Shaders

Shaders in Sapiens come in two folders:

• glsl folder contains the raw, uncompiled shaders.
• spv contains the compiled versions.

Shader types

There are two shader types:

• frag: These shaders essentially set the 'color' of the thing being shaded
• vert: These shaders essentially set the 'shape' of the thing being shaded

Creating shaders

To mod shaders, you simply need to put a compiled shader into the spv folder at the root of your mod directory (create it if it doesn't exist). The name must match one of the games shaders. This shader will be picked up by the game.

Getting Started with GLSL

Before you can build a shader mod for Sapiens, you will need the ability to write and compile shaders. This tutorial will help you set up your development environment.

This tutorial is for Windows

Unfortunately, we have not written guides for Linux or Mac users.

WARNING

Note: glslc cannot handle paths with spaces in the same. In order to use either the script or manual, you will need a path without spaces.

Install the VulkanSDK

You can download the VulkanSDK here.

Compile your Shader

To compile your shader, you will need to execute your shader using the glslc.exe executable, shipped with Vulkan. By default this is located in C:/VulkanSDK/x.x.xxx.x/Bin/glslc.exe.

Here is a sample command:

C:/VulkanSDK/x.x.xxx.x/Bin/glslc.exe my_shader.frag -std=450core -o my_shader.frag.spv

• my_shader.frag This is the file where your shader
• -std=450core This sets the version, since dave neglected to do so at the top of the shader files
• my_shader.frag.spv This is the file name/location where the output will be placed

Dependency Management

Shaders in Sapiens often rely on other shaders. When compiling, you therefor need to ensure that any dependency glsl shaders are also available, in the expected folder structure.

Compiler Helper

There is a Python script available to streamline the shader compilation process: SirLich's Sapiens Shader Compiler.

To use the script, drop it into your mod folder. Then create your shaders in glsl folder, and also create a blank spv folder.

When you run the script, it will compile all your glsl shaders into spv shaders, ensuring that dependencies are satisfied.

Example

Here is a simple example of Shaders in action, which you can use as a test-case. We will be editing lookAtTerrainMesh.frag, since it's very simple.

layout(location = 0) out vec4 data;

layout(location = 0) in float outAnimation;

void main()
{
    // This is the old value, which is a black outline:
    // data = vec4(0.05,0.05,0.05,1.0);

    // This is the new value, which is a red outline
    data = vec4(1 , 0, 0 , 1.0);
}

Compile this shader (see above), and place it into /spv/lookAtTerrainMesh.frag.spv.

When you load into the game, the hexagons should show as cyan.