shadertoy-render

What is it: creating video from shaders on Shadertoy with buffers support. This setup is complete junk-solution, but it works.

Windows OS support instruction, how to launch it on Windows OS scroll down. (tested/works on Linux and Windows)

My Youtube playlist - videos created from my shaders using this script. GLSL Auto Tetris video also recorded by this script.

Contact: Join discord server

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Uploading created video to Twitter/Instagram - pixel format set to yuv420p for libx264 codec and .mp4 video can be uploaded to any social platform without problems.

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Note 2023, about vispy and "too many backends":

If you have error on using glfw backend that I set as default - change it in 867 line in shadertoy-render.py

For example: vispy.use('egl') or add parameter --vispy_use=egl

I had some errors with glfw on AMD GPU, and I just keep as it is using glfw by default because last year I had error with egl backend on Nvidia and egl not working anymore in Colab - Vispy and OpenGL is complete mess, you can contact me on discord link above. For me now in 2023 - glfw working on Nvidia, and egl on AMD.

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Note 2023, about Linux-OpenGL-Vulkan:

To force Zink that is OpenGL to Vulkan translation in Linux:

__GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=mesa MESA_LOADER_DRIVER_OVERRIDE=zink GALLIUM_DRIVER=zink sh render.sh

Tested - works.

Tested2 - it seems it work only with egl vispy backend. --vispy_use=egl

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Supported - Buffers A-D same as on Shadertoy. Images. discard supported in buffers and image shader.

Supported recording video format: (look line 929 in shadertoy-render.py for encoding parameters)

• *.mp4 - h264, alpha ignored
• *.webm - v8 codec, support alpha
• *.mov - frames without compression, support alpha

Supported - video input (instead of texture), look example_video_input description below.

Not supported - Cubemaps, Shader-Cubemap, 3d texture, audio input not supported. (2d textures without mipmaps)

Cubemap - look example Cubemap, it "emulated" in Buffers, means interpolation on edges is broken. When recording cubemap as textures (from 6 sides) - remember to set rep=False in functions set_Buf_texture_input and set_texture_input in shadertoy-render.py, to set texture as clamp_to_edge. Also - You can emulate entire cubemap-shader-feedback setup, if you do - remember that to read entire cubemap you need to copy all sides to its own buffer - create more buffers and define them in line 41 and line 85 add iChannel u_channel uniforms, I do not provide example for this because this is even biger-junk-setup, il make something better for next time I need it, example is only for single-cubemap with no feedback. I did record this two 360 vidos with this setup - but this setup is giga junk, even if it works.

When uploading cubemap videos to youtube - remember about "youtube downscale" that on every non-original video size youtube downcale with no interpolation of panorama-edge - there will be line, this is not "recording bug" this is only youtube downscale. For example I use --size=2048x2048 --panorama_rec_size=3840x2160 for 4k panorama.

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Shader uniforms:

iChannel0 to iChannel3 uniform is Buf0.glsl to Buf3.glsl file.

iTexture0 to iTexture3 uniform is 0.png to 3.png file

if you want/need to change order of iChannels - added renamed copy u_channel0 to u_channel3 uniform

#define iChannel0 u_channel3
#define iChannel3 iTexture0

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Examples:

example_one_shader - New shader on Shadertoy, single shader example.

example_shadertoy_fbo - test for Buffer queue order to be same as on Shadertoy, Shadertoy link src webm video recorded with RGBA and test for correct buffers queue video link

example_textures - example using textures. Shadertoy textures can be found on Shadertoy Unofficial

Command to encode example:

cd example_shadertoy_fbo
python3 ../shadertoy-render.py --output 1.mp4 --size=800x450 --rate=30 --duration=5.0 --bitrate=5M main_image.glsl

example_video_input - example for video input. You need to convert/extract video to "png frames". Look *render.sh* file in *example_video_input* for recording and converting comands. Output result of this example expected to be "V-flipped", v-flip your texture in shader if needed.

