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<h1>The Mesa 3D Graphics Library</h1>
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<h1>Shading Language Support</h1>
<p>
This page describes the features and status of Mesa's support for the
<a href="https://opengl.org/documentation/glsl/">
OpenGL Shading Language</a>.
</p>
<p>
Contents
</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="#envvars">Environment variables</a>
<li><a href="#support">GLSL 1.40 support</a>
<li><a href="#unsup">Unsupported Features</a>
<li><a href="#notes">Implementation Notes</a>
<li><a href="#hints">Programming Hints</a>
<li><a href="#standalone">Stand-alone GLSL Compiler</a>
<li><a href="#implementation">Compiler Implementation</a>
<li><a href="#validation">Compiler Validation</a>
</ul>
<h2 id="envvars">Environment Variables</h2>
<p>
The <b>MESA_GLSL</b> environment variable can be set to a comma-separated
list of keywords to control some aspects of the GLSL compiler and shader
execution. These are generally used for debugging.
</p>
<ul>
<li><b>dump</b> - print GLSL shader code to stdout at link time
<li><b>log</b> - log all GLSL shaders to files.
The filenames will be "shader_X.vert" or "shader_X.frag" where X
the shader ID.
<li><b>cache_info</b> - print debug information about shader cache
<li><b>cache_fb</b> - force cached shaders to be ignored and do a full
recompile via the fallback path</li>
<li><b>uniform</b> - print message to stdout when glUniform is called
<li><b>nopvert</b> - force vertex shaders to be a simple shader that just transforms
the vertex position with ftransform() and passes through the color and
texcoord[0] attributes.
<li><b>nopfrag</b> - force fragment shader to be a simple shader that passes
through the color attribute.
<li><b>useprog</b> - log glUseProgram calls to stderr
</ul>
<p>
Example: export MESA_GLSL=dump,nopt
</p>
<h3 id="replacement">Experimenting with Shader Replacements</h3>
<p>
Shaders can be dumped and replaced on runtime for debugging purposes. This
feature is not currently supported by SCons build.
This is controlled via following environment variables:
<ul>
<li><b>MESA_SHADER_DUMP_PATH</b> - path where shader sources are dumped
<li><b>MESA_SHADER_READ_PATH</b> - path where replacement shaders are read
</ul>
Note, path set must exist before running for dumping or replacing to work.
When both are set, these paths should be different so the dumped shaders do
not clobber the replacement shaders. Also, the filenames of the replacement shaders
should match the filenames of the corresponding dumped shaders.
</p>
<h3 id="capture">Capturing Shaders</h3>
<p>
Setting <b>MESA_SHADER_CAPTURE_PATH</b> to a directory will cause the compiler
to write <tt>.shader_test</tt> files for use with
<a href="https://cgit.freedesktop.org/mesa/shader-db">shader-db</a>, a tool
which compiler developers can use to gather statistics about shaders
(instructions, cycles, memory accesses, and so on).
</p>
<p>
Notably, this captures linked GLSL shaders - with all stages together -
as well as ARB programs.
</p>
<h2 id="support">GLSL Version</h2>
<p>
The GLSL compiler currently supports version 3.30 of the shading language.
</p>
<p>
Several GLSL extensions are also supported:
</p>
<ul>
<li>GL_ARB_draw_buffers
<li>GL_ARB_fragment_coord_conventions
<li>GL_ARB_shader_bit_encoding
</ul>
<h2 id="unsup">Unsupported Features</h2>
<p>XXX update this section</p>
<p>
The following features of the shading language are not yet fully supported
in Mesa:
</p>
<ul>
<li>Linking of multiple shaders does not always work. Currently, linking
is implemented through shader concatenation and re-compiling. This
doesn't always work because of some #pragma and preprocessor issues.
<li>The gl_Color and gl_SecondaryColor varying vars are interpolated
without perspective correction
</ul>
<p>
All other major features of the shading language should function.
</p>
<h2 id="notes">Implementation Notes</h2>
<ul>
<li>Shading language programs are compiled into low-level programs
very similar to those of GL_ARB_vertex/fragment_program.
<li>All vector types (vec2, vec3, vec4, bvec2, etc) currently occupy full
float[4] registers.
<li>Float constants and variables are packed so that up to four floats
can occupy one program parameter/register.
<li>All function calls are inlined.
<li>Shaders which use too many registers will not compile.
<li>The quality of generated code is pretty good, register usage is fair.
<li>Shader error detection and reporting of errors (InfoLog) is not
very good yet.
<li>The ftransform() function doesn't necessarily match the results of
fixed-function transformation.
</ul>
<p>
These issues will be addressed/resolved in the future.
</p>
<h2 id="hints">Programming Hints</h2>
<ul>
<li>Use the built-in library functions whenever possible.
For example, instead of writing this:
<pre>
float x = 1.0 / sqrt(y);
</pre>
Write this:
<pre>
float x = inversesqrt(y);
</pre>
</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="standalone">Stand-alone GLSL Compiler</h2>
<p>
The stand-alone GLSL compiler program can be used to compile GLSL shaders
into low-level GPU code.
</p>
<p>
This tool is useful for:
</p>
<ul>
<li>Inspecting GPU code to gain insight into compilation
<li>Generating initial GPU code for subsequent hand-tuning
<li>Debugging the GLSL compiler itself
</ul>
<p>
After building Mesa, the compiler can be found at src/compiler/glsl/glsl_compiler
</p>
<p>
Here's an example of using the compiler to compile a vertex shader and
emit GL_ARB_vertex_program-style instructions:
</p>
<pre>
src/compiler/glsl/glsl_compiler --version XXX --dump-ast myshader.vert
</pre>
Options include
<ul>
<li><b>--dump-ast</b> - dump GPU code
<li><b>--dump-hir</b> - dump high-level IR code
<li><b>--dump-lir</b> - dump low-level IR code
<li><b>--dump-builder</b> - dump GLSL IR code
<li><b>--link</b> - link shaders
<li><b>--just-log</b> - display only shader / linker info if exist,
without any header or separator
<li><b>--version</b> - [Mandatory] define the GLSL version to use
</ul>
<h2 id="implementation">Compiler Implementation</h2>
<p>
The source code for Mesa's shading language compiler is in the
<code>src/compiler/glsl/</code> directory.
</p>
<p>
XXX provide some info about the compiler....
</p>
<p>
The final vertex and fragment programs may be interpreted in software
(see prog_execute.c) or translated into a specific hardware architecture
(see drivers/dri/i915/i915_fragprog.c for example).
</p>
<h2 id="validation">Compiler Validation</h2>
<p>
Developers working on the GLSL compiler should test frequently to avoid
regressions.
</p>
<p>
The <a href="https://piglit.freedesktop.org/">Piglit</a> project
has many GLSL tests.
</p>
<p>
The Mesa demos repository also has some good GLSL tests.
</p>
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