Hey Corentin, For those of us who are not in the WebGPU head-space all day, is it fair to summarize this feature as improving memory use and compression fidelity for certain GPU image formats?
Best, Alex On Friday, September 18, 2026 at 9:43:05 AM UTC-7 Chromestatus wrote: > *Contact emails* > [email protected] > > *Explainer* > > https://gpuweb.github.io/gpuweb/#dom-gpufeaturename-texture-compression-unaligned > > *Specification* > > https://gpuweb.github.io/gpuweb/#dom-gpufeaturename-texture-compression-unaligned > > > *Summary* > Compressed texture (using the BC, ETC or ASTC formats) in unextended > WebGPU must have a size that's a multiple of the block size (4x4 or up to > 12x12). This is very constraining when compressing arbitrary images as a > resizing step must happen which looses high-frequency information. Most > hardware supports compressed textures with partial blocks at the border > such that the textures can have any size, removing this issue. > > *Blink component* > Blink>WebGPU > <https://issues.chromium.org/issues?q=customfield1222907:%22Blink%3EWebGPU%22> > > *Web Feature ID* > webgpu <https://webstatus.dev/features/webgpu> > > *Motivation* > Compressed texture (using the BC, ETC or ASTC formats) in unextended > WebGPU must have a size that's a multiple of the block size (4x4 or up to > 12x12). This is very constraining when compressing arbitrary images as a > resizing step must happen which looses high-frequency information. Most > hardware supports compressed textures with partial blocks at the border > such that the textures can have any size, removing this issue. > > *Initial public proposal* > https://github.com/gpuweb/gpuweb/issues/2006 > > *TAG review* > *No information provided* > > *TAG review status* > Not applicable > > *Goals for experimentation* > None > > *Risks* > > > *Interoperability and Compatibility* > This feature has been approved in W3C GPU for the Web WG meetings > including participants from Safari and Firefox. > > *Gecko*: No signal (https://github.com/gpuweb/gpuweb/pull/6312) > Implementation > is ongoing https://github.com/gfx-rs/wgpu/pull/10247 Feedback indicated > via WebGPU standardization process. > > *WebKit*: Positive (https://github.com/gpuweb/gpuweb/pull/6312) Specification > approval constitutes a positive signal, per > https://github.com/WebKit/standards-positions/issues/294#issuecomment-1877411933 > > *Web developers*: Positive ( > https://github.com/gpuweb/gpuweb/issues/2006#issuecomment-2910632703) Bevy, > Unity, Spark.js positive about this feature. > > *Other signals*: > > *WebView application risks* > > Does this intent deprecate or change behavior of existing APIs, such that > it has potentially high risk for Android WebView-based applications? > *No information provided* > > > *Debuggability* > *No information provided* > > *Will this feature be supported on all six Blink platforms (Windows, Mac, > Linux, ChromeOS, Android, and Android WebView)?* > Yes > All platforms have support, where hardware support is available. > > *Is this feature fully tested by web-platform-tests > <https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/main/docs/testing/web_platform_tests.md>?* > Yes > WebGPU/WGSL have a conformance test suite (https://github.com/gpuweb/cts) > that is regularly pulled into Chromium and part of the testing of Dawn/Tint > in Chromium. While the CTS can be embedded in WPT, the WebGPU team opted to > keep it separate in Chromium testing to use a customized harness for > robustness and performance. > > *Flag name on about://flags* > *No information provided* > > *Finch feature name* > WebGPUEnabledEnabledToggles > > *Rollout plan* > Will ship enabled for all users > > *Requires code in //chrome?* > False > > *Tracking bug* > https://crbug.com/528245806 > > *Estimated milestones* > > No milestones specified > > > *Anticipated spec changes* > > Open questions about a feature may be a source of future web compat or > interop issues. Please list open issues (e.g. links to known github issues > in the project for the feature specification) whose resolution may > introduce web compat/interop risk (e.g., changing to naming or structure of > the API in a non-backward-compatible way). > *No information provided* > > *Link to entry on the Chrome Platform Status* > https://chromestatus.com/feature/5080544005193728?gate=6068538249969664 > > This intent message was generated by Chrome Platform Status > <https://chromestatus.com>. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "blink-dev" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msgid/blink-dev/29782e31-6446-42e8-ac4b-7b4bf39e77b6n%40chromium.org.
