PyFX: A framework for real-time graphics effects
Calle Lejdfors, Lennart Ohlsson
Dept. of Computer Science, Lund University
Technical report, ISSN 1404-1200 Report 88, 2005
LU-CS-TR:2005-233
Programming real-time effects for contemporary GPUs requires writing
shader programs to run on the GPU as well as code for the render state
setup logic performed by the CPU. While the GPU parts are well
supported by high level programming languages, the effect frameworks
commonly used for the CPU parts are lacking both in functionality and
expressive power, which makes them difficult to work with.
In this paper we present an effect framework implemented as an
embedded language in Python. We show that this high-level language for
effect descriptions provide increased expressivity, without sacrificing
declarativity of other frameworks. We show how some additional functional
features, image-processing and off-screen render targets, cooperate
with the effect language giving a rich environment for experimenting
with both functional and expressive features of effect programming.
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