Google is giving gamers a boost with plans to include WebGPU in version 113 of its Chrome web browser.
WebGPU is a new API that exposes more of a computer’s hardware to a web application, providing better performance for web-based games. Google outlined the advancement in a blog post:
WebGPU is a new API for the web, which exposes modern hardware capabilities and allows rendering and computation operations on a GPU, similar to Direct3D 12, Metal, and Vulkan. Unlike the WebGL family of APIs, WebGPU offers access to more advanced GPU features and provides first-class support for general computations on the GPU. The API is designed with the web platform in mind, featuring an idiomatic JavaScript API, integration with promises, support for importing videos, and a polished developer experience with great error messages.
The new feature is in Chrome 113, which is already in beta, but will also make its way to Firefox and Safari:
This initial release of WebGPU is available in Chrome 113 on ChromeOS devices with Vulkan support, Windows devices with Direct3D 12 support, and macOS. Linux, Android, and expanded support for existing platforms will come soon.
WebGPU is currently a work-in-progress in Firefox and Safari, in addition to the initial implementation in Chrome.
