With the coming of Chrome 113, Google has announced the release of WebGPU, which will be enabled “by default.” This will open its doors for more powerful web-based 3D graphics and data-parallel computation online.
WebGPU will be an especially exciting release for all online gamers.
The API will give web apps and online games more access to users’ graphic card capabilities. This will allow developers to achieve the same level of graphics with less code. This will also provide “more than three times improvement in machine learning model inferences.”
“The API is designed with the web platform in mind, featuring an idiomatic JavaScript API, integration with promises, support for importing videos, and a polished developer experience with great error messages,” writes an official Google Chrome post.
Originally designed in 2017, WebGPU has been in ongoing development since then. Its upcoming release aims to serve as a “building block” for further updates in the future, including more advanced graphic features.
“The Chrome team also plans to provide deeper access to shader cores for even more machine learning optimizations and additional ergonomics in WGSL, the WebGPU Shading Language,” further states the official blog post.
Additionally, WebGPU is not designed as a feature exclusive to Chrome. Rather, plans include the API becoming available for both Firefox and Safari.
Google has been working on WebGPU for several years. The company claimed that this year’s release is a result of a “collaborative effort” between Google and other major companies including Apple, Intel, Microsoft and Mozilla.
In three weeks, WebGPU will be available on Windows PCs that support macOS, Direct3D 12 and ChromeOS (Vulkan). Meanwhile, support for other platforms is coming later this year.
