Few days ago Google announced the availability of the beta version of Chrome 94. This new version adds new functions to the browser and also brings some improvements, among which WebCodecs API is marked for completion as part of its original trial and is therefore now officially available.
WebGPU is entering the initial testing phase of Chrome 94. WebGPU is part of the Chrome 94 beta and Chrome developers They intend to reach all users in the stable version of Chrome 99.
The existing media APIs are high-level and highly focused, so a low-level codec API would better support emerging applications, such as latency-sensitive game streaming, client-side effects, or transcoding, and support for media containers.
La WebCodecs API fill these gaps by provide a way to use the multimedia components already present in the browser.
While WebGPU API is the successor to the WebGL and WebGL2 graphics APIs for the Web and offers modern features like "GPU computing"as well as cheaper access to GPU hardware and better, more predictable performance.
This is an improvement over existing WebGL interfaces, which were designed for drawing images, but could only be adapted to other types of calculations with considerable effort. WebGPU exposes modern graphics capabilities, including Direct3D 12, Metal, and Vulkan, to perform render and render operations on a GPU. This feature was originally tested on Chrome 94, with the expectation that it will ship on Chrome 99.
According to Google, it is difficult to create web applications that respond to user interactions and remain responsive over time. Scripts are one of the main culprits loss of responsiveness.
“Take the example of a» find as you type «function: an application with this function should follow user input as it retrieves and displays the results. It does not take into account anything that happens on the page, such as animations, which must be processed without problems, ”said the company.
Google estimates that the Scheduler.postTask () method solves these scheduling dilemmas by allowing developers to schedule tasks (JavaScript callbacks) with an operating system browser scheduler with three priority levels: user lock, user visible, and background (user lock, visible user and background). It also exposes a TaskController interface, which can dynamically cancel tasks and change their priority. This feature completed its initial testing in Chrome 93 and is now available by default in Chrome.
In addition to the above items, this version of Chrome introduces a new HTTP status code: 103 Initial tips to preload the sub-resources first. When a 103 response includes or other link headers, Chromium attempts to preload (and / or pre-connect, preload) the specified resources before receiving the final response. According to Google, this gives web developers a way to optimize apps, sites, and pages.
Another novelty is the interface of VirtualKeyboard that has methods and properties to control showing or hiding a virtual keyboard. It also triggers events with the size of the virtual keyboard when page content darkens. The virtual keyboard is the on-screen keyboard that is used for input in scenarios where a hardware keyboard may not be available.
Unlike a hardware keyboard, a virtual keyboard can adapt its shape to optimize it according to the expected input. Developers have control over the displayed form of the virtual keyboard through the input mode attribute, but have limited control over when the virtual keyboard is shown or hidden.
Also sub-resource requests from the private network have been restricted to secure contexts. Private Network Access offers a set of changes intended to limit the impact of requests made to these servers, ensuring that the servers accept any communication with external entities. For this participation to be meaningful, servers must be able to guarantee that the client's origin is authenticated. For this purpose, only secure contexts are authorized to make external requests.
Source: https://blog.chromium.org