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Language Servers

Shader Studio provides built-in language services for GLSL and Slang. They run inside the Shader Studio extension, so you do not need to install a separate shader extension or a native language-server executable.

Both services are enabled by default. Open a shader file in VS Code and use the normal editor features such as completion (Ctrl+Space), hover, and Go to Definition.

Supported Editor Features

Feature GLSL Slang
Completion Yes Yes
Hover documentation Yes Yes
Signature help Yes Yes
Go to Definition Yes Yes
Document symbols / Outline Yes Yes
Diagnostics Parser diagnostics Official Slang compiler and language-server diagnostics
Color decorators and picker vec3 and vec4 literals float3 and float4 literals

Completion and hover include:

  • Language intrinsics such as GLSL texture and Slang fmod
  • Shader Studio uniforms such as iResolution, iTime, and channel inputs
  • Shader Studio channel objects such as Slang inputs.iChannel0
  • Functions, structures, and variables declared in the current shader
  • Functions and types provided by configured Common and dependency files
  • Custom uniforms from the active Script and resources from the Shader Studio configuration
  • Stage-specific fragment, vertex, and compute contracts

The services intentionally do not provide formatting, rename, or workspace-wide reference search yet.

Color Picker

With shader-studio.editor.colorDecorators enabled, literal constructors show a small VS Code color swatch:

vec4 accent = vec4(1.0, 0.5, 0.0, 1.0);

float4 accent = float4(1.0, 0.5, 0.0, 1.0);

Spell Checking

If you use the optional Code Spell Checker (streetsidesoftware.code-spell-checker) extension, Shader Studio registers a bundled dictionary containing common GLSL, Slang, WebGPU, and Shader Studio terms.

Settings

Setting Default Description
shader-studio.languageServers.glsl.enabled true Enable or disable GLSL language features.
shader-studio.languageServers.slang.enabled true Enable or disable Slang language features.
shader-studio.editor.colorDecorators true Show editable swatches for literal shader colors.