www.xbdev.net
xbdev - software development
Thursday May 7, 2026
Home | Contact | Support | WebGPU Graphics and Compute ... | WebGPU 'Compute'.. Compute, Algorithms, and Code.....
     
 

WebGPU 'Compute'..

Compute, Algorithms, and Code.....

 


Color Mapping



Applying some simple color mapping and grading to an image in the compute shader.



Sepia tone effect (top left), grayscale color (top right), posterization (bottom left) and original image colors in bottom right.
Sepia tone effect (top left), grayscale color (top right), posterization (bottom left) and original image colors in bottom right.


Functions Used: requestAdapter(), getPreferredCanvasFormat(), createCommandEncoder(), beginRenderPass(), setPipeline(), draw(), end(), submit(), getCurrentTexture(), createView(), createShaderModule()

• Sepia Tone: Apply a sepia filter to give the image a warm, brownish tone.
• Grayscale Conversion: Convert the image to grayscale by averaging or using luminance formulas.
• Posterization: Reduce the number of colors in the image to create a poster-like effect.





Complete Code


<?php
let div = document.createElement('div');
document.body.appendChild( div );
div.style['font-size'] = '20pt';
function log( s )
{
  console.log( s );
  let args = [...arguments].join(' ');
  div.innerHTML += args + '<br><br>';
}

log('WebGPU Compute Example');

async function loadTexture(fileName = "https://webgpulab.xbdev.net/var/images/test512.png", 
                           width=512, height=512) {
  console.log('loading image:', fileName);
  // Load image 
  const img = document.createElement("img");
  img.src = fileName;

  await img.decode();

  const originalWidth = img.width;
  const originalHeight = img.height;

  const imageCanvas = document.createElement('canvas');
  imageCanvas.width = width;
  imageCanvas.height = height;
  const imageCanvasContext = imageCanvas.getContext('2d');

  // Draw the image onto the canvas, resizing it to the specified width and height
  imageCanvasContext.drawImage(img, 0, 0, width, height);

  const imageData = imageCanvasContext.getImageData(0, 0, width, height);
  const textureData = imageData.data;
  console.log('textureData.byteLength:', textureData.byteLength);

  const basicTexture = device.createTexture({
    size: [width, height, 1],
    format: "rgba8unorm",
    usage: GPUTextureUsage.COPY_DST | GPUTextureUsage.TEXTURE_BINDING
  });

  await device.queue.writeTexture(
    { texture: basicTexture },
    textureData,
    { bytesPerRow: width * 4 },
    [width, height, 1]
  );

  return { w: width, h: height, t: basicTexture };
}



if (!navigator.gpu) { log("WebGPU is not supported (or is it disabled? flags/settings)"); return; }

const adapter = await navigator.gpu.requestAdapter();
const device  = await adapter.requestDevice();

const imgWidth = 512;
const imgHeight = imgWidth;

// ----------------------------------------------------------

const texture0         = await loadTexture( 'https://webgpulab.xbdev.net/var/images/test512.png', imgWidth );
//const texture1         = await loadTexture( 'https://webgpulab.xbdev.net/var/images/avatar.png', imgWidth);

// ----------------------------------------------------------

// Basic canvas which will be used to display the output from the compute shader

let canvasa = document.createElement('canvas');
document.body.appendChild( canvasa ); canvasa.height = canvasa.width = imgWidth;
const context = canvasa.getContext('webgpu');
const presentationFormat = navigator.gpu.getPreferredCanvasFormat(); 
console.log('presentationFormat:', presentationFormat );

context.configure({ device: device, 
                    usage: GPUTextureUsage.RENDER_ATTACHMENT | GPUTextureUsage.COPY_SRC | GPUTextureUsage.COPY_DST,
                    format: "rgba8unorm" /*presentationFormat*/  });

let canvasTexture = context.getCurrentTexture();

// ----------------------------------------------------------

// Output texture - output from the compute shader written to this texture
// Copy this texutre to the 'canvas' - needs to be the same size as the output
// canvas size
const texture1 = device.createTexture({
  size: [imgWidth, imgHeight, 1],
  format: "rgba8unorm",
  usage: GPUTextureUsage.COPY_DST | GPUTextureUsage.COPY_SRC | GPUTextureUsage.TEXTURE_BINDING | GPUTextureUsage.STORAGE_BINDING
});

// ----------------------------------------------------------


const timerUniformBuffer = device.createBuffer({
  size: 4, 
  usage: GPUBufferUsage.UNIFORM | GPUBufferUsage.COPY_DST
});

const timestep  = new Float32Array( [0.0] );

device.queue.writeBuffer(timerUniformBuffer,   0, timestep             );


// ----------------------------------------------------------

const GCOMPUTE = GPUShaderStage.COMPUTE;

// Bind group layout and bind group
const bindGroupLayout = device.createBindGroupLayout({
  entries: [ {binding: 0, visibility: GCOMPUTE, texture: { sampleType: "float" }   }, 
             {binding: 1, visibility: GCOMPUTE, buffer:  { type: "uniform"     }   },
             {binding: 2, visibility: GCOMPUTE, storageTexture: {format:"rgba8unorm", access:"write-only", viewDimension:"2d"}   }
           ]
});

const bindGroup = device.createBindGroup({
    layout: bindGroupLayout,
    entries: [  {   binding: 0,  resource: texture0.t.createView()         },
                  {   binding: 1,  resource: { buffer: timerUniformBuffer  } },
                {   binding: 2,  resource: texture1.createView()           }
    ]
});


