Compute Shader VS2019

There must be a better way to work with HLSL.

By default, there is no Intellisense support. I installed a VS extension "HLSL Tools for Visual Studio", and that helped a whole lot with that; however, VS2019 is now in the habit of mangling my code every time I write a new function.

Note that all following code samples are HLSL. I left it on CSharp strictly for the syntax highlighting.

For example, I might have a function like this (HLSL):

Code (CSharp):

1. float GetVelocity(float n, float A, float R, float S)
2. {
3.     return ((1.49 / n) * A * pow(R, 2 / 3) * pow(S, 1 / 2)) / A;
4. }

If I add a function above it, it is mangled to the following (HLSL):

Code (CSharp):

1.     float GetVelocity
2.     (
3.     float n, float A, float R, float S)
4. {
5.         return ((1.49 / n) * A * pow(R, 2 / 3) * pow(S, 1 / 2)) / A;
6.     }

It is far worse if I have used any keywords like inout or out in my parameters (HLSL):

Code (CSharp):

1.     float GetVelocity
2.     (in
3.     float n, in
4.     float A, in
5.     float R, in
6.     float S)
7. {
8.         return ((1.49 / n) * A * pow(R, 2 / 3) * pow(S, 1 / 2)) / A;
9.     }

In every case, it is mangled so badly that Ctrl-K + Ctrl-D cannot fix it, and it does this to every single function in the file below the function I am adding, every single time.

How do you all work with HLSL? This is extremely frustrating.

 

Wow, that makes

vi

look pretty good!

I have no idea... sounds like maybe something wrong with the HLSL code completer? Are there different "dialects" of that language grammar? Maybe it's using a newer dialect than Unity can handle. Perhaps look for dialect versions settings?

Meanwhile, use

vi

I guess!

 

I've never had this issue in VS2019 editing shader files.

To be honest, I have never tried to install a plugin for it, was happy with the out-of-the-box syntax highlighting. There isn't a lot of structure to most shaders. It's not like you're dealing with large and deep class hierarchies or complex APIs. Most shaders are a handful of basic functions all in one file. Intellisense is not going to get you much as the HLSL API is fairly small and completely flat. Just open a reference in a browser tab.

Also, never use vi.

 

Though I do not have enough experience with shaders to say with any certainty, I think this may be a little more complicated than your average shader, and I am not so great at remembering exactly what I have called everything. I am trying to build an integrated mix of simulating very basic weather and several different types of erosion, the latter to a slightly greater depth than I have seen in the papers I have gone over. Mix that with not knowing what functions or types are available, and Intellisense is plain fantastic for productivity.

I wound up going with VS Code. It has the exact same extension available, but it does not mangle my code in that editor.