WWT WebGL Engine Reference Manual

The “WebGL engine” is the core renderer that powers the web-based forms of the WorldWide Telescope software system. While it underpins the WWT web client application, it is a reusable TypeScript framework that can be embedded in webpages or your own applications. Like this!

This manual is the detailed reference on its usage and behavior.

Historical Note🔗

The Web manifestation of WWT has gone through several stages of evolution. These stages include a Silverlight web client, a <canvas>-based “HTML5” version, a “WebGL” iteration, and gradual improvements in its modularization. We won’t intentionally break the pre-WebGL versions, but there are no guarantees that they will continue functioning going forward.