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OpenGL/WebGL Support

Overview​

OpenGL and WebGL are not officially supported on the hardware we use for the supercomputers. We have found a way to get decent, but not perfect performance by using the Mesa3D libraries, which include open-source implementations of OpenGL, OpenGL ES, Vulkan, and OpenCL.

Steps​

  1. Request a virtual desktop on the web portal with at least 8 CPU cores

  2. In the virtual desktop, open a terminal and load the following two modules

    module load gcc-12.1.0-gcc-11.2.0
    module load mesa-22.0.2-gcc-11.2.0

  3. In the same terminal, start the application (ex. Firefox). The application should now support OpenGL.

  4. (Optional) Certain websites in firefox will still not detect OpenGL. In that case, perform these additional steps:

    a. In the address bar, type about:config (accept the risk and continue)

    b. In the list, search for webgl.force and set "webgl.force-enable" to true

Firefox WebGL Settings