Google Is Rolling Out WebGPU For Next-Gen Gaming On Android

In a blog post today, Google announced that WebGPU is "now enabled by default in Chrome 121 on devices running Android 12 and greater powered by Qualcomm and ARM GPUs," with support for more Android devices rolling out gradually. Previously, the API was only available on Windows PCs that support Direct3D 12, macOS, and ChromeOS devices that support Vulkan.

Google says WebGPU "offers significant benefits such as greatly reduced JavaScript workload for the same graphics and more than three times improvements in machine learning model inferences." With lower-level access to a device's GPU, developers are able to enable richer and more complex visual content in web applications. This will be especially apparent with games, as you can see in this demo.

Next up: WebGPU for Chrome on Linux.

Firefox

[markdavis]

>"Next up: WebGPU for Chrome on Linux. "

It is already in Firefox Nightly (and working with Vulcan). I will not use a Chrom*-based browser.

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Platf... [mozilla.org]
https://developer.mozilla.org/... [mozilla.org]
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/s... [mozilla.org]
https://hacks.mozilla.org/2020... [mozilla.org]

Re: Firefox

[SeeKay]

I agree Firefox FTW Dropped using chrome when I found it scanning my drive looking for âprocesses that may affect its operationâ(TM) You grow up

Re:

[kurkosdr]

Whaaa? Chromium is open source, does it also do it? If so, you can trace the part of the source code responsible for it.

Hooray!

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

I, for one, am delighted that the least-patched general purpose computer in the house is getting a tighter interface between its most complex web-facing interpreter of untrusted and untrustworthy inputs and its biggest and most complex driver. Nothing could possibly go wrong here.

Is native usually better?

[tepples]

Would it be better for games to be native (and have access to everything) than to run in a sandbox? Worse yet, if a game is native, there's a temptation for the developer and publisher to develop, test, and distribute the game for only one platform. And last I checked, iOS was the leading platform by far for paid downloads and IAPs in industrialized anglophone countries, which means that one platform is unlikely to be Android.

Re:

[TwistedGreen]

You're right, native is better, and the main platform is usually Apple. This is another brown stain on Google's bedsheets, intended to goad Apple into something but in reality nobody cares. WebGPU is going to end up like PWAs, a little-used technology that nobody really wants.

Re:

[kurkosdr]

The counter-argument to this is that if browsers are intended to "reduce Windows to a poorly debugged set of device drivers" (https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Marc_Andreessen), the software running inside those browsers needs to have access to the GPU. Ideally, the user will have to provide consent for that to happen, as is the case for microphone, camera, location, and filesystem access (uploads).

my dream has become reality

[Rockoon]

i've always dreamed of web pages mining shitcoin using a background worker that exploits my video cards processing power

thanks google

Re:

[kurkosdr]

Ideally, the user will have to provide consent for access to the GPU by JavaScript running on webpages, as is already the case for microphone, camera, location, and filesystem access (aka file uploads).

Re:

[Rockoon]

WebGL doesnt require it.

So why would you ever think that WebGPU would?

Re:

[kurkosdr]

Because WebGL only does graphics while WebGPU allows for GPU compute capabilities (which can be used for cryptocurrency mining, attempts to solve CAPTCHAs etc). Of course, JavaScript can do the above, but GPUs can do them more efficiently, which makes the whole effort worth it from the side of the malicious actor paying for the ad slot.

Re:

[Rockoon]

"only does graphics"

gpgpu began with opengl .. which "only does graphics"

Are you done proving that that you are completely ignorant of these technologies at the most basic of levels?

Got anything else that is completely fucking stupid to splurge here in your desperate attempt to not look ignorant after you forgot to never post when you dont know anything at all about what you are talking about.... ???

Give us more, ignorant fuck. Pro-tip: Dont double down when you are pulling it out of your ass

Re:

[kurkosdr]

I need some evidence (aka a proof-of-concept program) that GPGPU can be done with WebGL (and by GPGPU I mean not just perform the compute but get the output data to the system main memory and then uploaded to another server) before I buy into that. I mean, you sound so sure in your comment, you probably have done it before.