astlouis44

I'm actually the COO! The CEO is my co-founder, who has also commented on this thread.

About time. Can't wait to see this roll out worldwide!

With users able to access bleeding edge browser technologies like WASM and WebGPU, developers and users will finally get an alternative to native apps.

They won't need apps, just use the browser. Sure you won't get native level features, but at least users can still access the web-app versions. Something is better than nothing.

My team has been developing out Unreal Engine 5 support for WebGPU, for anyone interested.

My team has built out a WebGPU backend for Unreal Engine 5, for anyone interested!

My startup has been working on WebGPU support for Unreal Engine 5 for the past several years, and we've already achieved multiple demos that will be going live relatively soon.

Agreed, it'll open up a whole new distribution channel for mobile games outside of the app stores, which is really exciting for developers!

Great points. JMS55, are you interested in contributing to UE5 WebGPU? My team and I have been working on this for the past several years, and would welcome some help.

If you're ever looking to join a team to advance Unreal Engine 5 and graphics in the browser, please reach out. We're tackling Nanite and Lumen in the browser, and contributing to the WebGPU spec in collaboration with Google.

You can reach me on Discord - my username is astlouis44

I'm also on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-st-louis-3986a5102/

My startup is building a platform exactly for this - to enable developers to make their native games to be browser-compatible utilizing WebAssembly and WebGPU.

It also gets more interesting when you consider that the world is increasingly moving to ARM. Take Qualcomm's new ARM chips for example; they're competitive with Apple Silicon already. WASM/WebGPU represents a straightforward way to convert x86 games to run on these new chips.

Below is a blog post about our platform-as-a-service and tools, and our current development focus to support Unreal Engine 5 in WebGPU/WASM:

https://theimmersiveweb.com/blog

Anyone else excited for what WebGPU will enable for next generation browser games and real-time 3D web applications?

Safari on MacOS?

It will loading eventually if you're on desktop. You can also press F12, then select the console tab to see the game data downloading.

Also if it's of interest, our team building a whole platform-as-a-service around WASM/WebGL/WebGPU to enable game developers to distribute their games and 3D applications directly users online, in the browser. Here's a blog post from last year that we did, which contains links to several more demos:

https://theimmersiveweb.com/blog

Thank you! And yes it is possible to use a PS5 controller (or any controller, for that matter) as the browser will automatically detect it, and use the HTML5 Gamepad API.

My team is bringing Unreal Engine 5 to WebGPU, to enable next generation browser games and 3D web applications.

Mind blowing stuff.

Firefox doesn't support WebGPU yet.

Try these out, they're made in Unreal and compiled to WASM.

Note that the second link (space game) will take a bit longer to load, as there's no loading screen.

https://vehiclegame.tiwsamples.com/

https://play.spacelancers.com/

The way for Epic and other developers (especially game developers) to bypass the app store walled gardens and associated distribution tax is to go through the open web instead, delivering their software directly to consumers. Leveraging new bleeding edge browser technologies such as WebGPU and WebAssembly, it's going to be possible to distribute games and applications online that can run at near native performance as webapps. These webapps can then be pinned to the homescreen for an even more authentic app-like experience.

Yes, WebGPU isn't available on Safari yet, but when it is it will be a paradigm shift ushering in a new era of distribution of software, one where you don't have to go through the platform owner's store as the only option available to you.

Asset delivery is one of the key aspects, no doubt. Keep in mind that today, browsers support up to 4GB at the moment - but that is a limitation that won't be an issue eventually, and when it's lifted it will allow whatever local storage the user's client hardware has to be leveraged. This would enable AA and AAA desktop/console games on the web.

Any game/3D developers here be interested in WebGPU/WebAssembly support for Unreal Engine 5? Along with an asynchronous asset loading system, for dynamic fetching of assets at runtime.

M00x, you mentioned you know folks at Epic that are working on WebGPU. Do you mind sharing who they are? Because last time our team spoke with Epic, they mentioned they are not working on this (our company is a startup from Canada building tools and a platform-as-a-service to enable developers to bring their games to the web, and a large focus of our work has been building out a WebGPU backend and integration for Unreal Engine 5).

Do you have proof?

WebGPU + WebAssembly is an alternative way around walled gardens, which would enable Epic to distribute Fortnite to iOS users via a client side web-app, enabling them to bypass Apple entirely.

This is going to be a game changer for web games (pun intended)

WebGPU is going to be a major component in this. Modern GPU's prevalent in mobile devices, desktops and laptops, is more than enough to do all of this client side.

WebGPU support?

Minecraft already runs in a browser.

https://classic.minecraft.net/

Excited for eventual WebGPU support for Godot!

Amazing, about time!