Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

PixiJS VS OpenGL

Compare PixiJS VS OpenGL and see what are their differences

PixiJS logo PixiJS

Fast and flexible WebGL-based HTML5 game and app development library.

OpenGL logo OpenGL

OpenGL is the premier environment for developing portable, interactive 2D and 3D graphics...
  • PixiJS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-25
  • OpenGL Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-25

PixiJS features and specs

  • Performance
    PixiJS provides high performance through the use of WebGL, offering fast rendering capabilities that can handle complex scenes and animations efficiently.
  • Cross-Platform
    PixiJS is compatible with various platforms, including desktops, tablets, and mobile devices, ensuring a consistent experience across different environments.
  • Rich Features
    It comes with a variety of built-in features such as sprites, filters, masks, and support for different shapes and textures, which makes it powerful for creating interactive graphics.
  • Ease of Use
    The library offers a user-friendly API and extensive documentation, making it easy to learn and integrate into projects, even for developers who are new to WebGL.
  • Community Support
    PixiJS has an active community and a wealth of resources including forums, tutorials, and GitHub repositories, which help users troubleshoot issues and improve their projects.

Possible disadvantages of PixiJS

  • Size
    PixiJS can be relatively large in terms of file size, which may affect load times and performance, particularly for users with slow internet connections or limited bandwidth.
  • Browser Compatibility
    Since PixiJS relies heavily on WebGL, it may face compatibility issues with older browsers or devices that do not support advanced WebGL features.
  • Complexity
    While powerful, PixiJS can become complex when building more advanced applications, requiring a deep understanding of 3D graphics and WebGL concepts.
  • Limited 3D Support
    PixiJS is primarily a 2D rendering engine and lacks comprehensive support for 3D graphics, which might be a limitation for projects requiring 3D rendering.
  • Memory Management
    Handling memory efficiently can be challenging, especially in complex scenes with many textures and sprites, leading to potential memory leaks or performance degradation.

OpenGL features and specs

  • Cross-platform Compatibility
    OpenGL is platform-independent, allowing developers to write code that can run on multiple platforms such as Windows, macOS, Linux, and others without modification.
  • Wide Hardware Support
    Extensive support across a broad range of graphics hardware, making it a reliable choice for ensuring that applications will work on various devices.
  • Open Source
    As an open-source graphics API, OpenGL allows for extensive collaboration and contributions from the community, improving its features and performance over time.
  • Industry Standard
    Used widely in the industry for professional applications in areas like CAD, virtual reality, and video games, providing good community support and documentation.
  • Rich Feature Set
    Provides a comprehensive set of features for rendering 2D and 3D vector graphics, offering flexibility for developers to create complex visual effects.

Possible disadvantages of OpenGL

  • Complexity
    OpenGL's vast array of features and options can lead to a steep learning curve for new developers who may find it challenging to implement even basic tasks.
  • Obsolete Features
    Some parts of OpenGL are considered outdated, with legacy functionality that may complicate development and require additional effort to modernize older codebases.
  • Performance Overhead
    While generally efficient, OpenGL can introduce overhead compared to lower-level APIs like Vulkan or Direct3D, which offer more direct control of graphics hardware resources.
  • Fragmented Support
    Different platforms and graphics card vendors may implement OpenGL features inconsistently, requiring extra testing and potentially platform-specific workarounds.
  • Low Abstraction
    Despite its flexibility, OpenGL provides a lower level of abstraction compared to some newer APIs, meaning that developers must manage more of the graphics pipeline manually.

PixiJS videos

PixiJS Part 3: Renderer, Ticker, & Stage

More videos:

  • Review - Learn PixiJS in 20 Minutes

OpenGL videos

OSBUDDY 3.0 OPENGL REVIEW - Not as promised??

More videos:

  • Review - Latest OpenGL and Vulkan GPU drivers Pubg gaming Review Poco F1 | 0.18 Mad Miramar Update
  • Review - OpenGL Basic (Fastest Review)

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to PixiJS and OpenGL)
Javascript UI Libraries
100 100%
0% 0
Game Development
62 62%
38% 38
Flowcharts
100 100%
0% 0
Game Engine
64 64%
36% 36

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, PixiJS seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 72 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

PixiJS mentions (72)

  • Trying to Replace the DOM with Canvas — And Failing
    To improve performance, another team built a POC replacing standard DOM elements with a canvas managed by a library called pixi.js. The idea was to boost rendering speed. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Building an AI Powered Camera for David Bowie
    We can now decide how we want to display the data.image result back to our user. You can simply throw it up in an tag or generate a reveal video on the fly like I’ve done using Pixi.JS and MediaRecorder. Perhaps a topic for another dev blog. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • Tattooing The Black Keys Fans Using MediaDevices and PixiJS
    For this application, we gain access to the user’s camera using MediaDevices and then place it onto a PixiJS canvas as a video sprite. Then, we load the tattoo as an additional sprite and give it a bit of opacity and blending to bleed it into the user’s skin. Simple controls are added to allow the user to rotate, scale, and position the tattoo for the perfect inking. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • Chapter 1: Boring SVG Manipulation
    And canvas felt almost natural and invoked heavy nostalgia from the first time I touched keyboard and wrote primitive program to draw a house out of lines utilizing Basic. Later on I had a chance to broaden my expertise, when I was doing my hobby game project with Pixi and small bits and pieces on FindLabs pages. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • JSON Canvas – An open file format for infinite canvas data
    The canvas in Obsidian is as the whole app very well made. I wondered what they are using as well. My guess is https://www.xyflow.com/, which is for drawing nodes. More general purpose would be http://fabricjs.com/. Or very low level https://pixijs.com/. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
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OpenGL mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of OpenGL yet. Tracking of OpenGL recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing PixiJS and OpenGL, you can also consider the following products

Three.js - A JavaScript 3D library which makes WebGL simpler.

SDL - Simple DirectMedia Layer is a cross-platform multimedia library designed to provide low level...

Phaser - Desktop and Mobile HTML5 game framework. A fast, free and fun open source framework for Canvas and WebGL powered browser games.

Vulkan - Vulkan is a new generation graphics and compute API that provides high-efficiency, cross-platform access to modern GPUs used in a wide variety of devices from PCs and consoles to mobile phones and embedded platforms.

Paper.js - Open source vector graphics scripting framework that runs on top of the HTML5 Canvas.

Unreal Engine - Unreal Engine 4 is a suite of integrated tools for game developers to design and build games, simulations, and visualizations.