1 – GLSL Hacker 0.5.0 overview

A new version of GLSL Hacker is finally available. I don’t know why, but updating a cross-platform application just takes time. A lot of time. When a new functionality is ready on one OS, a simple compilation is, most of the time fortunately, enough on other OSes but sometimes you need to tweak the code to make it ok and that step increases the development time (I’m thinking for example to the plugin system and the way how dynamics libraries are handled under Linux or OS X). Anyway, the new GLSL Hacker is ready and that’s the important thing.



GLSL Hacker – 3DS object loading

The main changes of GLSL Hacker 0.5.0 are the support of Python 2.7 (via a plugin, then if you don’t need the Python support, just remove the plugin from GLSL Hacker directory), new texture types (1D, cube), new objects line polylines or bitmap fonts (useful to display text with OpenGL 3.2+ core profile), 3D object loaders (*.3ds, *.obj), Lua updated to latest version 5.2.2, a better support for compute shaders, and many many bugfixes…

I also added the base of an OpenCL plugin that is currently limited to platforms and devices information queries. I will add some substance to this plugin when I will tackle OpenCL seriously. The Python and OpenCL plugins allowed me to set up and tune my plugin architecture so adding new plugins (PhysX for example, next big thing on GLSL Hacker roadmap) will be faster. The hefty and complete changelog is available at the end of the post.



GLSL Hacker – HDR / FP32 texture test

GLSL Hacker – Python + OpenCV + webcam test under OS X

A forum for GLSL Hacker is now available HERE. I will use it to post my WIP, current test, tips or quick news. Do not hesitate to use it too!

Some screenshots of demos from the Code Sample Pack:





GLSL Hacker – GLSL Hacker – Shadertoy Elevated demo

GLSL Hacker – OpenGL 4.3 Compute shaders test

GLSL Hacker – OpenCL and Python plugins test

GLSL Hacker – Bitmap fonts test

2 – GLSL Hacker 0.5.0 downloads



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GLSL Hacker 0.5.0 for Windows 64-bit (XP, Vista, 7 and 8) [download#354#image]



GLSL Hacker 0.5.0 for OS X 10.7 and 10.8 [download#355#image]



GLSL Hacker 0.5.0 for Linux 64-bit (Ubuntu-based) For any question, bug-report or feedback related to GLSL Hacker, a forum is available HERE.

Unzip the archive where you want and launch GLSL Hacker (GLSLHacker.exe for Windows, GLSLHacker.app for OSX and GLSLHacker for Linux).

And to explore the possibilities of GLSL Hacker, a code samples pack is available:

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Code Samples Pack for Windows, Linux and OSX

Unzip the code sample pack somewhere, and load any XML file in GLSL Hacker. Linux users need to edit the start_glslhacker_demo.sh (in GLSL Hacker directory) to launch a demo.



GLSL Hacker – Polyline test with geometry shaders

3 – GLSL Hacker 0.5.0 changelog

GLSL Hacker complete history version can be found HERE.