Declarative OpenGL (sort of) in D
Normally when writing OpenGL code, it can get very cumbersome/error-prone when defining how to pass vertex data to the GPU. As a given example, heres a toy vertex structure we want to tell OpenGL how to handle when it gets passed in as an array of data.
struct Vertex3f2f {
Vec3f pos;
Vec2f uv;
}
With this, the following needs to be done to upload the data to the GPU with OpenGL (and it needs to change if the vertex structure changes, where making these changes by hand every time can easily lead to mysterious buggery)
//some excellent array of vertices
Vertex3f2f vertices = [...];
//storage for vao and vbo
GLuint vao, vbo;
glGenVertexArrays(1, &vao);
glBindVertexArray(vao);
//create 1 buffer
glGenBuffers(1, &vbo);
glBindBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, vbo);
// upload to GPU, send size in bytes and pointer to array,
// also tell GPU it will never be modified.
glBufferData(
GL_ARRAY_BUFFER,
vertices.length * vertices[0].sizeof,
vertices.ptr,
GL_STATIC_DRAW
);
glEnableVertexAttribArray(0);
glVertexAttribPointer(
0, // attrib index
3, // number of elements (3 floats, Vec3f)
GL_FLOAT, // element type
GL_FALSE, // can normalize elements to range [-1, 1] for signed, [0, 1] for unsigned
vertices[0].sizeof, // stride for given attrib
cast(const(void)*)null // offset of the first attribute
);
glEnableVertexAttribArray(1);
glVertexAttribPointer(
1,
2, // Vec2f..
GL_FLOAT,
GL_FALSE,
vertices[0].sizeof,
cast(const(void)*)vertices[0].pos.sizeof // initial offset is size of pos
);
//... potentially some other code
In the process of enduring this boilerplate I set out to create a way to generate OpenGL code from a “vertex specification”.
… Which is just a convoluted way of describing exactly that Vertex3f2f struct thing up there.
Now that we’re past hinting why this might be a desirable thing, lets put it into action and describe the rest of the process!
Prelude to Code Generation
Given our type definition and D’s metaprogramming capabilities, we can actually iterate over all members in the struct we pass at compile-time and filter so we only get POD members.
template PODMembers(T) {
import std.meta : Filter;
import std.traits : FieldNameTuple;
template isFieldPOD(string field) {
enum isFieldPOD = __traits(isPOD,
typeof(__traits(getMember, T, field)));
}
alias PODMembers = Filter!(isFieldPOD, FieldNameTuple!T);
} //PODMembers
//can be used like
import std.meta : AliasSeq;
alias Types = AliasSeq!(int, float, double, Object);
alias PodTypes = PODMembers!Types;
//should give us (int, float, double)
Now, except for those mysterious __traits__ instrinsics (explained here), it should be fairly straightforward for anyone familiar with filter and map primitives in most FP languages.
FieldNameTuple gives us a tuple of all the field names (as strings) in a given type, which we us as an input to our Filter computation. Filter here expects a predicate of the form:
template SomePredicate(Thing) {
enum SomePredicate = SomethingWhichReturnsABoolean;
}
We also need to define a function to convert the given primitive member of each vector in the vertex structs to the given OpenGL equivalent, int -> GL_INT for example.
Lets define a template which basically is just a big switch on the primitive types.
template TypeToGLenum(T) {
import std.format : format;
static if (is (T == float)) {
enum TypeToGLenum = GL_FLOAT;
} else static if (is (T == double)) {
enum TypeToGLenum = GL_DOUBLE;
} else static if (is (T == int)) {
enum TypeToGLenum = GL_INT;
} else static if (is (T == uint)) {
enum TypeToGLenum = GL_UNSIGNED_INT;
} else static if (is (T == short)) {
enum TypeToGLenum = GL_SHORT;
} else static if (is (T == ushort)) {
enum TypeToGLenum = GL_UNSIGNED_SHORT;
} else static if (is (T == byte)) {
enum TypeToGLenum = GL_BYTE;
} else static if (is (T == ubyte) || is(T == void)) {
enum TypeToGLenum = GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE;
} else {
static assert (0,
format("No type conversion found for: %s to GL equivalent",
T.stringof));
}
} //TypeToGLenum
Actual Code Generation
Given the previous definitions, lets make a simple function which will accept a vao and vbo, as well as an array of vertices and in the process, generate the code to upload the data for the given vertex type to the GPU.
/* templated on VType
would look something like this in c++:
template <typename VType>
void uploadVertices(...etc)
*/
void uploadVertices(VType)(ref GLuint vao, ref GLuint vbo, VType[] vertices) {
glGenVertexArrays(1, &vao);
glBindVertexArray(vao);
glGenBuffers(1, &vbo);
glBindBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, vbo);
//assumes GL_STATIC_DRAW here, simplistic example
glBufferData(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER,
vertices.length * vertices[0].sizeof, vertices.ptr, GL_STATIC_DRAW);
//static foreach, is executed *at compile time and produces
// the block of code inside for each iteration*
foreach (i, m; PODMembers!VType) {
alias MemberType = typeof(__traits(getMember, VType, m));
enum MemberOffset = __traits(getMember, VType, m).offsetof;
//note that types need to provide a _T to access type of members
// for example with Vec3f, T_ = float
alias ElementType = MemberType._T;
glEnableVertexAttribArray(i);
glVertexAttribPointer(i
//computes num of elems by sizeof(Vec3f) / sizeof(Vec3f._T)
MemberType.sizeof / ElementType.sizeof,
TypeToGLenum!ElementType, //GL_FLOAT if ElementType is float
GL_FALSE, //TODO: handle normalization
vertices[0].sizeof, //stride as mentioned earlier, is size of struct
cast(const(void)*)MemberOffset //offset for given member in bytes
);
}
}
// so if you wanted to upload data for a rectangle
float w = 1.0f;
float h = 1.0f;
Vertex3f2f[6] vertices = [
Vertex3f2f(Vec3f(0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f), Vec2f(0.0f, 0.0f)), // top left
Vertex3f2f(Vec3f(w, 0.0f, 0.0f), Vec2f(1.0f, 0.0f)), // top right
Vertex3f2f(Vec3f(w, h, 0.0f), Vec2f(1.0f, 1.0f)), // bottom right
Vertex3f2f(Vec3f(0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f), Vec2f(0.0f, 0.0f)), // top left
Vertex3f2f(Vec3f(0.0f, h, 0.0f), Vec2f(0.0f, 1.0f)), // bottom left
Vertex3f2f(Vec3f(w, h, 0.0f), Vec2f(1.0f, 1.0f)) // bottom right
];
GLuint vao, vbo; //wee
uploadVertices(vao, vbo, vertices[]);
The most mystifying thing up there might be the foreach, when a foreach is operating on a tuple of types it executes at compile time and essentially acts as a sort of rudimentary code generator, producing the block inside the foreach for each iteration. (an example from p0nce’s excellent d-idioms)
So given the uploadVertices definition, it should be 100 % equivalent to what we wrote at the very beginning of the post, except now it works with an arbitrary vertex definition, assuming it defines a _T to get the element type.
Given each different instantiation of the function, another version of this function will be generated, so you might have one for the Vertex3f2f and another for a variant which simply needs to upload a Vertex3f vertex buffer, or… you get the idea.
Now this is a rather simplistic example, which doesn’t handle normalization of attributes, or any kind of instancing related attributes, but already here we have something we can build on! Integrating index buffers might be an interesting idea, but it is out of scope for this quick introduction.
I hope this showed you a little bit of just how useful D’s metaprogramming capabilities can be, and that it wasn’t too big of a mess to read through.