// Compute shader code
const computeShader = ` 
@group(0) @binding(0) var myTexture0:  texture_2d<f32>; // input texture image
@group(0) @binding(1) var<uniform>     mytimer   : f32; // timer increments each frame
@group(0) @binding(2) var myTexture1:  texture_storage_2d<rgba8unorm, write>; // output image


@compute @workgroup_size(8, 8)
fn main(@builtin(global_invocation_id) globalId      : vec3<u32>,
        @builtin(local_invocation_id)  localId       : vec3<u32>,
        @builtin(workgroup_id)         workgroupId   : vec3<u32>,
        @builtin(num_workgroups)       workgroupSize : vec3<u32>
        ) 
{
    var imgWidth  = f32( ${imgWidth}  ); 
    var imgHeight = f32( ${imgHeight} ); 

    var coords = vec2<f32>(f32(globalId.x), f32(globalId.y));
    var uv = coords / vec2<f32>(imgWidth, imgHeight); // normalize coordinates to 0.0 - 1.0 range

    // -------------------------------------------
    
    // Sepia Tone effect (top left corner)
    var sepiaColor = vec4<f32>(0.0);
    {
        var texCol0 = textureLoad(myTexture0, vec2<i32>(uv * vec2<f32>(imgWidth, imgHeight)), 0);
        var sepiaMatrix = mat3x3<f32>(
            vec3<f32>(0.393, 0.769, 0.189),
            vec3<f32>(0.349, 0.686, 0.168),
            vec3<f32>(0.272, 0.534, 0.131)
        );
        sepiaColor = vec4<f32>(sepiaMatrix * texCol0.rgb, texCol0.a);
    }

    // -------------------------------------------
    
    // Grayscale Conversion (top right corner)
    var grayscaleColor = vec4<f32>(0.0);
    {
        var texCol1 = textureLoad(myTexture0, vec2<i32>(uv * vec2<f32>(imgWidth, imgHeight)), 0);
        var grayscaleValue = dot(texCol1.rgb, vec3<f32>(0.2126, 0.7152, 0.0722));
        grayscaleColor = vec4<f32>(grayscaleValue, grayscaleValue, grayscaleValue, texCol1.a);
    }

    // -------------------------------------------

    // Posterization (bottom left corner)
    var posterizedColor = vec4<f32>(0.0);
    {
        var texCol2 = textureLoad(myTexture0, vec2<i32>(uv * vec2<f32>(imgWidth, imgHeight)), 0);
        var numColors = 4.0; // Change this value to adjust the number of colors
        posterizedColor = floor(texCol2 * numColors) / numColors;
    }

    // -------------------------------------------
    
    var finalColor = vec4<f32>(0);
    
    // 4 corners of the output image - each with a different effect
    if      ( uv.x < 0.5 && uv.y < 0.5 ) { finalColor = sepiaColor;       } // top left
    else if ( uv.x > 0.5 && uv.y < 0.5 ) { finalColor = grayscaleColor;   } // top right
    else if ( uv.x < 0.5 && uv.y > 0.5 ) { finalColor = posterizedColor;  } // bottom left
    else    { 
        finalColor = textureLoad(myTexture0, vec2<i32>(uv * vec2<f32>(imgWidth, imgHeight)), 0);
    } // bottom right - original image
    
    textureStore(myTexture1, vec2<i32>(globalId.xy), finalColor);
}
`;
  

// Pipeline setup
const computePipeline = device.createComputePipeline({
    layout :   device.createPipelineLayout({bindGroupLayouts: [bindGroupLayout]}),
    compute: { module    : device.createShaderModule({code:computeShader}),
               entryPoint: "main" }
});



// Commands submission
const commandEncoder = device.createCommandEncoder();
const passEncoder = commandEncoder.beginComputePass();
passEncoder.setPipeline(computePipeline);
passEncoder.setBindGroup(0, bindGroup);
passEncoder.dispatchWorkgroups( imgWidth/8, imgWidth/8 );
await passEncoder.end();


canvasTexture = context.getCurrentTexture();

await
commandEncoder.copyTextureToTexture( { texture: texture1 },
                                    { texture: canvasTexture },
                                    { width:imgWidth, height:imgHeight, depthOrArrayLayers:1} );

// Submit GPU commands.
const gpuCommands = commandEncoder.finish();
await device.queue.submit([gpuCommands]);

timestep[0] = timestep[0] + 0.01;
device.queue.writeBuffer(timerUniformBuffer,   0, timestep             );

frame();



Things to Try


• Try converting and mapping to other colors (instead of gray-scale - try green-scale)
• Experiment with the coefficients
• Animate the color effect (disco)




Resources and Links


• WebGPU Lab Demo [LINK]



WebGPU by Example: Fractals, Image Effects, Ray-Tracing, Procedural Geometry, 2D/3D, Particles, Simulations WebGPU Compute graphics and animations using the webgpu api 12 week course kenwright learn webgpu api kenwright programming compute and graphics applications with html5 and webgpu api kenwright real-time 3d graphics with webgpu kenwright webgpu api develompent a quick start guide kenwright webgpu by example 2022 kenwright webgpu gems kenwright webgpu interactive compute and graphics visualization cookbook kenwright wgsl webgpu shading language cookbook kenwright wgsl webgpugems shading language cookbook kenwright



 
Advert (Support Website)

 
 Visitor:
Copyright (c) 2002-2026 xbdev.net - All rights reserved.
Designated articles, tutorials and software are the property of their respective owners.