Shader API proposal

Kevin Rushforth kevin.rushforth at oracle.com
Fri Mar 19 13:28:39 UTC 2021


This isn't the first time that the question of allowing some sort of 
application-provided shaders has come up. There is an Enhancement 
request in JBS to track this, JDK-8134662 [1], but it's just a placeholder.

I don't want to discourage research in this area, but let me point out 
just a few of the challenges that providing such an API would pose:

1. JavaFX already uses implicitly-generated shaders -- Both Prism (for 
rendering) and Decora (for image-based filter effects) create 
build-time-generated vertex and fragment shaders. Prism uses these 
generated shaders to render shapes, text, and images. It passes a 
generated set of uniform and varying parameters, along with the 
necessary texture objects, to these shaders. It isn't clear how an 
application-provided shader would interact with this. There are several 
possible approaches one might take with various pros and cons. The 
Decora shaders are less likely to interfere, but that's another area 
where an application developer might want to use an application-provided 
shader.

2. Add missing operations to JSL language -- The JSL language is only 
complete enough to do what was needed to implement the Decora (image 
filter effects) and 2D Prism rendering shaders. As such it is a subset 
of what GLSL, HLSL, and MSL can provide. Along with this, the JSLC (JSL 
Compiler) would need to implement them, and we would need a much more 
robust set of tests for the compiler.

3. JSL Language specification -- right now it is an internal tool, so 
the level of documentation needed is very low. If we were to productize 
it, it would need a complete spec along the lines of the FXML or JavaFX 
CSS spec.

I think research in this area would be interesting, as long as you look 
at it as a research project, and not as a feature that is likely to 
become part of JavaFX any time soon.

-- Kevin

[1] https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8134662


On 3/16/2021 6:15 PM, Jacky Guo wrote:
> This is my proposal as to how the shader API should work:
>
> In javafx.scene.paint 2 new classes would be added:
>
>     - Shader
>     - ShadedMaterial
>
> ShadedMaterial would contain methods relating to the material itself,
> probably including texture maps and the like.
>
> Shader would contain more low-level functions, like passing values to the
> shader or similar.
>
> I'm not sure if all the functionality should belong to one class, but in my
> mind, separating it like this will have its benefits.
>
> In addition, I haven't dabbled much with native graphics, so I will be
> needing some guidance on that end.



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