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The future is WebGPU. If you're interested on why a Vulkan binding for the web is not a good idea, I found this doc (from two engineers working at Google) quit

The future is WebGPU. If you're interested on why a Vulkan binding for the web is not a good idea, I found this doc (from two engineers working at Google) quite interesting : https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-lAvR9GXaNJiqUIpm3N2XuGUWv_JrkpGizDN0bNq7wY/edit# https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-lAvR9GXaNJiqUIpm3N2XuGU...

maeln 8y ago
Thank you for the document ! Definitely, having some form of GPGPU on the web is the next step. It is currently one of my few complaint with WebGL: The lack of compute shader.
- fulafel 8y ago
  You can do GPU compute without the OpenGL "compute shader" feature. WebGL 2 has much improved features for it vs WebGL 1. There are existing GPGPU things running on WebGL, see eg https://github.com/tensorflow/tfjs-core https://github.com/tensorflow/tfjs-core and https://magenta.tensorflow.org/demos/#web-apps https://magenta.tensorflow.org/demos/#web-apps
  - maeln 8y ago
    But WebGL compute shader are under an extension which, as far as I know, doesn't have much support yet :/
- bitwize 8y ago
  The next step in what, exactly? The major thing I see GPGPU being used for on the Web is to mine cryptocurrency using your viewers' hardware in lieu of (or, more likely, as a supplement to) ads.
  - maeln 8y ago
    A lot of modern 3D engine use compute shader to do a lot of different things. For example, I use it to process millions of particles, which wouldn't be possible without it.
slavik81 8y ago
> The future is WebGPU I hope not. The proposed standard was not even remotely vendor-neutral. I would love to have compute shaders in WebGL. All it would require is bumping the OpenGL version that WebGL is based on from ES 3.0 to ES 3.1 in the next revision. As far as I can tell, that will not happen because it would reduce the need for the WebGPU proposal. Needless to say, I find the situation very annoying.
- Jasper_ 8y ago
  > I hope not. The proposed standard was not even remotely vendor-neutral. Why not? WebGPU work continues here, based on the work that Apple proposed. Google has a cross-platform prototype implementation. https://github.com/gpuweb/gpuweb https://github.com/gpuweb/gpuweb > I would love to have compute shaders in WebGL. All it would require is bumping the OpenGL version that WebGL is based on from ES 3.0 to ES 3.1 in the next revision. WebGL2 has very little vendor support already, and OpenGL is a dead end, from an API perspective. Something low-ish like Metal without being as absurd as Vulkan would be a great fit for the web.
  - slavik81 8y ago
    There's room to develop a new API that's a lot better than WebGL. I just don't think we'll get the best result from a standards process driven by realpolitik.

maeln 8y ago

Thank you for the document ! Definitely, having some form of GPGPU on the web is the next step. It is currently one of my few complaint with WebGL: The lack of compute shader.

fulafel 8y ago
You can do GPU compute without the OpenGL "compute shader" feature. WebGL 2 has much improved features for it vs WebGL 1. There are existing GPGPU things running on WebGL, see eg https://github.com/tensorflow/tfjs-core https://github.com/tensorflow/tfjs-core and https://magenta.tensorflow.org/demos/#web-apps https://magenta.tensorflow.org/demos/#web-apps
- maeln 8y ago
  But WebGL compute shader are under an extension which, as far as I know, doesn't have much support yet :/
bitwize 8y ago
The next step in what, exactly? The major thing I see GPGPU being used for on the Web is to mine cryptocurrency using your viewers' hardware in lieu of (or, more likely, as a supplement to) ads.
- maeln 8y ago
  A lot of modern 3D engine use compute shader to do a lot of different things. For example, I use it to process millions of particles, which wouldn't be possible without it.

slavik81 8y ago

> The future is WebGPU I hope not. The proposed standard was not even remotely vendor-neutral. I would love to have compute shaders in WebGL. All it would require is bumping the OpenGL version that WebGL is based on from ES 3.0 to ES 3.1 in the next revision. As far as I can tell, that will not happen because it would reduce the need for the WebGPU proposal. Needless to say, I find the situation very annoying.

Jasper_ 8y ago
> I hope not. The proposed standard was not even remotely vendor-neutral. Why not? WebGPU work continues here, based on the work that Apple proposed. Google has a cross-platform prototype implementation. https://github.com/gpuweb/gpuweb https://github.com/gpuweb/gpuweb > I would love to have compute shaders in WebGL. All it would require is bumping the OpenGL version that WebGL is based on from ES 3.0 to ES 3.1 in the next revision. WebGL2 has very little vendor support already, and OpenGL is a dead end, from an API perspective. Something low-ish like Metal without being as absurd as Vulkan would be a great fit for the web.
- slavik81 8y ago
  There's room to develop a new API that's a lot better than WebGL. I just don't think we'll get the best result from a standards process driven by realpolitik.