spine-pixi-v8 runtime released

November 7th, 2024

We've upgraded our Spine runtime for PixiJS to version 8!

PixiJS has been one of the most widely used WebGL-based rendering libraries for many years, powering countless web games and applications with its fast and flexible renderer. It is a top choice for Spine users, particularly for HTML5 game developers.

Our first official PixiJS runtime was for PixiJS v7. We want the runtime to be official so we can better support users and ensure it gets the latest features.

Meanwhile, the PixiJS team have developed and maintained their own pixi-spine runtime for nearly 10 years. Having two separate runtimes isn't ideal, so for PixiJS v8 we collaborated with Mat Groves — the creator of PixiJS — and the PixiJS team. The result is a single spine-pixi-v8 runtime that is officially supported by us and with the PixiJS team available as needed.

Joining forces like this ensures a great Spine experience for PixiJS users! We are committed to providing timely updates and bug fixes in sync with Spine Editor releases. For Mat and the PixiJS team, this collaboration helps reduce their workload, allowing them to focus more on PixiJS itself.

With the power of PixiJS, spine-pixi-v8 becomes the first spine-ts runtime to leverage hardware acceleration through WebGPU! Here’s a minimal example that uses the WebGPU renderer, when available:

spine-pixi-v7 and spine-pixi-v8 share almost identical interfaces, allowing you to use the same documentation for both. Check out our spine-pixi documentation and explore the examples code. We've ported all PixiJS v7 examples, where you’ll see that the fields and methods remain the same.

As usual, if you need assistance in using it, you can open a forum thread. If you find a bug or want to improve the runtime, feel free to open an issue or a PR on our GitHub.

Discuss this blog post on the forums!