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It is stated right there in the article that "GPU-Backed UI" is one of the alternative to the mainstream way of building app nowadays that are basically just we

It is stated right there in the article that "GPU-Backed UI" is one of the alternative to the mainstream way of building app nowadays that are basically just web page. Now people argue that web page are "GPU-Backed UI". I get the word might be misleading, but the article is talking about a specific way of building UI using the GPU, which does not include web page, so trying to fit the web into that category makes no sense. In some loose sense every UI is "GPU-Backed", so how do we name that specific way of building UI that the article is mentioning? They choose "GPU-Backed UI" which if anyone would have told me those words I would immediately know what they are talking about and I would've never included HTML/CSS in that category (even if in some broad loose sense of the words it does fit).

master-lincoln 4y ago
That's a good point. So up to which abstraction level would you consider "GPU-Backed UI" to be the right term? Looks like it doesn't end with low level APIs like OpenGL as the article also mentions e.g. the rust framework https://github.com/emilk/egui https://github.com/emilk/egui Where to draw the line?
- starburst 4y ago
  Drawing a line is always hard (when did in our evolution we become sentient?), but HTML / CSS is probably the furthest you can be from that line in modern UI tooling. As long as the UI or it's underlying engine was built with GPU in mind and not as an after-thought to accelerate it, it can be safe to say it probably fit the "GPU-Backed UI" definition. If you can easily attach a Shader (https://github.com/emilk/egui/blob/master/examples/custom_3d_glow/src/main.rs https://github.com/emilk/egui/blob/master/examples/custom_3d...), it is also a dead giveaway that it is a "GPU-Backed UI". WebGL is different from HTML / CSS. You could have a "GPU-Backed UI" running in WebGL.

master-lincoln 4y ago

That's a good point. So up to which abstraction level would you consider "GPU-Backed UI" to be the right term? Looks like it doesn't end with low level APIs like OpenGL as the article also mentions e.g. the rust framework https://github.com/emilk/egui https://github.com/emilk/egui Where to draw the line?

starburst 4y ago
Drawing a line is always hard (when did in our evolution we become sentient?), but HTML / CSS is probably the furthest you can be from that line in modern UI tooling. As long as the UI or it's underlying engine was built with GPU in mind and not as an after-thought to accelerate it, it can be safe to say it probably fit the "GPU-Backed UI" definition. If you can easily attach a Shader (https://github.com/emilk/egui/blob/master/examples/custom_3d_glow/src/main.rs https://github.com/emilk/egui/blob/master/examples/custom_3d...), it is also a dead giveaway that it is a "GPU-Backed UI". WebGL is different from HTML / CSS. You could have a "GPU-Backed UI" running in WebGL.