v142 · graphics

WebGPU: Texture formats tier1 and tier2

Extend GPU texture format support with capabilities like render attachment, blending, multisampling, resolve and storage_binding.

concepts

  1. Format Tiers

    Tab through base / tier1 / tier2 to see which texture-format capabilities you unlock, and probe the real adapter to see what your GPU supports.

  2. HDR Gradient: float16 vs 8-bit

    The motivating workload for tier1: HDR. Side-by-side gradients show banding in 8-bit vs smooth float16, plus live adapter probes for the two tiers.

  3. Render-target Matrix

    The whole format × capability table — render attachment, blend, multisample, resolve, storage binding — colour-coded by tier. Plus four real-world workload cards (HDR tonemap, light-grid binning, sprite atlas, MSAA AO) tagged with the minimum tier needed. Live probe of your adapter.

  4. Format Bandwidth Calculator

    Pick a texture format (Tier 1 or Tier 2), set width and height via power-of-2 sliders, and see bits per texel, base-level size, total mip chain size, bytes-per-row (256-aligned), and 60 fps read bandwidth. A "Probe GPU support" button tests every format with device.createTexture() and marks each as supported or unsupported on your adapter.

why it shipped

Tier1 lets developers port existing content to the web without rewriting to use WebGPU’s lower capabilities. Tier2 supports storage textures formats that don't have support in base WebGPU, meet the need for Unity and various startups to port Unreal Engine to the Web. Tier1 is a dependency of Tier2.

references