webgpu-headers VS gpuweb

There's standardized C API which is both implemented by Dawn and wgpu.rs:

https://github.com/webgpu-native/webgpu-headers/blob/main/we...

...and this standardized API would also enable other independent native implementations.

There's even thought put into the API being extensible via 'struct chaining', this is how the native implementations also accept SPIRV shader bytecode instead of just WGSL shader source code.

The API definition exists:

https://github.com/webgpu-native/webgpu-headers/blob/main/we...

The next missing piece is a standard window system glue API for WASI though.

At first it was for only web, but browsers implement it using compiled code (C++/Rust) and you can use the implementation directly. Wgpu is for Firefox, Dawn is for Chrome. There is a C header for them: https://github.com/webgpu-native/webgpu-headers/blob/main/webgpu.h.

> Wgpu actually has C bindings to allow you to write C/C++ code with it, as well as use other languages that interface with C. That being said, wgpu is written in Rust, and it has some convenient Rust bindings that don't have to jump through any hoops. On top of that, I've been enjoying writing in Rust.

Why the bloat when this exist? https://github.com/webgpu-native/webgpu-headers

People keep spreading this incredibly misleading statement, and yours is even more misleading (suggesting Apple opposed a 'GPU WASM')

By all accounts, Apple's /only/ stance was that if WebGPU used SPIR-V it would be a non-starter for them, due to ongoing legal issues between Apple and Khronos.

Apple actually proposed WebHLSL in collaboration with Microsoft, to have HLSL be the standard.

Mozilla employee's stance[0] was that SPIRV was too low level, did not fit with the goals of WebGPU portability and security, and expressed concern that Khronos may add functionality to SPIRV they cannot support in WebGPU like raytracing instructions .. 'So we'd always be on the verge of forking SPIR-V in some way.'

It was also noted by many people that even if a bytecode format was used, it would still have to be translated to the target (HLSL/DXIL, MSL, etc.) in almost the same way a text format would.

Nobody proposed a 'GPU WASM equivalent' or an alternative bytecode format.

The hard truth is that shader compilation is a fucking nightmare, people do not realize how bad it is across the different native APIs. SPIR-V is good, but it doesn't solve that - and presents other challenges if you are a web browser API. Vulkan and SPIRV are not the golden goose many make them out to be.

[0] https://github.com/gpuweb/gpuweb/issues/847#issuecomment-642...

Yes it is still a bit new. WebGPU is not finished and is still being worked on: https://webgpu.io/

WebGPU currently doesn't support the "bindless" resource access model (see: https://github.com/gpuweb/gpuweb/issues/380).

The "max number of sampled texture per shader stage" is a runtime device limit, and the minimal value for that seems to be 16. So texture atlasses are still a thing in WebGPU.

There's even an implementation under discussion to have the dp4a instruction added to WebGPU (https://github.com/gpuweb/gpuweb/issues/2677)