Hey Alex, Correct! It would improve the compression fidelity of these formats (so only the loss from the format is there, not the loss from resizing), which will allow uses in more places, resulting in GPU memory gains. (most commonly 4x, up to 16x).
Cheers, Corentin On Mon, Sep 21, 2026 at 8:48 PM Alex Russell <[email protected]> wrote: > 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/CAGdfWNNnCVe5QWrHFrsjbUjcyYFiR5ZbhqB38bj27RCm4k_wZA%40mail.gmail.com.
