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The Slang Shading Language |
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Empowering real-time graphics developers with advanced language features. |
Discover the continuously evolving benefits of Slang.
Slang is an open-source shading language compiler leveraged by industry-leading organizations on
real-world,
production projects and codebases.
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<h4>Open and Accessible</h4>
Slang moving from NVIDIA to Khronos Group hosted multi-vendor governance encourages deeper
collaboration with
the open-source community and wider ecosystem adoption.
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<h4>Flexible</h4>
Slang is a fast-moving language designed specifically to meet the evolving needs of real-time
rendering
applications, including the leveraging of neural graphics techniques.
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<h4>Productive</h4>
Slang streamlines the development and maintenance of large, complex shader codebases, with a
proactive vision
for shader language evolution. The Slang compiler also provides onramps for existing HLSL and
GLSL
codebases.
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<h4>Portable</h4>
Slang supports multiple backends, enabling shader code to be written once to run almost
anywhere.
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<h4>Performant</h4>
Slang's modular compilation support drives down overall compile times, delivering more reusable
modules and
dynamic shader linking.
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<h3>Write Shaders Once, Run Anywhere
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The Slang compiler can generate code for a wide variety of targets: D3D12, Vulkan, Metal, D3D11,
OpenGL, CUDA, WebGPU and even generate code to run on a CPU. For textual targets, such as Metal Shading
Language (MSL) and CUDA, Slang produces readable code that preserves original identifier names, as
well as the type and call structure, making it easier to debug.
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<h3>Access the Latest GPU Features
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Slang code is highly portable, but can still leverage unique platform capabilities, including the
latest
features in
Direct3D and Vulkan. For example, developers can make full use of
<a href="/slang/user-guide/convenience-features.html#pointers-limited">pointers</a> when generating
SPIR-V.
Slang's <a href="/slang/user-guide/capabilities.html">capability system</a> helps applications
manage
feature
set differences
across target platforms by ensuring code only uses available features during the type-checking step,
before
generating
final code. Additionally, Slang provides <a href="/slang/user-guide/a1-04-interop.html">flexible
interop</a>
features to enable
directly embedding target code or SPIR-V into generated shaders.
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<h3>Leverage Neural Graphics with Automatic Differentiation
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<p>Slang can automatically generate both forward and backward derivative propagation code for
complex functions that involve arbitrary control flow and dynamic dispatch. This allows existing
rendering codebases to easily become differentiable, or for Slang to serve as the kernel
language in a PyTorch-driven machine learning framework via <a href="https://shader-slang.com/slang/user-guide/a1-02-slangpy.html">slangtorch</a>.</p>
<a class="btn btn-primary" href="/slang/user-guide/autodiff.html">Automatic Differentiation</a>
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<h3>Scalable Software Development with Modules
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<p>Slang provides a <a href="/slang/user-guide/modules.html">module system</a> that enables logical
organization of code for separate compilation. Slang modules can be independently compiled
offline to a custom IR (with optional obfuscation) and then linked at runtime to generate code
in formats such as DXIL or SPIR-V.</p>
<a class="btn btn-primary" href="/slang/user-guide/modules.html">Module system</a>
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<h3>Code Specialization that Works with Modules
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<p>Slang supports <a href="/slang/user-guide/interfaces-generics.html">generics and interfaces</a>
(a.k.a. type traits/protocols), allowing for clear expression of shader specialization without
the need for preprocessor techniques or string-pasting. Unlike C++ templates, Slang’s generics
are pre-checked and don’t produce cascading error messages that are difficult to diagnose. The
same generic shader can be specialized for a variety of different types to produce specialized
code ahead of time, or on the fly, entirely under application control.</p>
<a class="btn btn-primary" href="/slang/user-guide/interfaces-generics.html">Generics and Interfaces</a>
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<h3>Easy On-ramp for HLSL and GLSL Codebases
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<p>Slang’s syntax is similar to HLSL, and most existing HLSL code can be compiled with the Slang
compiler out-of-the-box, or with just minor modifications. This allows existing shader codebases
to immediately benefit from Slang without requiring a complete rewrite or port.
Slang provides a compatibility module that enables the use of most GLSL intrinsic functions and
GLSL’s parameter binding syntax.</p>
<a class="btn btn-primary" href="/docs/coming-from-hlsl/">Port from HLSL</a>
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<h3>Comprehensive Tooling Support
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<p>Slang comes with full support of IntelliSense editing features in Visual Studio Code and Visual
Studio through the Language Server Protocol. Full debugging capabilities are also available
through RenderDoc and SPIR-V based tools.</p>
<a class="btn btn-primary" href="/tools">Tools</a>
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Slang is now hosted as a Khronos Group open-source project, fostering industry-wide collaboration to propel its ongoing growth and evolution. While Slang has been available as open source for a while, establishing multi-company governance is essential to build industry trust by ensuring that Slang remains independent and not controlled by, or dependent on, single entity. This trust empowers the graphics industry to collaboratively invest in and depend on Slang for business-critical applications.