GPUDevice: createCommandEncoder() method

Limited availability

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

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

Secure context: This feature is available only in secure contexts (HTTPS), in some or all supporting browsers.

Note: This feature is available in Web Workers.

The createCommandEncoder() method of the GPUDevice interface creates a GPUCommandEncoder, used to encode commands to be issued to the GPU.

Syntax

js
createCommandEncoder()
createCommandEncoder(descriptor)

Parameters

descriptor Optional

An object containing the following properties:

label Optional

A string providing a label that can be used to identify the object, for example in GPUError messages or console warnings.

Return value

A GPUCommandEncoder object instance.

Examples

In our basic render demo, several commands are recorded via a GPUCommandEncoder created via createCommandEncoder():

js
// ...

// Create GPUCommandEncoder
const commandEncoder = device.createCommandEncoder();

// Create GPURenderPassDescriptor to tell WebGPU which texture to draw into, then initiate render pass
const renderPassDescriptor = {
  colorAttachments: [
    {
      clearValue: clearColor,
      loadOp: "clear",
      storeOp: "store",
      view: context.getCurrentTexture().createView(),
    },
  ],
};

const passEncoder = commandEncoder.beginRenderPass(renderPassDescriptor);

// Draw a triangle
passEncoder.setPipeline(renderPipeline);
passEncoder.setVertexBuffer(0, vertexBuffer);
passEncoder.draw(3);

// End the render pass
passEncoder.end();

// ...

The commands encoded by the GPUCommandEncoder are recoded into a GPUCommandBuffer using the GPUCommandEncoder.finish() method. The command buffer is then passed into the queue via a submit() call, ready to be processed by the GPU.

js
device.queue.submit([commandEncoder.finish()]);

Note: Study the WebGPU samples to find more command encoding examples.

Specifications

Specification
WebGPU
# dom-gpudevice-createcommandencoder

Browser compatibility

Report problems with this compatibility data on GitHub
desktopmobileserver
Chrome
Edge
Firefox
Opera
Safari
Chrome Android
Firefox for Android
Opera Android
Safari on iOS
Samsung Internet
WebView Android
WebView on iOS
Deno
createCommandEncoder
Experimental

Legend

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

Full support
Full support
Partial support
Partial support
In development. Supported in a pre-release version.
In development. Supported in a pre-release version.
No support
No support
Experimental. Expect behavior to change in the future.
See implementation notes.
User must explicitly enable this feature.
Has more compatibility info.

See also