Google's Chrome Beta 94 announcement mentioned that Google is implementing new web standards that will improve browser-based gaming. WebCodecs, soon to be released, could make cloud gaming faster and easier. While the experimental WebGPU may make it easier for developers to use your computer's power for games that run in the browser, the WebCodecs will make it even easier.
WebCodecs API is designed to provide developers with better access to video decoding/encoding codecs. These codecs help to handle video streams. Although there are many ways to get video to play in Chrome they are not designed for cloud gaming. WebCodecs has been designed to minimize overhead. This makes it possible to display the incoming video stream as quickly as possible. It will perform better on slower computers (which is the type of computer where cloud gaming is most desired).
These technologies make it possible to do things more efficiently and effectively than ever before.
Web developers have better access to your computer's graphics power with the new WebGPU. It allows them to hook into your native graphics API (similar like Apples Metal, Microsofts DirectX 12, and Vulkan). It makes it easy for web developers talk to your graphics card using a language that it understands. It is a next-generation WebGL version that allows developers to use the (now fairly out of date OpenGL) framework. The tech will make it easier to create graphically intensive games in the browser and tap into the full power available from current-generation GPUs.
Both technologies are useful outside of gaming. Google stated that Zoom is interested in WebCodecs to facilitate videoconferencing. WebGPU could also be used to render 3D models within the browser and to speed up machine learning models. They would be able to show up in Chrome because they are all areas Google is involved in, including cloud gaming with Google Stadia and its own videoconferencing apps. These pieces of tech were developed by W3C and are being tested by other browser manufacturers.
WebCodecs will continue to be used by developers. Developers should also consider WebGPU.
WebCodecs and WebGPU won't be available for quite some time. WebCodecs is getting closer to release. It will be enabled by default in the upcoming Chrome 94. However, developers will still need to ensure that their apps can work with it. WebGPU is currently in an experimental phase. Google anticipates that it will be finished in the early 2022. It will be a feature or not depending on the outcome of the trial, the specification being completed, and the interest shown by enough people to use it.
These technologies aren't going to make impossible things possible, but they are still exciting. Developers are more likely to be able to access the internet if things are simpler or more flexible. Developers can save time on how to display frames on your screen, which is a time that gamers who want to play online via streaming or native games.
