Compute Shader Plus

This Godot 4 plugin adds in a ComputeHelper class that keeps track of compute shaders and their uniforms. Here's a simple example of a shader that reads and then writes to a texture (ideally in the render thread):

var image := Image.create(image_size.x, image_size.y, false, Image.FORMAT_RGBAF)
image.fill(Color.BLACK)

var compute_shader := ComputeHelper.create("res://compute-shader.glsl")
var input_texture := ImageUniform.create(image)
var output_texture := SharedImageUniform.create(input_texture)
compute_shader.add_uniform_array([input_texture, output_texture])

var work_groups := Vector3i(image_size.x, image_size.y, 1)
compute_shader.run(work_groups)
ComputeHelper.sync()

image = output_texture.get_image()

Demos

I've made a few sample projects that use this plugin:

• Slime Mold Simulation
• Boids Simulation

Planned Additions

There's a few things I'd like to add to this plugin eventually:

• A new LinkedArrayUniform class. Because arrays are passed by reference, it should be possible to have a class that automatically reads from and updates a given array without the user having to call functions like get_data() or update().
• A more optimized use of uniform sets. From examples I've seen, I know there are times where uniforms and uniform sets can be reused, but I haven't done enough testing to know exactly when, or how I'd want to implement that in this plugin.
• Proper descriptions and warnings. Most functions and classes would benefit from having descriptions. As I've been testing this plugin, I've also found a few edge cases that don't seem to have an obvious fix. For example, the format RGBA8 doesn't work as the format of images passed to compute shaders, and I need a good place to clarify stuff like that.

Other Resources

For more information on compute shaders in Godot 4, here are some useful resources:

• Official Compute Texture Demo Project
• "Godot 4 - Conway's Game Of Life (Full Lesson)" Video Tutorial (Uses C#)
• "Everything About Textures in Compute Shaders!" Article
• "How to use Compute Shaders in Godot 4" Video

And while you're here, here's some similar plugins you might want to look at:

• Godot-GPU-Computer
• Compute Shader Studio