The number of WebGPU features might seem a little light this time, but major advancements are just around the corner! Next releases will include features like DP4a, read-only and read-write storage textures, separate stencil and depth aspect control, rendering to 3D texture slices, and shader compilation improvements.
In the meantime, learn how to supercharge your Web AI model testing with WebGPU and WebGL support in Headless Chrome and why WebGPU may be disabled or not working in Chrome.
Expand reach with compatibility mode (feature in development)
WebGPU aligns well with modern graphics APIs (Vulkan, Metal, and D3D12), but some devices lack support for those. This limits WebGPU's accessibility, especially on platforms like Windows (31% of Chrome users lack D3D11.1+), Android (23% lack Vulkan 1.1+), and ChromeOS (Vulkan adoption on the rise).
The Chrome team is working on a compatibility mode in WebGPU to address this by offering a slightly restricted version of WebGPU that works on older APIs like D3D11 and OpenGL ES. This will expand WebGPU's potential user base.
Importantly, applications using compatibility mode remain fully valid WebGPU applications. Devices without compatibility mode support will seamlessly default to the core WebGPU adapter, ensuring broad usability.
Check out the proposal and comment if you have questions.
Increase maxVertexAttributes limit
The maximum number of attributes in total across buffers when creating a GPURenderPipeline is 16 by default. It is now possible to request up to 30 by using the maxVertexAttributes limit when supported. See the following example and issue dawn:2223.
const adapter = await navigator.gpu.requestAdapter();
if (adapter.limits.maxVertexAttributes < 30) {
// When the desired limit isn't supported, take action to either fall back to
// a code path that does not require the higher limit or notify the user that
// their device does not meet minimum requirements.
}
// Request highest limit of max vertex attributes.
const device = await adapter.requestDevice({
requiredLimits: { maxVertexAttributes: 30 },
});
Dawn updates
A new instance toggle called "expose_wgsl_experimental_features" has been added to make the instance expose only the experimental WGSL features but not the unsafe ones, so that safe experimental WGSL features can be used without the need to enable the "allow_unsafe_apis" toggle. See issue dawn:2260.
Recent improvements to the Dawn bindings for Node.js include the following:
GPUSupportedFeatures::getSize()
has been added.GPUAdapter
staleness was implemented.GPUInternalError
is now properly reported for devices.- Attributes are now enumerable.
This covers only some of the key highlights. Check out the exhaustive list of commits.
What's New in WebGPU
A list of everything that has been covered in the What's New in WebGPU series.
Chrome 129
Chrome 128
- Experimenting with subgroups
- Deprecate setting depth bias for lines and points
- Hide uncaptured error DevTools warning if preventDefault
- WGSL interpolate sampling first and either
- Dawn updates
Chrome 127
- Experimental support for OpenGL ES on Android
- GPUAdapter info attribute
- WebAssembly interop improvements
- Improved command encoder errors
- Dawn updates
Chrome 126
- Increase maxTextureArrayLayers limit
- Buffer upload optimization for Vulkan backend
- Shader compilation time improvements
- Submitted command buffers must be unique
- Dawn updates
Chrome 125
Chrome 124
- Read-only and read-write storage textures
- Service workers and shared workers support
- New adapter information attributes
- Bug fixes
- Dawn updates
Chrome 123
- DP4a built-in functions support in WGSL
- Unrestricted pointer parameters in WGSL
- Syntax sugar for dereferencing composites in WGSL
- Separate read-only state for stencil and depth aspects
- Dawn updates
Chrome 122
- Expand reach with compatibility mode (feature in development)
- Increase maxVertexAttributes limit
- Dawn updates
Chrome 121
- Support WebGPU on Android
- Use DXC instead of FXC for shader compilation on Windows
- Timestamp queries in compute and render passes
- Default entry points to shader modules
- Support display-p3 as GPUExternalTexture color space
- Memory heaps info
- Dawn updates
Chrome 120
- Support for 16-bit floating-point values in WGSL
- Push the limits
- Changes to depth-stencil state
- Adapter information updates
- Timestamp queries quantization
- Spring-cleaning features
Chrome 119
- Filterable 32-bit float textures
- unorm10-10-10-2 vertex format
- rgb10a2uint texture format
- Dawn updates
Chrome 118
- HTMLImageElement and ImageData support in
copyExternalImageToTexture()
- Experimental support for read-write and read-only storage texture
- Dawn updates
Chrome 117
- Unset vertex buffer
- Unset bind group
- Silence errors from async pipeline creation when device is lost
- SPIR-V shader module creation updates
- Improving developer experience
- Caching pipelines with automatically generated layout
- Dawn updates
Chrome 116
- WebCodecs integration
- Lost device returned by GPUAdapter
requestDevice()
- Keep video playback smooth if
importExternalTexture()
is called - Spec conformance
- Improving developer experience
- Dawn updates
Chrome 115
- Supported WGSL language extensions
- Experimental support for Direct3D 11
- Get discrete GPU by default on AC power
- Improving developer experience
- Dawn updates
Chrome 114
- Optimize JavaScript
- getCurrentTexture() on unconfigured canvas throws InvalidStateError
- WGSL updates
- Dawn updates