Maybe coming soon... Lua Shaders!!!

SinisterSoft

@hgy29 has been hard at work on something pretty amazing!!!

Looks like Gideros may soon be getting unified shaders (GLSL, HLSL & Metal) - you code them in Lua!!!

Proof of concept working...

keszegh

that sounds interesting indeed, although in the current way it's easier to reuse shade code from around the internet.
i forgot, which type of shader is supported by which platform? my glsl shaders do work on windows/mac/android so why do i need the other two?

hgy29

Metal is for iOS, that is when Apple have removed OpenGL support from iOS. HLSL is for UWP/Xbox

SinisterSoft

Also in the (distant) future, Android may move away from OpenGL towards Vulcan.

keszegh

and where is vulcan on this list?

SinisterSoft

I would say that Vulcan would be far, far distant future - @hgy29 would know more though.

keszegh

btw how can i know which plugins support uwp?

hgy29

Open the plugin list and look for the blue Windows icon

keszegh

thanks. so win32 and uwp are the same with this respect?

hgy29

No, the win32 icon is the multi colored one

keszegh

then the qt export and uwp export are compatible plugin-wise?
(and does the uwp export rely on qt? i'd be really happy to get rid of that dependence.)

hgy29

no, qt, win32 and uwp are three different exports. QT doesn't use the plugin integration system (all available plugins are always exported). Win32 and UWP don't rely on anything. When I export for Windows (10), I always use UWP.

keszegh

@hgy29 , thanks, i should try uwp export then, the qt export always bothered me.
btw does the mac export use qt?

keszegh

how do i execute an uwp export?

SinisterSoft

UWP export is now one of the best exports - it supports controllers, Xbox one, etc...

keszegh

sorry for hijacking this topic, but i've exported to uwp, installed vs2019 and tried to create an x64 release, but i got these errors:

Error C2567 unable to open metadata in 'c:\program files (x86)\microsoft visual studio\2019\community\vc\tools\msvc\14.25.28610\lib\x86\store\references\platform.winmd', file may have been deleted or moved


Error LNK1257 code generation failed

SinisterSoft

Ahh - I had the same issue. Look in c:\program files (x86)\microsoft visual studio\2019\community\vc\tools\msvc\

You will see a folder that is there, copy it as this name:
c:\program files (x86)\microsoft visual studio\2019\community\vc\tools\msvc\14.25.28610

Then it will work. It's just Microsoft (for some crazy reason) decide to get rid of the older files when they add the newer ones.

SinisterSoft

I've updated the XBox One help for this situation: https://wiki.giderosmobile.com/index.php/XBox_One

Apollo14

Hi guys. Maybe it's better to support export format of some visual shader editor?
Nowadays everybody uses visual shader editors.

MoKaLux

@Apollo14 +1
I haven't played with shaders yet but that would be best for me, for example https://www.shadertoy.com/view/ltj3zR

Copy the code and run it?

But I guess in the end, we would still need to learn shaders programming.

hgy29

You seem to completely miss the point: the idea is to get a cross platform way to write shaders. Native shaders are already supported, like those on shadertoy, except that they are written in GLSL, which will not work on UWP (directx) nor Metal (iOS 14 ?). Trying to convert a GLSL shader to HLSL and MSL involves a lot of code, I mean several megabytes of libraries. ANGLE does that, but only for HLSL.

With lua shaders, we just reuse our lua lexer and turn the lua opcodes into C code for HLSL,GLSL or MSL. It is lightweight, and it allows you to write your own shaders without the need to learn C and GLSL,HLSL,MSL.

MoKaLux

ok, I am with you

keszegh

SinisterSoft said:

Ahh - I had the same issue. Look in c:\program files (x86)\microsoft visual studio\2019\community\vc\tools\msvc\

You will see a folder that is there, copy it as this name:
c:\program files (x86)\microsoft visual studio\2019\community\vc\tools\msvc\14.25.28610

Then it will work. It's just Microsoft (for some crazy reason) decide to get rid of the older files when they add the newer ones.

thanks, then it runs, but i guess my current glsl shaders are not supported:

Exception thrown at 0x00007FFFDC21A799 in giderosgame.Windows.exe: Microsoft C++ exception: Platform::FailureException ^ at memory location 0x000000A5C15FD740. HRESULT:0x80004005 Unspecified error
WinRT information:
stack traceback:
sources/shaders.lua:1: in main chunk
(luac): in main chunk

are there other plugins that qt supports but uwp does not?
also, can one make a simple 'exe' from an uwp project?
-then i can evaluate if it's worth to convert my shaders to the new lua shader language (when it's available)

SinisterSoft

UWP supports most of the plugins I tried. You should try ones you use (make a player) and check they work. Things that were missing (controllers, etc) were added last time.

I think in-app payments are not yet working, ads have been removed for UWP as Microsoft have removed support for them.

Your shaders will be worth converting because otherwise, you will have to make Metal versions (for iOS and OSX) as Apple has depreciated OpenGL/GLSL for their systems.

keszegh

@SinisterSoft , i managed to disable shaders in my app and export it to uwp and it seems to run, but it does not seem to support pressure sensitivity of tablets, important for me.

btw what does application:getDeviceInfo() return for uwp?

keszegh

also, luamidi and media plugin are not supported by uwp.

SinisterSoft

I've updated the help for Shaders so that it's easier to read and introduces the new Lua Shaders. The old version was far too long and needed to be broken up into different sections.

https://wiki.giderosmobile.com/index.php/Writing_Shaders

SinisterSoft

More help...

https://wiki.giderosmobile.com/index.php/Lua_Shaders