More on GPU's: RapidMind

[Bill Baxter]

Craig Black wrote:
>> Like I said in another thread, RapidMind is an extension/evolution of the 
>> open software research project called Sh.  That would be a good place to 
>> look for more implementation details if the RapidMind source code is not 
>> easy to obtain.  Sh is really meant for writing nifty looking visual 
>> shaders, but the basic idea is the same -- take an algorithmic description 
>> in C++, metaprogram it to death, and out pops on-the-fly generated GPU 
>> shader programs on the other end.
>>
>> With RapidMind they've apparently generalized it to work for other back 
>> ends, but I would bet the core ideas used in both are the same.
>>
>> And in any event, even if RapidMind in D is too big a project, something 
>> like Sh in D would still be a nice demo of D's power.  If it doesn't come 
>> to a grinding halt because of symbol length limitations in OPTLINK. :-)
>>
>> --bb
> 
> I'm not so sure that they even use C++ metaprogramming features.  I'm not 
> exactly sure but I suspect that they use macros to turn the shader code into 
> a text string, which they parse and compile to a real shading language. 
> That way they can define the language however they want.  I think the trick 
> is that they make their syntax look like C++ syntax so that it seems to fit 
> together properly.
> 

They may have changed that in RapidMind then.  With Sh, part of the 
sales pitch was that the code you write *is* real C++.  No external 
tools required.  Just a library to link with.

--bb