OpenGL vs WebGL in Android

[in...@72lions.com]

Hi everyone,

I wanted to ask you why when we have OpenGL games in mobiles (e.x. Nexus 4) that play in 60fps, which I guess the hardware supports it, we can't have the same game with WebGL with the same performance in Chrome for Android.

What gets in the way? Is it realistic to expect the same performance?

Thank you

[Sami Kyostila]

In principle there's nothing that prevents a WebGL game from achieving 60 fps on Android. However, Chrome does add some overhead compared to a native Android app, so you won't have as much headroom. Of course, we're working to make this overhead as small as possible.

For instance, currently on Android the browser compositor performs a second composition pass in addition to the renderer, which will reduce the available fill rate from WebGL's point of view. You can try the work-in-progress "Delegated Renderer" feature in about://flags which is designed to avoid this.

- Sami

[in...@72lions.com]

Thank you for the explanation