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Chinstrap is a lightweight, human-readable shader language designed specifically for direct integration with Unity and a C#/Rust-friendly syntax. It is purpose-built for ease of use and maintainability, without the verbosity of traditional HLSL, which it compiles directly into. The compiler for Chinstrap is written in Rust, with Lua acting as the parser.

Features

• Friendly syntax: Type non-specific function & variable declarations (fn), readable indenting (moving away from HLSL boilerplate), Unity-like types (Vector3/float3, Vector4/float4/Color, Array/RWStructuredBuffer<T>).
• Logical backwards compatability with HLSL, whilst having more readable methods alongside it. (e.g. Vector3 and float3 both get compiled into a float3)
• Lightweight compiler: The compiler is designed to be fast and minimal, parsing .csp files efficiently with a Lua-based parser, making it suitable for iterative development and quick testing.
• VSCode support: A dedicated extension provides syntax highlighting, snippets for syntax (fn, @uniform, @property, tables), and integrated in-editor compilation.

Example

@property("MainTex", 2D); $ Single-property declaration
@uniform(Props); $ Multi-property declaration

Props = {
    MainTex_sampler: SamplerState,
    Tint: Color = Color(1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0),
    LightDir: Vector3 = Vector3(0.0, 0.0, 1.0),
}

myVariable = "Hello, World!";

fn frag(Vector2 uv) {
    final = sample(uv.x, uv.y);
    return final;
};

TODO

Current Task: Compilation - Generic Denotions
Description: Making sure that things such as n = "hi", n:append() could work the same as "hi":append() - making "hi" and n be identified the same in compilation.

‣ May possibly extend out into Compilation - Expressions

Task	Completed
Lexer	✅
Single-token Parsing	✅
Lookahead(1) Parsing	✅
Compilation - Generic Denotions	❌
Compilation - Expressions	❌
Compilation - Assign	❌
Compilation - Arrays	❌
Compilation - Non-specific Types	❌
Compiles fully into HLSL	❌
Tests	❌
Compilation for Compute Shaders	❌
Full Release	❌

Error List

Error Code	Meaning
E000	Unknown Error
E001	Unexpected Token
E002	Unexpected EOF
E003	Invalid Character
E004	Invalid Identifier
E005	Invalid Literal
E006	Invalid Type
E007	Type Mismatch
E008	Missing Semicolon
E009	Missing Colon
E010	Missing Comma
E011	Missing BraceOpen
E012	Missing BraceClose
E013	Missing ParenOpen
E014	Missing ParenClose
E015	Missing BracketOpen
E016	Missing BracketClose
E017	Duplicate Definition
E018	Undefined Symbol
E019	Undefined Property
E020	Undefined Uniform
E021	Invalid Decorator
E022	Invalid Assignment
E023	Illegal Operation
E024	Out Of Range
E025	Not Callable
E026	Not Indexable
E027	Not Assignable
E028	Unexpected Keyword
E029	Forbidden Keyword
E030	Invalid Function Call
E031	Wrong Parameter Count
E032	Wrong Parameter Type
E033	Invalid TableSyntax
E034	Invalid PropertySyntax
E035	Invalid UniformSyntax
E036	Missing Return
E037	Invalid Return Type
E038	Internal Compiler Error
E039	IO Failure
E040	Preprocess Failure