Shader language - enum hints for uniforms

[SirPigeonz]

Godot 3.x

Would be great to have enums or something similar for uniforms in shader lang.
So it would be easier to add switchable functionality, instead documenting for user which int does what.

[nunodonato]

wont this encourage the use of If statements? branching is discouraged in shaders

[SirPigeonz]

@nunodonato
Hmmm I didn't though about it. Maybe.
It's waste of processing power, but 3.0 already supports if statements.

Question is, do we make it smarter than user. Or there is no need to make interface for it harder to use, when somebody decides to use it.

I'm usually against making interfaces smarter than user, but maybe I'm wrong in this case. :)

We can always write in new shader tutorial to be aware of using if. Usually it can be avoided using scripting. For example changing shader in node, not shader code in shader itself, although compiling multiple shaders also slows things down.

[nunodonato]

@n-pigeon actually, you can do a sort of branching in shaders, but you shouldn't use ifs. Usually you mix() 2 variables based on a 3rd one which is the "conditional".
Consider a splatmap, for example. Based on the color of the map, you paint different textures, but you never use IFs to decide.

I think @reduz said that the new shader language would also include a few helper functions to make comparing things easier.

[SirPigeonz]

@nunodonato
Thats how you mix shaders and there will also be an if.
if texMask: col1 else: col2

if texMask * customBlend: col1 else: col2

if / enum would be more for changing shader behaviors more globally by Inspector.
Sometimes you have to use if, trick is to figure out how not to :P

[reduz]

kicking to 3.1, low priority

[akien-mga]

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