After a hiatus, I have returned to work on Shadron. This is a version I've been working on for quite some time, but only have been able to finalize it to my satisfaction today. It is the biggest update yet - it greatly enhances the capabilities and performance of the non-GLSL runtime and adds many new features, including a dark UI skin. A notable change is that "glsl" is no longer used as a prefix to functions, however, backwards compatibility is of course preserved. As always, the full list of changes follows.
- Internal runtime engine has been fully reworked
- Non-GLSL runtime now uses a custom just-in-time (JIT) compiler, vastly improving performance of generators
- The glsl keyword has been deprecated, functions and structures may now be declared directly
- Structures and arrays can now be used in functions and generators, and as constant and variable types
- Added support for all basic GLSL types (uint, double, bvecN, uvecN, dvecN, matNxM, dmatN, dmatNxM)
- Templates are now supported for non-GLSL functions and generators and can be overloaded
- Added a dark mode GUI theme (enabled via appropriate system setting)
- Tessellation shaders now supported
- Adjacency primitive types now supported
- Shader fragment data type restrictions lifted (for models, particle systems)
- Added the concept of expression variables (keywords: let, defer), allowing for backwards dimensions dependencies
- Undo / redo functionality now available in the main window GUI for parameter control
- Parameter sliders may now have discrete steps (step size set as optional third range, logrange argument)
- Generators may now be overloaded by vertex data type alone
- Generator local variables are no longer required to be declared at the beginning
- Non-GLSL functions now support output arguments, Shadron constants, switch statements, and additional built-in GLSL functions
- Images and cubemaps may now be created from Base64-encoded image files
- Model and particle system fragment_data type no longer has to be specified explicitly, different types may be used for additional shader stages
- Model modifiers vertex_animated, fragment_animated, and geometry_animated have been replaced by a single modifier animated(true/false)
- Events may now be limited to a specific object window
- Event procedures may now be defined directly in the event declaration
- State variables are now reset on hard reload
- Auto-reload may now be enabled for input image files (Alt+F5 in their windows)
- Hidden input images are now automatically reloaded if their source path changes
- Conditional operator can now be used with generator calls
- Export input file modifiers now supported for extension objects
- Image, animation, and feedback shader position argument may now be of ivec2 type (pixel coordinate)
- A solid color value (vec4) may now be passed as feedback object initializer instead of a shader function
- A generator may now be specified as a call with arguments in models, particle systems, and exports
- Watch declaration can be combined with state variable or expression variable declaration
- Fixed a rare diagonal seam artifact for glsl images, animations, and feedbacks
- Fixed geometry shaders to work with strip, loop, and fan primitive types
- Open file with Shadron functionality now works properly on macOS
- Fixed window size bugs for high-DPI displays on macOS
- Unary negation operator now correctly always outputs a boolean value
- Improved error reporting regarding shader function interfaces
- Many other bug fixes and improvements