I Built My Own Shader Language: Cast

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Jannik Brozy developed Cast, a new shader language built with C# and ANTLR4, to address common issues encountered while writing GLSL shaders. The project aims to improve developer experience by enforcing type safety and providing a more readable syntax.

Existing GLSL allows unchecked mathematical operations on vectors, potentially leading to subtle bugs and significant debugging time; a single error can invalidate entire rendering pipelines. Cast attempts to solve this by making coordinate spaces part of the type system itself.

Key Insights

• ANTLR4: Used for parsing and creating the Cast compiler.
• Type-based Coordinate Spaces: vec4<World> enforces correct matrix multiplication and prevents coordinate space errors.
• Receiver Types: Inspired by Go, allowing methods to be associated with custom structs for better organization.

Working Example

let modelPos : vec4<Model> = ...;
let matrix: mat4<Model, World> = ...;
// This works because of the types match
let worldPos = matrix * modelPos;
// This would throw a compiler error
let wrong = projectionMatrix * modelPos;

Practical Applications

• Game Development: Reduce debugging time and improve shader reliability in complex game engines.
• Pitfall: Overly complex type systems can hinder rapid prototyping and iteration; balancing safety with usability is key.

References:

• https://dev.to/jbrozy/i-built-my-own-shader-language-53n2