glsl_skill

Overview

This skill provides GLSL shader expertise focused on creating holographic visual effects for the JARVIS HUD. It emphasizes test-driven shader development, GPU performance optimizations, and safety patterns to keep real-time rendering stable. The goal is robust, high-performance holographic panels, energy fields, particle systems, and post-processing effects.

How this skill works

I provide patterns, minimal-to-full shader implementations, and a TDD workflow: write failing shader/unit and visual regression tests, implement the minimum that compiles, then refactor to the full effect. The guidance covers precision qualifiers, branchless math, constant loop bounds, uniform batching, texture atlas usage, and LOD strategies to maintain 60 FPS. I also include safety checks to avoid GPU hangs and memory exhaustion.

When to use it

• Building holographic UI panels with scanlines, edge glow, and animated pulses
• Creating energy fields, particle visuals, or fresnel-based holograms
• Implementing post-processing effects like bloom, glitch, or chromatic aberration
• Visual data displays with custom shaders and threshold-driven coloring
• Optimizing existing shaders for mobile or WebGL2 targets

Best practices

• Adopt TDD: compile tests, uniform checks, and visual regression baselines before feature work
• Prefer branchless code: use mix, smoothstep, step to avoid divergence
• Use constant loop bounds with early exits to prevent GPU hangs
• Batch uniforms into vectors/matrices to reduce CPU-GPU transfers
• Cache texture lookups locally in the shader to avoid redundant sampling
• Match precision qualifiers to data needs (low/mediump/highp) to save GPU cycles

Example use cases

• Holographic panel shader: scanlines, pulse, edge glow with constant scanline loop
• Energy field shader using fresnel and procedural noise for animated translucency
• Data bar visualization with threshold color blending and gradient fill
• Texture atlas icon rendering to minimize draw calls and bindings
• LOD-driven noise/detail reduction based on camera distance for performance