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3. Base

Bare-bones Compute Shader in UE5

A minimal compute-shader scaffold. Great as a starting point for new shaders or for learning the basics of how shaders are defined in Unreal.

Get the code

$ shadeup-unreal
 > [COMPUTE] Compute Shader
 > Base

Usage

1. Generate or download the template using the instructions above
2. Rebuild your project
3. Create or navigate to an existing Blueprint
4. Right-click and add the node called “Execute Base Compute Shader”

Notes

• The mechanism used for detecting when the results are ready on the CPU is for example purposes (see F[NAME]Interface::DispatchRenderThread - RunnerFunc). A better strategy would be to queue and check a list of buffers per tick in an external singleton.

Helpful reading

• Using Compute Shaders in Unreal Engine 4
• Overview of Shaders in Plugins
• UE4ShaderPluginDemo
• Render Dependency Graph

Sample snippet

// base.usf

#include "/Engine/Public/Platform.ush"

Buffer<int> Input;
RWBuffer<int> Output;

[numthreads(THREADS_X, THREADS_Y, THREADS_Z)]
void BaseExample(
	uint3 DispatchThreadId : SV_DispatchThreadID,
	uint GroupIndex : SV_GroupIndex )
{
	// Outputs one number
	Output[0] = Input[0] * Input[1];
}