microsoft/ShaderConductor

Health v2 · maintenance only

Flags: archived

Adoption not part of the score

1838 stars · 261 forks observed · 2026-08-28

What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-30, confidence not recorded

ShaderConductor is a C++ tool and library that cross-compiles HLSL shaders to other shading languages such as GLSL, ESSL, and Metal Shading Language. It works by gluing together DirectX Shader Compiler and SPIRV-Cross rather than being a real compiler itself.

Use cases

• convert hlsl shaders to glsl
• port directx shaders to metal for ios
• cross-compile hlsl to essl for opengl es
• translate shaders between d3d and vulkan pipelines
• generate readable glsl from hlsl source
• support multiple graphics backends from one shader codebase

When to choose

• you maintain a cross-platform engine needing one HLSL shader source targeting GLSL, ESSL, and Metal
• you want readable, usable output shaders rather than just SPIR-V blobs
• you need all shader stages including hull, domain, geometry, and compute converted

When to avoid

• you only need HLSL to SPIR-V compilation, where DirectX Shader Compiler or glslang suffice directly
• you need a maintained, actively developed solution - the project is in an early stage with its latest release in early 2023
• you want a real compiler with its own front end rather than a glue layer over existing tools

Facets

library · maturity maintenance

compiler developer-tools graphics graphics developer-tools compilers windows cpp cross-platform hlsl glsl metal-shading-language spir-v shader-cross-compilation dxil essl game-development linux macos

Member repositories

For agents

markdown · JSON · MCP: product_card(name="microsoft/ShaderConductor")