ShadowDusk.Compiler 0.8.0

ShadowDusk.Compiler

Cross-platform, in-memory HLSL Effect compiler for MonoGame, KNI, and FNA — a drop-in replacement for mgfxc that compiles .fx source to MonoGame/KNI .mgfx bytes (or FNA .fxb) at runtime, on Linux, macOS, and Windows, with no fxc.exe, no mgfxc, no Wine, and no Windows SDK. Add the package and call the API — every native piece rides inside the package set.

The output loads in a real MonoGame/KNI Effect and renders equivalently to mgfxc's — one faithful pipeline (DXC → SPIR-V → SPIRV-Cross → GLSL, or vkd3d-shader → DXBC/D3D9 bytecode) on every OS, byte-identical output across hosts.

Install

dotnet add package ShadowDusk.Compiler

Use

using ShadowDusk.Core;
using ShadowDusk.Compiler;

IShaderCompiler compiler = new EffectCompiler();
var result = await compiler.CompileAsync(fxSource, new CompilerOptions
{
    Target = PlatformTarget.OpenGL,   // or DirectX, or Fna
});

if (result.IsFailure)
{
    foreach (var e in result.Error)
        Console.Error.WriteLine($"{e.File}({e.Line},{e.Column}): {e.Code}: {e.Message}");
    return;
}

var effect = new Effect(graphicsDevice, result.Value.Data);

Need to compile from a synchronous call site (e.g. inside Content.Load<Effect>)? Await compiler.InitializeAsync() once at startup, then call the synchronous compiler.Compile(...) anywhere — same pipeline, byte-identical output.

Targets

All three compile on every desktop OS and produce the same bytes on every OS. Errors come back as ShaderError[] with the file, line, column, and compiler message verbatim.

Output container (v10 default; opt-in v11 / KNIFX)

The default container is MGFX v10, which loads on every MonoGame 3.8.2+ and KNI runtime — you never set a flag for correct output. For newer runtimes, two opt-in, experimental containers are available (additive; the v10 default is unchanged):

• CompilerOptions.MgfxVersion = 11 — a faithful MonoGame MGFX v11 container (MonoGame 3.8.5+).
• CompilerOptions.Container = EffectContainer.Knifx — KNI's KNIFX v11 container (KNI v4.02+).

Both render identically to v10 and are render-proven in their real engines; leave the default unless you specifically target a newer runtime.

Prefer to pick a whole target (backend and container) in one value? Set CompilerOptions.Profile to a CapabilityProfile (e.g. CapabilityProfile.KniGL_4_02 for KNIFX on OpenGL); a profile fully specifies the output and overrides Target / Container / MgfxVersion. For an in-app compile, RuntimeProfileDetector.Recommend(typeof(Game).Assembly, target) returns the proven profile for the loaded framework.

Links

• Documentation: https://kaltinril.github.io/ShadowDusk/
• Source / issues: https://github.com/kaltinril/ShadowDusk
• CLI flavor (dotnet tool): ShadowDusk.Cli · In-browser (Blazor WASM) flavor: ShadowDusk.Wasm