MojoShader

MojoShader is a library to work with Direct3D shaders on alternate 3D APIs and non-Windows platforms. The primary motivation is moving shaders to OpenGL languages on the fly. The developer deals with "profiles" that represent various target languages, such as GLSL or ARB_*_program.

This allows a developer to manage one set of shaders, presumably written in Direct3D HLSL, and use them across multiple rendering backends. This also means that the developer only has to worry about one (offline) compiler to manage program complexity, while MojoShader itself deals with the reduced complexity of the bytecode at runtime.

MojoShader provides both a simple API to convert bytecode to various profiles, and (optionally) basic glue to rendering APIs to abstract the management of the shaders at runtime.

Work is in progress to allow MojoShader to work as a replacement stack for the D3DX shader tools. The library already provides a preprocessor and an assembler to generate bytecode from low-level source, and construction of a full HLSL compiler is in progress.

The library is meant to be statically linked to an application (just add a few .c files and headers to your build), allows the app to optionally specify an allocator, and is thread safe (although OpenGL itself is not). It is meant to be embedded in games with a minimum of fuss.

Places MojoShader can be found in use:

• Star Wars: Republic Commando uses MojoShader for the Nintendo Switch port, to get Direct3D shaders running on the platform.
• Unreal Tournament 3 uses MojoShader with its OpenGL renderer.
• Killing Floor uses MojoShader for OpenGL motion blur and bloom effects.
• Unity uses MojoShader's HLSL parser for some magic.
• Super Meat Boy uses MojoShader for its Mac and Linux ports.
• Shank uses MojoShader on Mac and Linux to support Effect Framework files.
• This benchmark uses MojoShader's assembler to test the benefits of offline compiling of shaders.
• Psychonauts uses MojoShader on Mac and Linux, flexing its support for Shader Model 1.
• Vessel uses MojoShader on Mac OS X and Linux.
• MonoGame uses MojoShader for some of their Direct3D support code.
• Urho3D is a game engine that uses MojoShader behind the scenes.
• Guncraft uses MojoShader through MonoGame.
• FNA is an XNA-compatible framework that uses MojoShader to deal with shaders and D3D Effects.
• Hive uses MojoShader through FNA.
• Khet 2.0 uses MojoShader through FNA.
• Reversi uses MojoShader through FNA.
• If you know of other software using MojoShader, drop me a line.

What works:

• Parsing of bytecode for Shader Model 1 through 3.
• Assembler to build bytecode from low-level (not HLSL) shader source code.
• Preprocessor for programs with #include, #define, #if, etc.
• "d3d" profile (Direct3D bytecode disassembler).
• "bytecode" profile (outputs copy of Direct3D bytecode after verifying).
• "glsl" profile (OpenGL Shading Language 1.10)
• "glsl120" profile (OpenGL Shading Language 1.20)
• "arb1" profile (GL_ARB_vertex_program/GL_ARB_fragment_program)
• "nv2" profile (GL_NV_vertex_program2_option/GL_NV_fragment_program2)
• "nv3" profile (GL_NV_vertex_program3/GL_NV_fragment_program2)
• "nv4" profile (GL_NV_gpu_program4)
• "metal" profile (Apple's Metal Shading Language source code)
• "spirv" profile (SPIR-V for Vulkan and OpenGL)
• Simple OpenGL glue API to hide differences between different profiles at runtime.
• Compiles/runs on GNU/Linux (x86 and x86-64 tested; gcc).
• Compiles/runs on Windows NT/95/98/ME/2K/XP/Vista/etc (x86 tested; Visual Studio).
• Compiles/runs on Mac OS X (PPC, x86, x86-64 tested; gcc).
• May compile and run elsewhere with little to no modification. Success stories and patches are welcome.

• Shader Model 4 and later are not supported at all yet.
• No support for HLSL source code yet (bytecode or assembly source only).
• Other stuff scattered in FIXMEs.
• Contributions of other ports are, of course, welcome.

License:

• MojoShader is licensed under the zlib license.

Documentation:

• Documentation is lacking at the moment. The brave can refer to the heavily-commented header file, though.

Downloads:

• Source code is available from the GitHub page.

Mailing list:

• No mailing list at the moment; but you can email Ryan with comments and questions.

Funding:

• Like MojoShader? Contribute to my Patreon! Become a Patron!

Page maintained by Ryan C. Gordon.