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Show HN: a Rust ray tracer that runs on any GPU – even in the browser

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Re: Show HN: a Rust ray tracer that runs on any GPU – even in the browser

#21

Post by almostgotcaught »

skrrtww wrote: post #13

In Safari 26 on an M1 with WebGPU enabled I get "InvalidStateError: GPUCommandEncoder.beginComputePass: Unable to begin compute pass." In Chrome I get "Failed to start: Failed to create State. Caused by: failed to find GPU adapter." So I guess it runs on "some" GPUs, in "some" browsers!

works for me just fine on 26; i get

```

live_raytracer-bffaca82311af1dd.js:1484 Uncaught Error: Using exceptions for control flow, don't mind me. This isn't actually an error! at imports.wbg.__wbg_wbindgenthrow_451ec1a8469d7eb6 (

```

but everything else is fine

Re: Show HN: a Rust ray tracer that runs on any GPU – even in the browser

#23

Post by iknowstuff »

skrrtww wrote: post #13

In Safari 26 on an M1 with WebGPU enabled I get "InvalidStateError: GPUCommandEncoder.beginComputePass: Unable to begin compute pass." In Chrome I get "Failed to start: Failed to create State. Caused by: failed to find GPU adapter." So I guess it runs on "some" GPUs, in "some" browsers!

Works fine on M4. M1 didn't have mesh shaders, maybe that's why?

Re: Show HN: a Rust ray tracer that runs on any GPU – even in the browser

#24

Post by pnm45678 »

skrrtww wrote: post #13

In Safari 26 on an M1 with WebGPU enabled I get "InvalidStateError: GPUCommandEncoder.beginComputePass: Unable to begin compute pass." In Chrome I get "Failed to start: Failed to create State. Caused by: failed to find GPU adapter." So I guess it runs on "some" GPUs, in "some" browsers!

And on M5 Safari 26, jacking the samples/pixel setting up high seems to trigger a system reboot, which is most curious

Re: Show HN: a Rust ray tracer that runs on any GPU – even in the browser

#25

Post by yunnpp »

What feedback are you looking for here specifically?

I cannot run the demo on Firefox, but you might get better performance with an 8x4 thread group.

Also, mega-kernels of this sort are generally bad for occupancy. Wavefront path tracing improves this at the expense of additional IO and a more involved implementation. https://research.nvidia.com/publication/2013-07_megakernels-...

Overall your code looks easy to read. Too bad I couldn't run it.

Re: Show HN: a Rust ray tracer that runs on any GPU – even in the browser

#26

Post by yunnpp »

CyberDildonics wrote: post #14

runs on any GPU – even in the browser Seems pretty clickbaity and dishonest when that's just what webgl and webgpu means. Just say webgpu. Also the roughness doesn't apply to the environment map.

I think you're getting lost in the weeds there. I do not see malice in the claim.

The irony is that it does not actually run on my GPU, nor much of other people's, judging by the comments. I don't know where people get this idea that WASM and WebGPU are the holy grail of portability; they are the opposite and the whole ecosystem is a fucking disaster. No offense to OP, though; I can understand the temptation to target that platform.

Anyway, I left more positive feedback in another comment.

Re: Show HN: a Rust ray tracer that runs on any GPU – even in the browser

#27

Post by outworlder »

nogridbag wrote: post #15
knowhistory wrote: post #6

https://www.jsweet.org/examples/#Ray_tracer Written in Java then transpiled to JavaScript, been around for years.

The OP is real time ray tracing which is running between 30-60FPS on my macbook air while moving the camera and objects around. Your link appears to be a basic ray tracer which anyone who has taken an intro to computer graphics course in college is likely required to implement and would only need a javascript canvas. To be honest I have no idea how much OPs real-time ray tracing differs in complexity from traditional…

You don't even need a canvas.

You could simulate pixels with divs if that's all you had. Or you could create an image in memory and save to file. You could write the text for it and save as SVG.

For a CPU based ray tracer, you don't need any output capability at all(unless you want it to be interactive, which school assignment raytracers usually don't have to).

Re: Show HN: a Rust ray tracer that runs on any GPU – even in the browser

#28

Post by CyberDildonics »

yunnpp wrote: post #26
CyberDildonics wrote: post #14

runs on any GPU – even in the browser Seems pretty clickbaity and dishonest when that's just what webgl and webgpu means. Just say webgpu. Also the roughness doesn't apply to the environment map.

I think you're getting lost in the weeds there. I do not see malice in the claim. The irony is that it does not actually run on my GPU, nor much of other people's, judging by the comments. I don't know where people get this idea that WASM and WebGPU are the holy grail of portability; they are the opposite and the whole ecosystem is a fucking disaster. No offense to OP, though; I can understand the temptation to targe…

Are you sure you aren't the one "lost in the weeds there"? What you're talking about has nothing to do with anything, it's a matter of software updates.

Re: Show HN: a Rust ray tracer that runs on any GPU – even in the browser

#29

Post by yunnpp »

CyberDildonics wrote: post #28
yunnpp wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're getting lost in the weeds there. I do not see malice in the claim. The irony is that it does not actually run on my GPU, nor much of other people's, judging by the comments. I don't know where people get this idea that WASM and WebGPU are the holy grail of portability; they are the opposite and the whole ecosystem is a fucking disaster. No offense to OP, though; I can understand the temptation to targe…

Are you sure you aren't the one "lost in the weeds there"? What you're talking about has nothing to do with anything, it's a matter of software updates.

Do you have a technical background?

WASM offers a false sense of portability only because it is basically useless. It's not even POSIX-compliant (WASIX is a WIP). By the time it becomes useful, they will have realized they have re-implemented Java. And even then, it'll only offer a half-assed subset of functionality that you'd get from going native.

WebGPU is a similar story. It's based on a decades-old API, lagging severely behind present-day Vulkan. And it's not even well-supported across browsers. Again, you'll get better portability and more functionality from just going native.

To suggest that all of this is a "sofware update" away seems very naive. The kind of thing somebody without a technical background would suggest.

Re: Show HN: a Rust ray tracer that runs on any GPU – even in the browser

#30

Post by CyberDildonics »

yunnpp wrote: post #29
CyberDildonics wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure you aren't the one "lost in the weeds there"? What you're talking about has nothing to do with anything, it's a matter of software updates.

Do you have a technical background? WASM offers a false sense of portability only because it is basically useless. It's not even POSIX-compliant (WASIX is a WIP). By the time it becomes useful, they will have realized they have re-implemented Java. And even then, it'll only offer a half-assed subset of functionality that you'd get from going native. WebGPU is a similar story. It's based on a decades-old API, lagging…

Do you have a technical background?

Do you?

WASM offers a false sense of portability only because it is basically useless.

That doesn't have much to do with this project or what I talked about. It is a bytecode meant to be JIT compiled. It has nothing to do directly with supporting an API, and none of this has anything to do with running on the GPU.

lagging severely behind present-day Vulkan.

So what? What does this have to do with anything? What point are you trying to make?

And it's not even well-supported across browsers.

It's new and already works in chrome. What is your point?

To suggest that all of this is a "sofware update" away seems very naive. The kind of thing somebody without a technical background would suggest.

There is no substance here, just you saying "nu uh".

My recommendation, as someone with a technical background, is that you try it with chrome. It's easy to install, just search for install chrome then download the executable, then double click.

I think you misunderstood everything that I was saying though, your reply doesn't seem to connect to the idea that using an API then making the benefits of the API the unique aspect of the software is a bad idea.

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