Flutter GPU and Flame's Future

[alpozcan]

With Flutter 3.24, Flutter GPU is introduced as feature preview. Quoting from the blog post by Kevin Chisholm:

Flutter has introduced a major update for rendering capabilities with the Flutter GPU, available on the main channel. This low-level graphics API allows developers to create custom renderers using Dart code and GLSL shaders without needing any native platform code.

Flutter GPU expands what you can render directly in Flutter, enabling advanced graphics and 3D scenes. It requires the Impeller rendering backend, currently supported on iOS, macOS, and Android. Although in early preview, Flutter GPU aims to eventually support all Flutter platforms.

The API allows for full control over render pass attachments, the vertex stage, and data upload to the GPU. This flexibility is essential for creating sophisticated rendering solutions, from 2D character animations to complex 3D scenes.

I'm just wondering if leveraging this is being or will be in the Flame roadmap. Though I obviously don't have much to contribute on the subject, here's hoping for a theoretical Flutter 2.0 with performant 3D rendering support!

[spydon]

Have you seen the flame_3d package? The work has started there. :)

https://github.com/flame-engine/flame/tree/main/packages%2Fflame_3d

[alpozcan]

Have you seen the flame_3d package? The work has started there. :)

https://github.com/flame-engine/flame/tree/main/packages%2Fflame_3d

Well this is exciting!

I somehow missed this package maybe partly due to being in a bit of a monolithic library mindset, which Flame clearly isn't.

Looking forward to trying it out in the near future and maybe contribute.

Thank you

[spydon]

I can recommend joining our Discord (https://discord.com/invite/pxrBmy4) if you want to contribute, there is a flame_3d channel there.