Shader

Represents a GPU shader program for custom rendering effects.

Shaders are programs that run on the GPU to transform vertices and calculate pixel colors. Ceramic uses shaders for all rendering, from basic sprite drawing to complex visual effects.

Key features:

• Support for vertex and fragment shaders
• Uniform variables for passing data to shaders
• Multiple texture slot support
• Custom vertex attributes
• Automatic shader compilation and linking

Common uses:

• Visual effects (blur, glow, distortion)
• Color manipulation (hue shift, contrast)
• Custom rendering techniques
• Post-processing filters
• Special material effects

Ceramic provides several built-in shaders:

• 'shader:textured' - Standard textured rendering (default)
• 'shader:pixelArt' - High-quality pixel art scaling
• Various effect shaders depending on plugins

// Load and apply a custom shader
var shader = assets.shader('myEffect').clone();
shader.setFloat('intensity', 0.5);
shader.setVec2('resolution', screen.width, screen.height);
myVisual.shader = shader;

// Create shader from source (if supported)
#if ceramic_shader_vert_frag
var customShader = Shader.fromSource(
    vertexShaderCode,
    fragmentShaderCode
);
#end

// Animate shader uniforms
app.onUpdate(this, delta -> {
    shader.setFloat('time', Timer.now);
    shader.setColor('tint', Color.fromHSB(
        (Timer.now * 60) % 360, 1, 1
    ));
});

Static Members #

Creates a shader from vertex and fragment shader source code.

The expected shading language depends on the backend:

• Clay/Web backends: GLSL ES
• Unity backend: Unity shader language
• Future backends may support different languages

This method is only available when the backend supports runtime shader compilation (ceramic_shader_vert_frag flag).

Instance Members #

The backend-specific shader implementation. Used internally by the rendering system.

The shader asset this shader was loaded from. Null if created programmatically.

All vertex attributes used by this shader. Includes standard attributes (position, texCoord, color) plus any custom attributes.

Custom vertex attributes beyond the standard ones. Used for passing additional per-vertex data to shaders.

Total size of custom float attributes in the vertex buffer. Calculated from customAttributes array.

Creates a copy of this shader with independent uniform values.

Useful when you need multiple instances of the same shader with different parameters.

Sets an integer uniform variable.

Sets a float uniform variable.

Sets a color uniform variable (RGB with full alpha). The color is passed as vec4 with alpha = 1.0.

Sets a color uniform variable with alpha (RGBA). The color is passed as vec4 including alpha channel.

Sets a vec2 uniform variable.

Sets a vec3 uniform variable.

Sets a vec4 uniform variable.

Sets a float array uniform variable. Useful for passing multiple values or matrices.

Sets a texture uniform variable.

Textures are bound to numbered slots (0, 1, 2, etc.). Slot 0 is typically used for the main texture.

Sets a mat4 uniform variable from a Transform. Converts the transform to a 4x4 matrix for the shader.

Creates a new shader instance.

Standard vertex attributes are automatically included:

• vertexPosition (vec3): Vertex position in model space
• vertexTCoord (vec2): Texture coordinates
• vertexColor (vec4): Vertex color with alpha

Private Members #

Metadata #