Use this skill when compositing display objects with blend modes in PixiJS v8. Covers standard modes (normal, add, multiply, screen, erase, min, max), advanced modes via pixi.js/advanced-blend-modes (color-burn, overlay, hard-light, etc.), batch-friendly ordering. Triggers on: blendMode, additive, m

Set container.blendMode to composite display objects with GPU blend equations (standard modes) or filter based advanced modes. Blend mode transitions break render batches, so group like mode siblings together. Quick Start Related skills: pixijs filters (advanced modes use the filter pipeline), pixijs performance (batching with blend modes), pixijs color (color manipulation). Core Patterns Standard blend modes Standard modes are built in and use GPU blend equations directly: These are hardware accelerated and cheap. They do not require filters. Advanced blend modes Advanced modes require an explicit import to register the extensions. On the WebGL renderer they also require useBackBuffer: true at init time, or PixiJS logs a warning and the blend silently falls back: Available advanced modes: Mode Effect color burn Darkens by increasing contrast color dodge Brightens by decreasing contrast darken Keeps darker of two layers difference Absolute difference divide Divides bottom by top exclusion Similar to difference, lower contrast hard light Multiply or screen based on top layer hard mix High contrast threshold blend lighten Keeps lighter of two layers linear burn Adds and subtracts to darken linear dodge Adds layers together linear light Linear burn or dodge based on top layer luminosity Luminosity of top, hue/saturation of bottom negation Inverted difference overlay Multiply or screen based on bottom layer pin light Replaces based on lightness comparison saturation Saturation of top, hue/luminosity of bottom soft light Gentle overlay effect subtract Subtracts top from bottom vivid light Color burn or dodge based on top layer color Hue and saturation of top, luminosity of bottom You set advanced blend modes the same way as standard ones, via the blendMode property. They use filters internally, so they cost more than standard modes. Batch friendly ordering Different blend modes break the rendering batch. Order objects to minimize transitions: 2 draw calls. Alternating order ( screen, normal, screen, normal ) would produce 4. Common Mistakes [HIGH] Not importing advanced blend modes extension Wrong: Correct: Advanced blend modes (color burn, overlay, etc.) require the extension import. Without it, only standard modes (normal, add, multiply, screen) are available. The invalid mode silently falls back. [MEDIUM] Mixing blend modes across adjacent objects Different blend modes break the render batch. screen / normal / screen / normal produces 4 draw calls, while screen / screen / normal / normal produces 2. Sort children so objects with the same blend mode are adjacent. [HIGH] Using the v7 BLEND MODES enum Wrong: Correct: In v8, BLEND MODES is a TypeScript type only (a union of string literals). There is no runtime enum export, so BLEND MODES.ADD evaluates to accessing a property on undefined . Use the string form. [HIGH] Advanced blend modes without useBackBuffer Wrong: Correct: Advanced modes read from the back buffer. On WebGL, the blend silently falls back if the back buffer is not enabled. WebGPU enables the back buffer unconditionally. [MEDIUM] Advanced blend modes clipped or scaled on high DPI renderers Advanced blend modes are filter based and use Filter.defaultOptions , whose resolution defaults to 1 . On a high DPI render target the blended object can look clipped, scaled, or only partially applied. Wrong: Correct: Setting Filter.defaultOptions.resolution = "inherit" makes advanced blend modes render at the render target's resolution. This costs more memory and runtime, so apply it where fidelity matters. API Reference [Container.blendMode](https://pixijs.download/release/docs/scene.Container.html.md) [OverlayBlend](https://pixijs.download/release/docs/filters.OverlayBlend.html.md) [ColorBurnBlend](https://pixijs.download/release/docs/filters.ColorBurnBlend.html.md) [ColorDodgeBlend](https://pixijs.download/release/docs/filters.ColorDodgeBlend.html.md) [HardLightBlend](https://pixijs.download/release/docs/filters.HardLightBlend.html.md) [SoftLightBlend](https://pixijs.download/release/docs/filters.SoftLightBlend.html.md) [DifferenceBlend](https://pixijs.download/release/docs/filters.DifferenceBlend.html.md)

pixijs-blend-modes