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Command line options:

--output 1.mp4 - file name for video file.

--size=800x450 - resolution of video for recording, for 1080p set 1920x1080

--rate=30 - frame rate, FPS for shader

--duration=5.0 - duration in seconds, support fractional part of second example 2.5 two sec and 500ms (half of second)

--bitrate=5M - bitrate of video, used only for mp4 and webm file format

--tile-size=512 tile rendering - useful when you want render very slow shader for 4k video, or you have very slow GPU. Also useful for Windows OS to avoid driver crash when frames rendered for longer than 2 sec.

Tile rendering works only on Image shader (main_image.glsl file). Buffers (A-D) still rendered full frame at once. (also remember that discard in shader will be broken when used tile rendering)

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--skip_frames_every_frame useful for TAA - render to video only iFrame%this_val - TAA can render frames and for video use only accumulated - similar usage. Remember about feedback-accumulation - and iFrame still going. If you set --skip_frames_every_frame=12 - means every 11 frames will be skiped and frame 12 is rendered to video.

--render_and_skip_frames same as above - useful for TAA shaders to make 1 frame screenshot - skip frames only once at start.

--time - iTime value to start from, default is 0.

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When recording visual result not equal to Shadertoy:

Many shaders(even top rated) on Shadertoy may use lots of unitialized variables and clamp(1,0,-1)/pow(-1,2)/(0/0)/normalize(0)...etc, that work in not same way(have not same result) in OpenGL and webbrowser Angle/GLES, black screen(or other random "results") because of this. (also sin-noise could be broken in OpenGL)

The only way to fix your shader - is hand debugging and fixing all bugs.

Also remember to set Alpha in main_image.glsl when recording rgba video.

And check for used buffers and textures parameters, this script has clamp_to_edge with linear interpolation for buffers, and repeat with linear without y-flip for textures, Mipmaps not supported.

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Windows OS instruction to launch: (tested summer 2022 works)

1. install python3 python 3.10 or latest, click Add Python to PATH in setup Window
2. press Win+R write cmd to launch console
3. in Windows console write

pip install vispy
pip install watchdog
pip install glfw
pip install Pillow
pip install imageio

4. download ffmpeg-git-full (example - Windows builds from gyan - ffmpeg-git-full.7z) and extract

5. download or clone this shadertoy-to-video-with-FBO

6. open shadertoy-render.py in text editor

7. edit line 41 to location of ffmpeg.exe downloaded and extracted on step 4 notice that / used as separator

8. press Win+R write cmd to launch console and launch command, first command path is location of example folder

   > cd C:\shadertoy-to-video-with-FBO-master\example_shadertoy_fbo

   > python ../shadertoy-render.py --output 1.mp4 --size=800x450 --rate=30 --duration=5.0 --bitrate=5M main_image.glsl

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Useful ffmpeg commands:

To exptract .png frames with Alpha without compression:

Two options:

1. if you need just a single frame - add --interactive to this script command line, and press S(keyboard) to save frame.
2. for many frames - save video as .mov (change file format in comand line) and then:

ffmpeg -i video.mov -vf fps=1 "frames/out%d.png"

To convert Video to Gif ffmpeg commands:

best quality (Linux only) delay = 100/fps

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -vf "fps=25,scale=480:-1:flags=lanczos" -c:v pam -f image2pipe - | convert -delay 4 - -loop 0 -layers optimize output.gif

not best quality (work on Windows and Linux)

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -vf "fps=25,scale=640:-1:flags=lanczos" output.gif

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Useful ImageMagic commands:

When used import imageio in Python script - imageio does not support indexed color, and convert or ffmpeg sometime can convert images to indexed format, look "correct RGBA png color format" below to convert back.

image information identify docs

magick identify -verbose 1.png

Cut corners on image, with correct RGBA png color format:

convert '1.png' -colorspace sRGB -define png:format=png32 -define png:color-type=6 -gravity center -background transparent -extent 2048x2048 '1.png'