Lack of deck.gl support in the globe projection view causes flickers/disappearance

[MikhailSorokin]

mapbox-gl-js version

v3.8.0

Browser and version

Chrome 141.0.7390.108

Expected behavior

When using deck.gl layers via Mapbox, the layers should not flicker or randomly disappear in the globe view. Here is a thread in deck.gl describing that issue

This is simply because there is a lack of support from Mapbox to fix this. In my point of view as a developer, I view this as a massive bug that Mapbox should address since deck.gl is a library that is used in so many places nowadays for various projects. Mapbox’s continued lack of support here risks pushing developers toward Maplibre and other platforms that are more open to supporting these modern WebGL visualization frameworks. Addressing this would go a long way in maintaining confidence in Mapbox.

Attached is an example thread that demonstrates the problem.

Actual behavior

Enabling globe view on Mapbox with deck.gl causes layers to flicker rapidly and features of that layer (icons, text, etc.) to disappear on certain zoom levels.

Link to the demonstration

visgl/deck.gl#7920

Steps to trigger the unexpected behavior

1. Set the projection parameter to 'globe' from 'mercator' in Mapbox within react-map-gl's Map component.
2. Create a globe view in the deck.gl layer and use that as a DeckGLOverlay context that can interleave within Mapbox layers.
3. Observe that layers flicker as demonstrated in the video while changing zoom levels/panning around.

[chrisgervang]

Thanks for surfacing this.

I’m one of the maintainers of deck.gl. We’ve long supported Mapbox integrations because so many developers benefit from combining Mapbox’s map engine with deck.gl’s visualization layers. The flickering here stems from camera transform differences, and we’d be very happy to collaborate on defining a stable, public interface that allows deck.gl to align with Mapbox’s globe projection correctly.

We’ve done similar collaborations in the past - for example, with MapLibre and Google Maps we worked directly with their teams to define camera-sync interfaces that make interleaved rendering work. It would be great to develop something similar with Mapbox so the broader ecosystem can benefit from it.

[ibesora]

Thanks for opening this issue @MikhailSorokin . As a fan of deck.gl myself I can feel your pain and would love to get this fixed.

@chrisgervang I’m on the GL JS team and would like to better understand what’s needed from our side. Can you point me to the right direction? We can also talk by email if that’s easier for you. Thanks!

[chrisgervang]

Hey @ibesora, for sure - there's a good amount of existing context and technical direction in the GitHub issues mentioned in visgl/deck.gl#7920 (comment) that might give you a direction to follow.

There might be a couple parts that need to come together to support this. Feel free to send me an email (chris at gervang.com)

[MikhailSorokin]

@ibesora @chrisgervang I'm happy you two were able to connect! Will be very curious to see how much progress the both of you two make on the globe view!