Updated WebKit Adds Experimental WebCodecs AV1, dav1d Decoder

The open-source WebKit browser engine used by Apple's web browsers as well as relied upon by several other vendors and software solutions is out with a notable technology preview update.

With the updated WebKit engine used by Apple's Safari Technology Preview 161, there are several interesting updates particularly on the AV1 front. WebKit has now added experimental WebCodecs AV1 support. The software support for encoding relies upon libaom. This WebKit update has also changed AV1 decoding to now use the popular VLC-developed dav1d decoder rather than using the AOMedia's libaom decoder. The Apple developers note in their change to dav1d:

"dav1d decoder is more efficient than libaom decoder so it is best to use dav1d. dav1d is a library linked in WebCore so we create a dav1d webrtc decoder in WebCore and not libwebrtc. We integrate this decoder at WebKit level."

The WebKit update also adds experimental support for the AudioSession WebAPI, various rendering fixes, support for WebAssembly GC packed array types, enabling the unprefixed version of the Fullscreen API, support for "model src" and "source type" attributes, WebGL fixes, and various other changes.

Those curious about the happenings around the open-source WebKit browser engine can learn more at WebKit.org.