WebGPU on remote Linux and HPC

The scatter renderer requires WebGPU. This procedure uses Chrome. Firefox ESR builds commonly installed on clusters do not provide the required WebGPU support.

Use a secure browser origin

Chrome exposes WebGPU only in a secure context. http://localhost is trusted, but a direct URL such as http://compute-host:5055 is not.

Choose one access pattern:

• Local browser through SSH: forward the server port, then open http://localhost:5055 locally.

  ssh -L 5055:127.0.0.1:5055 user@compute-host

• Browser on a remote desktop: run Chrome on the remote system and open http://localhost:5055.

• Direct remote URL: put ndea behind an HTTPS reverse proxy.

Start ndea with --no-open when the browser runs elsewhere:

ndea view data.zarr --no-open

Enable WebGPU on Linux

First open chrome://settings/system and enable graphics acceleration. Then inspect chrome://gpu; WebGPU should report Hardware accelerated.

Chrome may still treat WebGPU on Linux as experimental. If chrome://gpu reports that WebGPU is unavailable:

1. enable chrome://flags/#enable-vulkan;
2. enable chrome://flags/#enable-unsafe-webgpu;
3. relaunch Chrome; and
4. inspect chrome://gpu again.

Chrome flags change between releases. Follow Chrome's WebGPU troubleshooting guide if either flag is absent.

Verify the adapter

Open the browser console and run:

if (!navigator.gpu) {
  console.error("WebGPU is unavailable. Check the browser version and page origin.");
} else {
  const adapter = await navigator.gpu.requestAdapter({ powerPreference: "high-performance" });
  console.log(adapter ? adapter.info : "No compatible GPU adapter");
}

Interpret the result:

• navigator.gpu is undefined: update the browser or open ndea through localhost or HTTPS.
• The adapter is null: check graphics acceleration, Vulkan access, Chrome's GPU blocklist, and chrome://gpu.
• WebGPU is software-only: update the GPU driver or correct device access before loading a large scatter.