Burst for WebGL

[Carpet_Head]

we do a lot of heavy calculations in our app through burst, and so webgl is nearly 10x slower than a desktop platform, leading to sometimes minutes-long load times. It’s the only thing stopping us deploying from web - which is a great platform for reach and virality

[Miro_Brodlova]

Happy to help and converse

And thanks all of you for sharing how you’re using Burst and what is meaningful to you and your projects.

It helps us understand they ways Burst is helpful/see areas where more support is desired, and that becomes part of our discussions internally.

[zhuchun]

@Miro_Brodlova

Happy to help and converse

And thanks all of you for sharing how you’re using Burst and what is meaningful to you and your projects.

It helps us understand they ways Burst is helpful/see areas where more support is desired, and that becomes part of our discussions internally.

It would be perfect for Unity to support its technology on all the platforms it supports, as devs may work on different platforms. Using the same technology stack can help studios cut costs effectively

[slava_pankratov]

DOTS has no future without webgl support

[De-Panther]

@Miro_Brodlova

Happy to help and converse

And thanks all of you for sharing how you’re using Burst and what is meaningful to you and your projects.

It helps us understand they ways Burst is helpful/see areas where more support is desired, and that becomes part of our discussions internally.

I’m working on WebXR package, lots of data(poses, matrices…) is being copy from JS to Unity.
I guess using NativeArray and informing the compiler how it is being use would improve runtime performance.

Also using glTFast to load controllers models based on device on runtime. glTFast already uses Burst, so I guess it’ll be just like turning the “make fast” switch for it.

[silveryw]

Perhaps we could provide some APIs for Burst, allowing users to generate bytecode for other platforms themselves, such as wasm.

[AdamandEveStudios]

@axmsw

I can understand that for WebGL, but what about “the web” as a platform and the coming (or already here) WebGPU API. Technically I understand Burst is part of the WASM roadmap and WASM now supports threads on the major browsers, so it seems there is not much left but Unity to decide whether it wants to move forward. The capabilities are there.

If you are saying there are no plans for Burst on the web platform, it seems to mean there are no plans for ECS/DOTS on the web platform. Or are you just saying you consider WebGL legacy (due to lack compute shaders), and the focus is on WebGPU?

Can you confirm Unity has no firm plans to support DOTS/ECS on the web platform - WebGL or WebGPU - if there are no plans to support Burst on either? That would be quite a big deal.

Thanks!

This is probably many months / years away from being a reality, but I agree that Unity supporting Burst / DOTS with new Unity 6 multi threading / webGPU would be very awesome

@Miro_Brodlova

Happy to help and converse

And thanks all of you for sharing how you’re using Burst and what is meaningful to you and your projects.

It helps us understand they ways Burst is helpful/see areas where more support is desired, and that becomes part of our discussions internally.

I know unity web team has a lot on plate right now with new 6 update / WebGPU, but implementing Burst with the new multi threading features would solve so many problems for web games.

[axmsw]

Still nothing on the latest DOTS roadmap: Official - DOTS development status and next milestones - May 2024 - Unity Forum

[andyz]

@De-Panther

I’m working on WebXR package, lots of data(poses, matrices…) is being copy from JS to Unity.
I guess using NativeArray and informing the compiler how it is being use would improve runtime performance.

Also using glTFast to load controllers models based on device on runtime. glTFast already uses Burst, so I guess it’ll be just like turning the “make fast” switch for it.

I am also using glTFast on webgl. Maybe they need a glTSlow version?!
But seriously will it run as well as a non-Burst/DOTs version or it could end up slower because of the focus on that for speed?

[unity_7F80551CE38EE3FF1E82]

The web has the strongest performance constraints and therefore needs DOTS more than all other platforms.

DOTS support (Burst, multithreading) will be the game changer for the entire web game industry. It absolutely needs to be prioritized.

We can wait for another year. We just need to know Unity didn’t abandon us.

[sacb0y]

Apparently it’s being worked on but has challenges.

Early access to the new WebGPU backend in Unity 2023.3

Burst is a CPU platform bult on C#, it doesn’t directly relate to WebGPU (other than they are both features of Unity). I don’t think Burst can be implemented without C# multithreading support, which Unity currently can’t do because of WASM limitations with multithreaded garbage collection. I do know there is active research going on for trying to figure it out. I do appreciate how important multithreaded C#, and Burst, will be.