Scott and CJ sit down live at JSNation NYC with Iwo Plaza, creator of TypeGPU, to dig into how WebGPU is unlocking a new wave of graphics and compute power on the web. They chat about shader authoring in TypeScript, the future of GPU-powered AI in the browser, and what it takes to build a killer developer-friendly graphics library.
Show Notes
00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
00:32 What is TypeGPU? High-level overview and why it exists
01:20 WebGPU vs WebGL – the new era of GPU access on the web
01:47 Why shader languages are hard + making them accessible
02:24 Iwo’s background in C++, OpenGL, and discovering JS
03:06 Sharing graphics work on the web vs native platforms
03:29 WebGPU frustrations that inspired TypeGPU
04:17 Making GPU–CPU data exchange easier with Zod-like schemas
05:01 Writing shaders in JavaScript + the unified type system
05:38 How the “use_gpu” directive works under the hood
06:05 Building a compiler that turns TypeScript into shader code
07:00 Type inference, primitives, structs, and TypeScript magic
08:21 Leveraging existing tooling via Unplugin + bundler integration
09:15 How TypeGPU extracts ASTs and generates TinyEST metadata
10:10 Runtime shader generation vs build-time macros
11:07 How the AST is traversed + maintaining transparency in output
11:43 Example projects like Jelly Shader and community reception
12:05 Brought to you by Sentry.io
12:30 Does TypeGPU replace 3JS? How it fits the existing ecosystem
13:20 Low-level control vs high-level abstractions
14:04 Upcoming Three.js integration – plugging TypeGPU into materials compute shaders
15:34 Making GPU development more approachable
16:26 Docs, examples, and the philosophy behind TypeGPU documentation
17:03 Building features by building examples first
18:13 Using examples as a test suite + how docs shape API design
19:00 Docs as a forcing function for intuitive APIs
20:21 GPU for AI – browser inference and future abstractions
21:11 How AI examples inform new libraries (noise, inference, etc.)
21:57 Keeping the core package small and flexible
22:44 Building “TypeGPU AI”-style extensions without bloating the core
23:07 The cost of AI examples and building everything from scratch
23:41 Standard library design and future of the ecosystem
24:04 Closing thoughts from Iwo – OSS, GPU renaissance, and encouragement
24:34 Sick Picks & Shameless Plugs
Sick Picks
Iwo: Perogies
Shameless Plugs
Iwo: Syntax Podcast
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