Chrome Native Client and PNaCl removed AI-researched
Dependency: Google Native Client (NaCl) and Portable Native Client (PNaCl) Wikipedia
Chrome removed support for Native Client (NaCl) and Portable Native Client (PNaCl) in 2020, ending the ability to run compiled C/C++ code as browser-embedded art.
Google Native Client (NaCl), launched in 2011, allowed compiled C and C++ code to run inside the Chrome browser at near-native speed. Portable Native Client (PNaCl) extended this with architecture-independent binaries. Artists and creative coders used NaCl/PNaCl to bring computationally intensive work — real-time 3D, audio synthesis, physics simulations — into the browser without plugin dependencies.
What changed
Google began deprecating PNaCl in 2017, directing developers toward WebAssembly instead. Support was removed from Chrome in mid-2020 (Chrome 76+ for new apps, with remaining support stripped by Chrome 83-85). NaCl/PNaCl modules simply fail to load in current browsers. The recommended migration path is WebAssembly, which covers many of the same use cases but requires porting effort.
Notes
NaCl was always Chrome-only, which limited its adoption, but the works that did use it were often technically ambitious pieces that pushed browser capabilities. Porting to WebAssembly is feasible but not automatic — the toolchain, APIs, and sandboxing model differ. Works that were never ported are now inaccessible outside of archived Chrome builds.