless/CI rendering without --gl=angle; many parallel frames each stacking multiple WebGL2 effects; SwiftShader/llvmpipe software fallback under load; hosts with failing or absent GPU drivers.

Related errors

• Failed to create WebGL program
• Failed to create WebGL buffer
• Failed to create WebGL shader
• Failed to create WebGL program
• Failed to create WebGL vertex array

AI-assisted analysis of remotion-dev/remotion@78fe4bb3fd (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/0ce7b03516c4488b. Report an issue: GitHub.