wgpu

Pure Go WebGPU Implementation
No Rust, No CGO, Just Go.

_{Part of the GoGPU ecosystem}

Status: Active development. All 5 HAL backends ready (Vulkan, Metal, DX12, GLES, Software).

Vision

A complete WebGPU implementation in pure Go:

• No wgpu-native dependency — Standalone Go library
• Direct GPU access — Vulkan, Metal, DX12 backends
• WebGPU compliant — Following the W3C specification
• WASM compatible — Run in browsers via WebAssembly

Installation

go get github.com/gogpu/wgpu

Usage (Preview)

import (
    "github.com/gogpu/wgpu/core"
    "github.com/gogpu/wgpu/types"
)

// Create instance for GPU discovery
instance := core.NewInstance(&types.InstanceDescriptor{
    Backends: types.BackendsVulkan | types.BackendsMetal,
})

// Request high-performance GPU
adapterID, _ := instance.RequestAdapter(&types.RequestAdapterOptions{
    PowerPreference: types.PowerPreferenceHighPerformance,
})

// Get adapter info
info, _ := core.GetAdapterInfo(adapterID)
fmt.Printf("GPU: %s\n", info.Name)

// Create device
deviceID, _ := core.RequestDevice(adapterID, &types.DeviceDescriptor{
    Label: "My Device",
})

// Get queue for command submission
queueID, _ := core.GetDeviceQueue(deviceID)

Compute Shaders (Preview)

// Create compute pipeline
pipelineID, _ := core.DeviceCreateComputePipeline(deviceID, &core.ComputePipelineDescriptor{
    Label:  "My Compute Pipeline",
    Layout: layoutID,
    Compute: core.ProgrammableStage{
        Module:     shaderModuleID,
        EntryPoint: "main",
    },
})

// Begin compute pass
encoder, _ := core.DeviceCreateCommandEncoder(deviceID, nil)
computePass := encoder.BeginComputePass(nil)

// Dispatch workgroups
computePass.SetPipeline(pipelineID)
computePass.SetBindGroup(0, bindGroupID, nil)
computePass.Dispatch(64, 1, 1) // 64 workgroups
computePass.End()

Architecture

wgpu/
├── types/         # WebGPU type definitions ✓
├── core/          # Validation, state tracking ✓
├── hal/           # Hardware abstraction layer ✓
│   ├── noop/      # No-op backend (testing) ✓
│   ├── software/  # Software backend ✓ (Full rasterizer, ~10K LOC)
│   ├── gles/      # OpenGL ES backend ✓ (Pure Go, ~7500 LOC, Windows + Linux)
│   ├── vulkan/    # Vulkan backend ✓ (Pure Go, ~27K LOC)
│   │   ├── vk/        # Generated Vulkan bindings (~20K LOC)
│   │   └── memory/    # GPU memory allocator (~1.8K LOC)
│   ├── metal/     # Metal backend ✓ (Pure Go, ~3K LOC, macOS)
│   └── dx12/      # DirectX 12 backend ✓ (Pure Go, ~12K LOC, Windows)
└── cmd/
    ├── vk-gen/           # Vulkan bindings generator from vk.xml
    └── vulkan-triangle/  # Vulkan integration test (red triangle) ✓

Roadmap

See ROADMAP.md for detailed development milestones and version history.

Current Focus: Compute shader support across all backends.

Pure Go Approach

All backends implemented without CGO:

Software Backend

Full-featured CPU rasterizer for headless rendering:

# Build with software backend
go build -tags software ./...

import _ "github.com/gogpu/wgpu/hal/software"

// Use cases:
// - CI/CD testing without GPU
// - Server-side image generation
// - Embedded systems without GPU
// - Fallback when no GPU available
// - Reference implementation for testing

// Key feature: read rendered pixels
surface.GetFramebuffer() // Returns []byte (RGBA8)

Rasterization Pipeline (hal/software/raster/):

• Edge function (Pineda) triangle rasterization with top-left fill rule
• Perspective-correct attribute interpolation
• Depth buffer with 8 compare functions
• Stencil buffer with 8 operations
• 13 blend factors, 5 blend operations (WebGPU spec compliant)
• 6-plane frustum clipping (Sutherland-Hodgman)
• Backface culling (CW/CCW)
• 8x8 tile-based rasterization for cache locality
• Parallel rasterization with worker pool
• Incremental edge evaluation (O(1) per pixel)

Shader System (hal/software/shader/):

• Callback-based vertex/fragment shaders
• Built-in shaders: SolidColor, VertexColor, Textured
• Custom shader support via VertexShaderFunc / FragmentShaderFunc

Metrics: ~10K LOC, 100+ tests, 94% coverage

Vulkan Backend Features

• Auto-generated bindings from official Vulkan XML specification
• Memory allocator with buddy allocation (O(log n), minimal fragmentation)
• Vulkan 1.3 dynamic rendering — No render pass objects needed
• Swapchain management with automatic recreation
• Semaphore synchronization for frame presentation
• Complete HAL implementation:
  • Buffer, Texture, TextureView, Sampler
  • ShaderModule, BindGroupLayout, BindGroup
  • PipelineLayout, RenderPipeline, ComputePipeline
  • CommandEncoder, RenderPassEncoder, ComputePassEncoder
  • Fence synchronization, WriteTexture immediate upload
• Comprehensive unit tests (93 tests, 2200+ LOC):
  • Conversion functions (formats, usage, blend modes)
  • Descriptor allocator logic
  • Resource structures
  • Memory allocator (buddy allocation)

Metal Backend Features

• Pure Go Objective-C bridge via goffi
• Metal API access via Objective-C runtime
• Device and adapter enumeration
• Command buffer and render encoder
• Shader compilation (MSL via naga)
• Texture and buffer management
• Surface presentation (CAMetalLayer integration)
• ~3K lines of code

DirectX 12 Backend Features

• Pure Go COM bindings via syscall (no CGO!)
• D3D12 API access via COM interface vtables
• Intel GPU support (fixed COM calling convention)
• DXGI integration for swapchain and adapter enumeration
• Descriptor heap management (CBV/SRV/UAV, Sampler, RTV, DSV)
• Flip model swapchain with tearing support (VRR)
• Command list recording with resource barriers
• Root signature and PSO creation
• ~12K lines of code

Structure:

hal/dx12/
├── d3d12/      # D3D12 COM bindings (~4K LOC)
├── dxgi/       # DXGI bindings (~2K LOC)
├── instance.go # Backend, Instance, Surface
├── adapter.go  # Adapter enumeration
├── device.go   # Device, descriptor heaps
├── queue.go    # Command queue
├── surface.go  # Swapchain management
├── resource.go # Buffer, Texture, TextureView
├── command.go  # CommandEncoder, RenderPassEncoder
├── pipeline.go # RenderPipeline, ComputePipeline
└── convert.go  # Format conversion helpers

References

• wgpu (Rust) — Reference implementation
• WebGPU Specification
• Dawn (C++) — Google's implementation

Related Projects

Note: Always use the latest versions. Check each repository for current releases.

Contributing

We welcome contributions! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

License

MIT License — see LICENSE for details.

wgpu — WebGPU in Pure Go