Comment by flohofwoe
8 days ago
...that's assuming that the WebGPU API is set in stone, which hopefully it isn't.
They'd do well to follow the D3D model (major breaking versions, while guaranteeing backward compatibility for older versions) - e.g. WebGPU2, WebGPU3, WebGPU4 each being a mostly new API without having to compromise for backward compatibility.
WebGPU had more features and capabilites back in 2020 before they started removing and limiting them. Forgive my lack of enthusiasm and optimism for the future prospects of an API that was already ancient when development started, and even less capable by the time it was released.
> WebGPU had more features and capabilites back in 2020 before they started removing and limiting them
I think that's the price to pay for trying to cover a wide range of hardware. You can't just make all those shitty Android phones disappear. At least for each WebGPU limit, there's usually a Github ticket which explains why exactly this limit exists.
Yeah, unfortunately I'm in real-time rendering research so I like to play with fairly modern desktop GPUs. The no-phone-left-behind policy made WebGPU a somewhat unattractive target for me. Which is unfortunate because during the early days it felt like we'd get a cutting-edge modern API for the browser and I was excited and ready to abandon OpenGL for WebGPU. Instead, I ended up switching to CUDA which I avoided for years due to platform dependency. But once I noticed how pleasant it is to work with I could not go back to graphics APIs. I really like the "easy things should be easy, complex things should be possible" design of Cuda.