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Would rather see something like WebCL back in development for general purpose GPU computation, most importantly deep learning, on the web, then the Xth attempt
by mxfh 9y ago
Would rather see something like WebCL back in development for general purpose GPU computation, most importantly deep learning, on the web, then the Xth attempt on superseeding WebGL.
Funneling things through WebGL just doesn't feel right, where proper OES_texture_float support is also not guaranteed.
https://www.khronos.org/webcl/ https://www.khronos.org/webcl/
- fulafel 9y agoApparently WebCL was blocked by Apple who refused to let their OpenCL patents be used: https://www.khronos.org/files/ip-disclosures/webcl/Apple-WebCL-Disclosure-Jan14_clean.pdf https://www.khronos.org/files/ip-disclosures/webcl/Apple-Web... ("Apple does not agree to make available .. for any WebCL Specifications")
- jsheard 9y agoWebGPU will almost certainly include support for general purpose compute shaders, which pretty much removes the need for a dedicated compute API: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1l1rTCtKHowIEhwzA4l1uEq2_JtiKolApTOgA0ebRJIM/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1l1rTCtKHowIEhwzA4l1u... (besides, building a new API on top of OpenCL would be questionable given that OpenCL is all but dead at this point)
- fulafel 9y agoFloat textures were just optional back in WebGL 1[1]. Any new spec is going to lose in support coverage to WebGL 2 which has been shipping for a year now! [1] Look for RGBA32F in the WebGL 2 and corresponding OpenGL ES 3.0 specs. Also documented on MDN's coverage of OES_texture_float.
- pcwalton 9y agoOpenCL is irritating for graphics development, because it doesn't integrate as seamlessly with the rest of the graphics pipeline as GL compute shader does. Unified approaches such as GL compute shader or Vulkan are much more convenient.