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NF Firefox headless WebGL support; FIX Vertex in Firefox WebGL - #765
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October 13, 2026 21:23
headless_viewer, save_3d_views, and plot_panels gain a browser="chromium"|"firefox" parameter; only the chosen browser needs to be installed. Unlike Chromium's SwiftShader, Firefox needs an X display for WebGL, so a private Xvfb is started when DISPLAY isn't set. The webgl_browser() context manager launches either browser, rejects unknown names, and owns browser and Xvfb teardown. Tests: - test_webgl_shaders links every shader variant in both browsers. Chromium's ANGLE drops unused attributes before enforcing GL_MAX_VERTEX_ATTRIBS; Firefox's Mesa counts every declaration. - test_datatype_renders renders every dataview type in both browsers, and test_chromium_matches_firefox checks they agree. - test_save_3d_views_headless and test_headless_viewer_opens_and_closes run in both browsers; the latter checks the browser and Xvfb exit. The colormapped surface_vertex shader on a flatmap subject declares more than 16 attributes, so in Firefox Vertex/Vertex2D render blank. Those 8 cases are xfail(strict=True) until the shader is fixed. CI installs only Chromium, to stay short, so Firefox tests skip there. They parametrize over testing_utils.BROWSERS; the FIREFOX_MISSING skip reason says how to run them locally. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The surface_vertex shader declared two attributes (data2/data3) it only reads for 2D vertex data, relying on the driver to prune them before enforcing GL_MAX_VERTEX_ATTRIBS. Chromium's ANGLE does; Mesa's llvmpipe, used by headless Firefox, counts every declaration, so the program fails to link and the surface renders blank. Declare only what is read: 2D vertex data packs both dimensions into the .x/.y of two vec2 attributes instead of four floats, with the same dimension-to-component mapping. Other dataviews declare just data0/data1, and the placeholder attributes in mriview_surface.js go. DataView._setPacked2D interleaves the two dimensions. setFrame keeps the packed attributes of the current frame pair, so an unchanged frame costs nothing and a one-frame step reuses the previous "next" frame. The streaming fallback is shared with VertexData.set via VertexData.framePair. Together with gallantlab#715 (packing into auxdat.zw and flatbump), Firefox no longer depends on attribute pruning. The 8 xfail Firefox tests now pass, so the marks are removed. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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This PR adds support for Firefox in the headless WebGL renderer, and it also fixes
Vertexrendering in Firefox (#375).Summary
The user can now choose which browser to use in the relevant functions (
headless_viewer,save_3d_views) withbrowser="chromium"|"firefox". Unlike with Chromium, Firefox needs a display buffer to render to. This means that eitherDISPLAYneeds to be set, or theXvfbpackage needs to be installed for truly headless support. (For simplicitly, Chromium is still the default.)Headless support allows us to run tests for Firefox, which confirms #375 . The issue was that the colormapped
surface_vertexshader declares more than 16 vertex attributes, which is WebGL's cap. Chromium (ANGLE) drops the unused ones before checking the limit, but Firefox (Mesa) does not, so the shader fails to link. (This failure is actually in the same vein as gh-714, but Chromium doesn't catch it.)Changes
webgl_browser()context manager incortex/export/headless.pylaunches either browser and handles teardown. Headless Firefox needs an X display for WebGL, so whenDISPLAYis unset it starts a private Xvfb. The browser and data type tests run in both browsers, and a new test checks that both browsers render each data type alike. The 8 Firefox cases hit by the bug are markedxfail(strict=True).surface_vertexnow declares only the attributes it reads, and 2D vertex data is packed into twovec2attributes instead of four floats (shaderlib.js,dataset.js). The 8 xfails now pass.Running the Firefox tests
CI still installs only Chromium, to keep runs short, so the Firefox tests skip there. To run them locally:
uv run playwright install firefox sudo apt-get install xvfb # not needed if DISPLAY is set uv run pytest -k firefoxTesting
I ran the full suite on both commits: